wat, wat, psu do i need?

[ste2425]

ive a good brand psu in mind but i dont weather 500w or 400w would be best and there is quite a big proce difference, so basicly the quick question is would 400w be sufficent for my rig as is? maybe with a slight cpu oc

 

[sneekypeet]

IMHO no! Stock maybe, but not with an OC.

 

[CounterZeus]

If it's a good 400W psu, it should be enough. But it's safer to get a good 500W one.

 

[mlee49]

Sure a quality brand 400W psu will be fine for you set up as is. Question is, is it worth more to you to have a better PSU for future upgrades? Even a Corsair 620W TX is a good choice for multiple vga's in the future.

 

[ste2425]

Sure a quality brand 400W psu will be fine for you set up as is. Question is, is it worth more to you to have a better PSU for future upgrades? Even a Corsair 620W TX is a good choice for multiple vga's in the future.

ill never be going multi vga but say i went i7 an hd5XXX series would even 500w be enough then?

 

[erocker]

The last piece of hardware in your case you want to go cheap on is the PSU. Buy the biggest and best you can now.

 

[Sasqui]

I'm seriously maxing out my Hiper 580w now. From idle @ about 290w, then playing Dirt2, including monitor and sound system, I get up to 620w - the peripherals account for about 75w. I've been shopping for something more!

 

[erocker]

I'm seriously maxing out my Hiper 580w now. From idle @ about 290w, then playing Dirt2, including monitor and sound system, I get up to 620w - the peripherals account for about 75w. I've been shopping for something more!

Damn! My system doesn't pull more than 500W from the wall!

 

[slyfox2151]

The 500 watt psu will be more then enough as long as its a good brand.

im currently using a 500watt antec with 51 amps, more then enough for a dual core @ 4.1ghz and overclocked GTX260.

if i had to guess id say it would be pulling somewhere around 320-400 watts from the psu @ MAX load

 

[slyfox2151]

I'm seriously maxing out my Hiper 580w now. From idle @ about 290w, then playing Dirt2, including monitor and sound system, I get up to 620w - the peripherals account for about 75w. I've been shopping for something more!

well if you remove the monitor, theres 60 watts.... sound system... could be anywhere from 30 - 150 watts+ without knowing what it is. your system is likely pulling 450 ish from your PSU (not from the wall due to effiency)

Edit
oops double post

 

[CJCerny]

You'll never need more than 400w or so unless you are running SLI or more than one CPU or a ton of storage. If you're a minimalist and only have 1 CPU and 1 video card and one hard drive, 400 is more than enough than you'll ever need. Quality is important, though. I run a Q9550 and a GTX275 on a 450w Corsair without any issues whatsoever. Power requirements are shrinking in newer hardware, not rising. Die size sees to that.

 

[Sasqui]

Damn! My system doesn't pull more than 500W from the wall!

Yea, It's a LOT. And you've got 5850's in CF!

well if you remove the monitor, theres 60 watts.... sound system... could be anywhere from 30 - 150 watts+ without knowing what it is. your system is likely pulling 450 ish from your PSU (not from the wall due to effiency)

Tonight I give myself something to do - finally plug the Kill-A-Watt to the PC only and run Dirt2. I've had it covering the entire system, including Router, ViOP & Cable Modem on UPS - that only pulls 40w total, but the monitor and speakers are another story.

I'd seriously like to know the efficiency of the Hiper R 580w, I have no doubt it's around 70%, so there's quite a bit right there.

 

[sneekypeet]

And once they start to get old, you have to consider capacitor aging as well.

Efficiency isnt a loss of power from the PSU to the components, but the amount of power from the wall the PSU actually uses of the 100% sent from the outlet. SO a 70% efficient PSU wastes 30% of the delivered energy from the wall and turns it into heat while still providing values similar to the rated specs.

 

[ste2425]

ok guys cheers ill get the 500w instead, i realy crnt afford any higher

 

[zithe]

ok guys cheers ill get the 500w instead, i realy crnt afford any higher

What model is it?

