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o_deadly furby
01-12-2007, 12:21 AM
2000W power supplies appear
CES 007 Hair conditioning

By Theo Valich in Las Vegas: Wednesday 10 January 2007, 08:46

Graphics cards are constantly demanding more and more juice, and the levels at we are looking now are pretty much unbelievable.

While the microprocessor industry learned its lesson about bleeding power like a stuck pig, the graphics boys are still living in a dream bubble that power levels won't be reached.

Since 80nm and 65nm graphics chips are approaching fast, there is general concern how much power next generation graphics chips consume, given the fact that the PCIe Gen2 standard will give an additional 75W, or 75x4 = 300W. If you want a multiple graphics chip configuration, you will require at least 1000 Watts at 85% efficiency.

Engineers at ULTRA and OCZ Technology worked hard on this conundrum and the final results are being launched this CES. Forget about 1K or 1100 Watt power supplies, 2000 watts is now the measure of brutal power for computer components. So these power supply units (PSUs_ have power spec equal to small air-conditioning units and just mention that the approach of these two companies is totally different.

http://www.theinquirer.net/images/articles/CES_2000W_OCZ.jpg
Size does matter...

The guys at OCZ essentially placed two 900W PSUs inside a huge external box which connects to the small box which will be installed inside the case. Modular approach resulted in enormous amount of cables for the components, so even connecting two motherboards should not prove to be a problem (or a motherboard and a rail for the external dual graphics box, but we didn't told you that).

http://www.theinquirer.net/images/articles/CES_2000W_Ultra.jpg
...but technique is important as well

ULTRA took a different approach, putting a single chassis system with separate power elements for the 12V, giving out 150 Ampers of power for the components that ride the 12V rail. There is also one small issue for US households. Since the electric current is specc'ed at 15A per socket, US users will have to use two power cables in order to get the PSUs running. In Ol' mother Europe, things will be fine... for the time being.

Although it may not seem so, both PSUs will give their owners a hard time while placing the PSU inside (or outside) the case. Ultra's 2K is around twice the size of regular PSUs and pretty much require a spatious case in order to fit in, while OCZ will take the room on your desk if you don't put it on top.

Judging by the size of OCZ monster baby, it seems that a review of these monster 2K power supplies will require a separate components category

mervaka
01-12-2007, 12:38 AM
BRUTAL! i think bl4h needs one.

o_psycnet
01-12-2007, 12:57 AM
Geezus...and I thought I was overkilling for a few years when I bought a 700watt :/

o_nuk3m
01-12-2007, 01:12 AM
BRUTAL! i think bl4h needs one.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! no he will need two of these bad boys and nitrogen cooling

o_broodingdude
01-12-2007, 01:25 AM
If it draws the same as a small airconditioner... huh... I have two large ones in my house (18,000 BTU's each)... damn that power bill would suck.

o_duffmanhb
01-12-2007, 01:31 AM
umm does anything really need this much power? Why get it now if your just planning for the future? SHouldnt you just wait until hardware would require something like that, and it wont be as large and im sure it would be cheaper too

o_broodingdude
01-12-2007, 01:38 AM
umm does anything really need this much power?
Yer mom's vibrateh.

o_duffmanhb
01-12-2007, 01:41 AM
Yer mom's vibrateh.
actually since the power bill was so high last month, i think she had to go out and buy a more energy efficient model.

o_|404|innoc-tpf-
01-12-2007, 03:18 AM
Man and I was laughing at the 1 kw PS featured in the new PCGamer... So much for more energy efficient PC's...

o_soundchaser
01-12-2007, 03:25 AM
that's like having a 2000 watt conair blow dryer on consistenly...wtf.

i would only use it for gaming...then turn the pc OFF after playing.

you'd be making lots of arabs very happy when you get the electric bill.

o_jinx
01-12-2007, 03:29 AM
that's like having a 2000 watt conair blow dryer on consistenly...wtf.

i would only use it for gaming...then turn the pc OFF after playing.

Yeah, no shit. I leave my PC on all the time, that electric bill would be awful. You'd need two PC's, one for everyday stuff and one for gaming and hardcore stuff. Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer to boot a PC than an XBox, so that would get annoying as well when you wanted to boot that thing up to play a game.

o_a boojum snark
01-12-2007, 03:34 AM
I'm not as well versed in electrical knowledge and PSU hardware as I would like to be, but if I remember correctly, isn't 2kW just the maximum the unit can supply, not constant? If the hardware in the system isn't running full blast sucking down the power, the PSU isn't going to be magically using up the leftovers.

o_jinx
01-12-2007, 03:47 AM
I'm not as well versed in electrical knowledge and PSU hardware as I would like to be, but if I remember correctly, isn't 2kW just the maximum the unit can supply, not constant? If the hardware in the system isn't running full blast sucking down the power, the PSU isn't going to be magically using up the leftovers.

True, but I think that even the "idle" will be significantly more than most current systems...? Also, when we upgrade the OS... since Vista uses the video card more just for the OS and is a resource hog, the processor and video card will be running more than usual even when the PC isn't being used. Maybe this is why it's causing issues for laptop power consumption?

o_|404|innoc-tpf-
01-12-2007, 03:50 AM
I'm not as well versed in electrical knowledge and PSU hardware as I would like to be, but if I remember correctly, isn't 2kW just the maximum the unit can supply, not constant? If the hardware in the system isn't running full blast sucking down the power, the PSU isn't going to be magically using up the leftovers.
You're correct...HOWEVER...if you are running hardware that is going to require that you have a 2 kw PS it's going to be drawing alot of power anyway. As has been posted in other threads use 60% as your efficiency factor. Assume that your system uses 250 watts when it's running hard (which is not a hard number to reach) then when you factor in the 40% lost to conversion inefficiency you're going to draw approximately 415 watts at the input to the power supply. Now, add a 2nd video card (read: paperweight) for another 75 watts and that 325 watts becomes 540 watts. See? Start making the CPU's gobble more power and we have to have faster RAM which will have bigger and bigger pathways and draw more power....and you can see that we're facing an energy crisis quickly. It wasn't so long ago that we were seeing power supplies in systems that were less than 200 watts.

Something has to give. We need new technologies to carry on the momentum of Moore's law without requiring a 50 amp circuit being run directly to your pc.