linkin
VIP Member
This guide will aim at updating the existing guides on powersupplies which have not seen activity in some time.
Most of the research has been done in the two previous threads which I will link in this guide. Since then, we have new powersupplies and new components, and thus new power requirements. Let's begin.
Part One
Powersupplies are the most important component in a computer, besides the motherboard. They are the lifeblood of the system. The heart of a human body, if you will. Many, if not all, cheap and nasty powersupplies are based on older systems, which mainly use the +5v rail. This is untrue of today's systems, which use mainly the +12v rail.
Bad Powersupplies
Cheap and nasty powersupplies, as well as being based on outdated and no longer used designs, have no surge protection, no over voltage or over current protection, no under voltage or under current protection, and are massively overrated in wattage and amperage, and have no PFC, active or passive. They may have passive or no cooling. They will die in one power surge, one lightning strike, or whenever they generally feel like kicking the bucket.
These are the power supplies that plague online and retail stores in sheer quantity and low price. They are to be avoided at all costs. You get what you pay for. They are also much too common in prebuilt machines, as they are not designed to be upgraded, the manufacturer adopts a "one size fits all" approach.
Also note that many cheap powersupplies are light in weight, due to having less essential components. While not a deciding factor, weight can play a part in choosing a good or bad powersupply. If you do compare this way (which I do not recommend) you need to check the weight of the unit itself, not the whole retail box and all of its accessories.
The worst thing about these powersupplies is that when they fail, they will take other components out with them. This means replacing most or all of your components because one bad component failed. The same goes for poor quality motherboards with poor quality VRM's.
It may cost you $20 to buy that power supply at the time, but replacing your fried motherboard, processor, hard drive, video card, sound card, and optical drive will cost you hundreds of dollars or more. It is better to pay for a higher quality powersupply than risk all of your components, especially if the computer in question is needed to be run 24/7, as a server or otherwise.
Good Powersupplies
Good powersupplies have Active PFC, Over-voltage and Over-current protection, Under-voltage and Under-current protection, are 80Plus Bronze certified at minimum, have appropriate connections for their wattage, are not rated at peak usage, and can handle the load it says it can on the sticker. They have good cooling, have some decent weight to them, and are generally bigger in size, and have thicker gauge wires required to deliver power properly without heating up or melting.
Bear in mind that wattage is not the only factor in choosing a powersupply, in fact it is one of the last things to consider. Amperage is very important. Cheap powersupplies on old designs generally have low +12v amperage which is problematic for today's systems, as most components draw power from the +12v rail(s)
PSU's based on older designs have the majority of their power available on the +5v rail. This is important if you are looking for a powersupply for an older system. You need to choose appropriately.
Power Supply Rails
Every power supply takes your 220/240v or 110v/120v AC input (depending on where you live) and converts it to +/-12v, +/-5v and +/-3.3V DC for output. Modern power supplies are essentially +12v only, with transformers that filter it down to +5v and +3.3v for appropriate use. This improves efficiency & power stability as the unit essentially only has to create one voltage.
With single rail powersupplies, it generally doesn't matter where you plug your hardware into, as long as it's the correct plug, and you're not exceeding the maximum rated wattage and amperage for that particular voltage rail.
With true multi rail power supplies, you do have to be careful not to put all peripherals onto one rail, but divide them up to balance the load. Otherwise it's like putting all of a ships cargo stacked up on the rear of the ship. It's going to cause problems.
