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Posted by: CostlyAxis
The 508 Watts was the recommended number, but I added in the aging factor and got a number similar to yours. Still, that's a very conservative estimate given I'd like to account for the worst that both GPUs use their maximum output (170 Watts), along with headroom for just about everything I can throw at it.
(Given my luck with electronics breaking on me through normal usage I'd rather have the headroom. On my previous tower I ran 650 Watts and I couldn't plug anything into the front USB ports without shorting the tower out. After upgrading to 750 Watts on that system I never had that issue. Call me stupid/insane all you want for what may/may not be coincidence/other factors.)
Though I'm still failing to see why you're calling Newegg's calculator useless. It simply generalizes things more while giving a more generous number. (Which I think is better than short selling)It's not a conservative estimate, it's probably pretty dead on. IVB chips aren't exactly power hungry (though pushing them up to 1.30V at 4.7GHz will give you a power draw of around 185W), though at stock voltage you're talking more like ~130W at max load.
Even taking maximum voltages (and bearing in mind your storage system probably uses less than 15W of power combined), you've still got a comfortable overhead. The GPUs will almost never use 170W. Ever. They run out of system cooling before they run out of voltage. They're rated to take 170W, but they'll never hit that figure.
The reason I dislike the Newegg one is because it encourages overly powerful PSUs. You ideally want the right PSU for the build, and if you're under utilising the PSU you don't use it efficiently. So, your build having a 1050W PSU is probably overkill and a half, and 750W would probably have been a better bet. A nice AX-750, say. People buy more power than they need rather than trying to buy a good PSU worth keeping for several years.
Nvidia recommend 500W because they don't want to under recommend. If you don't know the specifics of a build, you generalise in the right direction. Their figure is arguably too high, but it's probably a fair generalisation.
As far as the front panel USBs go, unless something similar happened when you plugged things into the rear panel, it's probably poor build quality leading to a sudden spike in power draw. The actual USBs only draw 5W of power max, and if it could crash your computer at idle, it's probably not you being too close to the power requirement.
Oh, actually. Depending on the PSU, it may have simply been overloading a single rail. Modern PSUs of quality are single rail, older PSUs were quite often multi-rail (and so are really, really high wattage PSUs, ~1250W), and so while it may have been a 650W PSU, it would have had, say, 6 rails of 108W each or something. In this instance, the front panel would have been powered off a molex connector, quite possibly one used for the system fans and other bits?
[Edited on 08.17.2012 12:49 PM PDT]