Power Supplies for SLI cards.

http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/w049atx12v/w0049atx12v.htm

This is a 680Watts comes with Dual PCI Express, 4 SATA connectors and ten 4-pin power connectors
Seems like the ULTIMATE choice for those pursuing with SLI.

Is this the best we have currently?? Also how many Volts are 4-pin Peripheral
Power Connectors, Molex? Are they 5Volts each? How many HDs do you think each can take by using splitters?

Cheers

 

3 12V rails...you have to be kidding

It still has a total of 38A on 12v however which is what the OCZ 600w is capable of supplying and i rekon its miles ahead of anything Thermaltake could pimp out.

 

nice i like the 10x 4pin molex support but looks like no 24pin to 20pin adaptor included and only 15A for 2x 12V rails and 3rd 12x only 8A, would of been nicer if it was 2x 12V rails with at least 28A each rail

that 680W only totals 38A on 3x 12V combined.. my 580W Topower already has 35A on the 12V itself.. granted lacks 4pin molex and 2x 6pin SLI connectors

 

i'm pretty sold on Topower myself, my 420 topower is doing me quite nicely they are almost a forgotten psu in the psu game

 

guess only way to find out is for someone to have both 680W Thermaltake and 580W Topower and see which is better on SLI setup hehe

if someone is gonna buy 680W Thermaltake and want me to test it on SLI setup (1-2 weeks away) and compare to 580W Topower I have..

 

what's a 24pin(ATX power?) --> 20pin(what teh??) used for?

 

24 pin is the 'new'(server/dual boards have had them for a while now) main connecter on the mobo. It is being introduced on boards that use pci-e.
20 pin is what the vast majority (including your nf7-s) of current ATX mobos use.

24->20 pin adapter is just for legacy issues.

 

OK I would like to understand a bit on the PSU. Have some Questions.

Now for example a molex connector has 4 pin.
1 pin is +5V for Digital Components.
Another pin is +12V for Motors and stuff in the CD ROM,HDs etc etc
And theres 2 other pins GND etc.

Now why does the graphics card require solo molex from the power Supply if the power Supply is the main source of the +12V and +5V???

Also whats the purpose of 3* 12Volt Line?? How would you know whether you are using the 15A or the 8A in the case of 680W Thermal Take??

I'll appreciate if anyone can provide some explainations.

Cheers

 

I wouldnt trust thermaltake to powering 2 of my expensive video cards, I think I would stick with Top Power or the new OCZ one coming out

 

Lowers stress on the wires, and losses via wasted power. More connections = lower resistance = less wastage.

No idea, i would assume it might be an efficiency/cost thing, or perhaps redudancy, but i doubt that.

 

Don't underestimate the Thermaltake PSU's. We all know Thermaltake make alot of ricey crap but the PSU's are damn good. I'd take the Thermaltake over the Top Power anyday. Had a Thermaltake Purepower 420w for about 18months- it's rock solid with an o/c system and including 4 HD, 2 Burners, 9800pro, cathodes, 8 fans etc; the rails never flinch. I prefer it over the Enermax and Antec I've had previously.

rd

 

My system currently uses 510W of power according to the power calulator.

Well, here is a problem that I have. I still haven't found the reason why. If I plug my IDE HD which has windows loaded through the same Molex as the NEW Ben-q DVD Burner Combo, it would NOT load Windows. Just restarts itself.

If I use a different set of Rail(If thats what its called) from the PSU to plug my DVD seperate from HD, then Windows Loads etc ect fine. So IDE HD and DVD do NOT get along each other if plugged through the same one Rail. So I have seperated them and they both work fine this way. But I do NOT understand why they don't work if plugged thru same rail.

P.S I hope I am using this word correctly. Rail: Is it the set of wires that come through the PSU to which are connected many molexes? So my PSU has 3 rails(which has Molex)?

 

is there some kind of adapter for the power connector on PCI-E vid cards? its not just for SLI, from the pics ive seen, most if not all PCI-E vid cards have the 6 pin connector rather than regular 4 pin molex... id rather not have that limit my selection of psu if possible... (i had my eyes on the topower or ocz)

 

all decent pci-e cards come with an adapter for the 6 pin plug.

 

PCP&C have a 510W SLI PSU on the market now but it aint cheap. I would go for the OCZ PSU as its only a little more than the Topower but hey, they are almost the same at the heart but the OCZ has 38A @ 12v instead of 35A @ 12v on the Topower 580W

 

Looks like 680W not really as ideal for SLI cards http://www.bytesector.com/data/bs-article.asp?ID=394&page=2

 

I think the one fatal flaw is that it was made by Thermaltake

They should stick to making things look pritty i rekon

 

I don't know what the obsession is with some people bagging the Thermaltake PSU, (have you ever owned one?) they are not rice like the other TT shit. They are very very good PSU, For example. I'd challenge anyone to find a well regarded reviewer giving a bad recommendation on a TT 420W Purepower with active PFC PSU.
A couple links -

Tweakers Aust.
Tweaktown

Also the concluding comments to the Bytesector link eva2000 posted. Quote " So how does the ThermalTake Silent PurePower 680W ATX 12V 2.0 PSU hold up against the competition? At the moment, I would have to say this unit kills the rest. This is one rock-solid PSU designed for supporting and powering the latest technologies."

rd

 

This power supply wont even power up my Vapochill

I have PCPower And Cooling 510W (only) and I ma confident it can handle a good PC (lots of drives) + vapo & 2 x sli.

Currently with 5 hhd, 3 optical, floppy, 3.2EE overclocked to 4, 1 gig ram, X800XT-PE and vapochill the difference between idle and load is less than 1% on every rail. Specs are:

+5V @ 40A
+12V @ 34A/38A
-5V @ 0.3A
-12V @ 2A
+3.3V @ 30A
+5VSB @ 3A

I think for SLI nothing beats the new PCPower And Cooling 510 SLI. Same speks as mine, except for the dual 2 6 pin video connectors.

 

Whats a power calculator?