I have a hacked together computer with a 450w power supply. It's a Sempron 2400 (socket a), Nvidia fx5200, 6 hard drives (1.5tb), and a PCI SATA and ethernet card. With all that crap running, it only pulls about 160w maximum. That's being tested from a Kill-A-Watt so it's what the computer is ACTUALLY pulling from the outlet.

I can't imagine the amount of crap in a computer that it would actually need to pull over a kilowatt! You could probably watch your meter speed up when it's booting!

Everyone seems to be overlooking the efficiency of the power supply This one is really good at 87%. I think mine is 84% or something. I've seen El-Cheapo ones with 70% efficiency. The balance is wasted in heat.

jcostantino

Oh, and don't be fooled into thinking you need a 1200W+ PSU. Most gaming rigs pull at their max around 700, and those are fully decked out systems. If building a PC mainly for gaming, check out Nvidia's and ATI's websites to see what PSUs are certified for the model video card you are going for.

Now there are needs for that much power, but not your average setup. I've seen some crazy setups that needed a 2nd PSU for some exotic cooling equipment, for example. But not for Joe Average. At least not yet.

TKWarrior

@LordRoY: eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5 - [www.extreme.outervision.com]

It's not the end all - be all determination, but it does give you a good figure to start with. Especially if you know exactly what you are going to build or what you will upgrade to in the future.

And unless you are going for a quality brand power supply, add at least 10% - 15% to the figure for insurance.

kakashisan stated it perfectly - you get what you pay for. Your PSU is too important to get cheap on. I've seen too many guys use a bargain model or a cheap unit that came with a case, only to loose much more money in a fried mainboard or expensive video card.

Now you know, and knowing is blah blah blah :-)

TKWarrior

@DLoney: In the US, most outlets have 15 or 20 amp circuit breakers on them. This means that the maximum output from an outlet is either 1800 or 2400 watts so this should work fine. It's also fairly unlikely that this PSU would be drawing all 1500 watts...ever.

PS: What's a TW?

LastAndLeast

@Fuzzba11: For the most part their stuff seems to be regarded well in reviews.
A couple of those even lauded ThermalTake's use of additional filtering and regulation components and above average build quality.

Did you have any specific bad experiences you can share?

The reason why I ask is because I like the modular design of 'em and generally read good stuff about them.
I'm open to differing viewpoints, but I'd like to see some data to back the negative claims if possible.

strider_mt2k

Anyone who knows anything knows that Thermaltake makes shitty PSUs. They also lie blatantly on their packaging, one of their 120mm fans advertises 78CFM of airflow at 21 dBa! While every competing fan at that CFM has dBa measurements between 40 and 50. Their cases aren't bad, but they steal their designs for everything from their competitors. Don't get suckered into getting TT junk because it's pure marketing and no substance.

Fuzzba11

Please Insert Mandatory Beowulf Application Reference Now.

MagnoliaBoy

My understanding is that PSU's don't push out their max wattage unless required. If your system is only using 300W, won't the PSU just draw 300W from the outlet?

Sort of the same as your household electrical outlets; just because they are 15amp circuits, it doesn't mean that they will only pump out the max amperage. That would result in a lot of blown out light bulbs.

Is this the case, or am I way off base here?

GregH

@LordRoY: 2) Your typical psu in a typical system doesn't pull the maximum amount. A good psu responds to what's needed. A cheap psu might actually pull the max. But I guess you get what you pay for...

As for your first question, I forget the exact numbers, but you need to look up the power requirements for your cpu and video card. Then I'd say for each hard drive add 5W, for any optical drives add 5W, and make a guess at other components. Once you have the total, double it, and that's the size psu you need.

You don't want to get the psu that matches your needs, or you'll be wearing out that psu much faster than it was designed. Shoot for 40-60% utilization.

kakashisan

@sguth925m: I call bullshit. I've got an 800W psu, and I've experimented with leaving it on or turning it off at night. Most I've saved is $5-$7 dollars a month.

