The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

yeah, but your computer is a P4, i'll be getting a Penryn Quad and High-End GPU, and lot's of HDD

 

That PC will draw about 200W full load, less than half your PSU's full capacity. I don't doubt Tagan units (at least at that point on the scale) can put out what they say they can, but the NOISE! The high end units make such a ridiculous racket even people who don't care must get pretty ticked off with them.

 

oh is your thermaltake toughpower noisy? i think 900 case's fan should be louder

 

It may run fine, but you have the 3.06GHz Prescott. Not exactly the best. It's probably bottlenecking your video card big time. Have you considered an upgrade? Something like a 3.4GHz Pentium D would get you far better performance. If your motherboard supports it, get a cheap Core 2 Duo even.

 

i doubt 200W. it the prescott is a 90nm chip. it consumes ALOT of power, and gives of quite a bit of heat. maybe not as much as northwood. but ALOT ALOT ALOT mroe than any c2d and more than any peryins. peryins are some of the least powerhungry chips. as we progress, the power outputs or components are getting lower. DDr3 is more effiecient than DDR2 and the newer CPUS are more efficient as well as the newer GPUs. the R670s and the G92s

 

The toughpower, it depends. Idle, the fan isn't noisy at all (comparing it to the noise level of a 900 case fan, I'd say it's halfway between Low and Medium). However, if you put lots of load through one, or it gets hot (say, you've got a big heatsink nearby that isn't cooled well enough in the right direction), it gets noisy, I'd say a little bit louder than a 900 case fan on high. There are noisier units out there, but there are quieter ones too, and here I'm afraid I have to plug the Corsair again, since they are pretty much the quietest PSUs you can buy (this, I specifically refer to the HX series. The VX ones aren't quite so great in that respect).

REAM: nope, 200W sounds about right. The Prescott CPUs consume about 90W. That's a lot for a single core CPU, but you've got to consider that Core 2 Duos get overclocked, and a lot. Overclocking (especially when voltages get involved) puts your CPU power up a lot. Mine at my current setting is around the 110-120W mark because of this.
I'd take these CPU readings with a pinch of salt though, because my PC's total power draw is 240W at the mains at max load, with a 120W CPU, 130W graphics card and two hard drives. Factor in the 85% efficiency of the PSU, and the numbers don't quite add up/ Similarly, my friend's X2 4200+ (which is also a 90W CPU I believe) uses around 200W at full load at the mains, and he uses the same graphics card, but with one hard drive.

1KW PSU anyone?

 

yeah, i ahve already thought of that. but C2d are nto supported on the p915 chips dont support c2d. and if i am goign to spend on a pentium D i would still get bottle necked.

also the X1900XT is a power hungry card aswell. the past has produced un efficient components and still psus that are under 450W can hold them, so nowadays even a 620 corsair is OVERLY OVERKILL. even the 520 seems to be alot more better is still overkill.

infact if you dont use atleast 50% (IICR) load of the recommened wattage of a PSU, then efficiany isnt the best. if you are using a 1KW PSU (god knows why!) and you are drawing 200W then ur pulling alot more from the mains to get the 200, than if you were using a very good 5-400W PSU which would draw less from the mains to get the 200W than the 1K.

 

Most PSUs in the 500-750W arena seem to run best at loads of between 200 and 400W. So when your system's idling, you're wasting power, but at full load they're pretty efficient.

 

thats was kind of my point. i think going over 500W, even with new dual cards is a complete waste. waste of money when purchasing and waste of money in the long term.

 

To sum it up, a Q6600 overclocked to 3.4Ghz and a pair of 8800 Ultras will probably put your total system draw at max to around 550W.

 

wasting power! Man! the elec bill will rise, and i don't want that, seriously all i'm thinking about is money money money...

 

EDIT

 

check out this:







btw the last image is before the DC current is converted, so its the AC, and this is the DRAW from the wall, not the power consumption. times that by roughly .8 (for a decently efficient PSU) and you have the man and min draw for a whole system. they have said that the ultra itself was about 175W, therefore add that to the 0.8 timed score, and its under 560W.


source

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTMzNiwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFz

 

Those figures are nuts, I'll have to try the orthos and shader mark test to see how high I can get my power draw, but even 360W at the wall seems excessive for that hardware...

 

wow, they sure draw a lot.

Does anyone know a site that tells you how much your system is using/drawing the power?

 

There are, but their figures are horrifically over the top compared to what a physical meter says I'm using. Best thing I can advise is to buy a watt-measuring plug adapter. However, I warn you, no matter how little power your system will draw, you still have to get rid of that AOpen PSU.

 

yeah i know that, i will sell it but don't know if anyone will buy it, or i can sell it to a friend, saying that this AOpen 450W is good, well it is good i haven't had a problem with it.

I can't believe i forgotten about Christmas, i'll ask my parent if i could get a Thermaltake 650w if not a 700/750w...but about what you said earlier, when the system is idle it waste power doesn't it so should i get the OCZ one instead it's cheaper

 

OCZ units are nowhere near as efficient as Thermaltake Toughpowers, you will end up with a higher electricity bill with an OCZ.

 

it may cost you more to import a corsair, but in the long run, they will save you, same as PC p&C

 

oh ok, is purepower better than toughpower, because PP is more expensive than TP

well is the HX series better than VX?