Well power supplies don’t seem to have changed much. People are still using ATX connectors and so forth. In fact I have a relatively quiet 750W ATX power supplly around somewhere from five years ago and it seems like it should work. But Tom’s Hardware and SilentPCReview.com did a overview of the issues there which are getting an 80 PLUS certified power supply which is more than 80% efficient ranging up to 80 PLUS Platinum which is 90% efficient. Thermaltake has a calculator that makes it simple, the system we are building burns about 640 watts
- Most systems are about 634 watts at peak load plus a 25% buffer for a enthusiast system so a 850 watt thing should be good.
- They liked the SeaSonic X-760 as the expensive model at $200 and is modular so you don’t have to have a zillion cables sticking out looking ugly.
- FSP Aurum 700 as the budget choice at $120.
- SilentPC likes the SeaSonic X-1000 for being super quiet and probably not a bad idea if we ever go to more graphics cards.
- Kingwin LZP-1000 Platinum is completely silent at up to 500 watts so pretty cool. They think the whole LZP line is going to be great with models at 550, 750 and 850 watts.