SPCR

I need a new PS for my new PC:

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte P965 GA-965PDS3P rev.2
2 Seagate 320GB 7200.10
1 XFX NVidia 7950GT 512 Passive cooling

Suggestions for Power supply?

Thanks in advance.

The ones you've listed are great PSU's - hard to find any better PSU's in any respect. They kick butt and rule and stuff and are made by SPCR's fave PSU maker and you can never go wrong with any of them.
But...
They're overkill for your rig. WAY overkill. Any of them will be able to easily power a superstrong rig with C2Q + 8800GTX SLI and huge RAID and so on.
As your rig will most probably take under max load no more than 150 real watts from the PSU (DC power, mostly from 12V rail), you will be perfectly fine and safe with Seasonic S12 330. These days it's hard to find a PSU under 300W so I'm suggesting the S12 330. However, S12 380 will be a little quieter than its li'l bro and will give you even more headroom for future upgrades. S12 430 is also a good choice as it'll power your rig after you've upgraded to sth. like 8800GTX.
Depending on your location and selection of PSU's and your craving for modular cables you can also get PSU's like: Enermax Liberty (modular), Topower P3 U12 EZ (modular), Be Quiet Dark Power Pro (modular), Be Quiet Straight Power (non modular) - all are great PSU's, quiet, rock stable and reliable.

My rig is as follows :

E6600 overclocked to 3.2GHz
Asus P5N32-E SLI board
8800GTS overclocked to 600 core/900 memory
4x512Mb Corsair DDR2 6400
2x74 Gb WD Raptors
4x120 mm fans

Its currently running very happily playing Oblivion for hours at a time with a Tagan 420W PSU (an older model with a dedicated molex for a VGA card). There's no way you need something like the two PSUs you mention for your rig.

I'm changing the PSU at weekend to a Corsair HX520, the only reason I'm doing that is because the Tagan PSU is needed back in the machine I swiped it out of. The only reason I'm not going for another Tagan of a similar spec is that I'm hoping to go SLI in the future and want the extra power in reserve if I do.

Initially I got a Silverstone (not Seasonic as I originally posted!!) PSU as part of a bundle with the GTS8800. Unfortunately it was louder than my vacuum cleaner (well... slight exaggeration, but it was loud), so I took the quiet Tagan out of my old PC. The Seasonic has been banished to powering a server in a cupboard.

The lower power Corsair is about 2/3 the price of the 620W model here in the UK and would certainly give you something future-proof for a good couple of years (along with a 5 year warranty).

350W would be plenty for your box.

350 would be plenty but a 620 corsair would be QUIETER.

if it was a 300 I would have bought it but it just happens to be ultra smooth sounding and it resists the urge to ramp during continuous load... something every other psu out there doesnt seem to do.

620 = pimp ho's


seasonic makes it for corsair but seasonic doesnt have the better psu. Think of volkswagen and porsche.... volks makes it sorta but... it just isnt the same.

im a total fan of the corsair 620, it's my daddy

Um, Corsair HX520?

No need for the 620 or 650, just drop it down a notch and save yourself $50 or so.
If you like the modular cables get the Corsair 520. If you don't like modular cables get a Seasonic 430 and save $10. If you have money to burn get a Energy+ 550 model as it is the quietest.

according to...

spcr

the corsair is quieter than any seasonic offerings....


why bother spending money at all if you are not getting the best thing? one bad apple of a device makes a whole system annoyingly loud. For someone that uses the juice of a good psu, corsair seems to be the best. (aside from the antec phantoms which I also use)

also, the 520 is cheaper and good enough as well. I just future proofed to the max. 520 is fine though if you think about it. same stats just 100 watts less abilty

~El~Jefe~ wrote:according to...

spcr

the corsair is quieter than any seasonic offerings....

I don't know what SPCR you are reading but my SPCR doesn't say that.

Corsair review http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page1.html
Seasonic review http://www.silentpcreview.com/article656-page1.html

The numbers in my previous post are from those reviews. Surely you can see that 20 is less than 22? Thus the Seasonic Energy+ 550 and 650 are both quieter than the Corsair power supply when below 300 watts.

Surely you know that no tested configuration on SPCR has ever drawn more than 256 watts? If not please see http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page4.html which lists 256W DC as the highest wattage ever seen in a real PC configuration.

What part of SPCR are you looking at, that you think the Corsair is quieter?

Now personally I'd save the money and buy the Corsair 520 over either of the Sesonic Energy+ models but that is a money thing not a noise thing.

Surely you know that no tested configuration on SPCR has ever drawn more than 256 watts?

That's true, but then none of the configs have SLI/CF. Given that current GPUs can use up to 3 times more than current CPUs, this is a large reason why the maximum is so low.

jaganath wrote:

Surely you know that no tested configuration on SPCR has ever drawn more than 256 watts?

That's true, but then none of the configs have SLI/CF. Given that current GPUs can use up to 3 times more than current CPUs, this is a large reason why the maximum is so low.

A 8800 GTX adds another 20W to the full load power vs the X1950XTX in the rig from the link above. The 8800 GTS actually saves you 30 watts vs the X1950XTX at full load. So while it is true you could bump from 256W to around 280W DC you could get the improved performance of the 8800 GTS and drop the top load from 256W to about 225W DC.

Besides this thread is about someone building a system with a single passive video card not some monster dual or triple video card rig. We don't need to get into discussions of 600 to 1000W power supplies because his question never discussed pushing that envelope.

Thanks for your support.

I'd buy the 620/650 W for future needs, so from your suggestions the best product is Corsair, because in spcr's review of 650+ by Seasonic I suppose the noise level are extrapolated from 550+ model.

In the review of Corsair models, the noise levels are indicated for each unit, 520 and 620 W, but there is no difference up to 500W.
But it also true the SPCR's PSU Test Platform is different in the two testbeds, v3 (Seasonic) vs. v4 (Corsair) and the ambient temperature is 22° (Seasonic) vs. 21° (Corsair).

About Corsiar I don't like the modular cabling... too hard, I prefer the soft cabling version.

I say if you're going to be upgrading in the future to a higher-powered system (you'd probably be better off waiting a month or two, in that case) you can go with the higher power PSUs.

But, as stated above, the S12-330 would probably be enough for the system listed. However, I would recommend the S12-380 or -430 as the heatsinks are bigger than the -330, and keep the fan from ramping up, plus they have a little more juice if you decide to OC your rig.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article656-page3.html The 650W model is slightly different: It uses a slightly higher speed fan of the same make and model line.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article656-page4.html The two models performed almost identically, so the data for the two units was amalgamated into a single set. The majority of the data presented below comes from our test of the 550W model. Data from the 650W test can be identified by the green background in the data table.
No extrapolation. All the data is in the article. Though there is an odd little crossover that makes the 650E+ quieter at 400w but noisier at 500w when compared to the 550E+. Considering you aren't likely to hit 500w you could consider the 650E+ the better power supply if money is no object.

You really can't do badly with any of the four choices though

Corsair HX520W
Seasonic E+ 550W
Corsair HX620W
Seasonic E+ 650W

They are all quite nice power supplies with only minor trade offs from a technical point of view.

They are all quite nice power supplies with only minor trade offs from a technical point of view.

Dhanson865 - I'm especially curious about the part where you mention trade offs.

Corsair HX520W are quiet then Seasonics now.
Thanks