600w Power Supply Enough?

[Eric_Cartman]

About to pull the trigger on part for a new build.

This isn't replacing my main rig, it is a secondary rig that I'll be using for all the usual taks as well as running several VMs.

System Parts:

AMD FX-8320 @ 4.2-4.4GHz
24GB DDR3-1600
AsRock 990FX Extreme9+
GTX 465
CX600
NXZT 210 Elite

Will 600w be enough?

 

[bonehead123]

In general, Yes.

But that GPU is well known for exceeding the mfgr's stated TDP (up to 200W vs its claimed 95W) in most cases, so perhaps a 700-750w psu would be better....

 

[peche]

700W 80+bronze PSU will be the excellent for that build...

 

[EarthDog]

A QUALITY 600w psu will be PLENTY for that build with some overclocking on both the cpu and gpu. Much more than that you are tossing money out the window. My suggested psu is the evga gs650.

Let's do math... 200w card overclocked is around 230w (power limits), the cpu at those speeds won't hit 200w. The rest, give that 70w..that is 500w IF EVERYTHING IS RUNNING FULL LOAD (stress tests/f@h etc)...if you do that stuff go 700w (I'd run it on 600w all day long, but a lot of people wouldn't for some odd reason).

The gtx 465 was always a 200w card btw...

24gb? That is an odd number...you should have 16 or 32gb, otherwise your 'odd' stick will run in single channel.

 

[Eric_Cartman]

A QUALITY 600w psu will be PLENTY for that build with some overclocking on both the cpu and gpu. Much more than that you are tossing money out the window. My suggested psu is the evga gs650.

Let's do math... 200w card overclocked is around 230w (power limits), the cpu at those speeds won't hit 200w. The rest, give that 70w..that is 500w IF EVERYTHING IS RUNNING FULL LOAD (stress tests/f@h etc)...if you do that stuff go 700w (I'd run it on 600w all day long, but a lot of people wouldn't for some odd reason).

The gtx 465 was always a 200w card btw...

So by your estimate I'll be fine with the CX600?

The eVGA GS650 is almost $100!

For that price I can get a Corsair AX850.

I think eVGA power supplies are just overpriced.

24gb? That is an odd number...you should have 16 or 32gb, otherwise your 'odd' stick will run in single channel.

8+4+8+4=24GB in Dual Channel.

 

[dparis1977]

600 watt is by far enough as long as its a good quality brand like corsair or evga...i run 2x HD7970 Sapphire Dual X in crossfire on a Corsair TX 750 watt PSU no issues.

 

[EarthDog]

A lot of the evga psus are arguably the best bang for your buck for high quality psus (supernova g2 line, and p2). The ax850 is nearly a 5 year old model, so I would expect it to be a lot cheaper now.

If you have the extra $20, I would grab the evga gs650 over the corsair. If not the corsair will be fine, it's just nkt as good as the evga.

8+4+8+4=24GB in Dual Channel.

I'm surprised that even works well/stable.

 

[peche]

I think eVGA power supplies are just overpriced.

agreed!

 

[EarthDog]

agreed!

You guys....

The EVGA G2/P2 products are arguably the best 'bang for the buck' Tier 1 PSUs out there. Compare the G2/P2 series to the Corsair AXi series and Seasonic brands. They are a TON cheaper and the same, if not better, high quality PSUs. If you compare it to lesser quality PSUs, sure, they are overpriced.... but you need to compare apples to apples.

If you are fine with a 2nd tier PSU (and you should be), there are many other cheaper PSUs out there. But for $20 more over the budget CX600, its a no brainer to me to get that GS650 honestly.

 

[RCoon]

I'm surprised that even works well/stable m
You guys....

The EVGA products are arguably the best 'bang for the buck' Tier 1 PSUs out there. Compare the G2/P2 series to the Corsair AXi series and Seasonic brands. They are a TON cheaper and the same, if not better high quality.

If you compare it to lesser PSUs, sure, they are overpriced.... but you need to compare apples to apples.

Managed to run some Beast 8+4+8+4 sticks OK about a year ago, then stopped, because the extra RAM was pointless for me.

That aside, I would always recommend a good EVGA over the CX600. Either that or one of the XFX XTR's, assuming you can still get hold of them these days.