 

[Mussels]

Damn! My system doesn't pull more than 500W from the wall!

my system uses 450W at the wall, with two 4870's (furmark + linpack)



One thing to remember is that cheaper, less efficient PSU's actually use more power at the wall - i dropped 30W power consumption (90W to 60W) swapping from generic to OCZ gameX on my media PC when i first built it.

 

[MKmods]

This may seem silly but I would pass on a 500 watt PS (I have had REALLY REALLY bad luck with every one I had, (Ultra, OCZ, Coolermaster and Seasonic)
I have 400 watt PSs that have worked great with OCd x2 6400(3.7ghz) and dual 9600GTs also OCd(2300Mhz)
(the 400's I used were passive cooled ones and very $$ from NorthQ and FSP)

If there is any chance you may upgrade go for a 650 like a Corsair and avoid the future headaches.

 

[slyfox2151]

my 500watt antec psu is doing just fine in my system , have had it for 4 years now i think... maybe 5?


just make sure u get a decent brand PSU and not a genaric or low quality.


Antec is an okay brand, seasonic, corsair being exelent options to get.


even thermaltake arnt the worst... had 2 of those blow up due to power surge on separate ocasions but would still use them for the price.

 

[MKmods]

Antec gave me a couple PSs (550s)to use in my mods back in the day and they worked fine. However a LOT of the newer PSs are not as well made as before (like you old Antec 500)

I had 2 500 watt Seasonic 500 PS's die with very small loads on them just a couple mos ago as well as an OCZ (which the company was trying to unload at up to 75% off reg price because they were such junk)
That dosent mean all of their PSs are bad just the 500s. Quite a while ago Ultra had 500 watt PSs they were selling for $9 and some were even free AR. 75% of them were DOA.

So like I said I would NEVER consider a 500 watt PS no matter what.

 

[ste2425]

its a OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU. i chose it coz OCZ was stated as a good brand on the psu guide stickied on general hardware. I no theres much better like corsair and i did want to aim for them but the price difference is too much here

 

[kurosagi01]

i would get the modular 450W corsair over the 500w ocz:
http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=27471
if you go on scan today offer its on sale for £52,better get it while they have the offer on or if you can pull out extra £10 you can get the corsair 550w and you won't need to worry about PSU again if your only going single gfx card.
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

 

[Mussels]

stealthXtreme 500W is the one OCZ i wont reccomend. it has 2x18A rails, when the 700W has 4x18

200W difference in their lineup, yet half the 12V amperage? doesnt sound right to me.

 

[ste2425]

stealthXtreme 500W is the one OCZ i wont reccomend. it has 2x18A rails, when the 700W has 4x18

200W difference in their lineup, yet half the 12V amperage? doesnt sound right to me.

i dont realy understand all that ampage stuff, and i apritiate that your opinion would be a little biased but pretty much would this psu be sufficient to run my rig? i understand you yourself or others may make different choices due to the fact you have more powerful/expensive equipment or just want the best so you can say youve got the best (not you personally mussels) but basicly will this psu be sufficient to run my rig safe?

 

[Mussels]

12V power is the one where most of the usage is in a modern PC.

Think of each rail, as its own PSU.

if a PSU has two 12V rails at 18A each, you can do the math (multiply volts X A to get watts) and find out it has 216W on each rail.

This is where my comment above comes in - while that may be 430W of power, if you need 217W off one rail - you're in the shit, as they cant share power between rails.

One rail with less overall wattage is the better choice in this case, as you dont run into complications in your build. (1x30A is better than 2x18A)

 

[kurosagi01]

i dont realy understand all that ampage stuff, and i apritiate that your opinion would be a little biased but pretty much would this psu be sufficient to run my rig? i understand you yourself or others may make different choices due to the fact you have more powerful/expensive equipment or just want the best so you can say youve got the best (not you personally mussels) but basicly will this psu be sufficient to run my rig safe?

Yes it would run safe but if you overclock your CPU it won't be same story,my 400w could probably run your rig fine,but like i said if you go on scans today they have the modular corsair 450w for £52 and the corsair 550w for £60 its your best bet.

Just like mussels said,if you 12v x 30Amps= 360W