Re: Good PSU choice? CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLIReadyCrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7PowerSupply?

On 10-12-14 10:47 AM, Ant wrote:
> Hello.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005 -- I
> noticed the price is cheap, but is that PSU good to get? NewEgg shows
> high ratings. I wonder why so cheap. Bad batch?
>
> This is for my upcoming computer upgrade, over my current primary PC as
> shown in http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt , during my
> Christmas break:
> - Intel i7 950 CPU -- http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37150
> - Motherboard/Mobo. (GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R [newer] or EVGA X58 FTW3
> 132-GT-E768-KR [older])
> - 6 GB of RAM)
>
> Thank you in advance.

A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be high-end
before is now bargain-basement.

I got a 650W PSU from Zalman myself, about 2 years ago, and I got it for
much the same price, but that was on Ebay.

Yousuf Khan

PS-BTW, I corrected your newsgroup crosspost, it's
"comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips" not "comp.sys.hardware.ibmpc".

On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:25:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan <>
wrote:

>On 12/15/2010 4:52 AM, Jim wrote:
>> "Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
>> news:4d079563$...
>> > A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
>>> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
>>> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be
>>> high-end before is now bargain-basement.
>> Those kilowatt PSUs are only needed if your going SLI/Xfire. A single
>> GPU system isn't likely to break 500watts.
>
>A GPU isn't the only thing that pushes a PSU. Hard drives are another
>big draw.

In usual installations 3-8W per drive isn't going to tax a 500W supply very
hard.

On 12/18/2010 1:03 PM, zzzzzzzz wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:25:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan<>
> wrote:
>
>> On 12/15/2010 4:52 AM, Jim wrote:
>>> "Yousuf Khan"<> wrote in message
>>> news:4d079563$...
>>> > A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
>>>> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
>>>> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be
>>>> high-end before is now bargain-basement.
>>> Those kilowatt PSUs are only needed if your going SLI/Xfire. A single
>>> GPU system isn't likely to break 500watts.
>>
>> A GPU isn't the only thing that pushes a PSU. Hard drives are another
>> big draw.
>
> In usual installations 3-8W per drive isn't going to tax a 500W supply very
> hard.

A few Watts of steady-state power drain is not much to worry about.
But, for PS sizing, you need to consider the start-up which can be as
much as 3A on the 12V rail per SATA HD. {And, for extremist PCs with
RAID10 or RAID6 sets of 15K RPM SCSI HDs, it gets *really* serious.}
--
Cheers, Bob

On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:38:00 -0500, Bob Willard
<> wrote:

>On 12/18/2010 1:03 PM, zzzzzzzz wrote:
>> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:25:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan<>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/15/2010 4:52 AM, Jim wrote:
>>>> "Yousuf Khan"<> wrote in message
>>>> news:4d079563$...
>>>> > A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
>>>>> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
>>>>> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be
>>>>> high-end before is now bargain-basement.
>>>> Those kilowatt PSUs are only needed if your going SLI/Xfire. A single
>>>> GPU system isn't likely to break 500watts.
>>>
>>> A GPU isn't the only thing that pushes a PSU. Hard drives are another
>>> big draw.
>>
>> In usual installations 3-8W per drive isn't going to tax a 500W supply very
>> hard.
>
>A few Watts of steady-state power drain is not much to worry about.
>But, for PS sizing, you need to consider the start-up which can be as
>much as 3A on the 12V rail per SATA HD. {And, for extremist PCs with
>RAID10 or RAID6 sets of 15K RPM SCSI HDs, it gets *really* serious.}

SCSI sequences drives, doesn't it?

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:19:58 -0800, Ant <> wrote:

> Do I assume it will be fine for my upcoming system upgrade?

Depends on what you want the PC to do; e.g. see:

550W Roundup: Three PSUs at Different Prices
by Martin Kaffei on 10/28/2010
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3985/t...fferent-prices

More recently and perhaps less on topic to you, you might also see:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3992/1...end-psuroundup
( 1000W-1200W Roundup: Five High-End PSUs )

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4011/c...50-80plus-gold
( Corsair AX750 80 Plus Gold: Putting Corsair's Best to the Test )

Bill

On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 16:58:50 -0600, ""
<> wrote:

>On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:38:00 -0500, Bob Willard
><> wrote:
>
>>On 12/18/2010 1:03 PM, zzzzzzzz wrote:
>>> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:25:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan<>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 12/15/2010 4:52 AM, Jim wrote:
>>>>> "Yousuf Khan"<> wrote in message
>>>>> news:4d079563$...
>>>>> > A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
>>>>>> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
>>>>>> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be
>>>>>> high-end before is now bargain-basement.
>>>>> Those kilowatt PSUs are only needed if your going SLI/Xfire. A single
>>>>> GPU system isn't likely to break 500watts.
>>>>
>>>> A GPU isn't the only thing that pushes a PSU. Hard drives are another
>>>> big draw.
>>>
>>> In usual installations 3-8W per drive isn't going to tax a 500W supply very
>>> hard.
>>
>>A few Watts of steady-state power drain is not much to worry about.
>>But, for PS sizing, you need to consider the start-up which can be as
>>much as 3A on the 12V rail per SATA HD. {And, for extremist PCs with
>>RAID10 or RAID6 sets of 15K RPM SCSI HDs, it gets *really* serious.}
>
>SCSI sequences drives, doesn't it?