Useful links regarding power supply rails:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rail
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psumultirail/multirails.html
Part Two
Below is a table of graphics cards and minimum/recommended powersupply specs for them. This list was taken from ceewi1's table and updated based on new information, videocards and powersupplies. The original threads are here:
http://www.computerforum.com/90110-power-recommendations-video-card.html
http://www.computerforum.com/90117-ceewi1s-psu-recommendations.html
***Wattages and amperages are entire system recommendations****
ATI/AMD Dual Card
Card......................................Wattage ..................+12V Amperage
HD 6990 Crossfire.....................850W ..........................54A
HD 6970 Crossfire.....................800W ..........................50A
HD 6950 Crossfire.....................750W .........................48A
HD 6870 Crossfire.....................700W .........................44A
HD 6850 Crossfire.....................650W .........................42A
HD 6790 Crossfire.....................600W .........................40A
HD 5970 Crossfire....................1200W .........................82A
HD 5870 Crossfire.....................750W .........................58A
HD 5850 Crossfire.....................700W .........................52A
HD 5830 Crossfire.....................700W .........................48A
HD 5770 Crossfire.....................650W .........................42A
HD 5750 Crossfire.....................600W .........................38A
HD 5670 Crossfire.....................550W .........................36A
HD 4890 Crossfire.....................750W .........................50A
HD 4870 Crossfire.....................600W .........................42A
HD 4850 Crossfire.....................550W .........................40A
HD 3870X2 Crossfire..................750W .........................60A
HD 3870 Crossfire.....................550W .........................42A
HD 3850 Crossfire.....................550W .........................42A
HD 2900XT Crossfire..................750W .........................60A
HD 2900GT Crossfire..................550W .........................40A
HD 2600XT Crossfire..................550W .........................30A
X1950 Crossfire........................550W .........................38A
X1900GT Crossfire.....................550W .........................38A
X1800 Crossfire........................550W .........................38A
ATI/AMD Single Card
Card..................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
HD 6990...............................650W ..........................44A
HD 6970...............................550W ..........................38A
HD 6950...............................500W ..........................36A
HD 6870...............................500W .........................32A
HD 6850...............................500W .........................30A
HD 6790...............................500W .........................30A
HD 5970...............................650W .........................42A
HD 5870...............................500W .........................34A
HD 5850...............................500W .........................32A
HD 5830...............................500W .........................30A
HD 5770...............................450W .........................26A
HD 5750...............................450W .........................26A
HD 5670...............................400W .........................22A
HD 4890...............................500W .........................36A
HD 4870x2............................650W .........................42A
HD 4870...............................500W .........................34A
HD 4850...............................500W .........................30A
HD 4830...............................450W .........................28A
HD 4770...............................500W .........................28A
HD 4670...............................450W .........................26A
HD 4650...............................400W .........................24A
HD 4550...............................350W .........................22A
HD 3870X2............................550W .........................34A
HD 3870...............................450W .........................26A
HD 3850...............................450W .........................26A
HD 2900XT............................550W .........................34A
HD 2900GT............................450W .........................30A
HD 2600XT............................400W .........................22A
HD 2600Pro...........................400W .........................20A
HD 2400Pro...........................300W .........................18A
X1950..................................450W .........................30A
X1900GT...............................400W .........................25A
X1900..................................450W .........................30A
X1900..................................450W .........................30A
X1800..................................450W .........................30A
X1650..................................350W .........................20A
X1300..................................350W .........................18A
nVidia Dual Card
Card...................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
GTX 590 SLI...........................950W .........................72A
GTX 580 SLI...........................900W .........................60A
GTX 570 SLI...........................850W .........................58A
GTX 560 Ti SLI........................700W .........................50A
GTX 550 Ti SLI........................600W .........................38A
GTX 480 SLI...........................850W .........................60A
GTX 470 SLI...........................800W .........................55A
GTX 460 SLI...........................700W .........................42A
GTS 450 SLI...........................600W .........................38A
GTX 295 SLI..........................1000W ........................70A
GTX 285 SLI...........................800W .........................50A
GTX 280 SLI...........................750W .........................48A
GTX 275 SLI...........................700W .........................46A
GTX 270 SLI...........................700W .........................46A
GTX 260 SLI...........................650W .........................42A
GTS 250 SLI...........................600W .........................38A
9800GTX+ SLI.........................600W .........................38A
9800GTX SLI..........................600W ..........................38A
9800GT SLI............................600W ..........................38A
9600GT SLI............................500W ..........................28A
9600GSO SLI..........................450W ..........................26A
9500GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
9400GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
8800Ultra SLI.........................750W ..........................60A
8800GTX SLI..........................700W ..........................56A
8800GT SLI............................600W...........................48A
8800GTS SLI..........................650W ..........................52A
