# a good psu calculator



## floydfan (Oct 18, 2006)

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php
here is a psu calculator that does not just spit out a bunch of added tdp values without any consideration for a real life load, and plus it gives out the amps needed for the 12v rail without charging a fee... what it recommends will run the system, but for safety instead of following what it rrecommends, add 60% to the max sustained gaming load value (30% aging, 30% overhead for efficiency), and that will be the required wattage (and amperage) for your next psu.


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## Rashiki (Sep 29, 2005)

Pretty limited for older components, but I suppose it would be nice for new stuff.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

it is to obsolete


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## floydfan (Oct 18, 2006)

too obsolete? please explain


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check the listings for the hard drives is an example


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## floydfan (Oct 18, 2006)

obsolete means old... incomplete is the word youre looking for... in any case, theres not much of a variance in hd power consumption, and the outervision one does not even let you pick models, which are current by the way, not obsolete. so i dont see how thats a point against it. the author did say he is still working on it, so the info will be more complete.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

the original one we used to use is also being updated the extreme.outervisionlite still remains the best one available at the moment


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## floydfan (Oct 18, 2006)

for a person buidling a new system, i dont see how outervision is better. this calc tells you the amperage, it lets you oc the video card as well as the cpu, and tells you other useful stuff like what ups to buy, and how the load will be distributed.


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## Kalim (Nov 24, 2006)

I've known about it for long, while it was actually in development TBH and the last I checked was in November '06. The author was meant to be updating and correcting some more values but never did so as initially meant. Way too many values are missing for most modern and older systems needed, aswell as options, extras and customization. 
For instance where do I put my 3rd, 4th and 5th fans different size 'n spec to first? Where do I add my custom watercooling pieces and CPU TEC? Where do I add my RAID drives and SCSI to RAID through PCIe 8x setups? Sound cards? Power hungry FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 attachments? A Physics card? Motherboard? NB/SB voltages? 3.3/5V requirements? It looks as if it was only meant to be a "personal community" project for now until improved. Too much more needed to be a recommendation yet.

One good thing is that it provides a +12V rating, a UPS rating and what you pull from the wall in contrast to what you efficiently use. Those were pretty good for the testing I did.

However, it does sometimes over rate *drastically* and doesn't seem reliable enough for general usage. Maybe for later on.

For example, I put in some standard figures that I expect would need a 800W PSU: my old system. It gave me a recommendation of a 1530W generic PSU. A generic PSU won't even tolerate 700W let alone more. The rest was fairly accurate, but if I add 50% to the 1kW decent branded PSU it suggested, that puts me back at 1500W whilst that is 700W overkill and not commercially available (yeah I know about the Ultra 1.6kW and the Thermaltake 1.5kW coming). Also when you have a system pulling 150W on the 3.3/5V combined, you need a PSU that can safely provide the right distributed amps on the +12V *ontop* of the 150W load simultaneously while still staying below 80% peak rated capacity. That calculation didn't account for it.

Thanks for letting us know. I think it's something to keep an eye on. :wink:


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