- Joined
- Aug 30, 2004
- Location
- Santa Barbara, CA
mcoleg, this should be on the Forum front page. If you wish, we can have this ready for publication by Monday. 
-
Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!
oc'd e6600 and 8800GTX powered from 380W PSU - why not?
- Thread starter mcoleg
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2005
Super Nade said:mcoleg, this should be on the Forum front page. If you wish, we can have this ready for publication by Monday.
Geez, I agree. This has been one of the most interesting and informative threads on OC Forums. I learned a lot and many misconceptions have been laid to rest including some I had, and I'm not alone.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2007
- Location
- Regina, Canada
mcoleg said:
Well yeah sure you COULD run thoes specs with that PSU, but i would rather be safe and get a higher Watt PSU, just incase. Maybe thats just me, though.
RollingThunder said:Geez, I agree. This has been one of the most interesting and informative threads on OC Forums. I learned a lot and many misconceptions have been laid to rest including some I had, and I'm not alone.Super Nade said:mcoleg, this should be on the Forum front page. If you wish, we can have this ready for publication by Monday.
I second that.
Ah, mcoleg, well of what I've seen in your thread and alex, I believe that EA380 is very good for my needs. I want to ask about the lack of 2 REAL 12V rails. I've read on specs that the PSU offers +12V1 and +12V2, but on the thread I read it's not true. Can you confirm this please? Is it really needed the 2 12V rails on this PSU? I won't run the rig you have (I don't have cash/availability of materials), so it's definetely great for my AMD Sempron (socket A) and the GeForce fx5500.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2007
- Location
- Regina, Canada
mcoleg said:
Im not disagreeing with you. Im sure you could run thoes specs on a 380W PSU, Im just saying i wouldent put $800 worth of hardware on the line because i think it can run on a 380W PSU...
That is to say that if your specs overheated they would break, which i have no clue that would happen.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2007
- Location
- Regina, Canada
lol
- Thread Starter
- #109
Thanks guys...
Hazaro, Thunder, Nade - I’m sure I’ll have the material for the write-up soon. I got some free time so I’ve been rushing through the tests right now. I am going to post most of it here anyways so you guys are not missing much.
As per SPCR’s attitude towards this experiment - I’ve mentioned before, some people over there, a few, follow what they preach. A large number of people though have similar attitudes toward this issue as we do - get as big a PSU as they possibly can (as long as it's quiet).
Hills - by no means I am criticizing your approach. Far from it. Nor I am trying to convince anyone to ditch their large PSUs in favor of smaller and more efficient units. My "green-ness" usually ends with putting plastic bottles in that special recycle box.
This was an experiment. Choosing a 380W PSU was somewhat worrisome but I decided to trust in my calculations. In addition, using a 380-watter instead of, say, 430 or 500W PSU makes the point I was trying to prove more pronounced.
All this started when I got myself that kill-a-watt gadget. I plug it in and what do I see? My system's power consumption is nowhere close to what I imagined it to be.
Hold on, rewind a bit.
It started about a week earlier when I noticed how bloody hot my system runs. That was fine and dandy in winter time - a cozy heater next to my chair. Now, when summer heat is here, that became somewhat of a liability.
PC is an electrical device. That means most of that electricity is converted to heat and dumped into the room.
I wanted to know how much exactly heat is produced. The easiest way to measure was to get one of the gizmos that measure power consumption of electrical appliances. The cheapest and the easiest to obtain was KILL-A-WATT from P3 International so I put in an order and got one soon enough.
Now the surprise part came. I described in my original post what my system consumed. Even the peak loads were less than half of what my PCP&C 750 Quad can provide. So, does it mean I wasted $200 in real money?
Well, I didn't really think so - PCP&C 750 Quad is a good, solid piece of machinery that hopefully will serve me well long into the future. But nagging doubts remained.
And so, I started collecting info and making the calculations you see in my first post. I looked at what's available on the market and was surprised (second time, count with me ) that there are actually several 380-400W PSUs that can easily power my rig. They are relatively new, have a heavy emphasis on 12v rail and most of them in actuality are single rail even though the labels say otherwise. Most of them have descent efficiency ratings close to or exciding 80%.