8600GTS SLI..........................450W ..........................24A
8600GT SLI............................400W ..........................22A
8500GT SLI............................400W ..........................22A
7800GTX SLI..........................500W ..........................34A
7950GT SLI............................500W ..........................28A
7900GS SLI............................500W ..........................28A
7800GT SLI............................450W ..........................26A
7600GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
7600GS SLI............................400W ..........................20A
nVidia Single Card
Card..................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
GTX 590...............................750W .........................46A
GTX 580...............................600W .........................42A
GTX 570...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 560 Ti............................500W .........................30A
GTX 550 Ti............................450W..........................26A
GTX 480...............................600W .........................42A
GTX 470...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 460...............................450W .........................24A
GTS 450...............................400W .........................22A
GT 440.................................300W .........................22A
GT 430.................................300W .........................22A
GTX 295...............................680W .........................52A
GTX 285...............................550W .........................42A
GTX 280...............................550W .........................40A
GTX 275...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 270...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 260...............................500W .........................36A
GTS 250...............................450W .........................24A
GT 240.................................300W .........................18A
GT 220.................................300W .........................18A
GT 210.................................300W .........................18A
9800GX2...............................580W .........................46A
9800GTX...............................450W .........................38A
9800GT.................................400W .........................28A
9600GT.................................400W .........................28A
9600GSO...............................400W .........................26A
9500GT.................................350W .........................20A
9400GT.................................300W .........................18A
8800Ultra..............................500W .........................34A
8800GTX...............................450W .........................30A
8800GT.................................400W .........................26A
8800GS.................................450W .........................30A
8800GTS...............................400W .........................28A
8600GTS...............................350W .........................20A
8600GT.................................300W .........................20A
8500GT.................................300W .........................18A
8400GS.................................300W .........................20A
7800GTX...............................400W .........................26A
7950GT.................................350W .........................22A
7900GS.................................350W .........................20A
7800GT.................................350W .........................20A
7800GS.................................350W .........................20A
7600GT.................................350W .........................18A
7600GS.................................350W .........................18A
7300GT.................................350W .........................18A
7300LE.................................350W ..........................18A
7300GS.................................300W .........................18A
7100GS.................................250W .........................18A
6200LE.................................250W ..........................18A
Other Low-end/Integrated..........250W.........................18A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Supply Recommendations
Recommend Power Supplies. In no specific order. Choose based on your power needs.
XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W - $59.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207002
Antec NEO ECO 520C - $59.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030
Silverstone Strider Plus ST75F-P 750W $129.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256059
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II PPCMK2S500 - $89.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703025
SeaSonic M12II 620 - $129.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095 OUT OF STOCK
XFX Black Edition XPS-850W-BES - $159.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001
Xigmatek NRP-MC702 - $109.95: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815014
Corsair CMPSU-750TX - $99.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 - $189.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371012
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP - $79.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018
CoolerMaster Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US - $149.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171048
Antec EarthWatts EA650 - $64.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W - $68.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207007
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ750FTY - $79.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341041
Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-P 600W - $109.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256064
Corsair CMPSU-650HX - $104.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 - $69.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W - $74.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094
Antec TruePower TP-650W - $79.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371021
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most graphics card requirement figures came from ceewi1's existing table, new information from http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=104805.0;wap2 along with various GPU manufacturers websites such as www.xfx.com - www.evga.com - www.sapphiretech.com - www.msi.com - www.gainward.com - www.palit.biz - www.powercolor.com
I still see a lot of people recommending power supplies for builds based on the "recommended" wattages put up by Intel/AMD/Nvidia or who ever. For the most part, those will help you, but too many people take that as the minimum wattage for the graphics card or single piece of hardware alone. That is incorrect and leads to people buying stupidly high wattage power supplies when they can run perfectly fine, with overclocking headroom, on half the wattage. To properly calculate required wattage, you need not use over-estimating online calculators, as they are also just a rough guess.
