Hey, I have an antec trupower 430. My concern is I don't believe it is enough for my system. Before I bought watercooling and this 6800u, I was able to oc upto 247 FSB on air. Then I got wcing and it was reduced to around 230 or so. With my 6800 I have to struggle jsut to get that. My only guess is that with the 12v pump and extra fans, its using more power now, and even more so since I got my 6800. I'm looking for something alot better than this antec, but not anything too expensive.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
PSU limiting me?
- Thread starter Glyphic
- Start date
BillR
Born Again Cynic
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
- Messages
- 18,535
Its a pretty good PSU over all (no fan boy flames please) but Id say just quickly running the numbers in my mind your over the top.
This is a bit tricky, but, if you have a spare PSU around and you totally isolate your 12 volt system (water cooling and fans) you could run it from there. Be sure you dont mix the 12-volt rails with anything connected to the current PSU and make sure you have a good place to put it. Awkward perhaps, but cheaper then the alternative by a bit.
Just some thoughts
This is a bit tricky, but, if you have a spare PSU around and you totally isolate your 12 volt system (water cooling and fans) you could run it from there. Be sure you dont mix the 12-volt rails with anything connected to the current PSU and make sure you have a good place to put it. Awkward perhaps, but cheaper then the alternative by a bit.
Just some thoughts
BossNoodleKaboodle
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2004
- Messages
- 1,818
If you dont mind spending the money you could get a server PSU with plenty of amperage for the other stuff, since its made to run dual processors. I love my Enermax 550W server PSU. 36A on the 12v rails is plenty. It's almost silent too. Would your current case fit two psu's in it? That would surely add a lot of heat as well.
Ice Czar
Inscrutable
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2001
- Messages
- 27,174
1. a second PSU should exhaust its own heat
2. a server supply implying SSI compliance and an EPS12V supply might have unavailable capacity unless its an older model (which would be less biased towards the 12V rail defeating the purpose of the exercise), the +12V rails breakout like this
so determining the amps per rail become important, and you can use an 8 pin on a 4 pin board, with a spot of hotglue since the clips wont line up, provided there is clearence
the 8 pin is simply a double 4 pin and they are keyed the same
3. till you run the numbers you wouldnt actually know if its a lack of capacity, or simply rail fluctuation that is limiting the overclock as pointed out by BillR
some linkage to dual PSU
cut and paste 101
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
synch 2 PSU each as a seperate bus
1. Hardwired
2. With a relay
or employing a shared bus Like a redundant PSU
1. with resistors
2. with mosfets
3. with diodes (Single Source Fault Tolerant Power Systems)
(3 is slightly outdated now see gee's post > http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=776885)
I ran 2 hardwired 400 watts and a large RAID array for 3 years without issue on one of my boards (Abit KR7A)
however it may have been a contributing factor in the death of another board (ECS whatever
)
though Im not at all sure about that
not running them synchd however certainly corrupted the hell out of the array
eventually switched to a Zippy Emacs MR3-6450P N+1
with considerably less total wattage but plenty for what was actually required
with 32A on the +12V rail for the drives and considering the mobo's VRM was powered off the +5V
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Id recommend the relay in this case, and just the fans and pumps on the supply
if you elect to go with a dual PSU setup, a hardwired solution would quickly determine the root cause however, if you have a spare, or even an old AT power supply that you turn on manually
but a better supply might be what is called for on with tighter load regulation and less AC Ripple
however
you didnt mention the temperature @ load
the PSU isnt the only potential cause
2. a server supply implying SSI compliance and an EPS12V supply might have unavailable capacity unless its an older model (which would be less biased towards the 12V rail defeating the purpose of the exercise), the +12V rails breakout like this
and will have an 8 pin Auxillary +12V mobo connector (2x4) instead of the 4 pin (2x2)
so determining the amps per rail become important, and you can use an 8 pin on a 4 pin board, with a spot of hotglue since the clips wont line up, provided there is clearence
the 8 pin is simply a double 4 pin and they are keyed the same
3. till you run the numbers you wouldnt actually know if its a lack of capacity, or simply rail fluctuation that is limiting the overclock as pointed out by BillR