 

[jboydgolfer]

i have that PSU in my current build, and it has run perfectly fine for 5 years, and I have run some pretty power hungry config's...if Thats how much money You have, go with the CX600, it is a very respectable PSU. if You have more money, then go for something a bit more expensive, but dont worry that CX is a good Psu.From Experience. although i HAVE recently purchased an EVGA G2 650 , and Holy hell if you have the $$ go get an Evga

 

[EarthDog]

Because experience makes a good PSU??? The only thing you can tell us, hell that I could tell you, from experience is that it works. One cannot claim a PSU is quality because it works. Most PSUs 'work', even terrible ones.

Only quality reviews (like here, JG, [h]) can tell one if a PSU is 'good' or not.

 

[bonehead123]

Well from my experience with the cx500 & 600, which together totals over 7 years of constant use, I feel completely comfortable recommending them to most people for use in most rigs....

Are there better psu's available ? Yes there are. Do any of them do anything special to warrant higher prices, other than run a bit cooler or quieter or with slightly less voltage variances ? Perhaps....but again, for most people running an average rig, the corsairs work just fine and they do it for a reasonable price IMHO....bit as always....Y M M V

 

[rooivalk]

I think nowadays we don't need to find which is a 'good PSU' since most (new) mid or high end PSU on the market is good. The rare bad PSU is the one we should know before buying.

See Jonnyguru PSU review site? as far as I know It's rare for them to give less than 8 (out of 10) in performance ever since maybe 5-6 years ago. Why do you need expensive 10-rated PSU when maybe 8.5-9 is full with highly rated PSU?
For example, in what scenario - performance/stability wise - an HX650 (supposed to be 'Tier 2') couldn't handle what an AX650 (a 'Tier 1') could. Must be very rare/extreme scenario if any.

 

[Jetster]

I'm sorry but bang for buck and tier 1 do not go together. If he wanted the best he wouldn't be going AMD for his CPU The Corsair will do fine

 

[EarthDog]

They sure do go together... it's all about the context Jet. Notice how I said 'bang for your buck tier 1 psu' which was shortly followed up by 'if you compare lesser quality PSUs, sure they are overpriced'. To spell that out, I was comparing it to other 'Tier 1' PSUs only. Again if you compare it against budget PSUs like the frighteningly mediocre but serviceable Corsair CX line, of course it is not the best bang for your buck!



Its up to the OP to decide if he wants to/can pay the extra $20 for a much higher quality PSU. The EVGA has a 5 year warranty versus 3 on the CX. The EVGA is also rated to 40C+ while the CX is only 30C for its full rated output. It is more than just voltage stability that should go into making this decision. Id pay $20 more for 2 longer warranty and a bit more peace of mind. But if it is not in the budget, it isn't.

 

[Bill_Bright]

A QUALITY 600w psu will be PLENTY for that build with some overclocking on both the cpu and gpu.

I agree. You did not say how many drives or fans but assuming a couple HDs and 3 case fans, 600W is plenty - if a quality supply. That said, Corsairs have not been living up to their reputation lately and sadly, the CX is their entry level line.

If the computer is running stable now, then fine. Otherwise, you might keep an eye out for sales.

8+4+8+4=24GB in Dual Channel.

I hope you mean the 2 x 8 is in one channel and 2 x 4 are in the other channel. That would enable dual channel. If an 8 and 4 are in the same channel and the other 8 and 4 are in the other channel, then you will still have 24Gb but probably not in dual channel mode. That said, dual channel did not prove to be the rock star all the hype suggested it would be. It helps, but certainly did not double performance.

I don't see why others are surprised that is stable. That motherboard is a high end board and that matters. I've seen many users start out with 2 x 4, then add 2 x 8 and run fine.

 

[EarthDog]

It could be several HDD and 9 case fans and it will still be ok... HDD's are nothing, even at spinup... Fans, unless they are high end deltas, are a few watts each. That said, I did not mention it because it wasn't relevant. Thank you though for filling in those details.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Well, I disagree about HDs being nothing. Many 3.5" hard drives consume up to 9 watts when just spinning at idle. And when starting up, some draw over 30W!!!! So if many, it may tax an already taxed PSU. The 2Tb WD Black, for example, consumes 9 watts when reading or writing. But I highly doubt the OP has that many here.

Sources:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-771434.pdf
http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/storage/hddpower.html

 

[EarthDog]

My idea of nothing was not 30W!! I have seen 10-15W before, and knew 5-9W for write operations.

That said, at startup, your GPU isn't running full tilt, neither is the CPU (in my experience, my gaming load is 2x the startup loads), so there is plenty of headroom still available for several HDD's spinning up at 30W each upon boot. Surely we can think of exceptions though... for example, If I'm running a several drive RAID0 array that is 'sleeping' and while stress testing my PCU and GPU at the same time something decides to access it and the drives spin up and I get a 150W power suck...

