psu load reduction tricks?

AussieBear

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So, i put in a best offer on another r7 360 for 60 AUD and the guy said he will accept it once he gets home. So, if he isnt full of shat or doesnt get a better offer by that time, its mine.

Now, i need to find ways to combat psu load. Ive never had the need to reduce power usage. But by adding a second card to this system i may be hitting near max psu load. going by some random psu calculator ill be pushing roughly 440w at full draw - it recommends a 500w psu at minimum.

My PSU is a 475w bronze hpz oem that would require a modded adapter to fit an aftermarket psu. It currently only has one 6 pin connector so i will be using a evga dual 4 pin molex to 6 pin adapter on the second card.

The R7 360s are rated at 100w TDP. Through MSI Afterburner i can limit card power by 10% without seeing a reduction in performance. I will be trying trixx to see how that works as well, because msi AB has a compatibility issue with fallout 4. anytime i use AB, fallout 4 wont run.

What other ways can i nerf the power usage from my system?

My cpu is a 6 core xeon w3690 rated at 130w. ive rarely seen it pushed in any games and i doubt all 6 cores would be needed in that situation for now. I wouldnt know how to turn off cores, never had to. I cant even remember if my stock hpz mobo bios will let me.. hmm maybe i should go look at it.

Any other ways of reducing a few watts used here and there.. even if its just 5w.

Why am i pushing my system.. because its old and im cheap. i dont care about the life of the psu. this pc will be replaced eventually. just trying to suck everything i can out of it before i have to. i wish i had originally bought the rx 460 to try and xfire.. but im not buying two of those.. even used they still run around 100+ aud.

If power draws becomes an issue, ill sell both r7s and replace them with a 1050 ti or 1060 3gb. the ti is 75w i think. while the 1060s tdp is roughly 120w i want to say.. saving me roughly 80w vs CF R7s.

i could probably sell the pair for 150-180 and that'll leave me a few bucks short of a 1050 ti that sell for around 2 hundo. new r7 360 still sell for 115-135+ aud.

or ill keep both card for my sons eventual pc and aftermarket psu.
 

Crystallas

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Power supplies are still one of the least understood parts by system builders(the kind of understanding where they claim to know 100%, but actually have been guessing luckily the entire time). People think it's black and white math, but it's actually a load grade not rating + load efficiency. Some PSUs handle more than their rating just fine, except there is no way to know without building another tool to test the loads. It's actually much more stressful to run on a series of power-saver modes on a 500w PSU, but only draw 80w total(which a lot of systems can do) for long periods of time than run 1:1 on the PSU rating. That is where most people run into failures on cheap PSUs, on the low draw.

That being said, I also don't want to mislead anyone into thinking their 475w PSU is going to be okay at 475w loads. HP is not an honorable company when it comes to component wear durability. If you have an HP PSU with ~50,000 hours cycled, there's a good chance the actual load capabilities have degraded both on low and high. There are other makes and models that are rated at 500w but will run for a decade on a 600w load, and some highly praised 600w PSUs that will die in a few months on a super low 100w draw. Hence why actual electronic engineers roll their eyes or cringe every time they read some review of a system, and see the builders would buy some pricey 80+ plat 1100w PSU just for headroom on their 300w built, because it will no longer come close to that plat efficiency and wear down considerably fast. Anyways, that's a side-vent of mine.

Honestly, just run it and see. Monitor temps on the PSU itself by hand. The thing will simply fail 49/50 times if you are truly overloading it. That 2% chance it catches fire and burns down your home while you sleep isn't something anyone should concern themselves with.
 

Monsieur Tirets

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you can get a good psu for like $40-50 new (after some shopping around) so why not just do that?

otherwise try underclocking the cards.
 

AussieBear

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Power supplies are still one of the least understood parts by system builders(the kind of understanding where they claim to know 100%, but actually have been guessing luckily the entire time). People think it's black and white math, but it's actually a load grade not rating + load efficiency. Some PSUs handle more than their rating just fine, except there is no way to know without building another tool to test the loads. It's actually much more stressful to run on a series of power-saver modes on a 500w PSU, but only draw 80w total(which a lot of systems can do) for long periods of time than run 1:1 on the PSU rating. That is where most people run into failures on cheap PSUs, on the low draw.

