Justin said:
1 GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro
ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX
Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #:GA-E7AUM-DS2H
Item #:N82E16813128363
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
$129.99 $129.99
1 Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
Processor Model BX80571E7600
Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
Processor Model BX80571E7600 - Retail
Model #:BX80571E7600
Item #:N82E16819115059
Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
In Stock
$144.99 $144.99
2 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
3.5" Internal Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
Model #:WD2500AAJS
Item #:N82E16822136113
Return Policy:Standard Return Policy
In Stock
$44.99 $89.98
Integrated graphics. No video power to speak of. My standard rating
for the motherboard plus RAM, is 50W. This is a "placeholder" number,
because there is too much variation in design style, to work it out
with any precision. The 50W comes from some or both of the 3.3V and 5V
rails. If it all came from 3.3V, then the 20A number would handle it.
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro
Core2 Duo with Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 65W. The actual processor
can be much better than that. For example, my 65W E4700 draws only 36W max.
We'll call it 65W anyway. The Vcore converter near the processor socket,
is 90% efficient, so 65W/0.90 = 72.2W at the ATX12V 2x2 square power plug
input. Dividing by 12V gives roughly 6 amps. This is the only load on
the 12V2 power supply rail.
Intel Core 2 Duo E7600 Wolfdale 3.06GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
Hard drives have become better in some respects, and worse in others.
At startup, the hard drive can draw 2.5 to 3.0 amps from the 12V rail,
for the first 10 seconds. Power drops to about 0.6 amps once the spindle
is up to speed and the heads load. The 5V rail on the controller draws about
1 amp.
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM
The optical burner draws 12V @ 1.5A and 5V @ 1.5A, according to the
"boiler plate" value on different brands of drives. I've measured my
current optical drive, and it uses 12V @ 1.0A at full speed. I didn't
bother to check the 5V value. Some other kinds of burners, like
Bluray, may draw more current than this.
The first step of the calculation, is working out the 12V1 and 12V2 currents.
We already know the 12V2 is 6 amps, and that is to power the processor.
12V2 = CPU = 6 amps (a 130W processor would double this to 12 amps)
12V1 = HDD + ODD + fans + video_card
= 0.6 + 1.5 + 0.5 + 0 = 2.6 amps
Obviously, if a video card is added later, the current on 12V1 will be
higher.
Next step, is a total power calculation. Total power includes the 5V rails
of the optical drives, which haven't been accounted for yet. 10W is included
for +5VSB loading (to support some USB devices). The motherboard 50W will be
included at this point (50W covers the RAM sticks, which can be a couple watts
each, and perhaps a 30W chipset and assorted goodies).
System_power = ((6 amps + 2.6 amps) * 12V) + (USB) + (motherboard) + hdd_+5 + odd_+5
= 104.4W + (10W) + (50W) + (5W) + (7.5W) = 176.9W
So in principle, a pretty low power supply could handle the build without
a video card. Even if a 72W video card was thrown in, the power is
still pretty reasonable.
*******
So if I select a supply, to satisfy a build without a video card,
I can get something like this. Seasonic is the company that started
the 80% efficiency supply business, as near as I can recollect. They
introduced double forward conversion (whatever that is). One of the
sticking points of some of their first designs, were one of the 3.3V
or 5V rails only delivered about half the rated power before they
began to droop. I don't know if that is still an issue with them or
not.
SeaSonic SS-400ET 400W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.91 80 PLUS Active PFC Power Supply - OEM $51
+3.3V @ 20A, +5V @ 20A, +12V1 @ 17A, +12V2 @ 17A, -12V @ 0.8A, +5VSB @ 2.5A
<----- 130W max -----> <------ 360W max ------->
<------------------------------------- 400W max -------------------------->
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151061
Your computer build, without video card but using the built-in 9400,
is not going to be a challenge for that supply.
Seasonic build their own supplies. Corsair, on the other hand, would contract
out, like Antec does. So now let's compare the Corsair.
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W $55
+3.3V @ 20A, +5V @ 20A, +12V @ 30A, -12V @ 0.8A, +5VSB @ 2.5A
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008
The Corsair ties the 12V1 and 12V2 together internally. The 30A limit
is 360W, just like the SeaSonic. In a way, they're almost identical.
If you get your rebate, the Corsair might be a bit cheaper.
One difference as well, is the Corsair has more reviews to read. And
if I read enough of them, I can see the Corsair has some DOA reports.
On the SeaSonic, there aren't enough reviews to know for sure. On a
different model of SeaSonic, I can see DOAs as well.
I like supplies with relative clean review records, and I'm not
finding a winner right now. So the two above are good on price.
But I can't find anything which is outstanding on quality.
I saw a Fortron that might have been good, but there were
zero reviews for it. Without reviews, it is hard to tell
if it is a winner or not. Fortron designs precisely to spec,
so if the specs allow a certain level of crossloading, that
is exactly what you'll find. On some of the low end
Fortron supplies, the cables are short, so some builders
have trouble cabling things up. But otherwise, a Fortron/FSP/Sparkle
would be another good bet. Fortron build their own supplies.
Paul
And it uses a Core i7 processor