I chose Antec ea380 from EarthWatts series. The Antecs have for a while been truly a middle road PSUs – nothing to write home about. My thinking was – get an average PSU, not something top notch, and see how that handles. To my surprise (that’s number 3, are you counting?), Seasonic-built ea380 turned out pretty nice. If not the top shelf then most definitely top of the mid-range, quality-wise.
I must point out that I wasn’t the first to test this PSU with a modern, heavily loaded system. The first guy to jump into the fray was Alexhk of ocforums.com . He didn’t post his results for a while since he didn’t have a camera but here’s his thread:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=512807
Check out his post, it’s very concise and informative.
I’ve decided that before I draw any conclusions, I will run ea380 in my system under as much constant load as I could master for at least a week. If it didn’t blow-up in that time, I’d declare the experiment a success. Now it’s been more than a week, I’ve ran Orthos Blend, Small FFT and Gromacs CPU stress, 3dMark2k1, 3dMark2k6, CSS Video test, The Lost Planet Demo DX10 Test, DVD Shrink 3.2 and combinations of the above.
The ea380 is still alive and kicking.
I am presenting the tests results for your consideration:
___________________________________________________________
Power-saving futures such as C1 and SpeedStep are disabled. S&M PSU test was ran under Windows XP and Vista, the rest under Vista.
Idle on desktop is ~225-230W.
S&M PSU test under Windows XP:
PSU exhaust temperatures: 39.5c load, 33c idle, 27c ambient
Power from the wall: 310w max, 220w idle
voltages on 12v rail: 12.14V max load, 12.17-18V idle
Video Encoding test, DVD Shrink 3.2
PSU exhaust temperatures: 41.6C load, 26.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 262W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.21A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.15V max load
S&M PSU test under Windows Vista:
PSU exhaust temperatures: 42.4c load, 26.8c ambient
Power from the wall: 334w max load
Amperage from the wall: 2.81A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.04V max load
Lost Planet DX10 Demo Test (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 40.4C load, 24.6C ambient
Power from the wall: 345W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.88A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.03V max load
CSS Video Stress Test (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 40.4C load, 25.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 345W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.95A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.04V max load
Orthos Gromacs + 3DMark06 (1280x1024 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 41.4C load, 26.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 364W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.9A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.01V max load
Orthos Blend + 3DMark01 (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 43.5C load, 26.8C ambient
Power from the wall: 401W max *
Amperage from the wall: 3.2A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.03V max load
* Not sure how to explain the 401W reading. I got it only once and couldn't replicate it anymore, no matter how many times I've ran the same test. The rest of the runs it got 380W+ max... Could have been a spike or some sort of error. Still, I saw it so it's recorded.
______________________________________________
P.S.:
I finished with the tests for ea380. I do want to run the same tests for 750quad to compare stability of the 12v rail and efficiency.
Hazaro, Thunder, Nade - I’m sure I’ll have the material for the write-up soon. I got some free time so I’ve been rushing through the tests right now. I am going to post most of it here anyways so you guys are not missing much.
As per SPCR’s attitude towards this experiment - I’ve mentioned before, some people over there, a few, follow what they preach. A large number of people though have similar attitudes toward this issue as we do - get as big a PSU as they possibly can (as long as it's quiet).
Hills - by no means I am criticizing your approach. Far from it. Nor I am trying to convince anyone to ditch their large PSUs in favor of smaller and more efficient units. My "green-ness" usually ends with putting plastic bottles in that special recycle box.
This was an experiment. Choosing a 380W PSU was somewhat worrisome but I decided to trust in my calculations. In addition, using a 380-watter instead of, say, 430 or 500W PSU makes the point I was trying to prove more pronounced.
All this started when I got myself that kill-a-watt gadget. I plug it in and what do I see? My system's power consumption is nowhere close to what I imagined it to be.
Hold on, rewind a bit.
