Which Power Supply Do I Choose?

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Dannyal

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Sep 21, 2014
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Recently, I've been poking around the forum asking for good PSUs that I can use. I've had my own in mind, and others had theirs.

I'm planning to get an R9 280x from XFX, (a new case) and the Power Supply.
My components as of now run on a meager 300 Watts.
I'd like to know how much power the GPU will take and if I should go with a:
550W, 600W, 650W Power Supply.

I don't need links or stray answers or links, I already have those. I need a concrete answer of how many Watts I should have, and a recommended brand along with that to make sure I'm really making the right choice here.
 
Solution
ShadowsVoid
First off, a 550W PSU is perfectly fine, no questions asked. Getting a higher wattage will future proof your system so if you wanted to get a kick-ass graphics card, you don't need to worry about getting another PSU. A 600W will give you slightly more room for upgrading, but that's only if you wanted to add multiple hard drives or power hungry fans. You can look at this helpful tier list to pick the right PSU in terms of reliability. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

I'd say get 550W if you are happy with your system and don't tend to upgrade any time soon (3 years), or get a 650W/750W if you plan on getting high end hardware in the next 2 years or so.
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poels

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Sep 28, 2014
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Well first of all , what is your budget? Because a brand can have good quality PSU's and bad quality ones at the same time, depending on the price. So it would be a question more like, Wich brand has the best PSU within my price range?
 
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ShadowsVoid

ShadowsVoid

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Jun 23, 2013
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First off, a 550W PSU is perfectly fine, no questions asked. Getting a higher wattage will future proof your system so if you wanted to get a kick-ass graphics card, you don't need to worry about getting another PSU. A 600W will give you slightly more room for upgrading, but that's only if you wanted to add multiple hard drives or power hungry fans. You can look at this helpful tier list to pick the right PSU in terms of reliability. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

I'd say get 550W if you are happy with your system and don't tend to upgrade any time soon (3 years), or get a 650W/750W if you plan on getting high end hardware in the next 2 years or so.
 
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poels

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Sep 28, 2014
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550W is enough yeah. My system is going to run the XFX proseries 550w for my 4690K CPU and GTX 970 card. Also the efficiency is also important to look like.. If a 500w PSU ran at 50% eficciency it would only use 250w on the system and the rest would go up in heat. so only half of the power drawn out of your wall is actually used, so in the long run, a more expensive quality piece should save you some on the electricity bill too. Also it's important to look at the Amps of the PSU. Always make sure the PSU has enough amps or you can have 750w and it still wont run your system well. Always go with at least 35 amps.. less makes me paranoid thats for sure! i couldnt say what the actual minumum for a gaming rig should be.. probably depends. Also it's always good to have a high amp PSU if you want to run SLI/Crossfire etc later on.. Actually many people over-estimate their wattage use heavily when chosing a new system. I saw a system last night with a 780/ti card i think, I7,and 12 case fans plus water cooling only pulling about 350W when in 3DValley and running a CPU stresstest on the side , so of course it's always nice with the headroom but almost every single GFX card setup should run just fine with a 500/550w PSU If it's a good piece! Always get a PSU that fits your system. You should chose one that would run the PSU at it's best efficiency states. (20-50-80% load) .. I.e if your system draws 300 watts in hardcore gaming etc. get a PSU that would run at 50-80% efficieny when your system is running at full capacity/just hardcore gaming. That way you avoid an exploding electricity bill, if that matters of course.

Found the link for you guys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWThqgFfI4 I dont remember his exact specs ,but its a pretty heavy system.. just fast forward a couple minutes into the video and the benchmarking etc. will begin....
 
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poels

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True. The GTX900 series cards don't swallow much really considering how powerful they are! Although those cards can actually hit like 240W at 100% load(of course in split second intervals). The power efficiency is actually completely gone between the 980 and the titan at 100% load. I think the article is here at tom's somwhere actually. Not completely sure. The Maxwell architecture is just way better at power management than kepler more than actually using less power. something along those lines!

 
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