Any Huddlers proficient with building computers?

[Ursa Majoris]

With all due respect, those calculators are fairly bad at estimating power utilization. The only one I have ever seen which is reasonable is this one:

 

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

For example, the Newegg calculator suggests I need a 622 W supply for my configuration. This does not even consider the overclock I have in place. The same configuration on the outervision calculator yields a 424W supply. Much more realistic. Even with my overclock, the outervision calcuator yields 484W.

 

I measured the full load utilization and was consuming 380W. This was with all four cores running 100% and my 5870 card running Furmark. Not realistic typical usage.

Fair enough but on the same subject, what about all devices drawing their power via USB? I have 14 USB ports with 12 occupied, including some devices without a separate PSU. Do these have much effect....or none?

[smithkt]

Fair enough but on the same subject, what about all devices drawing their power via USB? I have 14 USB ports with 12 occupied, including some devices without a separate PSU. Do these have much effect....or none?

 

There are limitations in the USB spec to how much current a USB device can draw without an external supply. Just for argument sake, I used the calculator I linked to earlier to configure a system with and without 12 USB devices drawing from the system. The recommended power was 27W more, going from 455 to 482. So it is something to consider, but not a hugh effect.

Edited July 26, 2010 by smithkt

[Ursa Majoris]

There are limitations in the USB spec to how much current a USB device can draw without an external supply. Just for argument sake, I used the calculator I linked to earlier to configure a system with and without 12 USB devices drawing from the system. The recommended power was 27W more, going from 455 to 482. So it is something to consider, but not a hugh effect.

Interesting. Thanks.