It started about a week earlier when I noticed how bloody hot my system runs. That was fine and dandy in winter time - a cozy heater next to my chair. Now, when summer heat is here, that became somewhat of a liability.
PC is an electrical device. That means most of that electricity is converted to heat and dumped into the room.
I wanted to know how much exactly heat is produced. The easiest way to measure was to get one of the gizmos that measure power consumption of electrical appliances. The cheapest and the easiest to obtain was KILL-A-WATT from P3 International so I put in an order and got one soon enough.
Now the surprise part came. I described in my original post what my system consumed. Even the peak loads were less than half of what my PCP&C 750 Quad can provide. So, does it mean I wasted $200 in real money?
Well, I didn't really think so - PCP&C 750 Quad is a good, solid piece of machinery that hopefully will serve me well long into the future. But nagging doubts remained.
And so, I started collecting info and making the calculations you see in my first post. I looked at what's available on the market and was surprised (second time, count with me
) that there are actually several 380-400W PSUs that can easily power my rig. They are relatively new, have a heavy emphasis on 12v rail and most of them in actuality are single rail even though the labels say otherwise. Most of them have descent efficiency ratings close to or exciding 80%.I chose Antec ea380 from EarthWatts series. The Antecs have for a while been truly a middle road PSUs – nothing to write home about. My thinking was – get an average PSU, not something top notch, and see how that handles. To my surprise (that’s number 3, are you counting?), Seasonic-built ea380 turned out pretty nice. If not the top shelf then most definitely top of the mid-range, quality-wise.
I must point out that I wasn’t the first to test this PSU with a modern, heavily loaded system. The first guy to jump into the fray was Alexhk of ocforums.com . He didn’t post his results for a while since he didn’t have a camera but here’s his thread:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=512807
Check out his post, it’s very concise and informative.
I’ve decided that before I draw any conclusions, I will run ea380 in my system under as much constant load as I could master for at least a week. If it didn’t blow-up in that time, I’d declare the experiment a success. Now it’s been more than a week, I’ve ran Orthos Blend, Small FFT and Gromacs CPU stress, 3dMark2k1, 3dMark2k6, CSS Video test, The Lost Planet Demo DX10 Test, DVD Shrink 3.2 and combinations of the above.
The ea380 is still alive and kicking.
I am presenting the tests results for your consideration:
___________________________________________________________
Power-saving futures such as C1 and SpeedStep are disabled. S&M PSU test was ran under Windows XP and Vista, the rest under Vista.
Idle on desktop is ~225-230W.
S&M PSU test under Windows XP:
PSU exhaust temperatures: 39.5c load, 33c idle, 27c ambient
Power from the wall: 310w max, 220w idle
voltages on 12v rail: 12.14V max load, 12.17-18V idle
Video Encoding test, DVD Shrink 3.2
PSU exhaust temperatures: 41.6C load, 26.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 262W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.21A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.15V max load
S&M PSU test under Windows Vista:
PSU exhaust temperatures: 42.4c load, 26.8c ambient
Power from the wall: 334w max load
Amperage from the wall: 2.81A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.04V max load
Lost Planet DX10 Demo Test (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 40.4C load, 24.6C ambient
Power from the wall: 345W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.88A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.03V max load
CSS Video Stress Test (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 40.4C load, 25.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 345W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.95A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.04V max load
Orthos Gromacs + 3DMark06 (1280x1024 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 41.4C load, 26.4C ambient
Power from the wall: 364W max
Amperage from the wall: 2.9A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.01V max load
Orthos Blend + 3DMark01 (2560x1600 resolution)
PSU exhaust temperatures: 43.5C load, 26.8C ambient
Power from the wall: 401W max *
Amperage from the wall: 3.2A max load
Voltages on 12v rail: 12.03V max load
* Not sure how to explain the 401W reading. I got it only once and couldn't replicate it anymore, no matter how many times I've ran the same test. The rest of the runs it got 380W+ max... Could have been a spike or some sort of error. Still, I saw it so it's recorded.
