I am planning on purchasing two eVGA 9800 GTX+ (512-P3-N873-AR) cards since I'm behind the times on my video (2x eVGA 7900GTS currently). I also am throwing in a new QX6850 to replace my OC'd e4300. I figured that I'd get a bigger PSU so I won't have to worry about increases in power requirements in the future, but my current PSU (a PCP&C Silencer 750, not the quad version) also lacks the required four PCI-e 6-pin power connectors to power the two new cards.
I guess I really have two questions:
A) Do I really need to replace my current power supply? Will it be acceptable to just get a couple of molex-to-6-pin adapters and use two of those to power one of the new video cards, or do I risk damaging the card and/or overloading my PSU?
B) If I'd be better off replacing the PSU, I want something just as quiet during idle/load. I had a PCP&C Turbo-cool 510 a few years back, and I didn't really like how much noise it made. These three PSUs have all had favorable reviews, but there isn't enough information for me to determine which would be the best for minimizing noise.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
Corsair HX1000, TT Toughpwr 1000, Zalman ZM1000: quietest?
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar
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I don’t think you need to worry about overloading the PC POWER & COOLING unit, if you would like a quieter unit though, then I would say that the Zalman would be your best bet, I’ve ordered its little brother the 850 myself and if you would like me to I could get back to you with some feedback as soon as it has arrived (it should be here on Monday)
I don’t think you need to worry about overloading the PC POWER & COOLING unit, if you would like a quieter unit though, then I would say that the Zalman would be your best bet, I’ve ordered its little brother the 850 myself and if you would like me to I could get back to you with some feedback as soon as it has arrived (it should be here on Monday)
Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks! If I can keep my current PSU and it won't overload on the new GPUs, then I'd prefer that, but if I have to get a new PSU, then any information would be helpful.walle wrote:Welcome to SPCR
I don’t think you need to worry about overloading the PC POWER & COOLING unit, if you would like a quieter unit though, then I would say that the Zalman would be your best bet, I’ve ordered its little brother the 850 myself and if you would like me to I could get back to you with some feedback as soon as it has arrived (it should be here on Monday)
The Zalman unit arrived Friday last week which was earlier then expected, two days, impressive.
I had skimmed through a few reviews prior to ordering and the common consensus seemed to be that this where to be a very quiet unit so I was fairly eager to get my hands this + $200 unit. Now I’ve learned (as have others), with a few exceptions, to take so called professional reviews with a grain of salt and for reasons I need not go into. Anyway; I’ve been very interested in their way of approaching and tackling the heat output and seeing that its Zalman the heatpipe solution felt like the next logical step, after all, they’ve been amongst the first to incorporate that technology. (one of their first ones http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/37/zalmanoe3.jpg) and I must say that I was impressed with this unit cooling wise, it proved to work brilliantly, however, the sound characteristics was less than impressive, I found the unit to be quit noisy actually. I think the fan is the culprit here and it seems to correlate with previous experiences come Zalman’s fans, they simply use low quality fans, at least low quality when it comes to sound characteristics. Now keep in mind that this may very well have been a damaged unit, the review made here at SPCR could very well suggest that indeed my unit was somehow damaged/and/or a poor fan slipping thru quality check. This could of course be solved with a fan swap but since it’s a 140mm fan your options will/would be limited. More on the cooling; I had this unit housed in a Antec Solo which mean that it handled much of the heat generated from the entire system, especially heat generated by the CPU and Norhtbridge and it did so with ease, passing it with flying colours. In fact; the unit didn’t even break a sweat, meaning; it never became more than a bit “warmâ€
I had skimmed through a few reviews prior to ordering and the common consensus seemed to be that this where to be a very quiet unit so I was fairly eager to get my hands this + $200 unit. Now I’ve learned (as have others), with a few exceptions, to take so called professional reviews with a grain of salt and for reasons I need not go into. Anyway; I’ve been very interested in their way of approaching and tackling the heat output and seeing that its Zalman the heatpipe solution felt like the next logical step, after all, they’ve been amongst the first to incorporate that technology. (one of their first ones http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/37/zalmanoe3.jpg) and I must say that I was impressed with this unit cooling wise, it proved to work brilliantly, however, the sound characteristics was less than impressive, I found the unit to be quit noisy actually. I think the fan is the culprit here and it seems to correlate with previous experiences come Zalman’s fans, they simply use low quality fans, at least low quality when it comes to sound characteristics. Now keep in mind that this may very well have been a damaged unit, the review made here at SPCR could very well suggest that indeed my unit was somehow damaged/and/or a poor fan slipping thru quality check. This could of course be solved with a fan swap but since it’s a 140mm fan your options will/would be limited. More on the cooling; I had this unit housed in a Antec Solo which mean that it handled much of the heat generated from the entire system, especially heat generated by the CPU and Norhtbridge and it did so with ease, passing it with flying colours. In fact; the unit didn’t even break a sweat, meaning; it never became more than a bit “warmâ€
walle,
Thanks for the in-depth review, it's always good to get a perspective from more than just professional reviewers.
