Read some of these reviews http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

You hate your money. You are buying something which has absolutely no point. You could buy a quality 500W PSU and then go into your back yard, take a 100 dollar bill from your wallet and then burn it. And you know what? Your computer would run exactly the same.

And I'm curious, what are these perceived over-stressing problems that you're concerned about? What do you think will happen if you overstress your 1000W PSU? I'm talking about the computer itself - obviously the black hole generator you've hooked up to your PC Is bad for the entire world.

Just so everyone is aware, computers are not magical beasts that run off pixie dust and unicorns. They're just electronics, and it is very easy to quantiy how much power they use.

Obviously facelessclock, doesn't game... if he does, he must be stuck in Yahoo Games somewhere...  350W!?!?!  Are you joking???

Based on what he is posting alone is at least 400W minimum...  that’s not including any USB device, keyboard, mouse... fans etc. etc.  Go here and use newegg's power supply calculator...  The PSU Wattage recommended only gives you a general idea on what to consider while selecting a power supply. PCI cards, External devices, USB and Fire wire devices, Cooling fans and other components may need more power.
http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

According to that link all I need is a 260 watt PSU.

Thanks for that.  I'd clearly been living in a vaccuum for the past 54 years and didn't have a clue.

What say you check the power stability and heat generation of the 500watt machine at say, 90% of peak/sustained.

My old machine was a P4 3.0 with a Truepower 600 [sustainable 475, I think it was] ....never appeared to be much beyong 35 or 40% load.... nice, stable voltages.

There was no way I was going backwards with the new one.... i7 920, 4 physical HDs, 2 burners, card readers, 10 USBs [most used] and a GTX285 vid card ....and still room for expansion....;)

The PSU Wattage recommended only gives you a general idea on what to consider while selecting a power supply. PCI cards, External devices, USB and Fire wire devices, Cooling fans and other components may need more power.

What are you talking about? Its extremely clear that any power supply is more efficient at higher loads than at lower loads. Thats pretty much a rule. And BTW, everything you listed would run quite nicely on the 600W power supply provided that it was of decent quality.

And why are you bringing up USB? How much power do you think a USB device uses? Its a few watts for each device, max. Your hard drives are probably not pushing 15watts each. Same for the burners. In other words, you're vastly overestimating your power draw. But then I would be too if I blew a wad of cash on a 1000W PSU. Gotta justify that spending somehow, right?

Goo, educate yourself. You have no idea what you are talking about. I posted a review that quite clearly showed what the load power draw of a system with a Radeon 4850 was. Since you could not be bothered to even investigate that link, let me again tell you what the power draw was - 236 Watts. THAT IS A FULL QUAD-CORE TEST SYSTEM AT LOAD.

Your Newegg calculator is ridiclious. It is clearly out of date because it does not list anything that has come out in about the past two years. It also does not cite any specific tests. Its just a general marketing calculator, and a very old one at that.

What I'm asking of you, Goo, is to cite specific tests of systems with high-end gaming components and their power draws. If you cannot cite anything, then shut up.

Your PCI arguement is so daft that I don't even know how to engage it. First you start babbling about how PCI is an old technology. I have no idea if you're talking about just plain PCI or PCI-E, and I don't know why you're bring up PCI-E 1.0 because no one has been talking about it at all. So in other words, please make sense. Thanks a lot.

By the way, if you want to read a really great article about power supplies and learn what a computer really needs and what qualities are actually important, read Debunking Power Supply Myths, an article from Anandtech. It makes it quite clear what systems really need to run.

OK, let's keep it civil.  If anyone is going to be requiring someone to 'shut up' it'll be myself or my fellow Admins/Moderators.

Everyone is entitled to his opinion.

Jafo I still think you over spent and shot yourself in the foot. You should have gone with AMD. Almost everything you have in the rig is overkill.

Good selection of parts. You might think about doubling your ram. I know

having 8GB is over kill, but hey you never can have too much ram. Also,

you might think about a second hard drive and a blu-ray drive too.

Yes, everything I have is overkill....though I'm at least 2 steps down from an 'ultimate CPU'...the 920 if overclocked can suck over 400watt which rationalizes the PSU choice [stock is around 242 at idle].... the Vid card standard will take 183, the HDs a further 48, [the v8 cooler is more frugal....pushing 70cfm with 1.44 watts] ...without overclocking there's 50% of the grand....and at that load the PSU will be running at 2.3C above ambient ....and will thus outlive most of its choice-detractors....;)

At the 'other end' of the scale...I have a bunch-of-bits on my desk that equate to my Computer from 2 generations ago....yep, looks cute AND primitive....but still plays some clunky games...and gets on the net about as fast as this does....it's a Slot 1, P3/500 with 128 meg and an old 250w PSU.... but then that Processor is so tame it's heat-sink only...not even a fan.

