Tired of debating power supplies...

Paulballs

Honorable
Feb 9, 2014
24
0
10,520
Was set to get some things to start a new build, and the PSU I was going to get was a Rosewill Hive-650 modular at Newegg. Well after reading some reviews that said some of the cables were short and stiff, it got me worried and I decided to look at other options. The Rosewill was $80 but had a $20 off instant code, so $60. Im already way over budget on this system, so I need to keep the price on the PSU in about that ballpark. And now I get notice that the Rosewill Hive is sold out, so Im looking for something else.

My biggest issue is I dont know what size I need. One calculator says 350, one says 475, one says 500, one says 650...which is right?

System will be:
AMD 8350
8gb ram
1 dvd-rw
1 ssd
1 hdd
geforce gtx 760
6 case fans

I came across this OCZ Fatality PSU that fits in my budget and found a number of people recommending this brand, however at 550w Im wondering if its enough

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022



 

MFBLO96

Honorable
Dec 12, 2013
398
0
10,960
You won't need 6 case fans. I have 1 in mine, a 4770k, and a gtx 780 and no heat issues what so ever.
I would drop the fans, use the ones that come with the case, and get a nice power supply that won't fry the system if it goes
 
It is an average power supply. It has NO MOV(think if it as a surge protector for the power supply) so a good surge protector is recommended for sure(I have used many a movless(FSP tends ti cut that from budget units) power supply over the year, it has never been an issue for me.).

Now onto power.

CPU 125 watts(as per rating)
GPU 170 watts(as per rating and power management will not let it get past it by any large amounts)
Memory/Board/SSD/ maybe 30-50 watts.
HDD 10 watts.
Case fans 24 watts(not going to be that bad for real, Just took peek ratings from the fan sitting next to me)
Lets add on 50 for good measure.

429 watts. This is over estimating at its greatest.

Your power supply is rated @ 450 watts on its 12 volt rails. I would guess the system will not pass 350 in any extreme gaming situation.
 
a good 550-600W should be enough.
a typical rig uses around 300-400w, that is with a decent gpu already. But i personally don't want my psu near 100% capacity, i also factor in capacitor aging and possible future upgrades.
personal choice, seasonic
 
SR-71 Blackbird's recommendation all the way(either one is more than enough).

Quality unit and a good bit of extra power.

Just food for thought.

2600k @ 4.4 1.26 volts(125 watts according to extreme psu calc at 90%)
Maximus Iv Gene-z
2 x M4 256 ssds(so no hard drive, this saves about 10 watts from the WDC black I had)(uses 5 volts)
X-fi sound card
GTX 670(same TDP as your card and it is factory overclocked)
2 Sticks of DDR3(1.5 volts)
Slim optical drive(used 5 volts).
H80i(cpu) and LW310(gpu) liquid coolers.
2 120mm fans(ap 15s).

At the wall(EM100 energy meter)
Idle
72 watts
Prime95
165 watts(strangely OCCT was a bit lower).
GW2(game test. Uses more gpu and cpu power than one would guess)
260
OCCT GPU test
230
OCCT PSU
290 average 312 peak

Efficiency of modern mid level system like mine is great.
 
Some quick clear-up for Tom Tancredi

Video card makers over request because of all the bad power supplies on the market.

Now a few things to know.

PC power supplies provide more than on voltage. I am just going to cover the main 3 here(while they have standby and some negatives as well)

12 volts. This powers all the heavy stuff(GPU/CPU/Fans/pumps/ect).

5 Volts. This powers USB devices and many controllers. SSD and most 2.5 inch drives as well notebook optical drives are also powered from 5 volts

3.3 volts. I am sure certain devices still need this voltage, but it is not used too much. The SATA spec calls for 3.3 volts, but I have yet to see a drive NEED it.

Now why bring this up?

Well total wattage is the Maximum combined wattage of ALL these rails.

Older power supplies used to load up the 3.3 and 5 volt lines more because at the time more devices used them(cpu/gpu included). At the time they also have multiple power supplies in one so things cost more and had not been as efficient.

Fast forward to modern day.

Power supplies place almost all the power on the 12 volt rail. Another change was using switching DC-DC converters to make the 5 and 3.3 volt rails out of 12 volts made by the main 12 volt rail(so they no longer need 3 power supplies to make these voltages, just the one and 2 dc-dc converters). This allows you to have strange looking stickers that add up to WAY over the rated wattage of a unit. As long as the MAX is not passed you have no issues. This approach allows a newer power supply to provide any combination of high 12 volt current or even 5 and 3.3(while cutting down the amount available on the 12 volt rail.)

This allows a modern power supply to power a system that needs the lower voltages(3.3,5) OR need the higher voltages(12) and anything in between.

Now back to why wattage alone is not enough of an indicator.

Take my shiny old Antec 380 watt power supply. It has 18 amps on its 12 volt rail(that is 216 watts @ 12 volts).

Now take a modern 300 watt power supply that has 22-24(264-288 watts) amps @ 12 volts.

So is the 380 watt power supply better for the modern system? No.

As said above, you need to ALWAYS check 12 volt amp limit(multiply it by 12 to get watts) to ensure it meets your needs. For multi rail power supplies, you need a combined as adding rails does not always work(rarely works to be honest.).

It is also VERY important to know what else is in the system. I light system(lets say a 65 watt cpu and gtx 650ti single drive and 2 sticks of memory) does NOT need a 500(or even Nvidia's 400 watt recommended) watt power supply because the total power of the system will never touch 200 watts.

While a massively overclocked i7(lets say LGA 1366 since they took lots of power when pushed) with a custom water loop and 3 x 360 mm rads and delta fans all around with 10 hard drives may need even MORE than the 400 watt recommendation.