Im currently running my machine on a 750w TT Toughpower PSU and I already have a feeling I'm running close to the line on power- now I want to add another drive and overclock my already power hungry machine.

Although the specs of the Toughpower series read out nice enough (all this key3 spirit nonesense), I've been informed that Thermal Take is a brand to be avoided for PSU's destined for over clocking.

SO.... with everyone upgrading all over the place someone might be going for something silly like a 1200w- in which case I'll buy your spare if over 800w just so I can get this drive in!
Although I'm considering a 1000 myself if only for upgrade potential. Can anyone in retail do me a deal on an Antec?

Or am I being silly and is 750w fine for another HD? (currently:- Q6600, 4gb RAM @ 2v, 2x 8800GTX, 500gb sata2, P5N32-E sli plus m/b)

ill have your old psu if its still in good nick and your looking to get rid of it oc

If I get a new one u got first dibs mate.

Actually looks like a nice PSU to me- the website does make it sound better than their other range which is meant to be a bit chod.

Wish there was a program that did a stress test on your power requirements- I dying to know how much (if any) power Ive got to play around with.

i know there are some programes that go with certain psu's, i saw it in a psu review on ocuk

tbh i'd say you got more than enough power

drives dont suck that much juice (or do they?)

i got 5 running in mine, no probs at all.

An overclocked quad core on an nvidia board with dual overclocked 8800GTX Ultra gfx cards will though! He forgot to make a point of that part! Its not the drive that'll tip him over on power, its those bloody graphics cards and his "need" for a 50% overclock .

The power supply's with the monitoring software are the Gigabyte Odin range - Pro version has modular cables GT version normal cables. Good quality but a tad overpriced, plus the software is just a gimmick tbh.

Indeed the cards I ordered with so much glee have caused as many tears as whoops of graphical joy!

The cards themselves are functioning fine... but you know when there's just something missing, a bit of untapped power.
Occasionally a game will even work better with one card. It's very hit and miss but some games have still been spectacular.


Maybe I'll fork out for a 1000w/1200w as i can use it for next years re-build.

Atm I'm also struggling to find a Heatsink that I know will comfortably fit between the mobo and (quite ridiculous) memory fins.

Maybe I should just post it to PiLsY with a few hundred quid and he can pimp my PC!

The thing with that is alot of games arent optimized for SLi or Xfire such as TF2 here the extra card draining power and lying there will make no difference exceptt lower performance a tiny bit where as games which are SLi supported will have something like 1.5 + boost or something

indeed- I spend far too much time in Nvcpl turning SLi on/off, fiddling with Alternate frame render, pre rendered frames etc etc...
Things like TF2 and anything on source just zoom along whatever I seem to do, thank god.

Also was worried with the new PhysX inclusive Nvidia drivers recently as it implied one card would run as the PhysX card in SLi. No thanks!

Thank god for Tweakguides!.... although even they dont usually offer alot of SLi support either.
Although hat's off to CoD4 which had a dual card option yonks ago.

On a good day you can look at 10%-20% improvement- if any at all. If not a loss!
Sometimes enough to just crank that AA up a notch or a few extra precious frames!

Just the one meaty card for me next time, when PCI-E 2. is standard ofc

My temptation would be to sell your second 8800GTX Ultra while they're still fetching good money and use the funds to buy a motherboard - the B grade ip35 pro on ocuk for example. You'll be able to keep your psu and overclock further and probably end up with a wodge of cash in your pocket. Then you can sell your old motherboard too ofc...

If you stick the 8800 Ultra on ebay for say £150 buy it now and allow making offers it should go pretty damn fast. Not great to take a hit on what you spent, but its gonna end up with you having a more suitable pc and money in your pocket too.

You could even sell both ultra's and buy a pair of 4850's or 4870's (or even a 4870X2) and run crossfire on the Ip35 Pro. Just a thought .