To calculate your power supply requirements and wattage/amperage you will need, we need a few things:
Let's begin by taking the following components at their stock specifications and adding their maximum TDP's together for total power draw:
Intel i7 2600K (95W)
GTX 570 (225W)
Samsung F3 1TB (25W)
Those are maximum values.
That gives a total of 345 Watts, at maximum load. That means you could run a system with a 2600K and GTX 570 on a quality 400W power supply, and only at bone stock settings. However, a 400W power supply won't have the full 400W available on the one rail. It will be split between the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. For today's computers, the 12v rail is the most important and thus has the most power available compared to the other rails. I have also not included things like Motherboard and RAM power usage because they are hard to find, and not listed on manufacturer sites. Because of this, and overclocking, you want headroom when buying a powersupply. How much depends on how far you intend to overclock or how much hardware you will be packing into your system. Obviously, the more hardware, the more power it will draw.
But this only gives us a wattage. Sometimes, multiplying the amperage by 12 will give you a smaller number than what is on the wattage sticker. Likewise, diving the wattage by 12 may give you a smaller total amperage than what the sticker tells you. It is very important to calculate both, and use the one that gives you the smaller number. Why? It's because you'd rather be safe than sorry when calculating your power draw. Moving on, 345 divided by 12 gives us 28.75. This would be our maximum amperage draw. Compare this to your chosen PSU's specifications and judge accordingly.
Moving on to efficiency. Let's take that previous 345W, and say that the power supply powering those parts is 50% efficient. This still means your system is only drawing 345W from the power supply, but the power supply would be drawing 690 Watts from the wall socket. Why is this important? It's important because this will affect your power bill! This is why you want a power supply that has high efficiency, and because different systems have different roles, you will want a different power supply for a system that will be folding 24/7 and seldom idle, compared to an all-around home system that will be browsing, doing office work and playing games. Let's start with the folding example and the previous parts/wattages listed, and choose a power supply.
Because the system would be on 24/27 and at maximum load, drawing 345W, we would choose a power supply that would be 80Plus Gold/Platinum rated at 450 watts or so. For example, the Seasonic X-460 Fanless Gold. Why? The power supply will have a small amount of headroom, giving us higher efficiency. This will help lessen your power bill compared to running an 850W 80Plus Silver rated power supply. Why? The power supply would be under a lower load, leaving us with lower efficiency, which will mean it draws more power from the socket and will increase your power bill.
Let's take that same system and wattage and assume it's a home system this time. It's almost the same deal, except that the system would be idling most of the time, but would still reach maximum load on games and perhaps benchmarks. Efficiency will once again play a part in this. In this position, something like a Seasonic X-650 80Plus Gold will be more ideal for the home user/gamer/benchmarker. For one, you will still have decent efficiency at idle/low loads, you will have good efficiency at full load, and you will also have headroom for overclocking or another graphics card.
In conclusion, before choosing a power supply and parts, it is utterly important to properly calculate your needed wattage and amperage. The best case scenario of a bad/wrong power supply is having an AX1200 for a system that draws 200W. Your system will work perfectly fine, but efficiency will be woeful. In the reverse scenario, having a system that needs 600w on a 450W power supply, you are likely to end up with dead hardware. While I have not touched on quality vs. junk power supplies, it is very important to choose a quality one for your peace of mind and for your wallet. You don't want to be replacing your entire system because your yum cha power supply blew up into smoke. Please take the time to research your power needs carefully!
Most of the research has been done in the two previous threads which I will link in this guide. Since then, we have new powersupplies and new components, and thus new power requirements. Let's begin.
