seasonic 520w fanless psu, NOT sli?

[rob martin]

OK, I asked for the Seasonic ss-520fl2 power supply for Christmas, if you look at the image here:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-seasonic-platinum-ss-520fl2-fanless-psu-80plus-platinum-full-modular-eps-12v-atx

It looks like it has the ability to connect two pcie cables, and it does include two pcie connectors, each one having two 8 pin connectors, so then why do sites say that it only includes 2x 2+6 connectors, and that it doesn't support SLI? When I looked at the image of this on Newegg, I assumed, Oh, (video card brand name here) needs a 8pin and 6 pin pcie connector, this comes with two each of that, so there fore I can use SLI. I am not trying to SLI yet, but I requested this with the intent of possibly using SLI in the near future. Any person who can please clarify this for me I would appreciate it. Note, I didn't buy it from a UK site, that site had what I felt was the best picture to describe what I was talking about. The site this was actually bought from was either Amazon.com Or Newegg.com. So it shouldn't be a country specific kind of thing.

Thanks in advance

 

[chenw]

Most likely because it's the wattage. 520W isn't quite enough to power most SLI or Crossfire setups.

 

[InvalidError]

What sort of SLI setup are you going to run on a 520W PSU? That would cut it uncomfortably close for dual GT970 and if you aim for lower-end cards than that, you would be better off settling for a single GT970 instead.

It may have two cables with two 6+2 connectors each but it lacks the raw power output rating to really put them to use.

 

[rob martin]

What sort of SLI setup are you going to run on a 520W PSU? That would cut it uncomfortably close for dual GT970 and if you aim for lower-end cards than that, you would be better off settling for a single GT970 instead.

It may have two cables with two 6+2 connectors each but it lacks the raw power output rating to really put them to use.

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. The GTX 970 has a max power 145 Watts, and the cpu I am getting is 84w. (148*2)+84=380w. That leaves 140w for fans and drives. You're telling me that isn't enough? Or is my math wrong.

Thanks again

 

[InvalidError]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. The GTX 970 has a max power 145 Watts, and the cpu I am getting is 84w. (148*2)+84=380w. That leaves 140w for fans and drives. You're telling me that isn't enough? Or is my math wrong.

While its TDP might be 145W, its peak is closer to 180W, so you need to add 70W there and that takes you to 450W. Once you add your fans, HDDs and other stuff, you are close to 500W peak.

It should work but will be shaving it much closer than most people would be comfortable with when under load.

 

[rob martin]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. The GTX 970 has a max power 145 Watts, and the cpu I am getting is 84w. (148*2)+84=380w. That leaves 140w for fans and drives. You're telling me that isn't enough? Or is my math wrong.

While its TDP might be 145W, its peak is closer to 180W, so you need to add 70W there and that takes you to 450W. Once you add your fans, HDDs and other stuff, you are close to 500W peak.

It should work but will be shaving it much closer than most people would be comfortable with when under load.

OK, thank you for your explanation, maybe you can help me with the other problem I posted on the forum.

 

[ivan petrovs]

Hi there mate, some of the reviewers on the internet who actually bother to push this PSU to it's limits during testing stated that Seasonic 520 actually has a lot of hidden power and works perfectly well up to 600 watts of real power draw, so i can assume you are more than good to go with 2 970 setup!

But fyi it comes with only 2 8pin cables, so you need to either choose ASUS 970 (that one has 1 8pin power) or find another pair of 8pin cables - the PSU actually has more ports allowing up to 4 8pin connections.