quote:
Originally posted by msg_plus_freak
Oh i think i put it wrong 
i ment sometimes on the bios it letsyou change the voltage of everthing and stuff if you get on that supports it. i no this as my mum has it on hers, i wouldnt like to fiddle anyway, i've blown up a PSU before and i dont exectly want to do it again
Ah I see... Yes, but those settings have got nothing to do with the PSU. They are settings for your motherboard and how much voltage it will transfer to your CPU and what not... (also, you don't need extra software for this, if your mobo supports these settings, it will be in your bios)
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quote:
Originally posted by brian
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
450W seems like a lot IMO and for many current systems (even seriously power machines) more than enough with plenty to spare...
I don't think so, with the all current technlogies, I don't think for a FX-57 and two 7800GTX's with SLI, will have enough for 450W, they eat alot of power, they even require their own source for better power.
We're talking normal PC's here, not beefed up overclocked leet machines which only pro's will use, so to speak
Even still, it is not because they need their own power source that they consume heaps (well, compared to other cards they do consume a lot, but not in the order you might think), it simply means that the normal voltage given by the mobo isn't sufficient and they need their own +12V line or whatever.
And about power consumptions, even on those leet machines the total power consumption of the PC often doesn't go above 350W-400W! On test machines and running at full speed and pressing everything out of it the power consumption of the whole PC is still +-350W (using 2x7800).
The 7800GTX uses at most +-100W and a normal (but powerfull) PC without any fancy graphics card, but with some big HDD, fans, and fast processor normally doesn't go above 200W.
450W is a lot you know.
Don't stare blind on "new and faster" technology for this. As a matter of fact many of these new and powerfull graphic cards actually consume less power than their older but similar models as the new technology provides more power for less power.. ermmm... I mean more graphics power for less electrical power
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EDIT:
quote:
Originally posted by XBitslabs
To load the graphics cards with work we launched the most complex of 3DMark05’s tests, that is the third one, and had it running in a loop in 1600x1200 resolution, with enabled 4x full-screen antialiasing and 16x anisotropic filtering.
The results are quite interesting: the GeForce 7800 GTX with its 302 million transistors, 24 pixel pipelines and 430MHz frequency consumed 80.7 watts under that load, while the much simpler GeForce 6800 Ultra had a consumption of 77.3 watts. There’s less than 3 watts of difference! So, the 0.11-micron tech process really helped NVIDIA to keep the power consumption of the GeForce 7800 GTX on the same level with the previous-generation model. By the way, the RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition has a result of 71.6 watts which is slightly less than the consumption of NVIDIA’s cards, but it consumed much less than the GeForces on the 12V line (31 watts against 39-40 watts) and more on the 3.3V line (5 watts against 2 watts). The power consumption on the external line was similar with all the graphics cards, being about 33-35 watts."
Now, these figures aren't absolute, but they do show in what order you should think of when talking graphics cards.
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The reason why certain low wattage PSU's fail (like the one from SunShine lately) is not neccesairly because of low wattage, but often because of heating problems or the max load vs. time it can take. However, a low wattage often also indicates lower quality in fan, load vs. time, etc. This is also the reason why I have no problems at all with my 250W and my PC (it is a very decent "quality" PSU; not simply the one you'll find in budget PC's). The wattage isn't the absolute figure, but is the figure which often (like in: almost always) indicates quality.
EDIT: which D:Frag also pointed out with an example in his post below...
Although he could've choosen a better example (why? read my reply)
/ 