Part One
Powersupplies are the most important component in a computer, besides the motherboard. They are the lifeblood of the system. The heart of a human body, if you will. Many, if not all, cheap and nasty powersupplies are based on older systems, which mainly use the +5v rail. This is untrue of today's systems, which use mainly the +12v rail.
Bad Powersupplies
Cheap and nasty powersupplies, as well as being based on outdated and no longer used designs, have no surge protection, no over voltage or over current protection, no under voltage or under current protection, and are massively overrated in wattage and amperage, and have no PFC, active or passive. They may have passive or no cooling. They will die in one power surge, one lightning strike, or whenever they generally feel like kicking the bucket.
These are the power supplies that plague online and retail stores in sheer quantity and low price. They are to be avoided at all costs. You get what you pay for. They are also much too common in prebuilt machines, as they are not designed to be upgraded, the manufacturer adopts a "one size fits all" approach.
Also note that many cheap powersupplies are light in weight, due to having less essential components. While not a deciding factor, weight can play a part in choosing a good or bad powersupply. If you do compare this way (which I do not recommend) you need to check the weight of the unit itself, not the whole retail box and all of its accessories.
The worst thing about these powersupplies is that when they fail, they will take other components out with them. This means replacing most or all of your components because one bad component failed. The same goes for poor quality motherboards with poor quality VRM's.
It may cost you $20 to buy that power supply at the time, but replacing your fried motherboard, processor, hard drive, video card, sound card, and optical drive will cost you hundreds of dollars or more. It is better to pay for a higher quality powersupply than risk all of your components, especially if the computer in question is needed to be run 24/7, as a server or otherwise.
Good Powersupplies
Good powersupplies have Active PFC, Over-voltage and Over-current protection, Under-voltage and Under-current protection, are 80Plus Bronze certified at minimum, have appropriate connections for their wattage, are not rated at peak usage, and can handle the load it says it can on the sticker. They have good cooling, have some decent weight to them, and are generally bigger in size, and have thicker gauge wires required to deliver power properly without heating up or melting.
Bear in mind that wattage is not the only factor in choosing a powersupply, in fact it is one of the last things to consider. Amperage is very important. Cheap powersupplies on old designs generally have low +12v amperage which is problematic for today's systems, as most components draw power from the +12v rail(s)
PSU's based on older designs have the majority of their power available on the +5v rail. This is important if you are looking for a powersupply for an older system. You need to choose appropriately.
Power Supply Rails
Every power supply takes your 220/240v or 110v/120v AC input (depending on where you live) and converts it to +/-12v, +/-5v and +/-3.3V DC for output. Modern power supplies are essentially +12v only, with transformers that filter it down to +5v and +3.3v for appropriate use. This improves efficiency & power stability as the unit essentially only has to create one voltage.
With single rail powersupplies, it generally doesn't matter where you plug your hardware into, as long as it's the correct plug, and you're not exceeding the maximum rated wattage and amperage for that particular voltage rail.
With true multi rail power supplies, you do have to be careful not to put all peripherals onto one rail, but divide them up to balance the load. Otherwise it's like putting all of a ships cargo stacked up on the rear of the ship. It's going to cause problems.
