Unless you have 10+ or so harddrives in that case you'd get even remotely close to 300W with that set up. The PSU tanked because of the PSU, not the power draw of the computer.

considering the 12v Rails on the FSP are 14a and 8a...i think it was the 9600GT...not just the PSU tanking...i could be wrong though.

Well, the power supplies vary, but some quick Kill-a-Watt testing shows AC power draw from wall:

HTPC: 86W idle, saw it up around 110 during boot. Uses a Sempron64 (no CnQ), two Hauppage tuners, Radeon 9700 Pro, 2x512MB, WD 640GB Blue, DVD, cpu + 2 YL fans, NeoHE 380 I believe.

Spare PC: ~60-65 idle, saw it around 100 at load. Athlon XP 1800, 2x512MB, 60GB Cuda V, CDRW, TNT2, running on a Delta 250 w/Nexus fan swap.

Mine with Radeon 4670: 56W idle, max draw with Orthos and Furmark was 152W. Athlon X2 BE-2300, 2x2GB, WD 640GB Blue, DVDRW, 3 fans, Earthwatts 430 w/Nexus fan swap. Fired up COD2 and ran around 120-130W in real usage.

Mine with onboard 780G graphics: 43W idle. Orthos and Furmark peaked at 89.

Rather stunning that I could probably put a picoPSU on every system I have. Haven't tested all the rest, will get around to it over time.

I have 2 pcs running form 150w pico psu xt, and a dell Da-2

specs:

Desktop:
MB: Asus P5KPL-AM iG31
CPU: e5200 @ 3.75ghz
ram: 4gb DDR2 800 - running at ddr 1000
Storage: 30gb OCZ Vertex ssd
GPU: Nvidia 7300GS

Desktop Power Consumption:
Idle 52w
Load 94w


Server:
MB:Asus P5KPL-AM iG31
CPU: e5200 @ 3ghz
ram: 4gb ddr 800
Storage: 1tb Hitachi DeskStar 1TB 7200 , suspended
GPU: Nvidia 7300GS
Haupage Wintv 150

Server Power Consumption
Idle 58w
Load 89w

I must admit, i was suprised how much a 150w psu can run, considering all the mb manuals say to use a 400w psu.

All measurements taken at the plug using a kill-a-watt like device.

Hi,

The Pico PSU is pretty efficient, but remember like all PSU's when you measure the AC consumption at the wall that the actual DC use inside the computer is less. And it is the DC output that PSU capacity rating is for.

So if the PSU is wasting 10-20% of the AC, then to get the DC consumption, you subtract the 10-20% from the AC number.

I'm using an Antec Phantom 350, which oddly enough if you google brings you to THIS site because Antec discontinued it! Which is cruel given how amazing this part has been. You can't even visit the support page for it on their site anymore - they've put a Javascript redirect on it to their homepage. Specs:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article188-page1.html

Except there's an error in that list - there's only ONE 6-pin PCI-e power connector, not 2. Plugging in a modern graphics card means getting a 2-molex-to-one-PCI-e adapter (either in the box or $4 at Fry's)

In any case, the actual ATI box for the ATI Radeon HD 4890 says "500w PSU required." You can find this recommendation basically anywhere you look for the 4890. Some will go so far as recommending a 750w PSU, but nowhere I looked could I find anyone acknowledging a 350w PSU could do it.

My parts list:
PSU: Antec Phantom 350 (no fan - literally silent)
Video: Radeon HD 4890 (stock clocks)
Motherboard/Sound: nForce4
CPU: Athlon XP 3200+
Hard Drives: 2x WD Raptor 150gb
Fans: 2x 120mm

Runs like a champ. The irony is the recommendation on the side of the box is wasteful. PSUs run most efficiently at load - running at a safe distance all the time means you're always wasting electricity - and producing a lot of heat you don't need. And it's getting rid of heat that makes a PC noisy... so don't produce it in the first place.

see the system in my sig - X3 720, 4890, HDD, DVD, 300W PSU

OK, now that sounds just loony. Have you done a full load stress test?

Maybe I'll add info of my current video edit machine used at work:

INTEL OEM SERVER ATX MOTHERBOARD, 350W FORTRON PSU, INTEL X6800 CPU, NVIDIA QUADRO 2xSLI (not sure of models), 16GB RAM, HDD RAID0+1 4x500GB, DUAL DVD BURNER.

