How many watts do I really need? (PSU)

[BackDraft]

Actually in my case the calculator was almost correct. It gives me 639W in full load and and my fan controllers' wattage meter gives me ~650W. That's quite accurate if you ask me, considering there are things missing from the calculator like GPU overclocking.
EDIT: Also BD, I'm not entirely sure but I think you missed something. The MB should draw some watts, too. After all it's something that requires a power connection and heats up to the point it needs cooling (the R4E chipset even has active one).

Consider this without the cold caths a 590 (which pulls more wattage at idle than the 690) and only 1 hdd and 1 SSD I pull 95W at load. NO performance tune. Load is 225W.

[ana3mic]

Best performance at 55 - 60% load right

With all quality PSUs difference in efficiency from 20% through 100% load is around 2-3%. But if a single % matters to you, in most cases it's best at ~50%.

[BackDraft]

Using quad SLI 580's in my 980X rig I could pull 1327 W and I have a 1500W PSU. So based on what you are saying I really need 2000W.

The reasoning behind this thread is to get the common misconceptions of bigger is better out of everyone's heads.

Throughout time we have been taught that bigger is better. Problem is that we have been spending extra money on PSUs for our systems that are over kill.

Sure we like to performance tune and that sucks up wattage. Think about this, purchase a similar prebuilt and all you will get is a 750W PSU. Why? Not because the manufacturer is cheap it's because they use what the system requires.

[0N8N0]

Using quad SLI 580's in my 980X rig I could pull 1327 W and I have a 1500W PSU. So based on what you are saying I really need 2000W.

The reasoning behind this thread is to get the common misconceptions of bigger is better out of everyone's heads.

Throughout time we have been taught that bigger is better. Problem is that we have been spending extra money on PSUs for our systems that are over kill.

Sure we like to performance tune and that sucks up wattage. Think about this, purchase a similar prebuilt and all you will get is a 750W PSU. Why? Not because the manufacturer is cheap it's because they use what the system requires.

Agreed sir.

[BackDraft]

I think we lost Ana3mic

[ana3mic]

Nooo, you're not that lucky . It's just that I've been sick the last few days, and still am but I feel better.

[BackDraft]

Glad your feeling better.

[phenom2]

Hey guys,
can you explain me what's the point to use a 1KW PSU with a normal system? Actually I'm using a 485W with a quad core and a 7850card. Would I waste energy with a similar system if I buy a powerful psu? In idle will it eat more power compared to this one? Of course I would buy it if i'm planning to do a crossfire (and i still don't understand its use...why not getting a 650 or 750w???)