That's a host adapter firmware feature that depends on drive support - but,
yes, it's supported by SCSI, and SAS, and SATA as well. My old SCSI raid tower
used it, and my current SATA array is using it now...

/daytripper

On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:25:52 -0500, Yousuf Khan <>
wrote:

>On 12/15/2010 4:52 AM, Jim wrote:
>> "Yousuf Khan" <> wrote in message
>> news:4d079563$...
>> > A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
>>> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
>>> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be
>>> high-end before is now bargain-basement.
>> Those kilowatt PSUs are only needed if your going SLI/Xfire. A single
>> GPU system isn't likely to break 500watts.
>
>A GPU isn't the only thing that pushes a PSU. Hard drives are another
>big draw.
>
> Yousuf Khan

Not even close. I have an ATI 5970 that will pull almost 300 watts - and can
go from a low-power state to full-on watt-suckage mode in a heartbeat.

The half-dozen 10K rpm hard drives and the SSD barely pull a tenth of that
once they're all spun up. And with the cabinet using sequenced spin-up there's
not much of a "thump" when powering up the drives.

fwiw, Rosewill 1000W continuous 80 plus gold certified modular power supply
with one big fat 12V rail feeding a 980x, that freaky 5970 and a bunch of
storage - and is amazingly quiet doing it...

/daytripper

On Dec 14, 9:03*am, Yousuf Khan <bbb...@spammenot.yahoo.com> wrote:
> On 10-12-14 10:47 AM, Ant wrote:
>
> > Hello.
>
> >http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16817139005-- I
> > noticed the price is cheap, but is that PSU good to get? NewEgg shows
> > high ratings. I wonder why so cheap. Bad batch?
>
> > This is for my upcoming computer upgrade, over my current primary PC as
> > shown inhttp://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt, during my
> > Christmas break:
> > - Intel i7 950 CPU --http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37150
> > - Motherboard/Mobo. (GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R [newer] or EVGA X58 FTW3
> > 132-GT-E768-KR [older])
> > - 6 GB of RAM)
>
> > Thank you in advance.
>
> A 650W PSU is hardly top of the line anymore. It's like what a 350W PSU
> was about 3+ years ago. These days the high end PSUs are putting out
> 1000-1200W. So basically, much like processors, what used to be high-end
> before is now bargain-basement.
>
> I got a 650W PSU from Zalman myself, about 2 years ago, and I got it for
> much the same price, but that was on Ebay.
>
> * * * * Yousuf Khan
>
> PS-BTW, I corrected your newsgroup crosspost, it's
> "comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips" not "comp.sys.hardware.ibmpc".

Just a side note for others who may be considering a larger supply.
For those of you building a box or just needing a supply keep in mind
the bigger the supply i.e., the higher the output wattage then
typically the more it costs to operate. If all you need is 350 watts
of output power (typically plenty for business apps.) and you purchase
a 1000+ watt supply then the added capacity is only generating heat
and costing you money to cool and operate.

Too many times people become wrapped around the axle sort of speak
with numbers rather than actual requirements. A general rule of thumb
for capacity is full load plus 125% for spikes and sustained
operation. The same number is used when fusing AC circuits.Some may
feel this is a bit conservative for general supply design but it
provides plenty of overhead.

Remember heat kills electronics. If you don't need the added
horsepower why heat your PC & house with an over sized supply.
<>< Rob

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:18:43 -0800, Ant <> wrote:

> Thanks. I will be using my box as a workstation, media center (have
> three TV tuners), and gaming.


Given that, you might want to spend more for a low ripple PSU.

e.g. I'm currently building 4 new machines, with primary focus on
using at least a couple of them for high end playback of stereo
music from flac files.

Does low ripple make a difference for this?

I frankly don't know, but have enough suspicion at this point
that it does, which has lead me to buy higher end (more
expensive) PSU units that have lower ripple.

Bill

On Sun, 19 Dec 2010 04:57:04 -0800 (PST), "Rev.3.20" <>
wrote:
>Just a side note for others who may be considering a larger supply.
>For those of you building a box or just needing a supply keep in mind
>the bigger the supply i.e., the higher the output wattage then
>typically the more it costs to operate. If all you need is 350 watts
>of output power (typically plenty for business apps.) and you purchase
>a 1000+ watt supply then the added capacity is only generating heat
>and costing you money to cool and operate.
>
>Too many times people become wrapped around the axle sort of speak
>with numbers rather than actual requirements. A general rule of thumb
>for capacity is full load plus 125% for spikes and sustained
>operation. The same number is used when fusing AC circuits.Some may
>feel this is a bit conservative for general supply design but it
>provides plenty of overhead.
>
>Remember heat kills electronics. If you don't need the added
>horsepower why heat your PC & house with an over sized supply.
><>< Rob

So, you believe that a power supply always puts out its maximum capacity (and
thus its maximum thermal output) regardless of load?

That theory is quite full of rubbish...