PSU Compatibility (wires and pins confuse me!)

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Myrmidon1989

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Good day,

I'm looking for a new PSU for my budget gaming PC. I currently use a 350 watt to play modern games and I strongly suspect its the reason behind many of my crashes. PSU's have lots of wires, plugs, pins and connectors and I have no idea what kind I need for my motherboard so have little idea which PSU's will be compatible. I don't even know what my current PSU uses.

If I include my motherboard specs would anyone be able to tell me the kinds of connectors/pins I will definitely need in a PSU for compatibility? I read things like 24 pin, 4+4 pin, 8 pin, SATA, Molex, PCI, PCI-E and I have no idea what any of it means really. I had been hoping if a PSU seems to sport all of them then it would be a simple pick and choose which wires are applicable and leave the rest unplugged but... When is technology ever that simple? :/ I've included a screenshot of my exact motherboard specs from Speccy.

Kind regards

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/PL0i6J11BtuVaXN23bKapRN
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Any good quality modern psu will have the connections you need, it's when you have a pre-built from a major manufacturer that the connections may be different. For good psus check out Jonnyguru.com for reviews or the Toms psu tier list. It really is that simple. If you get a modular psu you can use only the cables you need for less clutter but non-modular are usually cheaper. some popular choices are the seasonic s12ii, the corsair cxm series, or the new evga b3 series. those are all bronze rated which means they are 85% efficient at 50% load. for gold rated(more efficient) the seasonic g series is ggood and inexpensive, and I usually recommend the Evga g2 or g3 series.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Funny you mention that. I've watched a lot of videos on how to slide a PSU into the back of a case. I looked at the back of my case last night with how the screws are placed and whilst there is the panel it appears like I have to take the entire back off of my box which is a bit scary. Maybe my PSU can't be removed like you say...
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Appreciate your dude. Yeah I see a lot of PSU's that say that they're "non-modular" but have every kind of plug I've ever heard of. So surely they are modular...? Or is modular purely defined by you can always completely remove the bits you don't need? If so it would appear the functionality is the same with the only difference being extra clutter.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ACE-850W-Black-Gaming-PC-PSU-Power-Supply-6-Pin-PCI-E-120mm-Red-Cooling-Fan-/201460906354?hash=item2ee8017972

An example: LOADS of connectors. So I would essentially not need all of them? They're all just included for the sake of covering all bases with regards to being compatible with many different machines?
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Yeah that's the only difference. That and the price tag. Lol. You just leave the ones you don't need unplugged. Just don't skimp on quality because some are just downright fire hazards.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Truth be told this was a build. I have a friend who had a lot of junk lying around and couldn't stand me being a laptop gamer any longer so threw something together for me. I had to get a graphics card but he only charged me £50 so I was very happy as my RAM went from 3GB up to 8GB and gaming resolutions from 480x300 windowed up to fullscreen. As far as I know it was originally an office PC in a university.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Yeah I was initially against going the Ebay route but I've had friends tell me it can be safe as long as you adhere to a few rules such as outstanding reviews relative to total sales and lack of negative feedback. Fully boxed unopened products obviously as well. I know a lot of things on Ebay aren't necessarily always 'second hand' which would admitidly be very dodgey territory. Some people just buy things in bulk and sell on for a small profit. That example I gave is just that, I'm going to shop around a lot first and any potentials I'm going to contact the seller and their friendliness/willingness will be another factor for my decision.
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Yeah I use eBay a lot and get some great deals. With psus it's best to know what kind you want first because it takes some research to know it's quality and sites like jonnyguru.com completely tear apart the units and pretty much torture them so you know what you are getting.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Cheers I'll have a looksie there. With regards to this recent development of "oh shit my current PSU may not be removable" how would I find out? I'm very naive with poking around and unscrewing things. Like I said on most videos there is a panel on the back with 4 screws and you take the PSU in and out through that but on the back of my box the panel is blocked by other panels and i think i need to take the whole back off which maybe means moving motherboard and loads of stuff around and I have no idea what I'm doing so naturally very hesitant and worried...
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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with most cases the psu is held in place by screws through the back but you have to remove them through one of the sides. I would gguess yours to be the left side as you look at the front of the case. It may still be the case that the screws go in through the back though. I am going to bed as it is 4:39 am here but if you take some pics of the back and side with the panel removed I would be glad to have a look later and see if we can figure it out together.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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I'll certainly do that. Cheers man you've been a fantastic help.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Update! So I've been poking around inside and managed to get the PSU out (although I didn't unplug anything) I took it out to take measurements and record what it actually is! Turns out I have one of these puppies:-

https://seasonic.com/product/ss-350-et-active-pfc-f3/

I almost caved in and ordered a new PSU online today as it's stressing me out so much but then another friend introduced me to a new concept/part which I was previously ignorant to... Heat Sinks. So all CPU's have a basic one underneath their fan. I'm wondering is this my problem? Is this why my CPU crashes and why it gets so hot? Either it's too low-grade or it may be clogged up.

