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HX series wattage and efficiency clarification


NickSt

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The HX-520 is a good choice and has enough reserve power for most anything you'll see in the near future. Even the dual GPU video cards are probably not going to pull more than 200w-225w. The system in this review pulls about 410 total with new ATI 3870 GX2 card: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/4236-ati-radeon-hd3870-x2-1gb-review-14.html

 

but in that review it says the following...

 

"you will need at least a quality 600W power supply for a single card and a quality 850W or higher power supply for two of these cards."

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but in that review it says the following...

 

"you will need at least a quality 600W power supply for a single card and a quality 850W or higher power supply for two of these cards."

Right, that was simply an example for the OP in this thread who is using a modded 79** card. I would not suggest a VX-450 for one of those new GX 2 cards even though it would probably run it.
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Right, that was simply an example for the OP in this thread who is using a modded 79** card. I would not suggest a VX-450 for one of those new GX 2 cards even though it would probably run it.

 

so you're agreeing with the article that a 600W PSU is needed for any single card configuration and an 850 is needed for dual cards?...I'm confused...because I thought you were stating earlier that an HX520 was fine now for most configurations and would be fine for years to come

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so you're agreeing with the article that a 600W PSU is needed for any single card configuration and an 850 is needed for dual cards?...I'm confused...because I thought you were stating earlier that an HX520 was fine now for most configurations and would be fine for years to come

 

specmike was talking directly to Nick, and he said:

The HX-520 will be more than sufficient for your system. At full load, I don't see your listed system EVER going over 300w - 325w max.

 

Nick's specs currently say:

Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe

Processor: C2D E6400 @ 3.20 (will be 3.70@1.6V)

Memory: 4x1GB DDR2 800 (@ 930/2V)

Video Card # 1: XFX 7900GS @ 610/1600 (will be analogous to 7900GS from 9-series, OC-ed)

Hard Drive # 1: 320GB 7200rpm SATAII

Hard Drive # 2: (will add 2 more 320GB 7200rpm SATAII)

Optical Drive # 1: Pioneer DVR111D

Optical Drive # 2: NEC DVD-ROM

Power Supply: FSP 400W

Sound Card: E-MU 0404

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OK, so I guess my real question is which PSU would be ideal for me now...I'm planning on doing a system upgrade and next week and was looking at the following specs:

 

E8400

8800 GTX Ultra

ASUS Maximus Formula (X38)

2 Western Digital Raptor 150 in RAID0

Lite-On DVD-RW

Creative sound card

Cooler Master CM-690 case

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so you're agreeing with the article that a 600W PSU is needed for any single card configuration and an 850 is needed for dual cards?...I'm confused...because I thought you were stating earlier that an HX520 was fine now for most configurations and would be fine for years to come

 

Wired summed it up pretty well. You took part of this out of context. Read the entire thread again.

 

Also, in that article, the "dual cards" you are referring to are the rough equivalent of 4 single cards as there are 2 GPUs on each card. It's a dual GX2 unit with 2 x 3870 GPUs on a single chassis. As far as a single card with a single GPU, the VX-450 and HX-520 will run any card made.

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OK..sorry for the confusion...I get it now

 

so for any single graphics card the HX520 is enough

 

for any dual graphics card setup the HX520 should still be sufficient although the HX620 might be better

 

for any 4 graphics card setup an 800+W PSU is recommended

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OK..sorry for the confusion...I get it now

 

so for any single graphics card the HX520 is enough YES

 

for any dual graphics card setup the HX520 should still be sufficient although the HX620 might be better Not for the super high end SLI and Crossfire cards. I would suggest the TX-750 for the high end cards such as the 8800 Ultras in SLI and ATI 3870s in Crossfire etc.

 

for any 4 graphics card setup an 800+W PSU is recommended According to that article. I would go with our PSU Configurator if you are considering multiple dual GPU cards or Tri-SLI, Quad Crossfire, etc etc.

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Okay, congratulations Corsair, you've got one more customer! :)

 

The HX520 in this unopened box here is my first Corsair product ever, and I strongly hope it will work perfectly. If that is the case you'll get one more loyal buddy out there, cuz for now I like it :)

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I installed the HX520 in my case, but directly below the PSU is my system fan. There is about .5-.7 centimeters clearance between the fan frame and the PSU, and I'm wondering if that's OK, more specifically whether the fan frame hampers with the cooling of the PSU.

I attach a small schematic diagram; the shaded area is the fan frame (the part overlapping the PSU) if viewed from beneath.

fan.png.9f4ad612e46be9eee193006e7e866a9d.png

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