What wattage PSU should I buy?

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JetPilot0721

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Jan 17, 2014
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I have the Intel i5 4670k, AMD Radeon R9 270X GC, Asus Maximus Hero VI MB, 16 GB RAM, 240GB SSD Vector 150, Asus DVD drive. Any ideas or help would be much appreciated. If I forgot to mention anything important I will let you know.
 
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ram1009

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Jun 28, 2007
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My PSU philosophy isn't shared by many on this board but since you asked I'll tell you. IMHO, you should buy the highest wattage QUALITY PSU you can afford. Personally, I try never to run my PSUs over 50% of their rated capacity. Yes, you will pay more for the PSU but it will cost you no more to run than if you bought one that was barely big enough as most do. I consider the expense an insurance policy. Running any electrical component at or near capacity stresses the component and stress shortens life expectancy. It's like running your car in first gear. FWIW, I prefer Seasonic.
 
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HumdrumPenguin

HumdrumPenguin

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Nov 19, 2013
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But let's suppose he's not going to go for SLI / Crossfire, and he doesn't want to buy high end cards in the future. An ultra high wattage psu (1200-1600w) will perform less efficiently than a "regular" psu (550-850w) on his rig. Though I agree with you on getting the best quality possible psu.
 
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Traciatim

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Nov 11, 2006
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Keep in mind that this machine, unless heavily overclocked, will probably be using a good bit less than 300 watts to run at it's peak (from the wall, probably less than 250 watts actually consumed by the PC). You could pretty much run it on any quality 500 watt supply easily. I do however think that just in case you decide to switch up hardware in the future to something more demanding that you probably want to shoot for something in the 550-600 watt range, and would also like to point out that you should be just shopping for quality over capacity in most cases.

 
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ram1009

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Well, first of all, the term "ultra high wattage" is your terminology, not mine. That is not what my recommendation means at all. What I did say is that I try never to exceed 50% load. If you do that, any PSU you use will be in the middle of it's efficiency range no matter if it's SLI, CROSSFIRE or whatever. It's my experience that most people try to buy the smallest PSU they can justify. That's wrong, IMHO. Any extra wattage you have is a stress buffer. Stress and the ensuing heat is what kills PSUs (and any electronic component) prematurely.
 
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