Useful links regarding power supply rails:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_rail
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psumultirail/multirails.html
Part Two
Below is a table of graphics cards and minimum/recommended powersupply specs for them. This list was taken from ceewi1's table and updated based on new information, videocards and powersupplies. The original threads are here:
http://www.computerforum.com/90110-power-recommendations-video-card.html
http://www.computerforum.com/90117-ceewi1s-psu-recommendations.html
***Wattages and amperages are entire system recommendations****
ATI/AMD Dual Card
Card......................................Wattage ..................+12V Amperage
HD 6990 Crossfire.....................850W ..........................54A
HD 6970 Crossfire.....................800W ..........................50A
HD 6950 Crossfire.....................750W .........................48A
HD 6870 Crossfire.....................700W .........................44A
HD 6850 Crossfire.....................650W .........................42A
HD 6790 Crossfire.....................600W .........................40A
HD 5970 Crossfire....................1200W .........................82A
HD 5870 Crossfire.....................750W .........................58A
HD 5850 Crossfire.....................700W .........................52A
HD 5830 Crossfire.....................700W .........................48A
HD 5770 Crossfire.....................650W .........................42A
HD 5750 Crossfire.....................600W .........................38A
HD 5670 Crossfire.....................550W .........................36A
HD 4890 Crossfire.....................750W .........................50A
HD 4870 Crossfire.....................600W .........................42A
HD 4850 Crossfire.....................550W .........................40A
HD 3870X2 Crossfire..................750W .........................60A
HD 3870 Crossfire.....................550W .........................42A
HD 3850 Crossfire.....................550W .........................42A
HD 2900XT Crossfire..................750W .........................60A
HD 2900GT Crossfire..................550W .........................40A
HD 2600XT Crossfire..................550W .........................30A
X1950 Crossfire........................550W .........................38A
X1900GT Crossfire.....................550W .........................38A
X1800 Crossfire........................550W .........................38A
ATI/AMD Single Card
Card..................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
HD 6990...............................650W ..........................44A
HD 6970...............................550W ..........................38A
HD 6950...............................500W ..........................36A
HD 6870...............................500W .........................32A
HD 6850...............................500W .........................30A
HD 6790...............................500W .........................30A
HD 5970...............................650W .........................42A
HD 5870...............................500W .........................34A
HD 5850...............................500W .........................32A
HD 5830...............................500W .........................30A
HD 5770...............................450W .........................26A
HD 5750...............................450W .........................26A
HD 5670...............................400W .........................22A
HD 4890...............................500W .........................36A
HD 4870x2............................650W .........................42A
HD 4870...............................500W .........................34A
HD 4850...............................500W .........................30A
HD 4830...............................450W .........................28A
HD 4770...............................500W .........................28A
HD 4670...............................450W .........................26A
HD 4650...............................400W .........................24A
HD 4550...............................350W .........................22A
HD 3870X2............................550W .........................34A
HD 3870...............................450W .........................26A
HD 3850...............................450W .........................26A
HD 2900XT............................550W .........................34A
HD 2900GT............................450W .........................30A
HD 2600XT............................400W .........................22A
HD 2600Pro...........................400W .........................20A
HD 2400Pro...........................300W .........................18A
X1950..................................450W .........................30A
X1900GT...............................400W .........................25A
X1900..................................450W .........................30A
X1900..................................450W .........................30A
X1800..................................450W .........................30A
X1650..................................350W .........................20A
X1300..................................350W .........................18A
nVidia Dual Card
Card...................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
GTX 590 SLI...........................950W .........................72A
GTX 580 SLI...........................900W .........................60A
GTX 570 SLI...........................850W .........................58A
GTX 560 Ti SLI........................700W .........................50A
GTX 550 Ti SLI........................600W .........................38A
GTX 480 SLI...........................850W .........................60A
GTX 470 SLI...........................800W .........................55A
GTX 460 SLI...........................700W .........................42A
GTS 450 SLI...........................600W .........................38A
GTX 295 SLI..........................1000W ........................70A
GTX 285 SLI...........................800W .........................50A
GTX 280 SLI...........................750W .........................48A
GTX 275 SLI...........................700W .........................46A
GTX 270 SLI...........................700W .........................46A
GTX 260 SLI...........................650W .........................42A
GTS 250 SLI...........................600W .........................38A
9800GTX+ SLI.........................600W .........................38A
9800GTX SLI..........................600W ..........................38A
9800GT SLI............................600W ..........................38A
9600GT SLI............................500W ..........................28A
9600GSO SLI..........................450W ..........................26A
9500GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
9400GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
8800Ultra SLI.........................750W ..........................60A
8800GTX SLI..........................700W ..........................56A
8800GT SLI............................600W...........................48A
8800GTS SLI..........................650W ..........................52A
8600GTS SLI..........................450W ..........................24A
