The Rig......... 

     Utilizing not just one, but two PCI Express power plugs, a single 8800GTX can pull 229 watts when idle and as much as 321 watts under full load. This will vary a slight bit from one manufacturer to another. Now lets put a pair of those cards together on an Asus Striker Extreme (NVIDIA 680i based) motherboard. I've installed a Xeon 3060 2.4 Mhz Conroe core CPU and overclocked it 3.4 Ghz by increasing the vCore to a mild 1.45volts. There are 4 DDR2 DIMM slots on the Strike Extreme and they are all utilized with matching sets of Super Talent DDR2-800 with 4/4/3/8 timings, but they need 2.1 volts to get them there. We'll put a pair of optical drives in the mix, one a dedicated reader and the other a Lightscribe capable Dual Layer DVD +/- R.  For hard drive storage, the Galaxy will have to satisfy a Western Digital Raptor-X. All of this in addition to the system cooling system.

     The case itself is cooled by three Antec 120mm TriCool fans, all turned on the Hi setting for maximum cooling potential. The CPU is cooled by a custom built water cooler with 18watt DDC water pump providing the flow, and a Thermochill 120.3 radiator with three Yate Loom 1.8 watt fans. The reservoir is a Danger Den 5.25 bay style decorated with two high intensity LEDs. Since the Striker Extreme has so many USB ports, during the test I decided to load them up to to put as much demand on the motherboard and the power supply that we could. A Kodak Easy Share camera dock charging a camera, a charging Zune, a charging PDA, a Logitech G-15 keyboard and G-5 mouse, and lastly a wireless joystick transceiver for a Logitech Freedom.

     What happens when we hit the switch? There is an indicator LED on the back of the power supply in addition to an internal buzzer that will alert you when something goes wrong. Or, like in this case, when nothing is wrong. When everything is working correctly you'll get to see a solid green light. Once I hit the desktop, I'm free to fire off a series of benchmarks that were sure to stress different components. Firing off a 3D Mark 2006 benchmark run with SLI enabled will surely make that pair of 8800GTX cards soak up some Amperage. Getting a DVD to DVD copy going with Roxio WHILE we're doing the benchmarks will help bring up the power demands a little bit too. Let's see what happens.

     The Results......... 

     With 1,000 watts available across all voltage rails, it wasn't expected that this Galaxy would be in any kind of trouble. Needless to say, that's why it was picked to be the foundation in this rig.

     Sure the wire management job isn't as clean as it could be, and an externally mounted radiator probably makes a few people cringe. More folks might also be wondering why the pair of 8800GTX cards aren't in the loop either. Even though the point of this article isn't about any of that, I will say that a pair of water cooling blocks for the 8800s are on the wish list. However, with the power supply mounted in the bottom of the Antec P180, it does make a good point. The Enermax Galaxy sure does make a solid and powerful foundation. With NVIDIA's announcement of the 8800 Ultra, the graphics market is only moving forward. Until we see a die shrink from NVIDIA, power requirements will also continue to rise. It's good to know we have a power supply readily available on the retail market to meet the demands. Many thanks to Enermax for making this project possible.

Innovation:	9.5 out of 10
Performance:	10 out of 10
Quality:	10 out of 10
Stability:	10 out of 10
Overclocking:	N/A
Software/Drivers Pack:	N/A
Value:	9.5 out of 10
Overall Rating 9.5
Project Skill Level (10 being most difficult)	4 out of 10