Radeon 5850 power consumption CrossfireX

[Triton-00]

how big of a powersupply would i need to power those bad boys.

i heard they are fairly efficient for how they perform. i also plan to do some midrange overclocking.

i'm gonna be running a corei5 setup. with 1 of these then later down the road add another one.

so how much wattage would i be looking at here?

 

[jay2tall]

You could probably get away with a GOOD 650w PSU. But I'd probably go with a 700-750W since not many 650's come with (4) 6 pin PCI-E cables. It also depends on the rest of your system. If you have a highly OCed CPU, I'd stick with the 700-750. IF you are all stock a 650 would be plenty. Just remember you have to take in account the rest of your rig. This is what I would use, some people may say you can use a 550-600, but I always try and stay above the system requirements. Anything over a 750 will just be pointless.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed.

Also note: When jay2tall said HIGH QUALITY PSUs, he's taking about true and tested PSUs such as these: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=589708

 

[jay2tall]

^Indeed I did mean that. I've found the good quality 600-650W PSUs generally run close to a 700-750 price anyways. I ended up getting my PC Power & Cooling 750 for $90 after rebate. I think it was a $30 MIR. I was looking at a good 650w and I think it was around $100 anyways.

 

[XD_dued]

You could probably get away with a GOOD 650w PSU. But I'd probably go with a 700-750W since not many 650's come with (4) 6 pin PCI-E cables. It also depends on the rest of your system. If you have a highly OCed CPU, I'd stick with the 700-750. IF you are all stock a 650 would be plenty. Just remember you have to take in account the rest of your rig. This is what I would use, some people may say you can use a 550-600, but I always try and stay above the system requirements. Anything over a 750 will just be pointless.

I have the corsair TX650 and a 5850...will I be able to use molex to pci-e adapters to crossfire later? Everyone says not to use them(molex to pci-e)...why?

 

[jay2tall]

^
I think that PSU should be ok. 52A on a single rail should be able to feed it. As long as the rest of your system isn't crazy power hungry with tons of drives.

You can use the molex to pci-e adapters. I would split the 6 pins and use one on each and then an adapter on each. It might be a good ideal to use molex connectors that are on a separate segment than your other devices as well. Just in case the card starts pulling some juice.