Is a 750w PSU (825w peak) Suitable for "GT200" 9900GTX SLi?

[Jon]

I currently have a PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad 750w and a single 9800GX2 in my rig. Over summer, I plan to upgrade to an EVGA 750i FTW and Step-Up my 9800GX2 to a 9900GTX and then buy another one separate. The question being, however, is if the new GT200 architecture will have low enough power consumption that I could run a 9900GTX SLi setup without any issues. Does it seem probable? Also, I was wondering if this efficient PSU would even be able to support two 9800GX2s despite its 825w peak. My rig runs at around 230w idle, so correct me if I'm mistaken. Thanks in advance.

[fwoot]

How much other hardware do you have?

[Jon]

current specs:

Abit IP35 Pro v1.1
*Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650
EVGA GeForce 9800GX2
4GB (4 x 1GB) Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR2 8500 @ 940MHz 4-4-4-10
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad 750w
2 x Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB (1.5TB RAID0)
Creative X-FI Fatal1ty Professional / Logitech G51 5.1 Surround
Vista Ultimate x64 / XP Professional SP3


Planning to upgrade motherboard to EVGA 750i FTW and overclock CPU to ~4.50GHz

[fwoot]

Koay my friend had the same cpu as you but was running on an X38 Asus P5E3 Deluxe board with Corsair 4Gb Dominator XMS2-8500 1066MHz 5-5-5-15, 4T of storage and 2 raptors in raid 0 and a logitech Z-5500 Digital setup all running on a CoolerMaster Real Power M700 700w. As soon as he decided to take his cpu ut to 3.8 and replaced his XFX 8800 Ultra with a stock Asus 9800 gtx he had immediate issues. I don't know if he got a dud power supply or the power phase on his mobo is dicey but he's been waiting 2 weeks for a replacement power supply under warranty as some of the 'capacitors were weakened under load' or so says the email that he got back from cooler master support team. Or he could have just need a bigger psu caus he no problems before and to make matters worse for yourself most people are predicting the GT200 chips to be even hungrier due to the amount of awesome they'll produce.
only time will tell 

[Eliot]

I currently have a PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad 750w and a single 9800GX2 in my rig. Over summer, I plan to upgrade to an EVGA 750i FTW and Step-Up my 9800GX2 to a 9900GTX and then buy another one separate. The question being, however, is if the new GT200 architecture will have low enough power consumption that I could run a 9900GTX SLi setup without any issues. Does it seem probable? Also, I was wondering if this efficient PSU would even be able to support two 9800GX2s despite its 825w peak. My rig runs at around 230w idle, so correct me if I'm mistaken. Thanks in advance.

Before the cards are not out, I would not speculate on the power-consumption. The 750i draws more power compared to P35/P45. Due the fact that one card could only draw 225W, two of them are 450W, a 750W PSU should be suffice.

230W idle? WTF? I guess you have an older E-series CPU? You may try to enable EIST


best,

Eliot

[Jon]

I currently have a PC Power & Cooling Silencer Quad 750w and a single 9800GX2 in my rig. Over summer, I plan to upgrade to an EVGA 750i FTW and Step-Up my 9800GX2 to a 9900GTX and then buy another one separate. The question being, however, is if the new GT200 architecture will have low enough power consumption that I could run a 9900GTX SLi setup without any issues. Does it seem probable? Also, I was wondering if this efficient PSU would even be able to support two 9800GX2s despite its 825w peak. My rig runs at around 230w idle, so correct me if I'm mistaken. Thanks in advance.

Before the cards are not out, I would not speculate on the power-consumption. The 750i draws more power compared to P35/P45. Due the fact that one card could only draw 225W, two of them are 450W, a 750W PSU should be suffice.

230W idle? WTF? I guess you have an older E-series CPU? You may try to enable EIST


best,

Eliot

Um, the QX9650 is not old.  It's in fact one of Intel's new Extreme Edition CPUs, making it a reference point for anything else if EIST so happened to function better on any particular CPU.  It's also not an "E-series" CPU, it's a QX series 45nm Penryn Yorkfield quad core.  Back when I had my GeForce 6800 I was idling at around 170w.  You have to consider the significant increase in power consumption as a result of my 9800GX2 with two G92 cores, which is why 230w is considered fine for idle power draw.

How much more power does the 750i consume over the P35?  Does it have a more energy-efficient design for low / idle power states?

[Eliot]

Um, the QX9650 is not old.  It's in fact one of Intel's new Extreme Edition CPUs, making it a reference point for anything else if EIST so happened to function better on any particular CPU.  It's also not an "E-series" CPU, it's a QX series 45nm Penryn Yorkfield quad core.  Back when I had my GeForce 6800 I was idling at around 170w.  You have to consider the significant increase in power consumption as a result of my 9800GX2 with two G92 cores, which is why 230w is considered fine for idle power draw.

How much more power does the 750i consume over the P35?  Does it have a more energy-efficient design for low / idle power states?

I do not consider 230W as "fine" - I can do a QX9650 with an ATI HD3870 below 100W, so *I* consinder the gfx-card and the board as crap... EIST is unimportant to the new CPUs, they do their power-savings on their own.


best,

Eliot.