PSU Problems - advices?

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:24 pm

Hello!

Recently I was using a Thermaltake 1200w in my computer, and because of a power surge the PSU is dead.

Because of that I removed 2 of the graphics cards (the GTX 285), and I am using the GTS 250 as a primary card so I can still use my computer, with my old 500w PSU, also themaltake.

Well I also bought a APC No-break, which is great...

My question to you is..

1- In your opinion, what is the most silent 1000-1300w PSU?
2- Should I go for Thermaltake again?
3- the No-break I bought is 600VA, and it tells me that I am currently using 320w out of the 360w (when playing light games), will this be enough when I get a better PSU and use all my cards? How do I calculate this thing?

Here is the screenshot of the APC PowerChute:

Thank you!

Klusu · Post by **Klusu** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 1:00 am

Your UPS is 600VA/360W, and you just ignore the number which you like less?
"because of a power surge "- how do you know?

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:20 am

Klusu wrote:Your UPS is 600VA/360W, and you just ignore the number which you like less?

Well, sorry for being a total computer illiterate, this computer-building thing is totally new for me.

The vendor told me the 600VA would be more than enough, but by looking at the graph i wonder if it will be enough.

Klusu wrote:"because of a power surge "- how do you know?

Because some other appliances died on the same day, the power company did not pay for the computer PSU repair as it was imported, and I did not have the original receipt.

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:45 am

Adding your GTX285 on your current setup will put another ~160W load.
320W (current power draw) + 160W (GTX285) > 360W (your APC output) so your UPS will enter in overload. Not good.

Why do you need 1.3kW PSU? What's your setup?

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:02 am

burebista wrote:Adding your GTX285 on your current setup will put another ~160W load.
320W (current power draw) + 160W (GTX285) > 360W (your APC output) so your UPS will enter in overload. Not good.

Why do you need 1.3kW PSU? What's your setup?

Hi Burebista!

Actually it will be a PAIR of 285 in SLI and the 250 as PhysX.

my current setup is:

connected to the nobreak:

- Intel QuadCore Q9550 C1;
- Evga 790i ultra Sli;
- 8 Gb ram;
- 2 GTX 285 + 1 GTS 250; (currently using only the 250)
- 1 1tb HD + 1 500GB;
- 3 22" monitor with TH2go (currently using only 2);

out of the nobreak:

- Rotel RC-1070;
- Rotel RB-1080;
- B&W 705;
- Velodyne mini-vee.

Thank you!

Klusu · Post by **Klusu** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:20 am

GTS250 is 80W
GTX285 is 180W
Two GTX285 perhaps 360W. 319-80+360=599W, which is 240W more than your UPS.
Plus, the CPU may draw more (if it is not at 100% now)
You have one monster of a computer. Probably not silent...

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:30 am

Kate wrote:The vendor told me the 600VA would be more than enough[...]

MY GOD! That vendor has no idea about what's talking. 2 GTX285 and one GTS250 needs ~350-400W in games.
A good 850W PSU should be enough for your games.

Corsair HX850, Enermax Revo85+ 850 for example.
Or if you want peace of mind for future upgrades a Corsair HX1000.

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 6:47 am

First of all your UPS will be useless if you add anything else to it. Is it too late to return/exchange it for a higher-end one? With UPS's, the more u pay, pretty much the more power output they have. It's all about power.

Secondly, don't buy a 1.3kW psu. It's just way overkill. I would recommend an 850-1000W psu. And even then, 1000W is going overboard IMO.

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:16 am

Hello Burebista,

Ah cool! I was actually looking at the HX1000... but maybe the 850 would be a wiser choice.

Ya.. I thought 600VA would be enough too. I didnt know 600VA would translate into 360w....

Klusu,

Its not totally silent but it is pretty silent, I added WC so it is not THAT noisy, plus I have an Antec P182, which helps a lot...

RoGuE,

I can return the 600VA and get the 1300VA, the one with LCD display, thats the only model they have besides the 600VA.... But the price is VERY different...

I kinda liked the 1000w, the Corsair one... But I guess 850 would be a wiser choice...

Thank you all!

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:48 am

Kate wrote: I can return the 600VA and get the 1300VA

1300VAx0.6=780W. Now we're talking.

If you want to hook all your 3 TFT's in UPS consider another ~100W added to your PC consumption.

Kate wrote:I kinda liked the 1000w, the Corsair one... But I guess 850 would be a wiser choice...

I just take a look at newegg and HX1000 is $10 more than HX850. All it comes to budget and consider a PSU with six PCI-E cables.

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:40 am

burebista wrote:1300VAx0.6=780W. Now we're talking.
If you want to hook all your 3 TFT's in UPS consider another ~100W added to your PC consumption.

