I am looking to get a new PSU in the next few months. I currently current PSU make a high pitch noise when both of my graphic cards are running under load. It would not normal be a problem because the fan noise from GPU would hide it, but the problem for me is that I run a custom water cooling loop so no fans on the GPU. I have checked my power requirements and they come out at about 750W. I currently have a 850W PSU so there is just enough head room in the PSU, for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the PSU.
I have been thinking down the lines of a Corsair AX860i, but if anyone can give other ideas for a good PSU that would be great. I am also considering going up to a 1000W or so PSU, just for some future capacity for any upgrades.
Just to respond to your question about stepping up to a 1000W... Unless you're planning on doing something batshit crazy, I don't think you need to go that far. Most companies are trying to bring down the power consumption of their products. An 850W is plenty powerful.
I'm going to go ahead and assume that you're looking for fully modular PSUs?
I can vouch for Corsair being good, but I did have a crappy GS series unit with a noisy fan.
Thanks for the quick reply; I am looking for full modular they just make for a much clearer build. I agree with you on regards to component power usage going down but I am likely to added some more hard drive to the system and I have had problems before when hard drive would to start at start up because they were not getting enough power don’t want a repeat of that.
Giving a budget would really help. Seeing as how you seem to have a lot of money and tiem invested in your rig, I would assume that you are ok with spending a good amount of money. On top of that, I think you might want to get braided cables at some point (I personally like them, but money is too much of an issue for them to ever really be a concern). With that in mind, you should probably be looking at Corsair modular psus. They make it easy to get really nice braided cables (link below).Something like that HX850 (which is 80+ Gold) should be a good option. If you don't plan on ever wanting braided cables like the ones below, I personally like Seasonic (known for reliability) so something like the X-850 or SS-860XP2 would be a good option. With that said, I would have to check about who makes those specific psus, because it is possible that they are very similar or even basically the same (Seasonic often makes psus for other companies).
With regards to budget I don't really have one, I can say with certainty that anything over $450 I will not be buying. I also run my system hard almost 24/7, I run F@H. It is possible I will go with braided cables because they will work well with my build. I will look into the manufactures that you guy have mentioned.
If you are ok with spending this kind of money (I would consider it an investment, seeing as how you already use a lot of power, and psus are most efficient somewhere around 50% of their max load), you want braided cables at some point (sticking to Corsair for that), you plan to keep this machine on 24/7 (high efficiency for lowering electricity costs and overall heat output of the unit meaning something like 80+ Gold or Platinum would be preferable), and you want to keep noise down (that is a problem with your current psu and means that you will want a good quality one that will last while), I say that you might want to consider looking at the AX1200i. That comes with a 7 year warranty and the option of easily getting some individually braided cables. The biggest problem with this psu is the price ($330). For a good bit less (~$230), you can get the Seasonic Platinum-1000. Both are fully modular, both have a 7 year warranty, both give more power than you will need for a while, and both are 80+ Platinum. The biggest difference to my eye is the ease of getting the braided cables that Corsair offers (do note that the Seasonic comes with very nice sheathed cables). I don't know too much about cable braiding, so there might be some alternative for Seasonic psus, but this is what I can give you.
P.s. Most people will try to talk you into getting a lower wattage psu because you don't really need the extra watts. That is completely accurate. However, since you have a very high end build and don't mind spending the extra money, and might need the extra power later on, I say better to have and not need than need and not have.
I have had a look at the Seasonic Platinum-1000 and the prices difference between the AX1200i and the Seasonic Platinum-1000 is only about $80. I live South Africa and the prices for high end hardware are high. I know people are going to try and talk me out of going so big. It will be a few months till I end buying because I am waiting till the price for the Corsair 900D to drop a bit and then I am doing a full system move.
What did you use to check your power requirements? A calculator, or a Kill-a-watt? Unless you're actually measuring your power consumption, and you're pulling some crazy fugking wattage, you don't need 700W.
8350 and 570 SLI? That's about 600W full load. If you have $450 to spend on a PSU for your rig, then get an Enermax Platimax 600 and MDPC-X sleeving. If you want a reasonable PSU, get something like a Seasonic X 650, Lepa G650, Corsoari HX or AX650, or something similar.
I am using eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite, I made a mistake when entering my CPU but it only drops the requarment by 50W, so it now says I need about 700W. I have three normal hard drives and one SSD.