Do i need to upgrade my power supply if i...

[StevenCarroll]

my system right now.

500W power supply
320 gb western digital HDD
4GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
Core 2 Duo Conroe 2.13 Ghz
2x Nvidia 7600 GS 512 mb



im looking to upgrade my processor and my vid card.

processor to a 3.0 or better ghz core 2 duo
and video card to a 8600GTS i think.

i will be upgrading the processor first so, will i need to get a new power supply do you think. im going to before the vid card anyway...but im curious if i can get away with buying the processor first and not worrying about anything failing to work.

any thoughts?

 

[Ripper3]

I run my system on a 430W PSU, look at sys specs, the older Athlon X2s have higher TDPs than the C2Ds, so it should be fine.
My graphics card is also overclocked, so some OCing on both CPU and GPU should be fine with that GPU.

If anything, I think a dual 7600GS system might take more power than a single 8600GTS, they're pretty low powered (they have the PCIe power connector as an option, since it needs 71W, which is to cose for comfort to the 75W max of the PCIe slot itself)
If that 500W is a quality PSU, you may be able to power something like an 8800GTS as well.

 

[btarunr]

Depends a lot on your mobo. The 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo you're planning to buy, is the E6850. This CPU has an FSB of 1333 MHz. So if your board uses an Intel P965/G965 etc, you won't be able to use this chip. Get yourself a P35/P31 based board first. For two 8600 GTS cards you'll need at least a 550 W supply that's 80% efficient.

I agree with Ripper3 (below), the NForce 6x0i series will be able to drive a FSB 1333 CPU.

When two 8600 GTS cards in SLi are set in the 'load-balancing' mode, they draw more power than the sum of the power consumptions of two individual cards working in full-load. That explains 550 W, 80 % efficiency.

 

[Ripper3]

The 80% efficiency is about how much power it pulls, and outputs, it will output 550W, and if that's exactly 80% efficiency, the 550W output is 20% less than the input power.
So an 80% efficiency at 550W means it's pulling a total of 687.5W from the mains.

BTW, if 550W is the recommended minimum from NVidia, that's the recommended for using with a non-branded, or generic PSU.

The E6850 has 65W TDP, let's say the 8600GTS SLi'd, and with slight OC uses 160W total (meaning 160/12 = ~13A needed through 12V rail just for graphics). With the power requirements for the rest of the system being a rough 100-150W (I'd guess anyhow), and witha 50W minimum comfortable margin, for extra power, I'd say a minimum of 425W PSU would be fine, so his 500W, if from a good brand, would certainly suffice.

Hell, that may even be too high a calculation, my 430W supplies upto 19A on Rails 1 & 2, or 14A Rail 1, 13A rail 2 sustained, I'd be just about able to have 8600GTS (but I wouldn't really like to try).

Motherboard is fine, running SLi 7600GS means you're running an Nvidia chipset, if it's a 650i SLi board, you should be able to run a 1333MHz FSB CPU just fine.

 

[Woah Mama!]

A good solid, and rather cheap PSU is the ThermalTake TR2. The new revision of it has the cable management. I've always seen getting a PSU that is more then my PC would ever draw in output, therefor it puts less strain on the unit, which can lower heat, lower fan speed noise, and gives heaps of upgrade headroom. Whatever wattage PSU you get, just don't get a cheap one, they make heaps of noise, heaps of heat and they are not efficient.

 

[wtf8269]

Depending on what brand your PSU is, and what the amperages are. Assuming both of those are good I think it should be fine. Keep in mind that most of the time one 12v rail with very high amperage is often better than several 12v rails with mediocre amperage. I'm sure there are people that will argue with me, and that's fine, because I can't recall the articles from which I read this information from.

 

[Mussels]

my system in the specs on the right, uses 350W at idle and 450W at load.

Thing is, you use a 500W PSU on a rig like this for long periods of time, it'll just wear out faster than a 700W will, since its closer to its limits.

Quality brand, and a well cooled PSU matter more than the wattage i've ran an AM2 3800+ dual core with an x1800xl and 2GB DDR2 ram on a 200W fortron PSU for 6 months without issue, because i force fed a 120mm fan into the thing

 

[Woah Mama!]

Seriously, if you want a beefy power supply that is quiet and will power pretty much anything you can chuck at it try the 750W ThermalTake Tough Power. I've always found ThermalTake to make good quality products, great tech support here and I managed to get an exception on my warranty with my TR2 after what I think was caused by my hot water heater tripping the circuit and resetting my power board I burnt 4 pins on my ATX connection. No fault of the power supply, i had mistakenly broken my warranty label whilst cleaning it and they said they would cover my warranty no problem, awesome. I can vouch for the Toughpower, there is one in a mates rig and it's holding it so easily it's like it barely needs to take a heavy breath, so to speak.

 

[ghost101]

Depending on what brand your PSU is, and what the amperages are. Assuming both of those are good I think it should be fine. Keep in mind that most of the time one 12v rail with very high amperage is often better than several 12v rails with mediocre amperage. I'm sure there are people that will argue with me, and that's fine, because I can't recall the articles from which I read this information from.

Its because two 12v rails of 20A, does not translate into combined 40A available on the 12v rail unless the rails are fully independent. Very few PSUs actually have this.

Also, 40A combined is in reality good as a single 40A rail anyway unless you believe PC PnC promotional material. The multiple rail thing was originally introduced for safety reasons but has been marketed as something amazing.

Xbitlabs have very extensive articles explaining this.

 

[Namslas90]

Upgrading to the C2D is no issue. The issue is the 8800, and if you ever plan on going SLI.
You should look into a better PSU with the amps on the 12v Rails necessary for the 8800 (or SLI 8800's). Always buy the best quality PSU you can afford with more Watts than you need. As mentioned in previous post(s); the more power available, the less hard the PSU has to work to supply what the system needs - therefor more stable overclocks and less heat generated, less stress on PSU. If getting a dual (or more) rail PSU go for between 24-28 amp rails, if single rail PSU go for 40 or better.

 

[StevenCarroll]

hey wow...thankyou for all your help guys. certainly much more than i nedded.

i did forget the mobo spec...

its an Asus p5nSli should be a 650i that Ripper was talking about.

all the info was very helpful. thanks everyone.

 

[JC316]

I was running an E4300 and 8600GTS on a 550W with ease. It was only when I got my 2900 that I needed more.

 

[vega22]

I was running an E4300 and 8600GTS on a 550W with ease. It was only when I got my 2900 that I needed more.

i know the feeling, im back with my 76gt as the 88gtx makes my 570w so hot i can fry eggs on its housing

i runs ok (just warm ) as long as i keep my cpu under 1.4v but anything more and it crapps out on me. i guess i could drop a hd and a dvd rom and a fan or 5 but....

 

[Mussels]

i know the feeling, im back with my 76gt as the 88gtx makes my 570w so hot i can fry eggs on its housing

i runs ok (just warm ) as long as i keep my cpu under 1.4v but anything more and it crapps out on me. i guess i could drop a hd and a dvd rom and a fan or 5 but....

just do what i did and increase its cooling i had a PSU with an 80mm fan intake, and i attached an 80-92mm adaptor (and then a 92-120 lol) but the point was more airflow = cooler = more stable voltages,

I mod most of my PSU's with new fans, something like a panaflo on a 7v adaptor really gives them some kick.