New psu

niunit

Member
I'm looking to get a new psu because my current extreme 600 is a very poor one I have been told. I want to know how many watts I need. I'm looking at the corsair 650w 80 plus bronze or the 550w verison but I don't want to waste money (energy related). I currently run a i5 3570 3.4 gb 16gb ram ddr3. 1tb hard drive. gtx 950. no overclocking of any kind.

Also there is the fan that would be pointing up (north) to my video card which has its fan pointing south. there are probably a few inches apart. my current one only has one pointing out of the fan. is that ok. it seems like they would keep pushing crap into each other if that makes sense.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
You could get buy on a 500 watt PSU. Antec, FSP, Corsair, EVGA all make good PSU's. I have read that the color label isn't much to go on in terms of power efficiency. i.e, Gold, silver bronze and I even think they threw a platinum out there. What you want to read is the efficiency percent. Like it will say 98% efficient. Higher number the better.

Here's something interesting though. I have what is called a true RMS multimeter. I made what is called an AC line splitter. See pic here: http://i.imgur.com/Z8e5bVV.jpg

I measured the amperage being consumed from my computer with an Antec Gamer 520w. I was damn surprised to see it was only consuming around 1 amp which is around 120 watts from the wall. Now the power efficiency for the Antec Gamer 520w is "up to 88% efficient." http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371047

Note it's a bronze. I launched BF2 when I did the measurement. So the video card was pulling amps.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
I'm looking at the corsair 650w 80 plus bronze or the 550w verison but I don't want to waste money (energy related).
Total wattage of the unit doesn't drastically influence how much electricity the system uses at the same loads. Most of the time you'll pick the high end capacity that you need and then consider the efficiency rating.

For that system a quality 500w would be more than enough, but you also want to consider future builds and upgrades where you can leverage this new PSU without having to buy a new one again.
 

Laquer Head

Well-Known Member
While a 500W would indeed work, I'd recommend going beyond that keeping future upgrades in mind. You don't want to be kicking yourself for buying a mediocre PSU now, and then having to buy another within a year, should you choose to add stuff.
 
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