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What power supply does my pc need.

LrnzpKiller

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Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade my pc, that means i need a new power supply but i have no idea of how strong it needs to be

Pc when upgraded:

CPU: Intel i5-4670k @ 4.0 Ghz
GPU: MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4GB
RAM: 8GB DDR3
MotherBoard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
HDD: 1x 500GB, 1x 250GB

Fans: 5x 14 CM Led Fan, 2x 12 CM Led Fans, 1x 14 CM NON-Led Fan

I like to have a little bit more watts than i need to use for little future upgrades like SSD's or HDD's.
Anyone any idea of how much i need?
 
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550W gold rated for your system, you can run sli on 650W if you wanted to in future.
It probably uses around 400W at stock though.
Can't go wrong with a quality gold rated unit.
 

LrnzpKiller

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550W gold rated for your system, you can run sli on 650W if you wanted to in future.
It probably uses around 400W at stock though.
So if i take like 800 Watt i can add a second video card + some hdd's?
 
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So if i take like 800 Watt i can add a second video card + some hdd's?

800W is a waste of money. You could run triple sli on that. 550 for single GPU and OC headroom, 650 for sli and these hard drives you want in future.

Contrary to popular belief, PCs are extremely efficient. I see people running basic systems on 850W units and cry.
 

LrnzpKiller

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800W is a waste of money. You could run triple sli on that. 550 for single GPU and OC headroom, 650 for sli and these hard drives you want in future.
Than i'll go for the 650 watts, thank you :)
 
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i actually made a thread about this with incosistency between online calculators and what PC's use in person - my PC in my system specs games at 220W. A *quality* 650W gold rated PSU will run your PC with plenty of room to spare.
 
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Generally most psu calculators will run very high. The thing about power supplies is a quality 650W can outperform a crappy 800W one.

Things to consider:

Efficiency
Price
Warranty
Modular
Total wattage supplied(this does vary by psu manufacturer)

Also, remember that for most power supplies their efficiency curve is at 50% load. So going over is always fine. I'd suggest a Gold 750W PSU should you upgrade to a second video card.
 
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Emphasis on the "quality" part.
 
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@RCoon "Outer vision is the one I use"

yeah same as you , its the one I have used for years
 

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i actually made a thread about this with incosistency between online calculators and what PC's use in person - my PC in my system specs games at 220W. A *quality* 650W gold rated PSU will run your PC with plenty of room to spare.

The Outervision calculator recommends me a 538w PSU (480w minimum) which isn't a bad recommendation. You'd always want ~35% more than what you're going to use to account for component aging and to keep power consumption near 50% load where the PSU gives its highest efficiency.
 

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I just used the 'lite' version of the website you guys are recommending, and its definitely aiming quite high.

my system uses 220W gaming, about 350W max load (synthetic benchmarks) - i dont think i could make it break 400W under any circumstances, and thats with a PSU so old it doesnt even qualify as bronze.

For my overclocked PC, this website is telling me my PC uses more than double the power it actually does.
They're doing this so people dont grab a generic no name 60% efficient garbage 350W PSU and complain to them it doesnt work.


would i recommend a 550W PSU for this PC? yep. because it would use 550W? no.

*edited after checking link in my sig, i remembered a few wattages higher than they were*
 
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I just used the 'lite' version of the website you guys are recommending, and its definitely aiming quite high.

my system uses 220W gaming, about 380W max load (synthetic benchmarks) - i dont think i could make it break 450W under any circumstances, and thats with a PSU so old it doesnt even qualify as bronze.



would i recommend a 550W PSU for this PC? yep. because it would use 550W? no.
In fairness @EarthDog ran a 690 on a 550W PSU back in the day, components just don't use a lot of power at all
 
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The thing is that these calculators make up their data from manufacturer's datasheets and add them all up but when was the last time that you had a 100% load on GPU, CPU, had all your hard drives and fans spinning a maximum RPMs and every USB port drawing 500mA (apart from external drives I haven't seen a USB device that uses 500mA)? The standard load on the calculator is 90% and I doubt even that figure is feasible in real life scenarios.
 

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The thing is that these calculators make up their data from manufacturer's datasheets and add them all up but when was the last time that you had a 100% load on GPU, CPU, had all your hard drives and fans spinning a maximum RPMs and every USB port drawing 500mA (apart from external drives I haven't seen a USB device that uses 500mA)? The standard load on the calculator is 90% and I doubt even that figure is feasible in real life scenarios.

when i created a thread regarding real power usage of my PC measured at the wall, rest assured i did synthetic testing to crank that bitch to 100% in every way i could, and i repeated my testing on every PC i own to see if it was a waste to buy quality PSU's- i have a box literally full of cheap, shitty PSU's with only two quality corsair units - i got this 1000W PSU for $100 because it was missing a few of the cables, but i also ran this PC on a 430W corsair for a week with no issues before it became my primary PC.

the 1000W corsair, despite being only at 25% load uses less power at the wall than my fiancees 430W corsair and my spare PC's 750W corsair. Contradicts common opinion on the matter, simply because its a more efficient unit internally.
 

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The thing is that these calculators make up their data from manufacturer's datasheets and add them all up but when was the last time that you had a 100% load on GPU, CPU, had all your hard drives and fans spinning a maximum RPMs and every USB port drawing 500mA (apart from external drives I haven't seen a USB device that uses 500mA)? The standard load on the calculator is 90% and I doubt even that figure is feasible in real life scenarios.

It's like what Mussels said. They know that plenty of people buy garbage PSUs so they pad the wattage needed just like GPU manufacturers do just to be on the safe side.
 
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yeah but there's a lot of data that we don't know where they are taking it from. For example, what's the voltage used in the RAM calculation? 1.65v? 1.6v? 1.5v? Binned CPUs and GPUs that operate on lower voltages would skew the calculation even more. The minimum recommendation seems to be spot on for what I would suggest.
 

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oh god, in that wall of 'things the voices in my head are telling me' i forgot my point:

My PC uses :love:00W in almost every situation i can throw at it, with no game i've tested even passing 250W.
That website says it should be using ~550W.

If you go by common logic that you want to aim for 50% load for maximum efficiency, that website suggests i need a 1000W PSU (which i ironically have, shut up).

In reality - and i've confirmed this personally - a quality but not even 80+ bronze 430W PSU did run this PC with plenty of power to spare. Hell if i could get a platinum 350W, i'd take that bet.


edit: 2am. words hard.
 
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oh god, in that wall of 'things the voices in my head are telling me' i forgot my point:

My PC uses :love:00W in almost every situation i can throw at it, with no game i've tested even passing 250W.
That website says it should be using ~550W.

If you go by common logic that you want to aim for 50% load for maximum efficiency, that website suggests i need a 1000W PSU (which i ironically have, shut up).

In reality - and i've confirmed this personally - a quality but not even 80+ bronze 430W PSU did run this PC with plenty of power to spare. Hell if i could get a platinum 350W, i'd take that bet.


edit: 2am. words hard.

That escalated quickly. I think the OP is just going to buy a 650 unit anyway :D hopefully a decent brand.
 

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A quality Bronze is a good thing for most people. I hope the OP buys a Corsair or Seasonic.
 
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