Help finding good Power Supply

[Ravioli]

I will SLI my system with two 8800GTX and i need a new power supply. I have searched around and concluded that i only need about 700 watts(unsure tho, do you know?). My motherboard uses a 24pin power connector. The PSU MUST have 4x6pin connectors. To be more specific, im using the MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard.

Other specs:

AMD Athlon X2 64bit 3ghz (6000+)
2 GB 800speed Ram


So basically im having a hard time finding a good trustworthy PSU that meets all these requirements. My knowledge with PSU is really bad and i dont want to get one that isnt compatible with my stuff. Also, my case is Xion Onyx Mid Tower case, so i dont know what sizes of PSUs will fit in there. A BIG plus is if it has Modular Cabling Support.

On a side note, im worried about the temperatures. My case has 1x120mm fan, 2x80mm fans sucking in fresh air, and 1x120mm fan blowing out. I also have a PCI Express fan that pushes out air with an 80mm and another 80mm that blows air onto the graphics card. Is this enough to keep it at moderate temperatures? Considering its a mid tower, with 2 of the hottest GPUs in existance, crammed in there with a big PSU+2gb ram+CPU+Harddrive+DVDdrive+Cable Jungle=Sun or not?

Would be great if the PSU is on Newegg, but i live in italy but i have my ways of getting it overseas. So it has to be compatible wattage wise.


Any help/comments are apprechiated!

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I'm always going to stick with my favourite line of extremely reliable and superb SLI compatible and modular PSUst that Corsair are providing. I have one, my friends have them too, and I think Asus even has one? Never heard of one croaking yet.

You can see their range HEREhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001459+40000058&Manufactory=1459&SubCategory=58&SpeTabStoreType=0 on newegg, and more specifically you asked for something 700W + so this one would fit the spec you asked for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

I'm pretty sure they have everything else you asked for too, I remember when installing my 620HX that it had a 4 pin, 6 pin and 24 pin connectors for the mobo power.

Also, I'd recommend googling the model names for reviews by all the techie websites out there, all of which I found massively positive reviews which lead to me purchasing one. Also key to point out.

Very quiet, modular (so you don't need extra cables sitting around, good for warmer cases), 2 PCI-E slots for SLI'age power, lots of cable tidies with it. Yeah...I'm a big fan.

 

[Ravioli]

thanks for the great recommendation! However i have another question, in the specification it says that the motherboard connector is a 20+4, what does that mean? is that the same as 24? (my mobo is 24). Confused

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Yes it's still a 24 pin connector, the reason why it says 20+4 is because on the main connector (looking at mine now) you can actually unclip the last section of the 24 pin plug so that the last 4 pins don't need to be plugged in, I assume that could be for micro-atx motherboard or something? My motherboard (asus striker extreme) takes the standard 24 pin connection so didn't require me to change anything, I just fitted it with no fuss right out the box.

Really nice piece of kit that PSU, reliability is the consensus you get if you do your research

EDIT: Also for backup regarding my above description for the 20+4 pin arrangement there is a picture on newegg of the connector, on the right hand side you can see the clip which allows you to unclip the last 4 pins

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...ription=CORSAIR+CMPSU-750TX+750W+Power+Supply

 

[Ravioli]

ah ok, makes sense. Does it have a IDE power connector too? Because my DVD player is IDE. Does it have Modular Cable Support? How many cables for fans?

Sry for a lot of questions, but i dont know much about what the cables are that they have listed. Basically i need 5 fan connectors (is that peripheral they listed?), 1 IDE connector (is that the Floppy connectors they listed?) + whatever motherboard/cpu needs and 4x6 pins. Theres plenty of SATA so i dont need to worry about that.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Hectic Glenn]

IDE power connectors? Well as far as I'm aware IDE cables transmit the data and the power is handled by 4 pin molex connectrs. You get plenty of these to use.

Modular cable support = Yes, for all cables except the main power cable to the mobo. This apart from the main 24 pin connector also has another 6 pin connector and 4 pin connector (which I use for the CPU).

The peripheral connector I think is the fan one. When I got my 620HX version (the one below your one), it came with a cable which said 'for fans only. It was essentially a 2 pin molex connector because fans only need the 2 pins from it. I had 4 fans which needed powering but instead of doing these separately, I simply daisy chained them all together and connecting only one of the fans to the fan connector which goes into the PSU. This was much neater and simpler than several connections to the PSU (and better for airflow through the case).

It's also worth noting, my model is only 620W and as you go up the models they get more extras thrown in, so you'll probably have more cables and extras than me D:

 

[Ravioli]

ah ok, thanks for explaining. However, in the reviews there are some people who say that there is no modular cable support, maybe theres something wrong in the info. Some say that there are TOO many cables, which is really bad for me because my case barely fits the cables i have atm, so squeezing in another 8800 + more cables could be realllllly bad for airflow, so i really hope that it has modular support. Otherwise, i think i could just tuck the unecessary cables ontop of the DVD drive, since i have about 4 free slots with nothing but free space there.


Thanks for clearing everything up, only thing right now is to figure out if it has modular or not. Nevertheless, im probably going to buy this anyway.

Thanks for the great help! Much appreciated!

 

[Hectic Glenn]

You know what, you are completely right. I did not know that. For their higher end PSU's they've dropped the modular feature, I can't believe it! I'm really sorry I assumed that, it's certainly not - http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/02/corsair_tx750w_psu_cmpsu-750tx/txcables1-8.jpg

You say you can tuck the cables away nicely, but that's still a bit annoying really. You could look into the 620HX which I have, it's fully modular and SLI compliant. Check around the reviews for what it can support. I'm pretty certain I've read about people using 8800GTX's in SLI with it, it's still a beast despite being 130W lower than what you were looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

And for that reason, I'd suggest you wait for other people to add some other options for PSUs just so you have a couple of options.

 

[Ravioli]

You know what, you are completely right. I did not know that. For their higher end PSU's they've dropped the modular feature, I can't believe it! I'm really sorry I assumed that, it's certainly not - http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/02/corsair_tx750w_psu_cmpsu-750tx/txcables1-8.jpg

You say you can tuck the cables away nicely, but that's still a bit annoying really. You could look into the 620HX which I have, it's fully modular and SLI compliant. Check around the reviews for what it can support. I'm pretty certain I've read about people using 8800GTX's in SLI with it, it's still a beast despite being 130W lower than what you were looking at.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

And for that reason, I'd suggest you wait for other people to add some other options for PSUs just so you have a couple of options.

Hm, that one does look nice, but it has only 2x6pin i need 4


EDIT:

Looked around to see if there are any alternatives with modular support and found this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817331003

EDIT: nvm, i read on SLizone that for a SLI system you need atleast a 12V@30A, which that one doesnt. The Corsair does tho (12V@60 lol)

 

[Asus]

The corsair (seasonic) PSUs are a great PSU and they are quiet. Review of the Corsair TX750W that Glenn linked to. Although if you don't need it to be quiet, another recommendation would be PC Power & Cooling. Also Enermax.