need advice on psu wattage. help please.

raveninja · Sep 9, 2013

CPU Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz
Ram Crucial Sport 32GB (4 x 8GB)
Motherboard AsRock Z68 Pro 3
SSD OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB x2 in RAID 0
HDD Western Digital 2TB Green x2
250 HDD as backup for RAID 0
Optical Drive Asus DRW-24B5ST
GPU GTX660 TI-DC2T-2GD5
Sound Card Creative Sound Blaster ZxR
CASE Fractal Define R3

I'm thinking about getting a 600 watt psu but will that be enough? I'm going to fill up all fan mounts (6) in the case as well as add a few led strips on the case.
any advice on this? i'm not sure what i'd get for this one but i'll look for 80+ gold or platinum if applicable. i'll upgrade it to a z77 board in time if that would help. i need help please. i'm not sure if 600w can pull it off since there were online psu calculators that told me 750w would be needed for this. others only said 450. i'm not really sure anymore... T.T

Cons29 · Sep 9, 2013

i think 600w would be enough. but if you plan to add another gpu in the future, get a bigger one.
as for the platinum, i would advice against it, yes they are very good i just dont think they justify the price diff. But that is just me, i have gold btw, seasonic 760w

if the price diff of a higher psu is small, go for a higher capacity. We also have to consider that capacitors do age over the years. So for your peace of mind, go for a 750 or something. we'll never know when we'll need it. It's not like you're looking for a 1200w or something, right?

Dark Lord of Tech · Sep 9, 2013

Will run those specs , and it's made by the best SEASONIC.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $44.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-09 22:44 EDT-0400)

If you want a little power to spare.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Power Supply: XFX 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $59.99
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-09 22:45 EDT-0400)

raveninja · Sep 9, 2013

hey. that's nice to know. thanks. i'm going to look for whatever's available at that range. maybe i'll stick with 600-700 since i don't really plan on doing an sli setup. it's gonna be used mainly for rendering so i'm not gonna be doing games that much.

i actually got those parts on a clearance sale so hopefully there would still be good psus left around. especially the case since it was like around 80$. same goes for the board. i like this time of the year so much bec of all those discounts.

but yes i'll most likely go for the 650w psu. hopefully there's an antec or corsair lying around.
thanks so much guys.

btw i'm not that knowledgeable on the capacitors part. what will happen if they age? will their efficiency decrease? or is there something else that's gonna happen? sorry i'm not that smart when it comes to hardware stuff... i plan on keeping this for the next 4 or 5 years before upgrading if that would help. T.T

Cons29 · Sep 10, 2013

as far as i know, as the capacitor ages, it's capacity decreases, though i am not an expert on that.
seasonic offers 5yrs warranty, and they make their own, one of the best out there.

raveninja · Sep 10, 2013

i see... that kind of makes sense to me. as for those 80+ gold platinum names & such, if i understand it correctly basically it's like utilizing 80-90% of a 600w output. so that efficiency is most likely going to decrease over time as well... is what i think i understand from what you guys explained... please correct me if i'm wrong.

& if so, it's at least bound to last for the next 4 or 5 years right? i plan on getting a corsair or antec if available. i'm still looking at available ones. i'd be okay with thermaltake too... at least these ones would be okay for the next few years right? T.T

MidnightDistort · Sep 11, 2013

If you buy a good PSU and only use 60-80% load (i would say 10% under the rated minimum load) should last much longer than 5 years. If your using 550watts on a 600w PSU i would imagine you would start to lose it's wattage over time. Also if it's not properly cooled (fan not working or dust blocking the airway) you'll lose wattage over time.

dkulprit · Sep 11, 2013

Newegg has a handy calculator.

http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html?name=Power-Supply-Wattage-Calculator

That's what i have used in the past. As far as degradation goes I would try to keep the wattage 100 over the minimum requirements as a safety net. Get one of the free hardware monitors you can find in the sticky's of "applications" page forum on tom's hardware:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/242173-49-free-software-links-updated-2013

Monitor your usage and make sure you are keeping up! If you treat your equipment well as others have posted above me with proper airflow, ventilation, and temperatures you won't need to replace your PSU until you need to replace your system!

*EDIT* On a side note, I bought a 1,000W modular PSU even though my current build only needs 600 ish watts according the calculator because it was only 89.99 during the holidays. So If you can find a good deal, on a quality PSU, it doesn't hurt and you can keep it for longer.

raveninja · Dec 4, 2013

in the end i got a corsair vs650 & i'm fairly happy about it. the system's working fine now. at the very least i'll be upgrading it before it starts weakening. hehe. thank you for the advice guys.

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