What power supply do you have? (open to all platforms)

[red930]

I can tell you that the OCZ PowerStream 600 is as strong as a Bull. I had 11 hard drives hanging off of it while running my nF3 250Gb rig. I would have used the nF4 rig but it's still so new I wanted to use a rig that is already running solid.

 

With all that running I hooked up two cold cathodes and a couple of fans to add to the load. The PowerStream 600 never waivered a bit.

 

While SETI@Home was running, I was copying files between the 300GB array and the Boot array, burning a DVD with Nero with the two adjustable fans running full tilt.

 

None of the rails moved moved more than 0.07V.

 

Now that's POWA!

[soundx98]

I have no doubt that there are exceptions to the 480 Watt PSU recommendation.

Also seen some exceptions to the best RAM you can afford rule.

Good results with less than recommended products.

But I have also seen the nightmares.

Terrible, Terrible nightmares that never went away.

 

Lot of things could affect the PSU requirement.

The AC voltage coming out of wall

Amount of ripple on it

Load on PSU ie Vid Card/s, lights, # of fans, internal LCD

temps inside PSU case and PC Case

Overclocking CPU or not

Amount of time PSU is ON and what it is used for

yada yada yada

 

I could not believe the performance difference when switching from my trusted ANtec TruBlue 480 to the OCZ520 and Fortron 530 in my NF2 rigs. It was worth every penny of the investment.

 

So if you can get by with less than the recommendation. GOOD FOR YOU!

But I would not be surprized if the PSU goes down or your rig stops performing after a period of time.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that a great PSU is an incredible value in the long run. I wish you all High clocks and minimal problems with your rigs.

[Shinobi]

So if you can get by with less than the recommendation. GOOD FOR YOU!

But I would not be surprized if the PSU goes down or your rig stops performing after a period of time.

Spot on there SoundX. Just because its fine now doesn't mean that it will remain that way...

 

I'm guilty myself of not following recommendations in the past and i paid for it with a dead motherboard, dead processor and dead harddrive

 

Your PSU is one of the most vital components in your system(probably even the most vital), yet still many ppl seem to skimp in this department. If a stick of ram goes you can just replace it, if your PSU goes you could be looking at replacing your whole system...

 

When building on a budget and it comes down to either getting 512mb for now and getting a quality PSU, or 1gb of quality ram and skimping on the PSU, i wonder just how many ppl have opted for the latter? After all, PSU horror stories are just things that happen to other ppl, aren't they

[dippyskoodlez]

Your PSU is one of the most vital components in your system(probably even the most vital), yet still many ppl seem to skimp in this department. If a stick of ram goes you can just replace it, if your PSU goes you could be looking at replacing your whole system...

 

If a stick of ram goes, you may be looking at mobo+ram, not just ram.. usually just the ram, but anything could happen with the volts being pushed through the bh-5 these days. :nod:

[tonedef42]

Enermax 535W (EG565P-VE) ROCKS!

[bokis]

Tagan TG480-U01 sufficient inuff?

http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/tagan/tg480.htm

[Guest icehot]

enermax

[timko]

Tagan 480w right here powering my SLI-DR with no issues

[manapua]

Seasonic S12-600 (SS-600HT)

 

ATX12V V2.0

Member of the 80-Plus efficiency club - http://www.80plus.org/

[JimX]

Tagan 600W, model TG6068-W01. It's not listed on Tagan's site, but I think the specs are as follows:

 

3.3V=28A,+5V=46A,+12V1=20A,+12V2=20A, +12V3=20A

 

The BIOS and Motherboard Monitor report the 5V and 12V rails too low. Using a multimeter I measured 12.01V on one of the 12V pins, and I think 5.02V on the 5V rail. Under 100% CPU load, the 12V rail dropped to 11.95V, and the 5V rail increased by 0.01V (so I think increased to 5.03V).

 

The BIOS reads 11.9V and and 4.9V or thereabouts, but I can adjust MBM using one of the sensor options to make it read about right. However, even with the adjusted 12V and 5V readings almost spot on, the 3.3V line still reads 3.22V. I'm not sure if this means the 3.3V line is still under-volted, or that the different sensor setting doesn't fix this. I haven't had time to check it yet, but in BIOS all of my RAM voltage settings seem to always read about 0.05V above what it's set to (ie, 2.65 when set to 2.6, etc). So do I really have a problem with an under-volted 3.3V line? I haven't had any issues with stability running my RAM up to 300MHz or so at 2.8V.

[Searinox]

I use an ANTEC TRUE550 TRUE POWER 550W (LOW NOISE) 24PIN EPS12V, havent had a problem at all.

 

Ordered it here: http://www.scorptec.com.au/index.php?prdid=00005550

[Silicon Effect]

Tagan 550W 2.0 here