So it seemed noisier than expected, but once the PC was down under the desk it wasn't all that noticable?
Did you consider contacting Zalman for a replacement or was it not bad enough in the end to do so?
Thanks for the in-depth review, it's always good to get a perspective from more than just professional reviewers.
So it seemed noisier than expected, but once the PC was down under the desk it wasn't all that noticable?
Did you consider contacting Zalman for a replacement or was it not bad enough in the end to do so?
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BrytaPlanka
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Great comments! It was a pleasure reading it.walle wrote:Oh, and finally a front picture of the unit which will end this somewhat messy post.
http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/1839/fance6.jpg
Your powersupply doesnt look like 3dgamemans ZM1000 PSU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEivQ-Z9uvY&fmt=22
Your version is black with a blue fan, while his is a shiny with a grey fan, why is that?
Maybe its diffrent kind of fans to?
9800GTX+ pulls around 80w at load. So two of them is 160w.
QX6850 is 130w.
So far your only looking at 290w load. Say 350w with HDD's and ODD's. Even if you double that your still only looking at 700w.
Also, the Q9650 is the EXACT same processor as the QX9850. Its even been shown to overclock just as well. But costs half as much. There is zero reason to get the extreme edition. Save yourself $500 and spend that money on the new 80gb SSD, you'll get a much better return of performance on your dollar.
QX6850 is 130w.
So far your only looking at 290w load. Say 350w with HDD's and ODD's. Even if you double that your still only looking at 700w.
Also, the Q9650 is the EXACT same processor as the QX9850. Its even been shown to overclock just as well. But costs half as much. There is zero reason to get the extreme edition. Save yourself $500 and spend that money on the new 80gb SSD, you'll get a much better return of performance on your dollar.
The QX6850 was a prize, so I didn't have to pay for it, and actually it's already installed so I won't be reselling it or trading it in or anything.Aris wrote:9800GTX+ pulls around 80w at load. So two of them is 160w.
QX6850 is 130w.
So far your only looking at 290w load. Say 350w with HDD's and ODD's. Even if you double that your still only looking at 700w.
Also, the Q9650 is the EXACT same processor as the QX9850. Its even been shown to overclock just as well. But costs half as much. There is zero reason to get the extreme edition. Save yourself $500 and spend that money on the new 80gb SSD, you'll get a much better return of performance on your dollar.
I've considered going with a single GTX295 as opposed to the previous 2x 9800 GTXs, as the performance is liable to be better. Also less wattage and less heat to worry about from what I've heard - though I'll wait for reviews on it.
So if I go with the GTX295 (likely what I'll do) should I upgrade the PSU? What if I want to SLI two of those beasts?
Skipping on SSD for now as I need more space than one can allow - the WD Velociraptor performs pretty decently so I'll be using the 300GB model, probably up until it dies and/or SSD gets uber cheap.
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FartingBob
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