is my psu enough to support and upgrade?

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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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Sep 16, 2014
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That's a horrible PSU that I would not want to use. It is a very old design and has limited wattage on the main 12V rails.

In answer to your question, 400W will run that system. A more important question is WHY?

Why the i7 4790? There are better alternatives. I can think of almost no reason to recommend that particular CPU.
 
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R

Rolfejc0

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Oct 30, 2015
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That would be a decent choice, if possible I would get something better though. If you are limited to that budget for a power supply however, that is the best you'll do in that price range.

 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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Oct 31, 2015
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Thanks i just have one more question. Whats so bad about my current psu. Personally i have had no problems with my computer whatsoever. I ordered it from walmart because they had a build your own gaming desktop thing going on and i realize that the parts werent the best but is it really that bad?
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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It has to do with durability and long-term performance of parts, as well as the basic design being old. Cars worked fine in the 60's, but few people would want to use an engine from that era on a commuter or race car today. Gaming, even on a lower end system like yours, puts stress on the PSU because the power needs are not regular, but can have short spikes of needed power. This extra power comes from the PSU's main capacitors. The cheaper they are, the shorter their life. The problem with your PSU is that the probability of it failing is much higher than most of us would be comfortable with and when it fails it could take your system with you. Really good PSUs fail too sometimes, but tend to do so in a quiet, safe, manner.

The best performance and reliability requires power output and quality as close to ideal specification as possible. Cheap PSUs are usually much further from the ideal.

Back to my question, why are you considering an i7 4790 in that system? Depending on your intentions, there are better choices.
 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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thanks for the answer. im considering a 4790 because the 750 is only temporary. i know the 4790 will be bottlenecked by my card but i am planning on upgrading to 970 or 780ti in the coming months and i want a processor that will be just as powerful and not be so much of a bottleneck. are there any cpus you would reccomend. the 4790 im looking at is $249 dollars and it seemed like a good deal to me.
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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My concern was not one of limiting factor, I guessed that you planned a GPU upgrade.

At $249, the locked i7 4790 is a great deal. I would recommend that you get it. At its normal retail price, I would not recommend it, but suggest a Xeon. Do you live near a Microcenter?
 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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yeah i actually do. thats where i found the 4790 at $249. would you also recommend a 4590? even with a 970 or 780ti upgrade. my budget for the new psu and the processor is 300. if i sacrifice a little performance in the cpu i could get a steam wallet card and buy some new games so thats why im wondering if the 4590 would be a better alternative
 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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thanks man i think ill get the xenon. with my current psu it says that its shielded against stuff like over voltage and under voltage and things like that. is that just the manufacturer blowing smoke? how much of a risk is the psu. i play most new games if that helps but other than that playing games like the witcher 3 is the most load my system is under. and if i get the new 500w i mentioned would i be able to over clock the xenon to 3.8ghz and still be good?
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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Sep 16, 2014
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You cannot overclock the Xeon, the i7 4790, or the 4590. If you want to overclock, you will need the 4690K, and an appropriate motherboard.

It's an OK cheap PSU. It's safe but when you upgrade the GPU, you will be hammering it hard, so budget to replace it. It's not about all that safety stuff, it is about durability.
 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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thanks for all the help i will look into getting the xenon and a new psu. also how much of a bottleneck would my card be with the xenon in games like witcher 3 and fallout. my card is a 750ti ftw acx
 
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DonkeyOatie

DonkeyOatie

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You get to choose, high FPS or high effects, but not both. It's faster than mine, and I need to run at 1080p, but with minimal effects. I have a GTX 970 in a box waiting to be fitted, but I need to get my Research system back first, so I can benchmark it properly.
 
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A RANDOM

A RANDOM

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thanks. i have one last question. when i upgrade to the xenon is there any drivers i need to download or can i just remove my old cpu and put the new one in and start up my pc?
 
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