8600GT SLI............................400W ..........................22A
8500GT SLI............................400W ..........................22A
7800GTX SLI..........................500W ..........................34A
7950GT SLI............................500W ..........................28A
7900GS SLI............................500W ..........................28A
7800GT SLI............................450W ..........................26A
7600GT SLI............................400W ..........................24A
7600GS SLI............................400W ..........................20A
nVidia Single Card
Card..................................Wattage .................+12V Amperage
GTX 590...............................750W .........................46A
GTX 580...............................600W .........................42A
GTX 570...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 560 Ti............................500W .........................30A
GTX 550 Ti............................450W..........................26A
GTX 480...............................600W .........................42A
GTX 470...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 460...............................450W .........................24A
GTS 450...............................400W .........................22A
GT 440.................................300W .........................22A
GT 430.................................300W .........................22A
GTX 295...............................680W .........................52A
GTX 285...............................550W .........................42A
GTX 280...............................550W .........................40A
GTX 275...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 270...............................550W .........................38A
GTX 260...............................500W .........................36A
GTS 250...............................450W .........................24A
GT 240.................................300W .........................18A
GT 220.................................300W .........................18A
GT 210.................................300W .........................18A
9800GX2...............................580W .........................46A
9800GTX...............................450W .........................38A
9800GT.................................400W .........................28A
9600GT.................................400W .........................28A
9600GSO...............................400W .........................26A
9500GT.................................350W .........................20A
9400GT.................................300W .........................18A
8800Ultra..............................500W .........................34A
8800GTX...............................450W .........................30A
8800GT.................................400W .........................26A
8800GS.................................450W .........................30A
8800GTS...............................400W .........................28A
8600GTS...............................350W .........................20A
8600GT.................................300W .........................20A
8500GT.................................300W .........................18A
8400GS.................................300W .........................20A
7800GTX...............................400W .........................26A
7950GT.................................350W .........................22A
7900GS.................................350W .........................20A
7800GT.................................350W .........................20A
7800GS.................................350W .........................20A
7600GT.................................350W .........................18A
7600GS.................................350W .........................18A
7300GT.................................350W .........................18A
7300LE.................................350W ..........................18A
7300GS.................................300W .........................18A
7100GS.................................250W .........................18A
6200LE.................................250W ..........................18A
Other Low-end/Integrated..........250W.........................18A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Supply Recommendations
Recommend Power Supplies. In no specific order. Choose based on your power needs.
XFX P1-650X-CAG9 650W - $59.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207002
Antec NEO ECO 520C - $59.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030
Silverstone Strider Plus ST75F-P 750W $129.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256059
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II PPCMK2S500 - $89.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703025
SeaSonic M12II 620 - $129.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095 OUT OF STOCK
XFX Black Edition XPS-850W-BES - $159.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207001
Xigmatek NRP-MC702 - $109.95: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815014
Corsair CMPSU-750TX - $99.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 - $189.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371012
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP - $79.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018
CoolerMaster Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US - $149.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171048
Antec EarthWatts EA650 - $64.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
XFX P1-650X-CAH9 650W - $68.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207007
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ750FTY - $79.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341041
Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-P 600W - $109.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256064
Corsair CMPSU-650HX - $104.99 After Rebate: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
CoolerMaster Silent Pro M600 - $69.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W - $74.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094
Antec TruePower TP-650W - $79.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371021
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most graphics card requirement figures came from ceewi1's existing table, new information from http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=104805.0;wap2 along with various GPU manufacturers websites such as www.xfx.com - www.evga.com - www.sapphiretech.com - www.msi.com - www.gainward.com - www.palit.biz - www.powercolor.com
Accurately calculating power draw and PSU requirements
I still see a lot of people recommending power supplies for builds based on the "recommended" wattages put up by Intel/AMD/Nvidia or who ever. For the most part, those will help you, but too many people take that as the minimum wattage for the graphics card or single piece of hardware alone. That is incorrect and leads to people buying stupidly high wattage power supplies when they can run perfectly fine, with overclocking headroom, on half the wattage. To properly calculate required wattage, you need not use over-estimating online calculators, as they are also just a rough guess.
