Enough Power?

gillmanjr

gillmanjr

Member
Guys, I'm just about to upgrade my rig with a few things and wanted to see if you guys think my current 550W power supply is going to be sufficient. When I put this setup into NewEgg's PSU calculator it comes up as recommending 530W, but obviously that doesn't include my case fans, which I have four of + fan controller. What do you think?

Gigabyte UD4H mobo
Intel i5-3570k (which I will probably run stock or overclocked to about 3.8 GHz at most)
EVGA GTX680 4GB which will be driving a 1440p monitor so it will be overclocked
8GB Gskill Ripjaws
LG DVD-RW drive
Intel 80GB SSD system drive
WD Raptor 500GB game storage drive
Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM drive
2x 140mm case fans
2x 120mm case fans

btw the PSU I have is a 550W OCZ Fatality modular 80+. If I need to upgrade to a 750W I guess I will because I may be throwing a second GTX680 in this rig in a few months and the 550W definitely wouldn't take that. But I'd rather wait so i hope the 550W can handle this setup for now. Right now the rig has an i3 and a Radeon 7870 in it and the PSU is fine, but I am more worried about going to the i5 and GTX680. Thoughts?
 
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johnb35 said:
No, 550 watt will not be sufficient. I would recommend getting this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

If wanting modular then get this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
Click to expand...

I appreciate the recommendations but upgrading to a 650W would be stupid. If I am going to upgrade now I am going to make sure I have enough overhead for adding a second GTX680 down the road, 650W wouldn't be sufficient for two of them. If I upgrade now it is going to be a 750W.
 
Actually if you were going slibthen you would need more like an 850 watt or so. But what do you do that requires 2 680's in sli? I would just get the top of the line single card.
 
I found another PSU calculator...

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Has anyone ever used this? It is much more detailed than the one on Newegg and accounts for all possible system components. When I plug in my setup above it comes out to less than 500W required. Even with the i5 overclocked and running at 4GHz and 1.4V it still comes in at less than 525W. Maybe my 550 is enough for the time being....?
 
The problem being is that the 550 watt psu only has 450 watts on the 12v rail total and you don't want to run more than 80 percent of the total watts on the psu. And you are way over 80 percent which would be 360 watts.
 
Gill, I would listen to John. I have a very similar build to you with a GTX 670. I went with the Corsair 650 Modular. I understand that according to all the PSU calculator sites you don't need that much, but as John already said you don't want that much load. I originally purchased a seasonic 520 modular, but then returned it for a 650.
 
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