some linkage to dual PSU
cut and paste 101
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
synch 2 PSU each as a seperate bus
1. Hardwired
2. With a relay
or employing a shared bus Like a redundant PSU
1. with resistors
2. with mosfets
3. with diodes (Single Source Fault Tolerant Power Systems)
(3 is slightly outdated now see gee's post > http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=776885)
I ran 2 hardwired 400 watts and a large RAID array for 3 years without issue on one of my boards (Abit KR7A)
however it may have been a contributing factor in the death of another board (ECS whatever
)though Im not at all sure about that
not running them synchd however certainly corrupted the hell out of the array
eventually switched to a Zippy Emacs MR3-6450P N+1
with considerably less total wattage but plenty for what was actually required
with 32A on the +12V rail for the drives and considering the mobo's VRM was powered off the +5V
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Id recommend the relay in this case, and just the fans and pumps on the supply
if you elect to go with a dual PSU setup, a hardwired solution would quickly determine the root cause however, if you have a spare, or even an old AT power supply that you turn on manually
but a better supply might be what is called for on with tighter load regulation and less AC Ripple
however
you didnt mention the temperature @ load
the PSU isnt the only potential cause
BillR
Born Again Cynic
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
- Messages
- 18,535
Ice Czars last post should probably be added to a separate sticky. As more and more people turn to water-cooling and extreme case modding I see more and more problems pop up.
To my practical way of thinking (which Ice is so capable of putting on paper much better then I) a computer PSU has enough to do these days just powering your basic computer and that problem will only worsen as time goes on.
That being the case, a secondary power supply for auxiliary cooling functions only seems to make sense. If you take all the case fans, cooling fan(s) for the radiator, pumps, lights etc out of the PSU equation, life suddenly become much easier for the main PSU. Heat drops, efficiency goes up and with a bit of luck your over clock will go higher or perhaps even become more stable.
Just some additional thoughts
To my practical way of thinking (which Ice is so capable of putting on paper much better then I) a computer PSU has enough to do these days just powering your basic computer and that problem will only worsen as time goes on.
That being the case, a secondary power supply for auxiliary cooling functions only seems to make sense. If you take all the case fans, cooling fan(s) for the radiator, pumps, lights etc out of the PSU equation, life suddenly become much easier for the main PSU. Heat drops, efficiency goes up and with a bit of luck your over clock will go higher or perhaps even become more stable.
Just some additional thoughts
well as it turns out, I happened to have an old at psu laying around, I hooked a bunch of stuff up to that and left my cpu, and 6800 on my main. I found that for some reason it's harder to OC now than before I got watercooling. I'm not sure why but my cpu is asking for alot more voltage for less fsb than it used to. And when I found a stable oc, I hooked everything back to my main psu and it booted fine, so I guess I avoided spending an unecessary $100 or so. But I'm not sure why it won't let me oc nowhere near as much as it did before
BillR
Born Again Cynic
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
- Messages
- 18,535
Glyphic said:
Your bunch o stuff comment made me think. I suggested using the secondary PSU for your pump and fans only. If you used it for youre hard drives or any other common grounded component (which would be just about everything else) in your system you might well have compromised the integrity of the whole electrical system.
You dont want to in any way share things like your ground rail. That would happen if you plugged your second PSU into a hard drive. Since the hard drive is grounded to the main chassis (as well as common grounds in your IDE cables) as is the motherboard as well as the primary PSU you could cause a ground loop or secondary ground circuit.
This secondary ground can induce all sorts of problems into the equation. At the very least noise and could in fact influence your voltage regulation circuits.
Fans and pumps are in their own little isolated world and as such lend themselves to a simple hook up to a secondary power source. Once you combine two power sources in any way you must take a very different approach.
If you create a closed system with your secondary PSU your safe. That closed system would be, again, simply your pump and various fans.
Just my additional thoughts based on yours.
Luck