New PSU: How much wattage do I need

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

I'm new to building PC's so I was wondering how much wattage I actually need for my PC. I might get into OC'ing in the distant future but at the moment I'm not going to mess with it.

I know it also depends on brands etc., I guess I just need a ballpark answer. I bought a 750watt TXCorsair but I'm pretty sure it's causing issues with my mobo at the moment. I only got the 750 watt because i figured it was an overshot anyway.

Here's my build:
i7 4770k cpu
gtx 760 msi hawk
ASUS z87-a mobo
HAF 932 coolermaster case
2x4gb 2133 MHz RAM (gskill ripjaws)
sandisk 120gb SSD
WD HDD 1TB
ASUS CD/DVD drive

Thank you

jimthenagual · Feb 12, 2014

That TX750 should be more than enough to power your system, and it is a great quality PSU.

Brantyn Gerik · Feb 12, 2014

No reason why that 750 watt would be causing you problems, it's a great motherboard...you likely have a problem elsewhere

you could run this system on as little as a moderate quality 500 watt psu, though most people recommend going at least 600 or so or a dedicated gpu setup

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

Here's what I was referencing as far as my mobo/PSU problems
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?38894-asus-z87-a-cold-boot-hangs-red-cpu-light&s=107e17b3ffb2e8dbb0f2a45221ec4189

If you look near the last page that pretty much describes my issues. Apparently some z87-a mobo's dont function properly with specific PSU's

Brantyn Gerik · Feb 12, 2014

ok, but the tx series has a good reputation with haswell motherboards (z87 specifically) the corsair ones simple arent ones that should be subject to this probelm.

also if i remember right, haswell doesnt support any faster than like 1866 memory speed or something like that (this could be 100% wrong, but i remember seeing someone else say it, and i personally don't know, but you could try taking your ram down to 1600 to check

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

Brantyn Gerik :

If that is seriously my issue I will love you for figuring it out. But I'm not positive that's the case. I may have to test it out

davcon · Feb 12, 2014

Unless you're unlucky and received a dud psu, I also agree your problem is something else.
Don't use any auto overclocking utilities that came bundled with the mobo = unreliable and do goofy things to your cpu vcore.
I would have a good look in your bios and see if you have onboard graphics still enabled too.
I have built 3 Haswell's since June and have not experienced any ram issues whatsoever.
1600,1866 and 2133 all on Giggy's though.
All different ram makers too.

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

Here is my issue basically: Sometimes (usually after extended periods of not using it) it will only power on to the point of running the case fans etc. It doesn't give the post beep, and the cpu led on the mobo stays lit red. Most of the time all I have to do is power it off by holding the power button and retry and it works, but I don't know if that is bad for my PC.

The only strange thing I can think of is that one of my standoffs was slightly stripped near the top so i couldn't use the same type of screw as the others to lock it in because the screw wasn't long enough to lock in place. So essentially I had to use a spare standoff to screw into that stripped standoff because it was longer (if that makes sense).

After hours of researching I can only think it might be the PSU after reading that first link I posted. However my asus suite 3 has done some goofy things...

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

also, how do I see if my onboard graphics is still enabled?

Brantyn Gerik · Feb 12, 2014

for the love of god don't disable your onboard graphics...this only leads to bad things...

Brantyn Gerik · Feb 12, 2014

and it will be in the nvidia control panel, anything other than telling it to not be used for 3d applications is unnecessary and can cause surprisingly complicated problems

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

I guess I really just don't know what my problem could be then. I thought for sure it was my PSU at this point after reading the posts on that link

davcon · Feb 12, 2014

Problems can be difficult to track down.
Takes a lot of time and patience but that's how you learn.
For onboard graphics you can check fast in device manager = best way is bios
For trouble shooting purposes it's actually better to use onboard and remove your gpu.
Your problem could even be your case power leads = I'd double check those.
I had a couple that would fall off the mobo if you looked at them funny or breathed too hard.

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

The problem with tracking down the problem is that it only happens every couple of days or so. So I won't know if what I did fixed the problem or if it will just come back. I mean I guess it most likely isn't a huge issue since I can eventually get it to turn on without messing with anything. I just don't know if there is an underlying issue that could be bad over time.

davcon · Feb 12, 2014

Yep could even be an immature bios version.
My mobo gave me all sorts of issues initially and has a lot of crappy Newegg feedback.
I didn't give up on it because I knew from experience AMD makes shitty gpu drivers = a huge issue for 6 months.
Eventually new gpu drivers solved that and a recent bios update made a big difference.
If you haven't done so I recommend you test your ram = eliminate that from the equation.
Memtest86+ one module at a time and then the whole kit.

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

I'm not familiar with memtest86+. Will I need to physically remove the stick(s) to test one at a time? Sorry I'm a noobie builder

austin034 · Feb 12, 2014

Update: Ran memtest86 with both modules in and passed with no errors. I don't know if should/need to run one module at a time now.

davcon · Feb 13, 2014

austin034 :

I would say you're probably fine then.
So we can rule out ram as an issue.

Manolis T · Feb 13, 2014

Are you sure your PSU is the source of your problem? You should probably contact ASUS and Corsair support.
Give us a few more details about your problem exactly

austin034 · Feb 13, 2014

Okay here is basically the extent of my problem:

Ill wake up in the morning and there is basically a 33% chance or so my computer will power on but will not boot. My fan leds and fans turn on but it does not post. I hear no post beep. My mobo cpu led stays lit red and does not progress from there. At that point I have to just hold the power button to turn it off and try again. 90% of the time it will turn on and boot the 2nd try, if not then it will on the 3rd try.

In addition to that this may be relevant info:

Sometimes it does not wake from sleep, I believe it may be the same issue because last time I did notice the cpu led was lit red when I tried to wake it.

Another thing is that I have asus suite 3. It has my cpu on "turbo" sometimes which runs it at 3.9ghz instead of 3.5ghz. There was one time where I hit auto tune up on there and it tried to OC it to 4.4 without voltage changes and that messed everything up, so I had to reset bios and make sure that was not happening. Asus suite 3 worries me slightly sometimes.

Last thing is that when I went to look at my ram about a week ago I took one out to re-seat it. Apparently I didnt even re-seat it properly because when I checked bios yesterday before running memtest it wasnt recognized as being in. However I dont remember this booting problem within the last few days. When I properly re-seated it though, it did the same not boot problem after a pc reset. Then last night I had it sleeping and it automatically powered on in the middle of the night when i was in bed but did not boot again.

This issue is so strange. Especially since it only happens sometimes, and pretty always only in the morning initial boot if ever. Let me know if anyother info would be helpful.

Thank you.

New PSU: How much wattage do I need

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