1st Time PC build and choosing a psu for future upgrades

AJ Kenway · Jun 12, 2014

I will be putting together a PC for the first time in a couple of months and I have hand picked all the components that I want. I have been thinking about different components for days now and I think I've got it all down except for one thing, the right psu. I've have the intention of putting a R7 260X, R9 270, GTX 650 or GTX 750 a couple months down the road. Will the psu be able to power my system if I decide to put one of those cards in the near future?

NOTE: This is my first time in the forum and I am fairly new to these kinds of stuff. My aim is a budget build that has a beefy mobo and a decent APU for future upgrades. Budget is very slim though...

Planned Components:
CPU/APU :AMD A8 6600K 3.9 GHz Quad-Core/HD8570D/4MB Cache Black Edition
MOBO :AsRock FM2A85X Extreme 4 M
RAM :Kingston 1600MHz 4GB
HDD :Seagate Barracuda 1 TB
PSU :Corsair VS Series VS550 550watts
GPU :AMD Radeon HD 8570D (from the APU)
CHASSIS :RaidMax Super Viper Red USB3.0
MONITOR :20" Acer V206/S200HQL 1600x900
+ Logitech bundle K100 and B100
Grand total= 24,430 Philippine Pesos or around 558 USD

Karsten75 · Jun 12, 2014

Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

maddogfargo · Jun 12, 2014

This is a great tool, free for *PERSONAL* use:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Plug in all your system info as accurately as possible.

Include any details about overclocking the CPU if you plan to do that.

You can leave the Capacitor Aging and TDP for CPU and system at their default values.

Hit Calculate.

Add about 15% extra wattage on top of that and you have your BASE system PSU with no GPU.

Then find out how much wattage your planned upgrades use, such as a GPU. Add that amount + 10-15% extra wattage on top of your BASE wattage and you have a good value to go by.

Example:

Base system is calculated to use 390w
Use 430w (390w +~10%) PSU as your base value
Planned upgrade GPU uses 120w
Add 135w (120w +~10%) to 430w to get 565w.
Look for a good 550w-600w PSU

This will be slightly over-spec, but you want that. This gives you a cushion for aging, high temperature operation, and keeps you in the higher part of the PSU efficiency range.

AJ Kenway · Jun 12, 2014

Karsten75 :

Thank you for helping dude

never hurts to gain more knowledge about psu quality

AJ Kenway · Jun 12, 2014

maddogfargo :

This is a great tool, free for *PERSONAL* use:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Plug in all your system info as accurately as possible.

Include any details about overclocking the CPU if you plan to do that.

You can leave the Capacitor Aging and TDP for CPU and system at their default values.

Hit Calculate.

Add about 15% extra wattage on top of that and you have your BASE system PSU with no GPU.

Then find out how much wattage your planned upgrades use, such as a GPU. Add that amount + 10-15% extra wattage on top of your BASE wattage and you have a good value to go by.

Example:

Base system is calculated to use 390w
Use 430w (390w +~10%) PSU as your base value
Planned upgrade GPU uses 120w
Add 135w (120w +~10%) to 430w to get 565w.
Look for a good 550w-600w PSU

This will be slightly over-spec, but you want that. This gives you a cushion for aging, high temperature operation, and keeps you in the higher part of the PSU efficiency range.

Can't remember the exact wattage but I already added the R9 270x and got around 460 + watts. Thanks for the help

I really needed it

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