The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

russ does the 9500GT haev a PCIE power connector?

 

Shaff,
No it doesn't but it's really nothing to me anyway. I have more than enough power for all of my needs. I got the information from a site that published the two company's wattage specs from Ati and nVidia to show the claimed wattage for their video cards. It said 115w for mine. I didn't even go looking for it, it was a sub that caught my eye that I clicked on. And God bless you if you can make any sense out of the FireFox history! With Netscape I could find it in about a minute! FireFox History flat sucks! It's just one seemingly endless list for each day! No way to meaningfully sort or search. It totally blows! No matter, it's not important. What is important is that the PSU is very quiet. It's not being masked by the sound of the fans.

Here's what Hardware secrets had to say about my PSU, including the fact that

I like their reviews because they take them completely apart to see what makes them tick!
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/728/1
They only recommend it as a temporary economical alternative to better PSUs. That's fair, I think! My power needs are fairly light. I guess the biggest load I put on my computer is Encoding video, or maybe playing FC2. I can feel heat coming out of the back, but there's no additional noise at all! Not even if I run Orthos for hours on end! It's about the same as I had with the Thermaltake 500 watt I had before. neither ever made any noise that I ever heard. I have no problem hearing the CPU fan speed up, or the video card while I'm playing games, so I can't understand how I could possibly miss the PSU if it made any real noise at all! The whole computer is so quiet now, that I'm hearing things I've never heard before on any computer. No 4000 rpm fan in this PSU! I've had my Seagate 160 for more than 3 years, stretching from my Pentium D till now, and this the first time I can actually hear it!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Omeg, I have the same cooler you have,64pro, I also installed several fans Russ recommended don't remember the names, of course I'm not a gamer or overclocker but I hardly ever hear any fans running, the pc is always cool.

 

No russ, it's not rated at 115W. You can tell us as much as you like, but wherever you read that, it's wrong. That is roughly the power of the 9800GT, not the 9500GT.
The whole frequencies debate here is irrelevant, we aren't criticising individual fans or components, this is just simple fact. The output dB level of a system with the fans you're using can not be part of a near-silent system unless you have substantial soundproofing all around the system - however much you like your case, it is not making the PC quieter unless it has padding around it. The table I posted was quite clear. If your fan has 9 blades instead of the usual 7, it is like buying a fan with a higher speed - the speed of which is listed in said table. That's all there is to it.
Again, you can moan about the fact I have better hearing, but anyone can tell what a quiet PC is and isn't, and with a fan setup like that (which I have mimicked in the past), nobody agrees it's a near-silent PC. Switch to the system I use for my work PC and they do.
Reading that review at hardwaresecrets is the exact reason I don't recommend cheap Coolermaster PSUs - that's a lot of failed tests.

 

And therefore why I only had it for a short time. ROFL.

thanks for the link to "hardwaresecrets"!! Good review website it seems.

 

talk about nvidia over rating!

its physically impossible for it to be rated over 75w, due to the PCIE slot only pushing 75W of power for a card LOL.

stupid nvidia hehe.

 

Seriously, even the 1GB 9500GT barely uses 50W. As for Hardwaresecrets, it's a handy website, good for knowing what a PSU actually is inside.

 

That is true, they are very nitpicky and get right down to the guts. I found out from hardwaresecrets that my OCZ StealthXStream 600W is actually a non-modular GameXStream 700W. Not even kidding they showed them side by side and the internals are IDENTICAL. Which explains why the GameXStream underperforms but my StealthXStream is a very solid unit that actually puts out OVER 650W problem-free

This may also explain why the StealthXStream does better with ripple at load. The direct wiring must have a cleaner connection to the internals vs the modular model. I've never had stability issues with mine. It's been rock solid since day one.

 

Have you tested that?
The main problem with OCZ units, and why I don't recommend them is that while the StealthXStream 600W is a 600W unit, the GameXStream 700W is a 600W unit, the GameXStream 850W is a 600W unit, and the GameXStream 1010W is a 600W unit.

 

I've had both my 620HX and StealthXStream 600W tested on the machine at the PC shop in town. They're fairly well equipped The 620HX automatically shut down at 700W load directly on the rails, almost fully maxing the amps available on the rails. The StealthXStream didn't quite reach max on the rails but it didn't shut down till about 655W. I'm not sure of the exact test results but both passed well within spec for ripple on the rails right to automatic shut down. Both have been problem free for at least a year.

 

Sam,
I'm not a small child that needs scolding. The list I got was reportedly from nVidia, by an nVidia partner. Had both nVidia and Ati's logo on both lists like they were copied from their site. It wasn't really a concern to me either, as I was pretty sure that the PCI-E sockets limit was a lot less.

I'm terribly sorry that I don't meet your standards for quiet or near silent! Get over it and stop butting in every time I mention my PC is quiet then! I don't need a lecture! One can picture you with graphs and charts to show me how wrong I am. I don't care! It's very quiet and that's my opinion, which I am entitled to! I'm not trying to misrepresent your viewpoint, but rather give my opinion of how quiet I feel my computer is. All I can tell you is that at 4AM when all is quiet, the computer is still very quiet! I'll refrain from calling it near Silent in the future since this does not conform to your near silent standards. That way you don't get offended and I don't have to hear the endless litany I usually get on the subject! Oh! I have only one 9 bladed fan in my computer, the rear Silverstone FN121-BL. next to the 800 rpm Kama Bay fan, it's the quietest fan in my case by a wide margin over the two C/M fans that came with the case. 1200 rpm, 53.24 CFM and a very believable 26.6dBA.

On the C/M 500w PSU! Yes it failed a number of tests, but it's rated at 70% efficiency. It only failed after trying to exceed it's own published efficiency rating. The tests show that it meets or beats it's published specs. There are far worse PSUs out there that cost a lot more that can burn your house down. If it's what you can afford at the time, at least you'll know that the product is safe and does work as advertised! I mean, come on! They complained about it's 73% and 80% efficiency performance.. It was still capable of delivering 500w at a 60% load, and they do begrudgingly admit that it is a "true" 500w PSU! GPU and CPU loads are split between the two +12v rails! For someone like me, it's about perfect, as it will never see loads high enough to matter. Still at usually around $30 after $10 rebate, it's the lowest priced Real 500w Dual Rail PSU out there. You could easily do far worse!

Russ

 

Mmm, thing is you really need some real hardware hooked up for stability tests, not just a loadbank, that's the tricky part.

 

why? thats how most good PSU tests are carried out.

 

i understand but wouldnt it put more load than any everyday use, like, to test a 1000W PSU maybe using real components we can only draw 900, but to see if it can hit its rated stats, wouldnt we need to use the loadbank?

 

There is no sudden variation in loading with a loadbank, no uneven loading of rails, no high ambient temperatures due to being in a case, etc. etc. Loadbank testing is not the ideal way to test PSUs.

 

I knowit's not an ideal way of testing but I feel it is a good way to determine the load limits of your PSU in absolutes. The average load that this system will be seeing is far less than the load bank could ever put on it so I view it as a valid test to find out if your hardware is up to spec. Of course you will never be able to directly emulate the environmental temps and loads of a high end system but that's just it. You can only use a simulation to get consistent test results. The true test is in practice in a dynamic load environment.

 

So which PC uses the OCZ and which PC uses the Corsair?

 

Well my dual core AMD uses the OCZ but it's been in everything from my Intel quad machine with an 8800GTS G92 to a friend's Phenom II 940 9800GTX SLI machine.

The 620HX is presently in my Crossfire machine and my 550VX is in my Intel quad machine.

You really should just click the link in my sig. All of my PCs are outlined on my profile page.