Only 60%??? Really??

burebista wrote:I just take a look at newegg and HX1000 is $10 more than HX850. All it comes to budget and consider a PSU with six PCI-E cables.

Ah cool... I will take a look at the HX1000 then...

Thank you!

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 1:40 pm

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139011

850HX by corsair is 80 plus silver certified. I forget exactly what that quantifies to in terms of efficiency, but I know its a higher efficiency than the 80 plus psu's. What this means for you is not only a lower electric bill, but your new UPS will not have to put out as much power to make up for the AC/DC conversion in-efficiencies.

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:10 pm

Hello RoGuE,

great!

Is the Corsair "more silent" than the Thermaltake??
I found that the thermaltake, inside the P182 case is pretty silent, is the Corsair one as silent as the TT?

I am having a hard time to understand thia VA to W conversion, I was assuming that 1300VA I would a plug a computer that uses 1300W of energery, apparently Im wrong!

Hmmm.. so much to learn, so many decisions!

Thank you

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:13 pm

Kate wrote: I am having a hard time to understand thia VA to W conversion, I was assuming that 1300VA I would a plug a computer that uses 1300W of energery, apparently Im wrong!

Readme.

As for your PSU my first choice would be Corsair HX850 followed by Corsair HX1000 (price wise they're almost the same).

RoGuE · Post by **RoGuE** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:47 am

Kate wrote:Hello RoGuE,

great!

Is the Corsair "more silent" than the Thermaltake??
I found that the thermaltake, inside the P182 case is pretty silent, is the Corsair one as silent as the TT?

Absolutely. I own a corsair 520HX, and I love it. Corsair's psu's are known for being very quiet, and high quality.

The HX850 that I recommended for you is 80 Plus silver certified, meaning it has a higher efficiency than if it didn't have the "silver" tacked on there. What this means for silent pc enthusiasts like us, is that less heat will be generated during the AC/DC conversion. (heat is basically all of the losses a PSU experiences). Less heat means lower fan speed..so I think u see where I'm going with this.

Cheers!

Post by **MikeC** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:05 am

Just a couple of points about VA and Watts.

The reason the UPS rating for Volt*Amperes and Power (watts) differs is because its output Power Factor is less than 1.0 (unity). That 0.6 conversion number APC is using tells us that the UPS's Power Factor is 0.6.

The VA rating is probably based on the assumption by UPS makers that most things that get plugged into a UPS have a PF of 0.6. But this is quite wrong for much PC gear this days -- most PSUs in computers have Active PF correction which gives them close to 1.0 PF.

Anyway, it's much safer to use the Watts (power) rating of the UPS than the VA.

Is a 780W UPS big enough?

Assuming max power demanded by the components is ~600W DC -- then apply 85% efficiency for PSU. This means the PSU loses 15% of incoming AC power when delivering 600W DC, so it pulls 705W AC. This is about what your UPS will see with the Corsair or Enermax. Based on the 600W peak assumption, with the 780W UPS, you have 75W headroom. The max DC peak allowable would be 663W.

Kate · Post by **Kate** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:42 am

burebista,

well you are right, i was just asking around for prices and the HX850 and HX1000 is pretty much the same price!

Thank you!

RoGuE,

I didnt know about all this.. I thought almost every PSU would be the same, apart from noise...

Then I 1st bought the Thermaltake, I was quite pleased with its noise level... Before this computer I had a Dell Optiplex 755, which is, sometimes, pretty loud.

Thank you!

MikeC,

WOW! I got a reply from the master!

Those specs are pretty confusing, and to make things worse the seller, does not understand anything, as he said the 600VA would be enough, well.. maybe its enough for a less power hungry computer...

I honestly did not know about any of this stuff, this is all new to me.

So I guess I'll go with the 1000w Corsair PSU and the 1500va APC/UPS.

Thanks!

Rucker · Post by **Rucker** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:06 am

I'm running the Corsair 850TX (non-modular) to power an i920 OC and two 275GTX in SLI. Anyone running two 200 series cards isn't going to hear any PSU fan over the fans in the GPUs

kittle · Post by **kittle** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:11 pm

something else to ponder on your UPS setup..

with regards to your 3 monitors, if you can get away with only plugging one of them into the UPS, then you'll have less power draw on the thing.

The reason I say this is when the power dies, a UPS on your PC should provide enough power for you to save your work & shut down your PC. With one monitor, you can still see whats going on, and should still be able to get at the windows start menu and choose shutdown.

try it yourself once and see how well it works. It could save you the price difference between the 1300VA and 1500VA UPS.