I certainly didn't shoot myself in the foot, or anywhere else.  My spec choice was a result of a lot of research, and it works as anticipated...;)

Wait till those new AMD chips hit the market.

You did shot yourself in the foot. Research? You sure you were not just trying to one up someone?

You could have got by with less my friend.

I'm with facelessclock on this one... Got a quad core Q9650 overclocked, a GTX280, a velociraptor 300 + 2 Barracuda 1.5 To, a Blu-ray burner, 4 to 6 USB devices constantly plugged in, and even when playing Crysis at very high settings (1900*1220), my 500W power supply is sufficent.

So, maybe it's not enough, but my rig didn't notice...

Keiyan

Thanks for the article on debunking power supplies - but did you read it?

A quote from the final page:

So they recommend 850W for their high end system. Except this article is a year old and that is no longer a high end system.

Anyone running a i7 should not consider less than 1000W, especially if you add on a GTX-285 or GTX-295.

The i7 920 can be safely overclocked to 3.6Ghz, with some extreme clockers getting over 4Ghz. At that you should be looking at 1200W + some serious liquid cooling.

As with all things, it's not a question of what it will run on or what the minimum requirement is.

Kona...yes...I was one-upping myself.  The system was to be an UPGRADE that, like the P4 3.0 would last me 5 years or so, and thus not some half-arsed equivalent to whatever I already had.

Yes, I could get by with less.... I actually DO know how to use a shuffle-stick and a typewriter, and I don't need Photoshop....I actually know how to hold a pencil/pen/paintbrush....;)

Oh....and I can read a watch so can tell the time.... go outside and talk intelligently with living, breathing humans and savour the halitosis ...and bugger me... I can stick my head out the window and tell if it's raining or not...so I don't even need a weather feed for a Widget....;)

wow. we have one person who has for years knocked others on what they buy and he obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. i've thought for years it was jealousy on his part regarding what other people have for rigs. and now, we have another kid entering the scene who wants to berate what others have chosen as components for their rigs. dude, if you want to power an i7, gtx285, 4 hhd, and 2 burner rig with a 500 watt psu, go ahead and do it. i'd love to hear your story when the rig dies an untimely death, too. myself, i'll keep my hx850 corsair for my e8400, 4870, 4 hdd, 2 burner rig. mine will last longer, i'm sure. also, i can upgrade and add all i want without having to worry about a possible psu issue. you see, corsair and pc p&c are among the few companies who rate their psu units by constant current, not peak. they also test theirs in the real world and not in a nice, cold, 45 degree F room so the until doesn't overheat.

i could also get by with a cheap rosewill or broadway.com case but i choose to use lian-li and silverstone.

and by the way, ridiculing and berated jafo is not a smart move on anyone's part.

fuzzy, you made some great points!

[TAI], i see you can unlock the 550 with the gigabyte 770 based board now after a bios update. i wish that had been an option when i rebuilt the kid's rig. i would've gone that route if it was possible at the time.

I don't need to stick my head out the window to tell if it's raining...!

No, Fuzzy....since you're in England all you need to do is check if the day of the week ends in a 'y' ....;)

No, Fuzzy....since you're in England all you need to do is check if the day of the week ends in a 'y' ....

End of quote

OH SNAP!

I can hear the rain on the window + roof - no need to know what day it is or what's outside. Bit like Ferenginar here at the moment...

Weather forecast: It'll either rain or go dark before morning...

Well yah I bet, look at those gargantuan ears! *points to avatar*

Way to pick and choose numbers from the article. They also included 625W and 650W PSU's for the high end system. The article recommends an 850w psu mainly for quietness and the extra headroom in case you ever want to go triple sli, which would be never. I believe he read the article more thoroughly than you.

The bolded statement is ridiculous. Did you take a look at the high end system on the anandtech article? An i7 920 + a single gtx285 will not use so much power as to require a 1000w psu when a c2q extreme + sli 8800 ultras + 4 hdd's, a more power hungry setup, does perfectly fine on 700w. Look at reviews of the gtx285 and gtx295, they dont draw anywear near enough power to tax a good 1000w psu. In the end, the quality of a PSU matters far more than overinflated wattage advertisements. Something like a 650w corsair will pretty much handle anything you throw at it today outside of the ultra high end multiple gpu setups.

As for the OP, I recommend  upgrading to a 4870 or gtx260, its only ~$20 more and gives a decent performance increase.

Your choice whether to understand or not

Ok I stand corrected…