Good Case with 550-650W PS Included?

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:52 pm

I ran across the Antec $69.99 case at Newegg. This week's special, evidently... But I need a much larger power supply as the system I'm building has an inherited Pentium D 3.0(the old 150W one, not the Pressler design!) This and the ATI 1800XT add another 100W to my projected load over my old machine, so a 430W is too close.

It would work, but as I stated in another post, I don't want the fans to go into full speed mode all the time...

The included 380W Earthwatts certainly won't work. I need an affordable Antec case with a 650W or so supply.

Corsair or Enermax would also work - if they make affordable bundled case/PS combos. The only prerequisite that I have is it needs to be affordable/on sale, or have free shipping, and has a 120MM fan at the rear(two obviously would be better, or a top fan)

mcoleg · Post by **mcoleg** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:20 pm

actually, you don't. the ea380 outputs 380w sustained, it's not a peak number. you are talking around 300w theoretical max load with that system.
90+% of the time that system won't even break 200w actual.

if you plan to overclock it, that different matter, get a bigger psu but if not, i wouldn't worry too much about it.

ck8-04 · Post by **ck8-04** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:33 pm

As a follow-up to mcoleg's post, I'd recommend you to read the PSU section. It will really open your eyes on how much power your PC actually draws.

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:49 pm

I went to my favorite mom and pop store and they sold me an Antec SLK3700 for $50 without a power supply(!). Perfect case. I tossed in a Truepower 2.0 480W that they had lying around (not planning to run SLI/dual cards and it was silly inexpensive at $60). Total damage with tax and no shipping(yay) was about $120. More than my $100 optimal budget, but I'm happy.

Life is good

It's a highly recommended case if you can find one. No side openings, rubber drive mounts, 120mm in and out.. and super wide - that extra 1/2 inch you need to fit an Accelero S1 or similar. And the intake fan blows over the raid stack. Lovely. Simple and straightforward.

About the power:

I know it'll run about 300W normally.
~75W for the video card.
~150W for the silly hot CPU(90nm process dual core - ouch) This is the 3.0Ghz firestarter of legend - the Zalman cooler on it stays on at medium speed 100% of the time just to keep it somewhat stable. Running a CPU test, the thing lasts about 30 seconds before the Zalman 9500 kicks into high gear. I'll use this for now, but a 65mn dual core is top on my list for this thing. Either that or a Celeron D 365 overclocked to about 5Ghz.(only 80W or so by comparison and tons faster for single-threaded apps)

Three drives, a dvd burner, another DVD drive, a sound card, 4 fans - 3 on fan controllers, Wi-Fi, an external firewire drive, steering wheel, joystick, 4 gigs ram, wireless keyboard and mouse, yada yada... Another 75W right there near as I can figure.

This is the gaming box/server and not the ultra-quiet model. Though I am trying to get the noise down as much as possible.

The PS that came in that 3700 case was an old Antec SmartPower SL350, which was plainly not going to work well enough. It wasn't even equal to an Earthwatts 380 by a long shot. Efficiency isn't the best with the Smartpower, but by utility bill isn't the biggest concern - and paying $100+ for something better..,

I probably will need to swap the PSU fan though. The case fans that it came with were horridly loud as well. Dremel and a coupe of undervolted S-flax fans and I'm happy

Well, other than that CPU... But I needed this thing working now and not in a month when I can afford a new CPU(blew my budget on this one - heh - $400 upgrade)

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:29 am

Please read the PSU Basics article!

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article28-page1.html

NEW! F: ATI X1950XTX / Pentium D950

Intel Pentium D950, overclocked / overvolted 10% (Presler, 3.74GHz)
Asus P5LD2-VM motherboard
4 x 1024MB Corsair DDR2-6400 RAM
ATI Radeon X1950XTX-512 PCIe graphics
Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB hard drive
WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10krpm HDD
Seasonic SS-350ET ATX PSU
1 x 120mm fan

idle
AC Input: 119W
DC Output: 95W

Folding @ Home
AC Input: 151W
DC Output: 125W

PCMark05
AC Input: 298W
DC Output: 256W

You have been posting a lot on this subject, and usually you are overstating the demands on the PSU. Even with the older CPU, you might only see a peak of maybe 300watts (though I doubt it), and normally it should be under 200watts. This system was 10% overvolted and overclocked...and this video card is very "greedy".

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:46 am

My CPU uses another 45W. It's a non-Pressler. Pentium D 830. Essentially two Northwoods on a single die. (hey it was free). I'll replace it in a few months with a 95W model, most likely, as I want VT on the chip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In ... processors

TDP is listed at 130W. That's what got my attention when I started plugging in the data. In any case, the stock 350W basic PS wouldn't have cut it.

***
http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

I plugged my system into this and a few other calculators and they all say during gaming, I will be pulling about 280-300W, give or take, and that's not counting the draw from the wall, which adds another 50-75W, typically, in losses. About 24A +12V draw as well.

It wasn't an Earthwatts 350 - it was a generic 350W Antec SmartpowerLS from about 3-4 years ago, with rating of 16A for 12V. I just didn't feel good putting a 350W PS through a 300W load day in and day out.

Output:
+5V: 35A max, 1.5A min
+12V: 16A max, 0.8A min
+3.3V: 20A max, 0.5A min

My old 430W PS has no sata, dual 12V, or PCIe connectors. Fine for my son's old beast, but not for this.

I could still return this for a TruePower Trio 430, but it was $40 more. I don't think I need that since I'm not ever planning on running multiple video cards. (basically it trades half the +5V for another 12V line(something like 40 amps total plus loads more connectors).

The question though, is whether the 75% rated Truepower 2.0 480W versus the 80% Truepower Trio 430W ends up being about the same or not... Should I take his back and swap it for the Trio 430?

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:13 am

Hello,

Right, your CPU is 45watts more than the CPU in this test system at it's stock speed -- but the SPCR system is overclocked and overvolted by 10%. And, it uses an extremely power hungry GPU, as well.

It is a real-world measurement -- not a guess.

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:00 pm

It seems to be working fine, though. I got the 480W because it was $20 less than the 430W and both are solid power supplies.

So far, so good. I thought it had two fans in it, but it only has one 120mm, but it's a tad on the noisy side. Any recommendations for a replacement? Or is the noise coming from that tightly spaced rear grille?

kentc · Post by **kentc** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:14 am

Plekto wrote:Any recommendations for a replacement? Or is the noise coming from that tightly spaced rear grille?

You ask for more advice after blatantly dismissing Neils very qualified advice above? A moderator, member for 6 years and with close to 5000 posts? I think the best advice you can be given is to go back and read old posts and articles.

Best wishes,
Kent

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:13 pm

Turns out it was a bad temp sensor on the MB. It was making the fans go full speed 100% of the time. No fix, so I'll have to deal with the noise for now, until I can get a better board.