______________________________________________
P.S.:
I finished with the tests for ea380. I do want to run the same tests for 750quad to compare stability of the 12v rail and efficiency.
Last edited:
- Thread Starter
- #110
sorry for size of the last post - i've already started thinking about an article so i am trying things out to see how they will look like on the page.
now i am going to try and arange the results in a nice table of some sorts. after that, put what i wrote above with calculations from my first post and the table and that should make a sceleton of a write-up.
here's a passable shot of lost planet demo:
now i am going to try and arange the results in a nice table of some sorts. after that, put what i wrote above with calculations from my first post and the table and that should make a sceleton of a write-up.
here's a passable shot of lost planet demo:
Attachments
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2003
mcoleg said:
Probably a dip in line voltage, thus making the PSU work harder to keep things running.
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2007
- Location
- Regina, Canada
wait.. they released Lost Planet for the PC?
- Thread Starter
- #115
muhon, according to jonnyguru it is a single-rail unit. i can't confirm or deny it but i do tend to trust his expertise.
i think a true dual-rail should be able to perform just as well but, of course, i won't know unless i try.
i do personally prefer single rail psu's. not sure why
btw, i've condacted some extra experiments for you to similate some additional heatload.
first, i looped lost planet for a while, the temperatures were staying as usual, around 40c. then, in about 30 min or so, i checked and got a reading of 32.8c... i thought the meter got busted. but no - it was that the fan span up . it was still quiet so it didn't register at first.
now, i put a 26w lamp close to the intake to increase the heat load. i managed to get the temperatures all the way to 47.4C this way.
two things of interest:
1. when the fan span up, i couldn't see reading on the wattmeter that excided 300W. huh? does it mean when it's cool it operates that much more efficiently? or does it mean i need glasses?
when i added the heat, the wattages went back to normal.
2. with heated intake i managed to bring the 12v droop to the lowest recorded (with this meter) point - 12.02v (correction - i had 12.01v at one point, it's recorded in the table bellow)
here's the pix of the setup, the graph from the voltmeter, and txt record of voltages:
i think a true dual-rail should be able to perform just as well but, of course, i won't know unless i try.
i do personally prefer single rail psu's. not sure why
btw, i've condacted some extra experiments for you to similate some additional heatload.
first, i looped lost planet for a while, the temperatures were staying as usual, around 40c. then, in about 30 min or so, i checked and got a reading of 32.8c... i thought the meter got busted. but no - it was that the fan span up
. it was still quiet so it didn't register at first.now, i put a 26w lamp close to the intake to increase the heat load. i managed to get the temperatures all the way to 47.4C this way.
two things of interest:
1. when the fan span up, i couldn't see reading on the wattmeter that excided 300W. huh? does it mean when it's cool it operates that much more efficiently? or does it mean i need glasses?
when i added the heat, the wattages went back to normal.
2. with heated intake i managed to bring the 12v droop to the lowest recorded (with this meter) point - 12.02v (correction - i had 12.01v at one point, it's recorded in the table bellow)
here's the pix of the setup, the graph from the voltmeter, and txt record of voltages:
Attachments
Last edited:
- Thread Starter
- #120
ok, more like this:
* The 401W reading (row 6, column 3). I got it only once and couldn't replicate it anymore, no matter how many times I've ran the same test. The rest of the runs it got to 380W+ max... Still, I saw it so it's recorded.
Quoting our resident PSU expert Oklahoma Wolf - "Probably a dip in line voltage, thus making the PSU work harder to keep things running." A very plausible cause.
As I see it - an interesting happenstance to test the limits of the PSU even further.
* The 401W reading (row 6, column 3). I got it only once and couldn't replicate it anymore, no matter how many times I've ran the same test. The rest of the runs it got to 380W+ max... Still, I saw it so it's recorded.
Quoting our resident PSU expert Oklahoma Wolf - "Probably a dip in line voltage, thus making the PSU work harder to keep things running." A very plausible cause.
As I see it - an interesting happenstance to test the limits of the PSU even further.
Attachments
Similar threads
