Back-Ups BR900 and max power supply size

[Anonymous user]

Hi, I have a BR900 and want to upgrade my power supply. The UPS says is rated a 540watts and the power supply I'm looking at is the Corsair 520HX (520W). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

In the battery backup side of the BR900, I will have my computer, LCD monitor, DSL modem and a Vonage VOIP unit plugged in. I rarely max out the CPU unless I'm stress testing. Please help me figure out if this power supply will work as I finally found it at a good price.

Thanks

[BillP]

Hello:

I agree that your 520W power supply should never go even close to 520 Watts. 520 is of course the MAX that that power supply is capable of. Of course this depends on what components you have in it (number of CPU's, number of hard drives, disc drives, video cards, etc. etc.) as well as the load as you mentioned. As for the other devices, I would double check the max wattage of those as well; I would guess, though, that all of those other devices put together would be well under ~100W...probably less.

If you are just upgrading the power supply in your computer and no other components, you will see little to no increase in power draw.

With that said, in my personal opinion, this unit should be plenty to support what you have. Just to give you an example, my home PC has a 450W power supply and actually normally draws under 100W. Again, this does depend on exactly what is in your PC, though, as well as exact wattages of your other devices.

Hope this helps!


Thanks.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for your reply CMFR. According to APC PowerChute, my system idles at 118W and I think it loads at around 250W. It's a Q6600 quad core which I have overclocked to 3.0GHz at stock volts. I was wanting to eventually go higher and add a better graphics card. Currently I'm using an Nvidia 8500GT.

I'm really thinking that the 520W power supply might not work now as it has Active Power Factor Correction. The PDF in the link below says a high wattage power supply with active PFC might not work with some APC models. I would like confirmation on this though as the article is a little technical for me.
http://www.apcc.com/prod_docs/results.cfm?DocType=App%20Note&Query_Type=3&Value=23

My current power supply is an Antec EarthWatts 380W and I have a feeling it's keeping me from overclocking further. I've been waiting for the 520W power supply to go on sale for a long time so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. The sale is over in about 6 hours.

Thanks

Edit: According to this page which live chat pointed me to, It might not work. http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8883

Message was edited by: balloonshark

[BillP]

Sounds like you got some fun plans for this system! Being somewhat of an overclocking fan myself, I hope you have some hefty cooling!

Relating to your question, though, that is the exact article I was about to post, until I finished reading. 😉 That article sums the issue up pretty well. If you do end up upgrading your power supply, though, and would like a UPS that will definitely support that Active PFC power supply, you could look into something from Smart-UPS line (excluding the Smart-UPS SC line, as the aforementioned mentions). Perhaps the SUA750 or the SUA1000. These units output a pure sine wave all the time, with a much faster transfer time (2-4ms).

If you decide to eventually go for that, you can save a few bucks on a new UPS if you trade in your current one; more info here:
http://buy.apc.com/commerce/storefronts/tradeups/tradein.aspx?storefrontcode=apcetu&countrycode=us&l...

Let us know if you've got anymore questions about all that, though! ...and let us know how everything works out with your PC. I wish you the best with the overclocking!

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

The Q6600's do get a little warm :). For cooling I'm using a Xigmatek HDT S1283.

As far as the UPS goes, it appears that I will have to stick with my current PSU and 3.0GHz overclock for a while. The UPS models that you suggested are nice but they are out of my price range. I just bought my BR900 this year to compliment my new (first build) computer so it will have to last me a while.

Thanks for you help and your time. Your are real champ!

Regards,
balloonshark