Test/Benchmark Bench Power (PSU)

[Eddie Current]

I'm looking for help powering my test/benchmark bench.

Power requirements:

1ea. modern MB (Air or Water cooled)
1ea. SSD drive
2ea. high end GPU's (Air or Water cooled)
4-6ea. 120 Fans

How much power do you guys think I will need.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

No sub ambient, 850W should be plenty pending the actual hardware. 1000W would be a bit overkill.

 

[EarthDog]

850W or so would be fine, yep. But, its hard to really pin it down because you don't mention which processor, be it an AMD power sucker, or Intel quad/hex/octo, etc. Knowing the video cards help too. But an absolute worst case, I would say 1KW... and that is assuming AMD Octo + 2 250W+ cards BIOS modded. But if you are talking Intel CPU and no BIOS mods, 850W is plenty.

Fans and SSDs are really not relevant as they use so little power (between them all, maybe 20-30W if they were all at 100%).

 

[Mandrake4565]

I agree with the boys above, not knowing what the hardware will be makes it a lot harder to recommend a Psu. For most people on ambient cooling 850w would be plenty. On subambient cooling ie. chilled water with the Fx 8xxx chip and a power sucking Gpu, 1000w. On my Intel 4770k with my 780 lightning I've benched with both on DICE with a 1000w Psu without a problem. I do not bench 3d on my Fx 8350, well because it's an AMD and they suck on 3d. If I did on DICE/Ln2 I'd imagine that one may have an issue with a 1000w Psu.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Agree, baring sub ambient the 850 to 1000 will be fine


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438010

This is the deal, 20 off with 20 MIR

80 bucks all said and done

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438034

 

[Mandrake4565]

this or this <---see what I did there witchy

 

[Witchdoctor]

LOL,

think my 1600 is a bit much for ambient ......

But do appreciate the sediment , surprised one of our cold guys have not jumped on that deal though

 

[Mandrake4565]

He he I had to plug you some how. I think most of the cold guys already have their setups so they don't need a Psu. I actually picked up a 1000w EVGA Platinum P2 from OW a month or so ago and have a spare 1000 W gold Psu in case it's not enough. Otherwise I'd consider it.

 

[Eddie Current]

Thanks guys, being a test bench there's no telling what I'll put up there. It sounds like up to 1600w should cover it. I have two spare PSU's collecting dust in the closet, one OCZ 700w OCZ700SXS and one Thermaltake TR2 430W W0070RUC that I could hack to act as one. I now thinking of using the 700W to run everything but the GPUs and the 430W to run only the GPUs. What do you guys think?

The next question is can the 430W handle GPUs on it own.

Or I could use this Diablotek 500W I have already started to hack for another project.

 

[EarthDog]

that I could hack to act as one.

Don't. Just don't. I suggest it is done 'right'.

Depends on what GPUs Eddie as to how many that a 430W PSU can handle on its own. You talked GTX 960s? Maybe 3. You talking 980Ti... one (assuming fully overclocked).

Personally, I would either grab the 1KW (EVGA Supernova G2/P2 1000W), or get the 1600W.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Do you want to blow your components sky-high with crap PSU's?
I don't trust anything but the best when I know I'll be pushing high power components way further than they were ever designed to go.

 

[Eddie Current]

@ ED, I can see maybe a Intel i7-6700K and a NVidia 980 Ti (maybe 2) sometime next year. I will most likely push it on stock air than morph it to water and push it even more.

@ ED and At, your right I guess that's why they are in the closet drawing dust. I was just thinking I could save a few bucks and have fun hacking some electro-parts. Ill start looking around for a nice 1000-1600W PSU (after Christmas).

 

[EarthDog]

I just noticed the picture... Diablotek... Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaha! That thing is better used for starting fires than powering up a PC.

 

[Eddie Current]

I just noticed the picture... Diablotek... Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaha! That thing is better used for starting fires than powering up a PC.

I have never had a problem with them. They are great inexpensive switched mode power supplies, they work great for powering small electrical projects.

---Edit----

If you didn't notice the one pictured above have two, yes count them two QC stickers on it (one on each cap.). That should amount for something.

 

[EarthDog]

Using a psu tells nothing about its quality. Read proper reviews to determine quality.

QC sticker? Lol, it means nothing. It's a QC sticker on a likely POS cap.

78% efficient? Yikes, not even 80+. ~400W on the 12v rail? Modern psus have close to 100% there as that is where they pull the majority of their wattage from.

Not sure if the link is different than the picture, but that link... $100 500w psu... not cheap! Also, that link shows 17A on the 12v? Pictures at newegg and here show 34A.

For the record, I wasn't laughing at you.. but at the PSU.

But yeah, it's junk eddie. Absolute junk.

Edit: here is my last nail, rivet, and epoxy in this coffin:http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[Blaylock]

I have to chime in as no one has stated the obvious as of yet. Eddie, if you're not an electrical engineer then I highly recommend leaving the case on that PSU. Those caps, CRAP or NOT, have enough juice to stop your heart for good. I would hate for your gear to go poof, but for your own safety, like E_D said, just don't.

 

[Eddie Current]

Using a psu tells nothing about its quality. Read proper reviews to determine quality.

QC sticker? Lol, it means nothing. It's a QC sticker on a likely POS cap.

78% efficient? Yikes, not even 80+. ~400W on the 12v rail? Modern psus have close to 100% there as that is where they pull the majority of their wattage from.

Not sure if the link is different than the picture, but that link... $100 500w psu... not cheap! Also, that link shows 17A on the 12v? Pictures at newegg and here show 34A.

For the record, I wasn't laughing at you.. but at the PSU.

But yeah, it's junk eddie. Absolute junk.

Edit: here is my last nail, rivet, and epoxy in this coffin:http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I think I paid $25.00us for that one new on sale (Diablotek). It was to go into a friends Dell who had no money, I took his PSU apart after buying the Diablotek and found it had a blow fuse. So instead of replacing the original PSU I soldered in a fuse holder replace the fan that had died and he is still using his old Dell to this day and I still have that POS Diablotek.

I have to chime in as no one has stated the obvious as of yet. Eddie, if you're not an electrical engineer then I highly recommend leaving the case on that PSU. Those caps, CRAP or NOT, have enough juice to stop your heart for good. I would hate for your gear to go poof, but for your own safety, like E_D said, just don't.

I appreciate the words of wisdom, but rest sure I know my way around electrical devices, give me the parts and a schematic and I can build it ( I have less time these days but I could none the less.

 

[EarthDog]

Cool... just don't use them.

 

[Eddie Current]

Ok, lets change directions a little. After participating in the 750W PSU and 980Ti? thread it really got me to think or rethink what I should do. I have a OCZ ZX Series 1250W 80Plus in my current running box with when I'm done will not have a need for more than 750-850W at best. So, what if I buy a new smaller more efficient PSU for my current box I use everyday and put the 1250W'er on my test bench?

I'm looking real hard at the EVGA SuperNOVA 750-850 P2 Power Supply, what do you guys think?

 

[EarthDog]

Need to know the parts in your running rig...is it in your sig or is that what you are building.. I dono recall.


Chances are, unless it's an AMD fx octo core base and you plan on overclocking it, a quality 550w psu will handle most pcs. Look at evga 550w models for high quality bang for the buck.