If your computer is using the full 650W, something isn't configured right.

kakashisan

coupla questions:

1) what is the easiest way to figure out what a system needs for wattage power. I think my main rig has a 650 in it and my secondary rig has a 550, but they are kinda older, and they might be better replaced by smaller wattage rigs.

2) why dont they make power supplies that just pull the power it needs and not more. Like the PSU above, why would it need all 1500 watts of power all the time, couldnt it just pull the 400 or so if that was all that was needed (because that was all that was plugged in?).

Thanx

-=R=-

LordRoY

I have a 650 watt power supply. If I would have known how much it was going to affect my power bill each month I would have went for the 450 watt model. I save nearly $60 a month turning off my computers at 9:00 PM every night.

sguth925m

@ysirotin: Oh, your complaining when it was obviously your fault eh? I mean you said yourself that you weren't paying attention, something you know...you might want to do when your putting a computer together. o.o

bbfreak

Planet killers! I just ordered my first Zonbu Mini. 10-watt computing here I come.

whootowl

Wht I don't like about these power supplies is that you can accidentally mix the 12V and the 5V outputs by plugging in the cable to the wrong socket... yeah they are labelled in red but why not just make the sockets different for the 12 and 5? Burned a perfectly good hard drive this way once when I was not paying attention.

ysirotin

1500W power supply? Will this even work fully?
As far as I know, most homes outlets are only wired for 1.2TW, so where do they plan on getting the extra 300W's?

DLoney

@ryan7107: Tell me about it - I thought I would need much more power for my new rig so I bought this guy's little brother - the 1200w thermaltake. I have a qx6850, 8800gtx sli, and 5 hds, and a wc pump and I'm usually below 600w even on a full load!

xrikazen

Building a quad-core gaming rig? Howabout a deca-core with a octo-sli video cards. 1500W is absolutely ridiculous. No one is building a gaming PC that requires that much juice.

ryan7107

What I'd like to know...
When are they going to make a consumer priced UPS to handle these larger PS's?

kaylix

Oh a TW is 1000 x 1.21 gigawatts or a thousand time travel trips...

anon4321

For those that have asked, a PS will only pull the amount required plus a little more because there are never 100% efficient. Basically, power is conserved. What goes in must come out as power or heat. If the PS pulled 1500w and only supplied 400 watts, 1100w would need to appear as heat, a lot of heat...

anon4321

Psh. I have an OCZ Gamestream 700W running in my system, but it never goes up to its full potentional. I never really wanted it to anyways though -- main reason on why I got it was really on a "if-i-need-it-later" situation. Plus, I just wanted a good PSU that wouldn't crap out on me. It's been doing a good job... so far.

SomeoneUKno

@DLoney:

Do you have ANY idea what you're talking about, by any chance?

MeNotYou

Hrm... does it include an electrician to wire up a special 15A circuit just for your PC?

It's 1500W output, which assuming it's an "80Plus" supply, is probably around 80% efficient (most power supplies that have this rating tend to have 80% efficiencies... annoyingly). So that means its power input is 1875W. If it is a magic design and had a superb 85% efficiency, it needs 1765W. (No reviewed supply I've seen comes close to this, unfortunately).

A standard 110V, 15A circuit is 1650W. Which would mean there's no way a standard 15A circuit could power this thing fully - you'll probably need to run a 20A circuit (2200W) to the outlet for your PC only.

Luckily, if you're in a place that has 220V power, a 220V, 13A circuit gives 2860W, which can comfortably power this, as well as your other peripherals at the same time...

Ouch. Looking at the specs, it's 230V 10A. 2300W input (peak)... which would mean an absolutely lousy 70% efficiency! Well, these won't cross the ocean... not many people will want to run a 220V circuit just for their PCs...

Worf

1.21 JIGAWATTS! I'm sure in 1985 plutonium is available at every corner drugstore, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by

mrz2u