Least Efficient PC Build

[guymarshall]

I was thinking of building the most inefficient pc to test the power delivery of many power supplies (100w to 2500w).

For the CPU I was thinking of the FX 9590 at 5GHZ, and the GPU I was thinking of maybe 2 R9 295x2s in quadfire? I'm not sure about motherboard or case, but the corsair 900d will be able to cope with the immense heat output. For the CPU cooler I will use the corsair h100i GTX, and for case fans, I will use every slot in the case with corsair AF140 silence edition fans for cooling. I will use some slots for the radiators for the cpu and the graphics cards.

For the power supply, I will obviously use many wattage power supplies from 100w to 2500w corsair psus.

I was just wondering, what motherboard should I get to support 2 r9 295x2s and an fx 9590? Will this PC build stress any component too much?

 

[Rogue Leader]

Honestly heat is your biggest issue there. That and the thing may not even turn on with a PSU less than 600 or so watts so testing a 100w PSU isn't in the cards. The Processor alone is a 220w processor, mind you thats at full throttle, but even at idle that computer will be pulling in at least 400 watts if not more. If you were planning on actually using this computer I would tell you 1200 watt PSU minimum.

I would use the ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z . Of the few boards that can handle this processor the ASUS is the highest quality IMO.

 

[bambiboom]

I was thinking of building the most inefficient pc to test the power delivery of many power supplies (100w to 2500w).

For the CPU I was thinking of the FX 9590 at 5GHZ, and the GPU I was thinking of maybe 2 R9 295x2s in quadfire? I'm not sure about motherboard or case, but the corsair 900d will be able to cope with the immense heat output. For the CPU cooler I will use the corsair h100i GTX, and for case fans, I will use every slot in the case with corsair AF140 silence edition fans for cooling. I will use some slots for the radiators for the cpu and the graphics cards.

For the power supply, I will obviously use many wattage power supplies from 100w to 2500w corsair psus.

I was just wondering, what motherboard should I get to support 2 r9 295x2s and an fx 9590? Will this PC build stress any component too much?

guymarshall,

The overall idea of testing PSU's in my view may be a misdirection of effort.

If your goal is to develop testing methodology and instrumentation that's an enormous project that will take years and probably duplicate the considerable efforts of many large multinational corporations and research centres.

However, If your ultimate purpose is to have a very fast system, it's an easy task to calculate the total peak load of all components, add some overhead, and then review specifications for various PSU's output, response time, MTBF, power efficiency, and components quality. The kind of experimentation you propose would be unnecessary and expensive.

I sometimes feel that PSU power is over-specified in home-builds, especially as almost all components are much more energy efficient than in the past. I have a 2015 HP z420 running a 6-core Xeon at up to 4.0GHz, a very component 4GB Quadro K4200, a 480GB SSD and 1TB HD, it's capable of having 64GB RAM, two 150W GPU's and that system has a 600W PSU. The 2011 Dell Precision T7500, as it can use two 140W Xeon CPU's, 92GB of RAM and 2X 225W GPU's has an 875W PSU.

As Rogue Leader mentions, concentrate on the heat issues. Keep in mind that the designers of components have spent millions developing a kind of general compatibility and the combinations of highly effective thermal control solutions is infinite. It's a far better use of time and money to choose a good case and fans solution and over-specify for the cooling than to personally test PSU's.

If you're after a case that can accommodate any kind of cooling solution- several large, multlifan/ radiators, a lot of drive- many, many options in panels and windows, plus is very roomy for great airflow and easy to work on., have a look at CaseLabs:

http://www.caselabs-store.com/

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3490 / CPU = 9178 / 2D= 685 / 3D= 3566 / Mem= 1865 / Disk= 2122] [Cinebench 15 > CPU = 772 OpenGL= 99.72 FPS] 7.8.15