Power?

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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sbruce
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2003 9:13 pm

Power?

Post by sbruce » Wed Jan 15, 2003 9:13 am

Hey all-

I'm new to this whole thing, so be patient :=) I am putting together a new computer that will be used soley for audio/recording. I'm all set, except that hte Enermax 465 (FC) PSU that I got is anything but "whisper" :=) REading all the reviews and thoughts here, I am confident that the Nexus is right up my alley! But I am concerned about 300w being enough power. I will see 80% CPU usage quite often!

Now before you say, go read the AMD system builder article, I already have :=) But I can't find the required info (max. current at voltage, etc.) for any of my components...Here's what I have:

Gigabyte GA-8PE667 MOBO
P4 2.4B w. 533 front side
1 Panaflo 80 exhaust fan
Zalman CNPS6500B-AlCu CPU cooler w/ stock fan
M-Audio Delta 66 Audio card (PCI)
Matrox G450 video card (AGP)
2 Maxtor HS (16G/60G)
Plextor SCSI CD-R w/ SCSI card (PCI)
floppy drive
PSU ????
All mounted in a 4Rack space Aluminum case.

Any help you all can give is greatly appreciated...basically, I want to know if the 300w Nexus will be adequite for this system? If it isn't, am I correct that the Seasonic 400w would be my best bet?

This forum has been great so far, thanks for making this a cool place!

Steven

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Wed Jan 15, 2003 9:32 am

It's dubious whether your real power draw will exceed 200W. A fairly loaded AMD dualie pulls 250W absolute max peak (momentary) -- long term, maybe 235-240W. I was there for this: http://forums.silentpcreview.com//viewtopic.php?t=2580

CORRECTION: Those power number above represent the AC power daw -- the DC power translates to ~175W max if you assume 70% AC/DC conversion efficiency in the PSU.

For another reference, a P4-2.8 test system I sometimes run -- with 512K ddr, 1 HDD, 2 PCI cards, 1 VGA (AGP), CD drive -- never exceeds ~165W AC power draw with a Nexus NS3000. That's 115W in DC. The PSU is coasting at 40% of rated power.
Last edited by MikeC on Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

ChiefWeasel
Posts: 262
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Worcester, UK

Post by ChiefWeasel » Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:15 am

Im using a 300W PSU (Q-Tech) with my 1.8A which is OCed to a 2.4B, apart from that all thats different is i have 1 40Gb seagate HD, and an IDE CDRW. It hasnt faltered at all, and ive had it almost a year.

Max current at 12V is the one to worry about with a P4, and the Nexus is the same if not better than my Q-Tech in this regard.

sbruce
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2003 9:13 pm

Post by sbruce » Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:11 pm

Thanks guys...I'm gonna go ahead and give hte Nexus a try...any recommendations on a good online vendor?

S

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:19 pm

They're all selling them at the same price so why not give our sponsor Silicon Acoustics a try? :wink:

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