PSU Question... Need quick response.

Your amperage looks like it's covered, you've got four 12v rails at 14-16amps which should cover the individual cards fine. I'm not up on Apevia but as long as they're a halfway decent manufacturer they won't have the PCI cabling all on the same rail.

Two concerns,

The efficiency on that card is a bit low at 80%, which means given the wattage across all your rails, you're pulling about 600w at minimum. Running two 4870's in crossfire (depending on brand, or if you put a passive cooler on there) will pull at maximum almost 580w. In reality, you're probably never really going to be maxing out everything across your system, so it's not a major concern, but you may want to consider getting something a bit more efficient or larger wattage (750+)

Also, looking at your connectors, that PSU has only 2 PCI-E connectors. Many of the 4870 cards require two 6-pin connectors each to power the card, so it may not have enough connectors (without adapters) to cover your needs.

If Newegg is doing a general PSU sale, you might want to try looking at Corsair or PC Power and Cooling as they make absolutely top quality PSU's at decent prices.
 
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Ratfire said:
Two concerns,

The efficiency on that card is a bit low at 80%, which means given the wattage across all your rails, you're pulling about 600w at minimum. Running two 4870's in crossfire (depending on brand, or if you put a passive cooler on there) will pull at maximum almost 580w. In reality, you're probably never really going to be maxing out everything across your system, so it's not a major concern, but you may want to consider getting something a bit more efficient or larger wattage (750+)

Also, looking at your connectors, that PSU has only 2 PCI-E connectors. Many of the 4870 cards require two 6-pin connectors each to power the card, so it may not have enough connectors (without adapters) to cover your needs.

If Newegg is doing a general PSU sale, you might want to try looking at Corsair or PC Power and Cooling as they make absolutely top quality PSU's at decent prices.
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480 Watt at full load of 2 4870's in crossfire... He will be fine. Idk where you got 580w for the crossfire... Plus they include the PCI-E connectors with the 4870's so that wont matter for the lack of plugs. Lastly, hes getting this psu in general because it is on sale and at that price, its a steal!

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/734/18/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-4870-x2-review-crossfire/6
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2330445,00.asp
 
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blizbiggy said:
480 Watt at full load of 2 4870's in crossfire... He will be fine. Idk where you got 580w for the crossfire... Plus they include the PCI-E connectors with the 4870's so that wont matter for the lack of plugs. Lastly, hes getting this psu in general because it is on sale and at that price, its a steal!
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Revised - I rechecked the wattage figures. At load you're looking at 480-500 and peak is closer to 530w. You also have to consider if you're running a quad core processor that could be pulling up to 165w plus whatever hard drives, fans, RAM and any other devices you're running. I'd still give yourself a little more headroom than this PSU has.

Getting PCI-E adapters may be an issue depending on what video card manufacturer you buy from. But as Bliz is trying to get at, this is a pretty minor issue over all unless you're planning on using all of your 4 pins.

And Bliz, I meant if this is a General PSU sale, not manufacturer specific, than he might want to take a look at some of the top manufacturers to get an even better steal :P
 
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Ratfire said:
Hmm. You're probably right with the wattage estimate, I just doubled the power usage for a single 4870, but I did say that it was probably a minor concern as you would really never get to maximum wattage on both cards in crossfire which your charts definately show.

Getting PCI-E adapters may be an issue depending on what video card manufacturer you buy from. But as Bliz is trying to get at, this is a pretty minor issue over all unless you're planning on using all of your 4 pins.

And Bliz, I meant if this is a General PSU sale, not manufacturer specific, than he might want to take a look at some of the top manufacturers to get an even better steal :P
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/agree

If there are more choices at similar prices, def try to find someone better. Reviews on this psu look good though so I say do it :)
 
You can get the 2 molex into 1 6-pin pci-e connectors and you won't need to worry about getting a psu with a thousand pcie connectors. SLi/CrossFire is complicated. I say get a 280 and you're done.
 
The PSU is definitely something you shouldn't skimp on when building any kind of performance PC. I'd go with a good quality PSU like Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Antec, Cooler Master, or something similar. You want good reliable, clean power and cheap power supplies can cause all kinds of issues.
 
s14sh3r said:
The PSU is definitely something you shouldn't skimp on when building any kind of performance PC. I'd go with a good quality PSU like Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, Antec, Cooler Master, or something similar. You want good reliable, clean power and cheap power supplies can cause all kinds of issues.
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agreed, two things i say to never skimp on when doing a high end build is the psu and the mobo. they are the foundations of the rest of the pc, everything else can end up being upgraded.
 
You can buy what you want, but Apevia is very low end stuff. Their PSU's are made by a company named YoungYear and it's hard to find reviews of them. Why is that? Because low end manufacturers don't like to send products to be tested and reviewed. Sure, it looks cool, but Apevia PSU's have poor regulation and can be downright dangerous to your rig. A bargain PSU isn't so much a bargain when it goes out, taking your motherboard and possibly other components with it. Anyone who tells you to buy a cheap PSU for any kind of gaming rig isn't very knowledgeable about building computers.
 
s14sh3r said:
You can buy what you want, but Apevia is very low end stuff. Their PSU's are made by a company named YoungYear and it's hard to find reviews of them. Why is that? Because low end manufacturers don't like to send products to be tested and reviewed. Sure, it looks cool, but Apevia PSU's have poor regulation and can be downright dangerous to your rig. A bargain PSU isn't so much a bargain when it goes out, taking your motherboard and possibly other components with it. Anyone who tells you to buy a cheap PSU for any kind of gaming rig isn't very knowledgeable about building computers.
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Very nicely put! I agree
 
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