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Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to koitsu

Premium Member

to koitsu

Re: loud corsair HX1050

Great post, Koitsu. You encapsulated the mindset perfectly. #4 is the most common explanation. Power requirements can be a bit fuzzy, as only GPUs and CPUs have readily available consumption limits, so many people "play it safe" by buying a much larger PSU than they need. At best, it's spending a little extra for peace of mind, but becomes wasteful at the extreme end.

A possible fifth explanation would be that the consumer misunderstands how a power supply functions, and believes that a 1000w PSU will make a computer "run better" than a 600w or 800w PSU, and deals with it like a free ram upgrade ("hey, I might not use 8 GB, but it's only $40 to go to 16GB! future-proofing!").

And yet the trend for video card TDPs is to fall as manufacturers put out increasingly efficient cards (look at the GTX 480 vs. GTX 680).

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO
·Comcast XFINITY

jchambers28

Premium Member

Click for full size
here is the wattage limits 686 watts. I only load a PSU to 80% of its capacity. they start really getting loud.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA

koitsu

MVM

And how much power is your system actually using when the PSU fan kicks on (again, assuming it is the PSU fan)? Kill-A-Watt metre, dude.

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

500 watts. I own a kill a watt meter.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

500w at the wall = ? to the PC? 416w?

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

500 watts being pulled from the wall.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

And an 80 PLUS PSU is >80% efficient, sooo....

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

the old 80 plus silver units are gone and the 80 plus gold units are here.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

1 edit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Remember that *max* efficiency of the HX1050 is 88% (86% under 110VAC, and 89% under 230VAC), which is under ideal conditions/load.

At half load (535w), your PSU just misses the SILVER mark and performs at 86% efficiency, which is between SILVER and BRONZE.

»www.overclockersclub.com ··· 50/5.htm


The Corsair HX1050 produced a fairly typical set of results in this section that fell a little short of the 80 Plus Silver requirements (85%, 88% and 85% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% DC loading) following the OCC power supply testing methodology. The OCC power supply testing methodology doesn't exactly replicate the rail loadings and a shortfall of one or two percent isn't unusual so it would be unfair to mark the power supply (or any other that produced similar results) down in this section. Power factor levels are rarely if ever a problem in high end power supplies, especially with a 110VAC supply, and the HX1050 easily kept the level above the required 0.9 mark at 50% DC loading.

As the article says, we're essentially arguing semantics. You bought a much larger PSU than you needed, but it's not going to cost you much in terms of inefficiencies, and it's not going to harm anything.
Krisnatharok

Krisnatharok to jchambers28

Premium Member

to jchambers28
said by jchambers28:

500 watts being pulled from the wall.

That's about 430w in power coming out of your PSU to the rig, then.

I would have recommended a PLAT-rated 500-550w PSU, but whatever floats your boat, man.

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

that's with 1 card BTW. I will be adding another one later. I want 680 performance with out the cost of a 680.

Krisnatharok
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join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

With what? A 660Ti or 560Ti? I can't remember what you ended up going with.

»[Parts Check] new build

Weren't you the guy who Crossfired 5850s? Or was that Oleg?

A second GTX 660Ti adds 150w load (max), a GTX 560Ti adds 170w load (max), so my recommendation of a 500-550w would jump to a 650-700w PSU if you go SLI.

People don't need such gigantic PSUs as they think.

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

it wasn't me. I went with a 660TI.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
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join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Ah, ok, just checking. Someone was running low-end GPUs in Xfire/SLI and disappointed with their performance about a year ago. At least you're using sufficiently powerful cards to see an advantage.

But I don't understand the reasoning--if you end up going 2x 660Ti's, you will pay more, unless you wait for the GTX 700 series come out, when you pick up an obsolete card at a reduced rate. Even then, it's a lot of waiting at half power (in terms of what you can afford) for a marginal amount of savings.

The cheapest 660Ti is about $250, whereas the cheapest GTX 680 is $410, which is about $90 cheaper than two GTX 660Tis *and* unlike SLI, the 680 will always perform much closer to its performance ceiling (SLI is never near 100% efficient in terms of scaling).

Short of a bargain deal on 660Ti's, you'd be better off grabbing a single GTX 680.
Chrno
join:2003-12-11

Chrno to jchambers28

Member

to jchambers28
I don't know... your numbers just don't add up. The 3750K has a rated TDP of 77w and you are only running a single 660TI which has a rated TDP of 150w for the stock version (77 + 150 = 227). So if you add those numbers up and add a bit of head room for the RAM and the HDDs it still doesn't come close to 500w (from the wall, 455w @ 91% efficiency). So some where/how you have managed to double your power draw. You have either got one hell of an overclock going for both the CPU and VGA or there's something wrong with the PSU.

According to the efficiency curve on the marketing material, the unit reaches peak efficiency at around 420w - 500w and the fans will start increasing RPM at around 60% load. So technically at 43% load, the fan RPM should be flat @ 20db.

I run a HX650 with a W3540, GTX670, 4 * 1.5TB Seagate 7.2K, 1 * 750GB Seagate 7.2K, X25M 160, X25M 80, 330 180, LSI Megaraid controller, and I can't hear my PSU when my machine is under load.

I also have an AX1200, new, that's currently sitting on my desk because I don't see a reason to upgrade (and I am too lazy to redo my cable management as it's a pain with this many components inside the case). I don't have the exact same setup as you but I can get something close if you need me to help you run some power numbers. (spare processors available: 970, 2700K, 3770K)

If the fan is really loud during your load levels it may indicate a bad fan bearing. You may want to look into getting it RMA'ed.

jchambers28
Premium Member
join:2007-05-12
Peculiar, MO

jchambers28

Premium Member

I have the CPU clocked to 4.3 GHZ with a corsair h60 cooler.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

1 recommendation

koitsu to Chrno

MVM

to Chrno
User's data at this point:

* PSU actively drawing 500W: »Re: loud corsair HX1050
* System consists of the following, minus one video card: »Re: loud corsair HX1050
* Core i5 is overclocked to 4.3GHz: »Re: loud corsair HX1050
* All the above could explain about a 400-500W draw under full system load given those specs.

My guess is that the issue has nothing to do with PSU load at all, but probably temperature. Many PSUs will increase fan speed based on temperature, read from a thermistor inside the PSU itself.

There's really not much you can do about this other than try to decrease the overall temperature around the area of the PSU, or to purchase a different brand or model of PSU that might have a fan that's less audible (I've tried to warn people here about how loud PCs are getting these days, sigh) or logic circuitry that doesn't kick the fan on a higher speed until a significantly higher temperature than what the HX1050 does.

I'll use this opportunity to state something clear and in bold: do not consider a fanless PSU given what your system consists of. This will only make the situation worse. I've had the pleasure of using one (rated for 450W) and I could not believe how hot they got under normal load (I had to wait about 20 minutes to remove the PSU from the case, else my fingers would have suffered 1st or 2nd degree burns -- no joke). The increase in PSU temperature has a direct and circular effect on temperatures of the case and all components.

Stick with something that has a 120mm or 140mm fan and advertises very low noise. I would recommend trying Antec or Nexus/Nexustek PSUs. You will need to spend a lot of time looking at full specifications, specifically fan noise ratings. I would suggest a 750W or 850W PSU, cease the overclocking, and stick with just one video card/GPU indefinitely.