BoomerD Posted August 3, 2007 Share Posted August 3, 2007 I'm looking (and seriously considering) the Corsair 620HX as my replacement. One concern I have though is that my current system: Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.06/533 (BX80532PE3066DSL6PG) (stock clocks) ZALMAN CNPS7700-CU 120mm CPU cooler ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe Visiontek Xtasy Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition AGP (stock clocks) SoundBlaster LIVE! With “breakout-box” front panel 3X512mb DDR400 RAM (soon to be 2X1 gb and 2X512mb) Seagate 250 gb SATA HDD SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner Toshiba 6X DVD-ROM Iomega Zip 250 Drive Floppy drive (unknown) 6-80mm case fans (yep, sounds like a 747 sitting next to me...(planning on adding quieter fans with this upgrade as well) I only have 1 SATA drive at this time, and NO PCI-E devices. Will I be able to power everything with the supplied cabling? It'd be nice, since so much of the 12+ is built for PCI-E, to get either adapters that would let me use molex connectors on them, or even a cable from Corsair that makes that adaption for me. While my current power needs (based on various PSU calculators) range from about 350 watts to nearly 500 watts...(every calculator is different, and none give me the exact options of my system) the 620 should more than serve my current needs, (I definitely would rather have more power supply than I need, than to need more than I have!) I'm not at all against buying a PSU in the 750-850 watt range to meet future expansion needs. (HOPEFULLY next year) with one of the new Intel quad-core processors, new mobo, new RAM, and (at least 1) new PCI-E video card. Also, I hope to add a 2nd SATA HDD with that upgrade. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted August 3, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted August 3, 2007 Our HX520W or even our VX450W would be a good choice for that system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 3, 2007 Author Share Posted August 3, 2007 Yes, they'd probably provide enough for now, but I'd rather spend a bit more and get something that will suffice when I upgrade later. My POS Aspire (perspire?) PSU handles the current load fine, (although the 12v rail runs closer to 11.4v per Motherboard Monitor and ASUS bios, although I know software monitoring isn't necessarily the most accurate.) This PSU is about 4 years old, and has never been great. It's just time for an upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted August 4, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted August 4, 2007 The HX620W should be more than enough for about any system you would upgrade to. But I would wait till you know what you will upgrade to to be sure you dont get something you cannot use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 4, 2007 Author Share Posted August 4, 2007 Hmmm...trying to talk me out of spending my money on your products? /me eyes RamGuy suspiciously...:eyebuldge I'm not ready to buy just yet, and COULD buy an lesser priced unit to get me buy until I upgrade...that option has some appeal...we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted August 8, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted August 8, 2007 Well I am not telling you not to buy it just to make sure that you get what you need. I and we would rather have you as a long time happy customer then suggest you buy something you may not need. But please let me know when you know the MB and or system you will get and I will give a more sure answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 8, 2007 Author Share Posted August 8, 2007 Thanks for the input. If I had a semi-decent PSU now, I could justify waiting to buy a new one, but, this Aspire PSU I have now isn't too good.(duh) I tested the 12v rail with a multimeter a couple of days ago, (while running 2X ORTHOS to work the processor, and rthdribl to load the video card. The results weren't very encouraging. The power dropped to 11.30 volts...then the video card started spewing pixelated garbage...while I realize that's considerably more load on the PSU than I'll likely ever put on it gaming, it certainly showed its weaknesses. I haven't tested the 5 v. and 3.3 volt rails, but I'd be surprised if they were any better. I'm at the point where I HAVE to replace my existing PSU, whether I want to or not, and so I'm left with the choice of either buying one to handle my current load and replacing it again once I upgrade, OR, buying one that should handle my demands once I do upgrade later. As I said in my earlier post, my biggest concern about the Corsair units, is my current need for a bazillion 4 pin molex connectors to power everything I have now. The "fan only" connectors...will they handle multiple fans connected together, or only onefan for each connector? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliteKiller Posted August 8, 2007 Share Posted August 8, 2007 The "fan only" connectors...will they handle multiple fans connected together, or only onefan for each connector? They are 12V only connectors that will handle multiple fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 8, 2007 Author Share Posted August 8, 2007 ah, ok, as compared to standard molex with 12v and 5v...gotcha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 16, 2007 Author Share Posted August 16, 2007 Well, I went ahead and got the 620HX and took advantage of the rebate offer before it expired. I spent a couple of hours re-routing wires and cabling inside my case to clean things up a bit and improve airflow, then installed the PSU. WOW! Nicely Done Corsair! my earlier concerns about having enough molex connectors was for naught. I had one peripheral cable left over, (plus since my current rig doesn't need them) both PCI-E cables and one SATA cable extra. I am surprised that this PSU is actually louder than my old Aspire with dual 80mm(?) fans, but I'll gladly trade a few dB for the quality and performance.http://www.whodah.com/smilies/thumb.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted August 16, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted August 16, 2007 I am surprised its louder than you older PSU what was the size of your old unit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted August 18, 2007 Author Share Posted August 18, 2007 The old one was an Aspire (***-Fire?) 500 watt unit that was whisper-quiet...until things started warming up...once the case got to about 40 degrees, the PSU seemed to get louder, and voltages fluxuated like crazy. Just before I bought the Corsair, I ran some stress testing: 2 instances of ORTHOS, and one of rthdribl at max resolution. Under ORTHOS, the 12-volt rail dipped to 11.35 or so, but when I fired up rthdribl, it went to 11.30 and even dipped to 11.28. (voltages measured with a dmm on an unused molex connector) then the video card started putting out pure pixelated garbage and wouldn't recover. I had to kill the power to reboot. I've since ran the same tests with the Corsair, and the 12-volt rail never dipped below 11.97 and ran at about 12.03 most of the time. I know that for my current system the 620 is overkill, but I'm planning a major overhaul next year, and I think the Corsair will be just right for that. I don't want anyone to think I'm saying the Corsair is loud, in fact, it's actually much quieter than my 80 mm case fans, but it's enough that I can tell the difference compared to the other psu. (that had 2-80 mm fans) Maybe it's just a difference in frequency that I notice instead of sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoomerD Posted November 3, 2007 Author Share Posted November 3, 2007 Thought I'd update this thread a bit. Turns out, the noise that I thought was from the fan in the PSU was instead one of my case fans. Apparently the older PSU was just noisy enough to mask it...Once I got a quiet PSU, I could hear the case fan.:roll: One definite advantage I've noticed (in addition to the loss of power fluxuations) is that overall, my PC is running cooler because the PSU is running cooler and adding less heat to the case.http://www.whodah.com/smilies/thumb.gif I'd HIGHLY recommend this power supply to anyone whose power needs fits the unit's output. (yeah, I know..some of youse NEED that 1.2KW PSU...) ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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