Maxwell Spanker vs. Silver Hammer vs. Annihilatrix, pt. 2

[STMahlberg]

So speaking of that bet, STM...

I totally forgot these pages existed. Here is the Silver Hammer running DNETC: http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?p...ne&hostid=9445

And yeah, you read that right - over 1M credits yesterday from a single box. Bow down to me now... ...

Blast!

http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?p...e&hostid=15694

Silver Hammer - Feb 1 - 1,055,766
The Annihilatrix - Feb 4 - 816,270

[SHAKING FIST]Next time Maxwell, next time!!![/SHAKING FIST]


PM me your address so I can send you your Dollar.

[Maxwell]

PM me your address so I can send you your Dollar.

Hehe... Stop. Hammer time.

Put that dollar in the bank - Something tells me we may have more of these bets now that you opened the floodgates...

[John P. Myers]

M'kay...last night i made a purchase to upgrade the cooling system of the Maxwell Spanker. Waiting on the parts to arrive I also grabbed one of those 450W drive bay PSUs i posted about. It has shown up but i can't install it until my new cooling parts arrive because of the way i have the innards of the case laid out.

Upgrading my radiator from a 2x120 to a 3x120. I'll still have the 2x120 which i can mount externally should the need arise in the future. Swiftech FTW!

Designing the system to operate without a resivoir. Purchased a fill cap. With some slight modding of the HAF X case, i can fill my coolant lines from the top of the computer case. Spiffy.

Purchased all new tubing. The interior of the tubes are coated with silver to prevent the growth of algae. Sure it was $4/foot, but cheaper than buying biocides in the long run.

I would like to thank FrozenCPU.com for supplying me yet again and helping to fulfill my dreams of crushing Maxwell

[Harley]

M'kay...last night i made a purchase to upgrade the cooling system of the Maxwell Spanker. Waiting on the parts to arrive I also grabbed one of those 450W drive bay PSUs i posted about. It has shown up but i can't install it until my new cooling parts arrive because of the way i have the innards of the case laid out.

JPM, after F$ told me about the 450W PSU in your post I ordered one. It was delivered today. Looks good but didn't come with any paperwork. Since it has 2 rails I wanted to make sure I would hook it up right. Found this review while looking on the web. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...supply_review/
I'm glad I only paid $20 for it. It should be OK for a card with a low power consumption. I don't think I'll be putting one of my better cards on it and no OC'ing. That's for sure.

[Fire$torm]

JPM, after F$ told me about the 450W PSU in your post I ordered one. It was delivered today. Looks good but didn't come with any paperwork. Since it has 2 rails I wanted to make sure I would hook it up right. Found this review while looking on the web. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/...supply_review/
I'm glad I only paid $20 for it. It should be OK for a card with a low power consumption. I don't think I'll be putting one of my better cards on it and no OC'ing. That's for sure.

Harley,
I sorta have a bone to pick with that review. Let me say this first. I have a lot of respect for the people at [H]ardOCP. They do a great job of detailing their reviews and are very methodical.

Now to the bone. The issue I have with that review is that it is unrealistic in regards to real world application. It is primarily an auxiliary or supplemental GPU power supply. In this respect it is designed to power 2 mid-range GPUs like an ATI HD 4850 or a Single high end GPU like an ATI hd 5970.

So, 2 4850s will each draw 75W max as per the ATX specification for a 6-pin PCIe connector for a total of 150W. The ATX spec for an 8-pin PCIe connector is 150W max. The 5970 uses x1 6-pin + x1 8-pin connector. Thus the total amount of power that the card will draw from both PCIe connectors is......... 225W. This is exactly 50% of the ePower's "rated" output.

My conclusion is that this ePower PSU was never intended to actually run anywhere near 80% of rated, much less 100%. And if you review their data for all #2 tests (50% load tests) will see this is where the ePower unit performed best.

In fairness to [H]ardOCP, all other aspects of their review were spot on.

I may at some point in the future try and find a used unit and just rebuild it with quality parts, mainly the caps. I think the inductors and transformer should be fine.

[Harley]

F$, The 5970's are rated at 42w idle and 294w under load at stock clocks. I OC my cards pretty high and they are pulling closer to 400+w. I understand some of that power is comimg from the PCIe slot. However I don't think I trust this PSU to run my (not cheap) 5970.

[Fire$torm]

F$, The 5970's are rated at 42w idle and 294w under load at stock clocks. I OC my cards pretty high and they are pulling closer to 400+w. I understand some of that power is comimg from the PCIe slot. However I don't think I trust this PSU to run my (not cheap) 5970.

Oh I wouldn't blame you for not trusting it. If you are good with a soldering iron, ten bucks in caps would make that unit a decent auxiliary PSU. As is it can handle running system fans and such without issue.
BTW: The ATX spec for a PCIe slot is 300W max at 12V.

[Harley]

Oh I wouldn't blame you for not trusting it. If you are good with a soldering iron, ten bucks in caps would make that unit a decent auxiliary PSU. As is it can handle running system fans and such without issue.
BTW: The ATX spec for a PCIe slot is 300W max at 12V.

You can use this psu for more than just fans. I'm willing to use it on my 5770 with a slight OC. Which is probably what its going to be used for. I wouldn't use it for a high end card like the 5970. By the way thats why the 5970 are sold down clocked to 725, to keep them under that 300w threshold. I wouldn't use this psu to power 2 mid range cards either. The 5770 draws 188w under load. Two of them would push this psu into its danger zone. All in all I like the looks and the cables seem to be good but it should not be sold as 450w psu. Max I would rate it as is 225w. I really wouldn't want to push it much beyond that.

So anybody considering buying this psu be forewarned

[John P. Myers]

Actually, to test a PSU at 80% load isn't exactly fair, since no PSU, regardless of brand or type, should ever be used above 75% capacity. 50% is usually the sweet spot for efficiency on any PSU, not just this one. Also, it would have no problem powering 2 mid-range GPUs. For 2 GPUs, 150W of the total comes from the PCIe slot (75W per slot) itself, which is a large chunk of the burden this drive bay PSU doesn't have to deal with. It'd do just fine.

[Mike029]

I hope you don't mind if I join the discussion here and add my soon to be built rig. If it's a problem I'll move it to it's own thread later.
"Sleepy Puppy" is ordered and on the way. Here is the breakdown.

Case - Rocketfish Full Tower used
PSU - OCZ ZX Series OCZ-ZX1250W New
RAM - GSkill Ripjaw 4GB New
MOBO - ASUS M4A79T Deluxe New
CPU - AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition Callisto New (Hoping to unlock a core or 2)
CPU Cooler - ZALMAN 9500A-LED 92mm New
GPU (3) - Radeon HD 5870 2 New, 1 almost new
HDD - (2) Western Digital Caviar Black 500gb raid Used
DVD Drive - Lite-On used
OS - XP Pro Used

Will Dummy plug 2 of the video cards. Comments? I know I've said it already but want to thank everyone for their help and patience. I'll keep everyone updated.