That being said, I also don't want to mislead anyone into thinking their 475w PSU is going to be okay at 475w loads. HP is not an honorable company when it comes to component wear durability. If you have an HP PSU with ~50,000 hours cycled, there's a good chance the actual load capabilities have degraded both on low and high. There are other makes and models that are rated at 500w but will run for a decade on a 600w load, and some highly praised 600w PSUs that will die in a few months on a super low 100w draw. Hence why actual electronic engineers roll their eyes or cringe every time they read some review of a system, and see the builders would buy some pricey 80+ plat 1100w PSU just for headroom on their 300w built, because it will no longer come close to that plat efficiency and wear down considerably fast. Anyways, that's a side-vent of mine.

Honestly, just run it and see. Monitor temps on the PSU itself by hand. The thing will simply fail 49/50 times if you are truly overloading it. That 2% chance it catches fire and burns down your home while you sleep isn't something anyone should concern themselves with.

so whats this 2% chance?

btw dude accepted and its coming.. doubt i get it before the weekend but next week 4 show.. but like ya said, plug it in and just run it i guess.

guess ill finally get to learn about crossfire.. hopefully its not too annoying.. i will only use it for certain games anyway.. would be nice if more dx12 games started programing for dual vram stacking.. it would be a sweet bottom tier set up.. but im not sure if these dx12 future benefits also require win10 or not.

you can get a good psu for like $40-50 new (after some shopping around) so why not just do that?

otherwise try underclocking the cards.

because i need a modded adapter for the hpz mobo to run a aftermarket psu. they are dirt cheap but from an engineers perspective, which i dont have, idk how that'll affect the mobo???? whether ill just blow the board or not is beyond my level of expertise etc etc. so rather than mess with that, i left it stock. if i had an aftermarket mobo, no worries. but if im spending on a mobo/psu for this rig. i might as well buy new current shat while im at

there was a hpz 400 600w replacement for this mobo but i cant ever come across one.
 

Crystallas

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I see two/three questions.

The *main* reason why a PSU might catch fire due to overloading is more due to heat. Heat will cause something to melt and lead to a short. The heat can also be hard to notice and hard to pinpoint.

About Crossfire, hey, get it out of your system. You're going to be disappointed most of the time.

About an adapter.
Power comes in the form of voltage regulation. So if the board uses features found in common ATX standard PSUs(so as long as your board doesn't require a -5v rail, which I haven't actually seen since ISA), then all the adapter cable does is cross over the pin-out to match one standard with the other. A passive adapter, so to speak.
 

AussieBear

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I see two/three questions.

The *main* reason why a PSU might catch fire due to overloading is more due to heat. Heat will cause something to melt and lead to a short. The heat can also be hard to notice and hard to pinpoint.

About Crossfire, hey, get it out of your system. You're going to be disappointed most of the time.

About an adapter.
Power comes in the form of voltage regulation. So if the board uses features found in common ATX standard PSUs(so as long as your board doesn't require a -5v rail, which I haven't actually seen since ISA), then all the adapter cable does is cross over the pin-out to match one standard with the other. A passive adapter, so to speak.


im ok if crossfire disappoints.. just looking for a slight boost in a few games is all. if i can get that slight boost im after for 60 bucks then cool.. if not, ill sell the pair to some other sucker wanting to find out.

im not sure if it requires a -5v rail. i had remember reading something about the z200 requiring some sort of mod aside form the adapter not to fry the board long term. i dont recall what it was about, but it was some engineer selling the mod. im unclear about the hpz 400s

i have a pic of the psu in question though.. i dont know what you can tell me from it. guess ill research the mobo more later tonight when i have the time.

img_0214-jpg.161551
 

Crystallas

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Delta is one of the best power supply companies out there. That doesn't mean you wont have issues. Nor does it mean it's one of their higher end models. But if it were me, I'd have a little more faith.

FSP/Fortron/Sparkle for my money makes the most reliable PSUs on the market (especially when used correctly). They also have cheapo lines too, so you have to compare price point/features like anything else. Then I would have Delta and flextronics in that second tier. HEC and CWT maybe in the third tier of PSUs that are still very good/generally safe. Efficiency and ultra clean rails are another thing, but you can have clean rails(meaning if it has a 12v draw, it's not 13v or 11.5v, but a 12.1v or better) and get rated 80 titanium, but die after a year of use.

