PSU Enermax Liberty 400W PSU Vs E8500 + GTX 480! PhysX Challenge!

I had problems running an E8400 and a 560 Ti on a 750w PSU. Granted - it was craptastic but you might be pushing that little one to the limits. How old is it?

 

I had a Liberty 400w, sure the amps on the rails are really low, something like 25A, you'll have to check, so I'm thinking it won't run the GTX480!

 

Excellent point! I have 30 Amps on this Enermax PSU with dual 12v rail.

 

For you doubters I just ran a simulation using a GTX 260 that was at my disposal.

So in this rig I have an E8500 clocked to 4GHz with 4GB of OCZ RAM (1GB x 4!) cooled by a loop featuring a D5 pump at maximum flow rate that has two Delta FFB1212EHE 120mm fans at full speed, also with the GTX 260 at 100% on the fans. This is all housed on an EVGA 680i motherboard with hot running chipset and RAM! Stressed with both Prime95 and Furmark as below, the mains power draw peaked at 450W and is stable!



Only ran it for a few minutes because the Deltas make one hell of a noise! However I'm thinking that the GTX 480 might be in with a fighting chance of actually working on this Enermax PSU! I'll be adding some Phobya Nano 2G fans to my second RAD so will try it with the Deltas off on first attempt to save power.

 

470W with Xtreme burn on Furmark!

Now even for a GTX 260 where a 500W PSU is recommended, you have to admit that is impressive.

 

I'm surprised the PSU didn't say "**** this, I quit!" and shut down. That's either really good product design or really bad, I'm not sure which.

 

It was quite exciting waiting for the boom. Didn't happen though, guess the GTX 480 might do it!

Curiously this PSU does come with two PCI-Express leads; one is a 6-Pin and the other 8-Pin. So it's not like the PSU wasn't tailored to accommodate the power requirements of such a pin-out. Obviously when this PSU was built it had no idea a GTX 480 could exist. Need to check my records to see how old it is.

 

So I just checked and it was the first thing I bought from SCAN back on 13th February 2008 for the princely sum of £43.46. I remember now, the courier lost the original package so I had to contact SCAN who arranged for a second to be sent. It's been sitting in the family PC ever since with moderate use over the years. Now replaced with a Corsair CX500.

 

There's some really good deals on ebay recently for GTX 480.

 

Quick update on my plans!

I'm going to be removing the D5 Vario Pump, two Delta and also the two Phobya Nano-2G fans from the Enermax Liberty 400W PSU. I just bought an external 90W PSU that should be able to handle the power requirements for the pump and fans so my cooling apparatus will be apart from the Enermax PSU. It'll still be true to the original claim however! The little 400W Enermax will be powering the E8500 overclocked to 4GHz, 680i Motherboard complete with four 1GB modules a small southbridge fan, single HDD and also not forgetting the GTX 480.

 

It all depends how well the PSU can handle the high load on the 12v rails. My current Toughpower 775W is able to output 925W without causing any lasting damage, so it's quite possible that a good 400W unit can get to 500W.

When I had my GTX470 I was drawing around 450W at max GPU stress, so I think you'll manage.

 

Thanks for keeping the faith brother!

Knew I could rely on LennyRhys for my crazy plans! Also it involves Delta fans!

 

I'd keep an eye on that, the bridge alone us worth £30. I paid £250 for 2x 480s with full cover EK blocks and backplates, a stonking amount of power for very little cash.

 

Double post.

 

im running a i7 920 and a 570 gtx with lots of fans and a d5 on a 430w antec psu, its only temporary but works no worries.

 

^ It wouldn't work if you really stressed it, guaranteed - LOL

 

I reckon it will work fine until you stress both the CPU and GPU. You may be fine with the CPU under stress, but unless it's a single rail PSU you will have problems with lack of power when you stress the GPU.

I had a 600W PSU hooked up temporarily (in between blowing up a 1000W PSU and replacing with a new single rail 750W PSU), and could not stress my GTX 570 (with everything at stock) without the system shutting down.

Of course, now I have the 750W in there, everything is running fine - the only problem part now being the monitor connected to that system, which is actually a TV with limited range of resolutions. Gotta get a KVM (or monitor switch) so I can run test systems off my main monitor. The TV gives me an "out of range" error when I run 3DMark 11 - I need to sort that out, as the system was built for testing and benching GPUs