Something else to note, that article (the last one) was from 10 years ago... I'd imagine typical consumer drives can use less power on startup. We see minor drops in writes and such too.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Well, we'll have to wait until Eric_Cartman to come back and fill in the blanks with facts and not speculations. But I agree and I don't think we have to worry about extreme cases and 30W HD draws today.

But still, this being a "secondary" computer, it could have 5 or 6 drives and a bunch of fans that could draw an extra 50W at start. My "secondary" computer has 6 older drives in it I use for backups and music serving.

BTW, at boot my i7 3770 pushed to 4.1GHz, does indeed get pushed hard. I see this in my CoreTemp readings that nearly touch 60°C when Windows boots, then quickly settles back down to the mid 30s (on my OEM cooler, btw ). The GPU works a bit while handshaking with both monitors, but nothing like the CPU.

And regardless all that, I think most people would be surprised at how little their system draws most of the time. In fact it irritates me when I see monster PSUs recommended when half the size will do. Another reason for folks to get a "good" UPS with AVR is the better UPS have display panels and apps that tell what you are consuming.

As I noted, I have a mildly pushed i7, and 2 x 8Gb of RAM, SSD, HD, wireless router, modem, 4-port switch, a decent graphics card and TWO 22" monitors connected to my UPS and currently, while typing this, I am drawing just 147 watts. Turn off one monitor and I am down to 107W.

 

[EarthDog]

But still, this being a "secondary" computer, it could have 5 or 6 drives and a bunch of fans that could draw an extra 50W at start. My "secondary" computer has 6 older drives in it I use for backups and music serving.

Like I said, at startup it wouldn't be a concern.. look at an ever-so-accurate Kill a Watt and see. It doesn't come close to gaming loads, none the less stress testing loads.

BTW, at boot my i7 3770 pushed to 4.1GHz, does indeed get pushed hard. I see this in my CoreTemp readings that nearly touch 60°C when Windows boots, then quickly settles back down to the mid 30s (on my OEM cooler, btw ). The GPU works a bit while handshaking with both monitors, but nothing like the CPU.

Yep, CPU gets kicked a few times on boot, no doubt. But again, GPU is barely doing anything so there is a ton of headroom.

And regardless all that, I think most people would be surprised at how little their system draws most of the time. In fact it irritates me when I see monster PSUs recommended when half the size will do. Another reason for folks to get a "good" UPS with AVR is the better UPS have display panels and apps that tell what you are consuming.

No doubt!!! People FLIP THEIR LID when I tell them I run a 5820K at 4.2-4.4GHz with a 295x2 and a 750W PSU (3 HDDs, 2 SSDs, 8 fans, pump). Now, when I overclocked that 5820K to 4.8GHz and pushed the 295x2 to its limits, I officially hit a bit OVER 750W ACTUAL use (subtracted my 90% efficient PSU from the value on the KaW).

The problem with people getting a 'good' UPS with AVR and reading power use off it is..............

As I noted, I have a mildly pushed i7, and 2 x 8Gb of RAM, SSD, HD, wireless router, modem, 4-port switch, a decent graphics card and TWO 22" monitors connected to my UPS and currently, while typing this, I am drawing just 147 watts. Turn off one monitor and I am down to 107W.

People flip when its higher than it should be because they look at that and think their PSU is powering their monitors and everything else that is plugged in and has nothing to do with what the PSU is powering. But, I am being a bit pedantic there... I get your point.

 

[Bill_Bright]

and think their PSU is powering their monitors and everything else

True. And some people think a PSU will deliver what it is rated at at all time. They don't understand the PSU will deliver what the computer demands of it, not what the PSU is capable of. And the PSU will draw from the wall only what the computer demands, plus a bit extra for PSU inefficiencies.

So you get questions like, "will too big a PSU hurt my computer". I say, "no, only your wallet".

 

[Frag_Maniac]

About to pull the trigger on part for a new build.

This isn't replacing my main rig, it is a secondary rig that I'll be using for all the usual taks as well as running several VMs.

System Parts:

AMD FX-8320 @ 4.2-4.4GHz
24GB DDR3-1600
AsRock 990FX Extreme9+
GTX 465
CX600
NXZT 210 Elite

Will 600w be enough?

Yeah that PSU is enough, but "new" build? Why not use more like 8GB RAM and get a GPU that isn't ancient, many of which would only require 500w. There's better ways to spend the money.

 

[Jetster]

Even with hard drives taking 10w its only 5v so its still insignificant unless you have a bunch