Is a 550w Power Supply enough to handle this system?

Envy_

Honorable
Feb 4, 2014
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10,510
Here is a link to my build, http://pcpartpicker.com/list/43QVnn I was wondering if the power supply I chose is good enough to handle overclocking if I decide to do it. Right now I am only going to be using this system as a 1080 killer, but later I might want to overclock so I could get better performance if I want to upgrade my tv. (I am building this for a living room gaming rig)
 
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Agreed, probably worth our time to grab the 650, as this will allow you to do some decent CPU and GPU overclocking in the future if you choose, as well as giving more versatility in upgrades.
Please tell me you didn't buy a GTX 980 for 300 though.....
Definitely not worth it especially given the 1070 will probably be readily available in two-three weeks time......
At least wait for that to come out and grab it at a discount.
Although I guess its not a bad deal, if you want more performance, going SLI is going to require an 850w PSU, so definitely not a recommendation for upgradability.
 




SLI GTX 980s would be 400W overclocked. Add in the rest of the system overclocked, it'd make it under 650W. Without overclocking, he'd be looking at a 500W system. And that's all under full throttle.
 


I don't know..... keep in mind this is still a haswell processor, and those can draw quite a bit of power if overclocked! :)
Also from my experience overclocking 980s for people for use in builds they draw about 240w overclocked mildly at gaming load. Keep in mind this was measured using the EVGA Supernova software though, not entirely sure how accurate that is at measuring PSU draw, but going from my experience I wouldn't be confident going for 650w on 980 SLI.... especially considering the total system draw was somewhere around 500w spiking up to 550 sometimes.
Your call though, even though the GS is a great power supply, i'm not confident it can quite handle 700w give or take.
I'm not the power supply master here! ^.^
 


Those spikes are called transients. All GPUs have then. GTX 970s have power spikes well into the 300W+ territory. R9 390/390X well into 425W+ territory. It's just that these spikes, since they are brief, are able to be absorbed by the PSU; since they are not continuous they do not pose much of a threat or wear at Haswell chips are quite efficient.
 

Envy_

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Feb 4, 2014
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10,510


I did buy the a GTX 980 Classified for $300. I had no interest in waiting for the 1070 to come out. Yeah it releases in a few weeks but they will be sold out for longer than that. This is not my main system and is only for gaming in 1080p in my living room. Basically a steam machine. As for SLI, I can't and don't want to SLI this system. I am working in the mini-ITX form factor so I can't SLI.

The reason I picked a 980 is because they are good overclockers and have great performance. It might be a little overkill for 1080p but at least I can crank all the settings and still play almost every game above 60fps. Also, as I said above, I have no interest in waiting over a month to finish this system. I don't want the "founders edition" so I would have to wait for board partners to come out with theirs, which will be another few weeks, and so on.

 

Don't mistake GTX 1080 production for 1070 production.
The 1070 will be launching with AIB cards, as these coolers have already been developed for the 1080, and it is simply a matter of transferring them onto the actual PCB and adding a backplate in some cases.
This can be seen through the MSI Gaming X 1080 card, whose cooler is a little shorter to accommodate for the 1070 housing.
Also because these chips are cheaper to manufacture, they will also be available in higher quantities, especially due to the abundance of GDDR5 memory nowadays which is used on the 1070, with the industry nearly ready to move into GDDR5X and HBM2 memory standards.
The problem typically with living room rigs is that your actions will most likely feel sluggish unless your TV has a very fast response time. Most TVs have a pixel response time of 20ms give or take, while monitors are 1-5ms with most generic TN variants nowadays, so this is something you may want to take into account.

This is further supported by the fact that the reviews for aftermarket 1070s have begun to flood in with 1080 AIB cards, so I wouldn't get too antsy! :)
If you can I would suggest returning the 980 and picking up the 1070 once it drops ONLY if you are running a high refresh rate on your TV. If not you are getting a great deal on the 980, so I wouldn't be too worried! :)

 

I know! Great bargain especially considering the 1070 hasn't even released yet, although I am worried whether it is suitable for powering anything higher than 1080p. If OP is considering upgrading his TV to a QHD or even 4k TV, I would be concerned running it at anything less than native resolution with the 4k model, as this can have quite drastic effects depending on the quality of the TV.
 

Envy_

Honorable
Feb 4, 2014
18
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10,510


I appreciate everything and I totally agree with you (although I didn't know that the 1070 will be launching along side the AIB cards). But to me I am not really worried about latency and all that jazz for this specific build. I just want to be a casual and play some Witcher and GTA on my TV when I don't feel like going into my room to play on my other set up. (Sometimes I just wanna be extra lazy, you know?) And I have also been antsy to build a new system so I figured that this was a great excuse to build a new system. I know that the 1070 will be a much better card for the price but sadly it isn't out yet and I want to game asap. There may be a time in the future where I upgrade to a 1070 but for what I am doing now and for what my TV is capable of the 980 will serve me well.

If we were talking about my good setup then it would be a whole different story. I already sold my 980ti's so I could get my 1080's. I upgrade that system every time a new generation comes out. That system is like my baby and I like to keep up on everything for it. Some people would say it was dumb to sell those off and upgrade but I don't mind because I like to have the latest and greatest.

 


Haha nice, sounds like a great balance of setups!
Oh well, for what you're doing that sounds about right.
I guess if you want high resolution high refresh rate gaming a PC is always the better choice, so for 60fps 1080p the 980 should do you just fine.
Enjoy! :)
 
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