Torn between Neo HE or SP2.0
Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2006 8:26 pm
Hey folks. Longtime lurker and reader looking for a little advice.
Putting together a new system real soon and I'm torn between these two PSUs (Neo HE 430w or SP 2.0 500w). Specs of the rig will be as follows:
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D
Opteron 165
2x 1GB Samsung TCCC
XFX Geforce 7900GT
Antec P180
Scythe Ninja HS w/ D12SL-12 Yate Loon
4x hard drives - 1x Cheetah 15k 3x IDE 7200rpm
various other stuff like 1 optical drive, sound card, scsi controller, etc.
I'm a gamer first and foremost so performance is the main priority however low noise is a very close second (I know, mutually exclusive things). I plan on overclocking as high as possible on air cooling with both the CPU and video. I have no plans to SLI.
According to this PSU calculator, on an optimistic but not unheard of 2.7ghz 1.5v overclock and the rest of the rig I'd be looking at a peak of 476w with everything going at once. Now I realize in real world usage that would basically never happen and I don't know how much this calculator errs on the side of overestimating.
I'm pretty sure a Neo HE 430 would be enough, and was fairly set on it for several reasons:
Straight through airflow design for the P180
Modular cables with generous lengths for the P180
Noise and efficiency obviously
Active PFC - I run everything off UPSes and if I understand right, this makes the draw from the UPS lower allowing me to plug in more things without overloading it?
And I've not read of any issues with the Neo HE's and DFI boards thus far.
But I recently saw the SP-500 at ZZF for $50 shipped after rebate which looks awfully tempting. I'd still get the straight through airflow, modular cables, similar efficiency, but noise ramping up would be a bit more harsh. I'm also concerned with the short cable lengths of the SP2.0 PSUs in the P180 and with a DFI board. But this would be $20-30 cheaper than the Neo HE and I'd have a tad more headroom for power (I think?).
Thoughts? I feel like I can't go wrong either way, which is making it even harder for me to decide.
Putting together a new system real soon and I'm torn between these two PSUs (Neo HE 430w or SP 2.0 500w). Specs of the rig will be as follows:
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D
Opteron 165
2x 1GB Samsung TCCC
XFX Geforce 7900GT
Antec P180
Scythe Ninja HS w/ D12SL-12 Yate Loon
4x hard drives - 1x Cheetah 15k 3x IDE 7200rpm
various other stuff like 1 optical drive, sound card, scsi controller, etc.
I'm a gamer first and foremost so performance is the main priority however low noise is a very close second (I know, mutually exclusive things). I plan on overclocking as high as possible on air cooling with both the CPU and video. I have no plans to SLI.
According to this PSU calculator, on an optimistic but not unheard of 2.7ghz 1.5v overclock and the rest of the rig I'd be looking at a peak of 476w with everything going at once. Now I realize in real world usage that would basically never happen and I don't know how much this calculator errs on the side of overestimating.
I'm pretty sure a Neo HE 430 would be enough, and was fairly set on it for several reasons:
Straight through airflow design for the P180
Modular cables with generous lengths for the P180
Noise and efficiency obviously
Active PFC - I run everything off UPSes and if I understand right, this makes the draw from the UPS lower allowing me to plug in more things without overloading it?
And I've not read of any issues with the Neo HE's and DFI boards thus far.
But I recently saw the SP-500 at ZZF for $50 shipped after rebate which looks awfully tempting. I'd still get the straight through airflow, modular cables, similar efficiency, but noise ramping up would be a bit more harsh. I'm also concerned with the short cable lengths of the SP2.0 PSUs in the P180 and with a DFI board. But this would be $20-30 cheaper than the Neo HE and I'd have a tad more headroom for power (I think?).
Thoughts? I feel like I can't go wrong either way, which is making it even harder for me to decide.