People think Corsair, Thermaltake, EVGA etc make their own PSUs. Yeah no. They're all rebrands (many FSP and delta) with maybe their own pretty housing and/or fan.


Bottom line, you should be glad it's not Super Flower, Enhance, LiteOn based or another brand known for slipping mountains of counterfeit components into the factory.
 

Monsieur Tirets

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i thought super flower was widely considered on of the best psu makers.
 

Crystallas

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i thought super flower was widely considered on of the best psu makers.

Maybe they're okay if you choose a proven model or one of the high end designs. But here we're talking about INDAS (information never disclosed at sale) from whatever prebuilt system OEM. And when it comes to contract units found in random systems, I've found a lot of counterfeit parts to ever rank them highly. And when it comes down to needing some predictability out of something, genuine components are very important.

Last year I fixed a blown SF PSU because they #1 used a suspiciously fake looking Nippon CC cap, but to add insult to injury, put a QC check sticker on top of the vents to hide a small leak. Who does that, and not just one bad day, this seems to be the kind of shady shit they pull as the norm, even now. They do wire management with scotch tape, hide their cheapest components so they are out of sight. Fuck no I'm not going to sit here and say they deserve to be in some top tier. That's BS you see out of a popup factory in Shenzhen. A top tier wouldn't have a single strike against them, but here I can name 3 serious concerns off the top of my head. I don't even bother harvesting from them, because I can never be sure if the parts are genuine.


My mindset with PSUs, is not what is great when new. Then you can do the whole Car and Driver review approach where impressions and initial tests sell the car. Features are not important either, because I don't buy into the idea of a one-size fits all solution. So I'm glad we have sites that actually review new units, some know a little more than others, like a johnnyguru is nice, but subjectivity comes into play. Even in 2017, IDGAF if a PSU is modular or not. To me if I have $100 to spend on a PSU, I'm going to get the best performance out of some set price, not something that helps with cable management. It's like RGB lighting, let the kids bother with that BS, the grown ups can put that money to better use elsewhere. It's subjective, but when it comes to being top of the line for reliability, then it's not subjective because reliability doesn't care. Or when it comes to fan control, that is a feature. Same shit with new cars that make no sense if you think about having to maintain some obscure feature 10 years down the line. IMO a good PSU can last many systems at near peak efficiency. That extra $15 to the $100 PSU for a modular cable feature and fan control can buy me a PSU with an upgraded quiet running fan and higher efficiency rating and/or better model with better components. So I definitely have a different view when I rank components.
If I go into a PC graveyard to pull parts, I know what has the best track record and that is not always the same result when fresh off the assembly line and into a reviewers hands for their 'editors choice', thumbs up, 4.99/5, etc.
 

AussieBear

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Delta is one of the best power supply companies out there. That doesn't mean you wont have issues. Nor does it mean it's one of their higher end models. But if it were me, I'd have a little more faith.

FSP/Fortron/Sparkle for my money makes the most reliable PSUs on the market (especially when used correctly). They also have cheapo lines too, so you have to compare price point/features like anything else. Then I would have Delta and flextronics in that second tier. HEC and CWT maybe in the third tier of PSUs that are still very good/generally safe. Efficiency and ultra clean rails are another thing, but you can have clean rails(meaning if it has a 12v draw, it's not 13v or 11.5v, but a 12.1v or better) and get rated 80 titanium, but die after a year of use.

People think Corsair, Thermaltake, EVGA etc make their own PSUs. Yeah no. They're all rebrands (many FSP and delta) with maybe their own pretty housing and/or fan.


Bottom line, you should be glad it's not Super Flower, Enhance, LiteOn based or another brand known for slipping mountains of counterfeit components into the factory.

i figured it was a decent psu, but i didnt know delta was considered really good. i just knew the components in the hpz were good when researching before buying it. i wont be purposely stressing the set up. the only time ill turn it on is when playing a handful of games. a few games in my backlog have good to excellent statuses via wiki http://amdcrossfire.wikia.com/wiki/Crossfire_Game_Compatibility_List and then i will test some i have that arent rated.

60 aud is a fair price to check it out.. if it were a penny more i wouldnt have bought it.. at 60 aud i can easily relist it and sell it the same day. i could make 10-20 profit if its all that too
 

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