I am not sure of efficiency of 350W PSU, but I believe it is not that high. Still, same PC at work been already for 3 years and it works splendid

See systems in my sig. So far I ran on S12 430W but recently sold the unit to my pal and dusted off the mighty FSP HLN 350W (10 + 15 on 12V).
When OC'ed the CPU to 3,7 GHz @ 1,41V the power meter showed almost 290W, full load.
The pseudo-htpc tops at 85W @ wall and runs on a 65W Delta brick. A bigger brick is in plans tho, for peace of mind.

Me desktop has been changed slightly


Desktop:
MB: DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS
CPU: e5200 @ 4ghz
ram: 4gb DDR2 800
Storage: 30gb OCZ Vertex ssd
GPU: Nvidia 7300GS
Cooling:
Pump MCP355 with XSPC Res top
CPU BLOCKD-tek fuzion V2
RES: XSPC RS360 RAD

Power usage at load 125-130W , measured at plug again

surely have =) using a bodgy 'wall wart' style wattmeter, after the system was running at stable load temps [hence the PSU wasn't going to draw more current as it got warmer] 300W AC was measured.

now, before we get too crazy here, please realise that this is the non-80plus version 300SFD. assuming 80% efficiency [likely worse in actuality] that means 300*0.8 = 240W DC, well within spec.

on the other hand, at idle measured load is around 90W AC - this is where the machine spends the vast majority of it's time, currently.

did you find the killawatt style meter introduced noise in 2 ur system atal?

i ahd mine pluged in almost constantly, on the rare ocasion i went to listen 2 music, i turnt the speakers on and could hear like a pulse noise, i shut down my pc and then pluged it straight in to power block, and the noise is still there, but now i have to turn the amp right up before i can hear it :S

wow, took me a long time to notice your question, mark;

can't say that i noticed anything like that - i don't have the machine plugged into the meter constantly, as i use it on other builds as well, but i didn't notice anything like that while i was checking my machine out.

Nice thread.... I'm looking at upgrading my PSU in my HTPC, but the most power I can get in TFX is 300W. So I am convinced that I can do everything I need to do with 300W.

Big one:
E8200 @ 3.72 @ 1,35V
HD4770 @ 830/830
2 x WD VR 150GB
Abit IP35
4 x 1 GB 1066
SB Audigy 2 ZS
3 x 120mm + 2 x 92mm all @ 5V
FSP HLN 350W fanswapped

Idle 110W
F@H (CPU & GPU) 166W
LinX 181W
Gaming 160W
LinX + Furmark 222W

Small one:
E3200 @ 3,06 @ 1,15V
MSI P6NGM 7150
2 x 1 GB 800
1 x Travelstar 7200 100GB
Antec NSK1380

Idle 39W
F@H 52W
LinX 64W

You could run my rig on a 300W, but I got a 330W just to be on the safe side

System specs in signature. Kill-a-watt measured 263 watts during 4x prime 95 and furmark running. So in my estimation, only using about 230W to run all that. I guess one question would be how much power on the 12V rail for the video card, but I'm using roughly 1/2 of the capacity of my power supply at full bore.

What do people think as far as running the following from a 300watt Silverstone ST30NF?

Core 2 Duo E8200 (stock)
4GB DDR3
1 x HDD
1 x SSD
Radeon 5850 1GB.


My Silverstone currently powers everything as above, except instead of the Radeon 5850, I have a GeForce 8800GT 512mb. With a watt meter, this pulls a max of 215watts from the plug socket.

Can anyone advise?

Many thanks

Michael.

What power supply are you currently using? Based on it's efficiency, to figure the power used by the system, you need to take a percentage of the power used at the wall plug -- probably, it is in the 75-80% range, so it is using 161-172 watts. That leaves ~128-139 watts additional to the current setup. If that is more than the increase between the two video cards, then you are fine.

Hi, sorry, it's a Silverstone ST30NF, which has around 80% efficiency at it's peak, so I've used that as the calculation for 'worst case' scenario.

The thing I'm concerned with is that the 12volt rail has 18amps, which equates to 216watts as I believe. How do I know how much of the 12volt rail is being used and if the new graphics card would tip it over the edge?

I've lost track of all the various model number on video cards, I'm afraid. If SPCR has test your current card or one similar to it, then you may be able to tell what the increase will be.

Or, can anyone who has experience in this pipe up, please?

Well, Nvidia says an 8800GT should not exceed 110w under full load. ATI saya a maximum of 151w for an HD 5850. A difference of merely 41w which if you look at various reviews online is on par with overall system load power between the 2 cards.

All of that power is drawn from the +12v rail and includes the watts drawn by the fan.

Whener someone is currious about the actual power draw of a video card you need to search for the video cards "board power". Nvidia, ATI and Matrox all release the maximum board power drawn by any given video card along with the average idle board power.

From what I remember though, the 5850 actually draws less power than the 8800GT...

If it were me, I'd upgrade the PSU though. Too close to the limit for my liking.

Just at idle (about 20W vs around 35W): otherwise equally or slightly more (but it has very much more horsepower).


Maybe it would be.

If we could bank also on those numbers (besides the ones supplied by mrochester), its system might draw around 250W DC under stress testing (see also the SPCR Fanless PSU Torture Test Roundup for some hints), and probably well under the 200W DC mark on real loads.

These systems max out under 100W w/ Prime95 blend

#1
Intel i3-2100 CPU
ASUS P8H61-I Mobo
4GB Kingston DDR3 1333 RAM
Kingston 64GB V100 SSD
Samsung DVD-RW
Lian-Li PC-Q07 case w/ picoPSU 120-WI-32 and 19V 6.3a AC adapter

#2
Intel i3-540 CPU
Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Mobo
4GB G-Skill DDR3 1333 RAM
MicroCenter 64GB SSD
No ODD
Lian-Li PC-Q09F case w/ built-in 150W PSU

These systems all max out under 250W w/ Prime95 blend
#3
AMD Phenom II x3 705e 65W CPU
Gigabyte 780G motherboard
4GB G-Skill DDR3 1333 RAM
HIS HD5670 512MB GPU
Kingston 64GB V100 SSD
WD WD3200AAJS 320GB Caviar Blue HDD
Lite-On Blu-ray ODD
nMediaPC 1000b case with Antec EA-380D 380W PSU

#4
AMD Athlon II x4 2.8Ghz CPU
Gigabyte 785G motherboard with 128MB sideport memory
4GB G-Skill DDR3 1333 RAM
WD WD3200AAJS 320GB Caviar Blue HDD
Seagate 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Samsung DVD-RW
Antec NSK1380 case with 350W PSU

I also have a P4 3.2GHz refurbed Dell GX280 running WHS with 4 HDDs that I believe only has a 250W PSU in it and it's humming along fine down in the basement.

What do you think about this syste:
#1
Intel i3-2100 CPU
ASUS P8H61-I Mobo
4GB Kingston DDR3 1333 RAM
Kingston 64GB V100 SSD
Samsung DVD-RW
Lian-Li PC-Q07 case w/ picoPSU 120-WI-32 and 19V 6.3a AC adapter

But with a 2400 and 8G of memory? How many watts DC or AC do you think it needs?. How about with a 2500?

Would a 300W PSU like SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply drive the following server?

SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCA-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard
Intel Core i3-2100T Sandy Bridge 2.5GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 3MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 35W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I32100T (might go for the 2500T if it becomes available)
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G
8x HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 (0F12117) 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
LSI MegaRAID Internal Low-Power SATA/SAS 9261-8i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory RAID Controller Card, Single
3x Scythe Gentle Typhoon D1225C12B3AP-13 - Case fan - 120 mm
1x Thermalright X-Silent 140mm Silent Fan

I'd build the same system again with an i5-2500K and expect nearly the same results under normal usage. It would only be under full load that things would spike up but I wouldn't expect it to go past 120W. I'd be surprised if it did. There's also a 150W picoPSU (for more headroom) and there's a new i5-2405S (i5-2400 w/ HD3000) that's 65W TDP (for lower power = i3-2100) to consider as well.

My gut tells me yes but that's not very definitive or scientific .

It's the spin-up of the 8 drives that's going to be the biggest load on this server. Hitachi claims "29% less power" usage at spin up than their 7K-series drive but don't give power usage for either in that scenario. I can only find power usage at idle though: 4.4W. So, figure 4x that for spin-up, 17W/drive x 8 = 136W? HDDs use 12V power for motor and 5V power for electronics. Seasonic's 300ET datasheet says 288W max on the 12V rail. So that leaves 150W or so for everything else 12V -- during spin-up -- if I am doing my math right. That seems good to me assuming the 17W @ spin-up per drive is anywhere near accurate.

Sometimes you can find the 350ET for sale cheaper than the 300ET.

I hope that helps.