To calculate your power supply requirements and wattage/amperage you will need, we need a few things:
- The components you want to buy and their TDP's (Thermal Design Power)
- Some basic knowledge of electricity and maths
- A calculator that can add, divide, subtract and multiply
- A budget for a power supply
Wattage and Amperage
Let's begin by taking the following components at their stock specifications and adding their maximum TDP's together for total power draw:
Intel i7 2600K (95W)
GTX 570 (225W)
Samsung F3 1TB (25W)
Those are maximum values.
That gives a total of 345 Watts, at maximum load. That means you could run a system with a 2600K and GTX 570 on a quality 400W power supply, and only at bone stock settings. However, a 400W power supply won't have the full 400W available on the one rail. It will be split between the 3.3v, 5v, and 12v rails. For today's computers, the 12v rail is the most important and thus has the most power available compared to the other rails. I have also not included things like Motherboard and RAM power usage because they are hard to find, and not listed on manufacturer sites. Because of this, and overclocking, you want headroom when buying a powersupply. How much depends on how far you intend to overclock or how much hardware you will be packing into your system. Obviously, the more hardware, the more power it will draw.
But this only gives us a wattage. Sometimes, multiplying the amperage by 12 will give you a smaller number than what is on the wattage sticker. Likewise, diving the wattage by 12 may give you a smaller total amperage than what the sticker tells you. It is very important to calculate both, and use the one that gives you the smaller number. Why? It's because you'd rather be safe than sorry when calculating your power draw. Moving on, 345 divided by 12 gives us 28.75. This would be our maximum amperage draw. Compare this to your chosen PSU's specifications and judge accordingly.
Efficiency, and why it matters
Moving on to efficiency. Let's take that previous 345W, and say that the power supply powering those parts is 50% efficient. This still means your system is only drawing 345W from the power supply, but the power supply would be drawing 690 Watts from the wall socket. Why is this important? It's important because this will affect your power bill! This is why you want a power supply that has high efficiency, and because different systems have different roles, you will want a different power supply for a system that will be folding 24/7 and seldom idle, compared to an all-around home system that will be browsing, doing office work and playing games. Let's start with the folding example and the previous parts/wattages listed, and choose a power supply.
Because the system would be on 24/27 and at maximum load, drawing 345W, we would choose a power supply that would be 80Plus Gold/Platinum rated at 450 watts or so. For example, the Seasonic X-460 Fanless Gold. Why? The power supply will have a small amount of headroom, giving us higher efficiency. This will help lessen your power bill compared to running an 850W 80Plus Silver rated power supply. Why? The power supply would be under a lower load, leaving us with lower efficiency, which will mean it draws more power from the socket and will increase your power bill.
Let's take that same system and wattage and assume it's a home system this time. It's almost the same deal, except that the system would be idling most of the time, but would still reach maximum load on games and perhaps benchmarks. Efficiency will once again play a part in this. In this position, something like a Seasonic X-650 80Plus Gold will be more ideal for the home user/gamer/benchmarker. For one, you will still have decent efficiency at idle/low loads, you will have good efficiency at full load, and you will also have headroom for overclocking or another graphics card.
Conclusion
In conclusion, before choosing a power supply and parts, it is utterly important to properly calculate your needed wattage and amperage. The best case scenario of a bad/wrong power supply is having an AX1200 for a system that draws 200W. Your system will work perfectly fine, but efficiency will be woeful. In the reverse scenario, having a system that needs 600w on a 450W power supply, you are likely to end up with dead hardware. While I have not touched on quality vs. junk power supplies, it is very important to choose a quality one for your peace of mind and for your wallet. You don't want to be replacing your entire system because your yum cha power supply blew up into smoke. Please take the time to research your power needs carefully!
Last edited: