Which power supply??

[vilst3r]

can someone recommend a good power supply for my system
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE
ASUS M4A78T-E
G Skill Ripjaws 2x2
XFX 5850
WD Caviar Black 500gb

Watt usage would be around 500-700W. Need a good power supply with strong 12V. Also, is single powerful 12 volt rail good or multiple 12v rail?

 

[Grobi]

I think it would not be higher then 500W, but if you want to buy a 750W power supply, then buy Corsair HX750, or XFX 750w Black Edition, or the Seasonic one. (The 1st two has Seasonic OEM, too.)

 

[Lmeow]

I reckon 700W is pretty overkill, a system like yours wouldn't consume that much power, no where near. An o/c i7 system with two HD 5850s in CrossFireX used less than 500W on full load, at legitreviews, and you're only going to use one. Though, to be safe and keep options open, I'd get a Corsair HX650W, which has four 6+2 pin PCI-e power connectors, meaning that if you want another HD 5850 later for CrossFireX, it's possible. It has a strong single 12V rail with 52A on it, single is better than dual in my opinion, because single rails don't have to deal with load balancing. Higher quality PSUs tend to have a single 12V rail, like Corsairs and SeaSonics, whereas most other cheaper PSU companies like OCZ instead just use dual rails, for example on their ModXStream series.

 

[4745454b]

Don't worry about multi vs single rail. It makes no difference. If you will only be running one card, a 500W PSU from Antec, Corsair, Enermax, PCP&C, Seasonic, etc will work fine.

 

[vilst3r]

Best answer selected by vilst3r.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Here are the official power requirements for the new ATI Radeon HD 5850 video cards.


ATI Radeon™ HD5850 System Requirements:

PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75 watt, 6-pin, PCI Express® power connectors.

600 Watt or greater power supply with four 75 watt, 6-pin, PCI Express® power connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode.

The power supply recommendations are for an entire pc system

Corsair and Seasonic are two brands that have a reputation for high quality power supplies that consistently earn high marks in technical reviews. They are reliable, stable, and come with a 5 year warranty. Some of the newer models come with a 7 year warranty. Lately we've been seeing a few other brands offering some high quality units. One example would be the Antec Earthwatts and the Antec TruePower New models which are a major improvement over Antec’s older psu’s like the Basiq models.

Here is a link to an excellent explanation of multiple +12 volt rails:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990