What I really need to know now is if I manage to get them off and apart am I going to have to use thermal paste to put them back? Because that scares me...
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Oh I didn't realize you had temperature problems and that is my fault because that should have been one of the first things I asked you. Shame on me. You will need to use paste if you remove the CPU cooler. But good news is it's not hard. It may be that your current cooler is wearing out too but you can get a replacement on Amazon or Newegg for 8 or 10 dollars with paste already applied. But if you have to apply paste make sure it's a non electrically conductive kind like Arctic silver 5, or I use Noctua nt-h1. That way even if you use a little too much it won't hurt anything. And within reason, a little too much is better than not enough.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Yeah basically my games are crashing a lot (I meet all the specs). The crash reports I get are identical to thousands of other people 'DXGI HUNG DEVICE' it's supposed to to do with graphics cards but through deeper reading I've found out the real culprit is usually CPU not having enough power and subsequent heat. I get a lot of heat in games over 75 and my cpu shuts off after 72. Gaming is the purpose of my sad existence but honestly computers drive me nuts they're worse than toddlers always something going wrong and always expensive!
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Yeah 75 core temps during gaming is hot. Your cpus tcase max is 72 but core temp as I understand it can be about 20 degrees hotter before throttling. It's different for each chip. I had to laugh at your last post. Call me crazy but I enjoy fixing computers when they have a problem. lol. idk It's just fun for me to figure out the solution. But you are not alone in loving gaming, I have 2 computers just in case one of them is down so I can still play skyrim. But back to the topic, it sounds like you have done your research on your problem, it is entirely possible you have a bad psu because your setup with an rx 460 shouldn't take a lot of power. I'm not sure of the quality of that particular model of seasonic but if you posted another thread with the psu info somebody like Sr-71 blackbird would be able to tell you about it. But the only real way for you to test it is by trying a different psu.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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My PSU is 350 watts and my graphics card alone consumes 350 watts. So I have a fairly beefy 0 watts to power everything else in my computer. I asked people about this when I got the card and I just got a "don't worry it won't consume anywhere near that much really". Yet every calculator I use reckons the kind of gaming I'm doing i should need 540-80 watts of power.

Some good news though is that a friend has just said to me he has a spare 650 psu he thinks I could have. It would be a big difference over my 350, more or less double. He just wants shipping for it but what ever that comes to I'm just going to add on what I was going to pay for one online regardless as hes helped me with a lot of tech screw ups in the past. So still going to pay for one in essence but I'll at least know it'll work which will always be a fear when buying from strangers or a shop (strangely most IT Specialists in shops have never played computer games).

I guess waiting on this PSU will be about 2 weeks at least so in the mean time I wonder what I can do. Can I take my CPU fan off and clean it without having to use thermal paste? I only need paste if I take my heat sink off as well right? If so I could try to clean the fan and even if I can't take the sink out I could probably clean it to a limited extent whilst its attached which would be better than nothing I guess.
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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I never looked up the power requirement for the Rx 460, it is much more than I thought. If you have an Intel stock fan you can't take it off without the heat sink because the fan is what holds it on. But it is easy to clean as it is all open. Have you checked the fans rpms?
 
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Myrmidon1989

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I did the 4 pins, turned them all and pulled up until they clicked. The fan is still stuck solid though (with thermal paste i presume) so I can't really take it off as I have no way to replace the paste I would be destroying. I downloaded a fan application and the onlly fan I can up and down is my GPU. Every time I put cpu up it would go back to 0.
 
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jpe1701

jpe1701

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Does it show the rpms? And does it ramp up to high when the CPU is under load? What fan utility are you using? Speed fan is good. Sucks you have to wait for your Psu but it's great you have such a good friend. Keep me updated when you try the Psu because it would be great to see this get resolved for you and anyone else who might be reading with a similar issue.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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I uninstalled it as it wasn't providing any benefit. I think the CPU went up to 1400 and the GPU had a 4300 max but was running at about a third of that then I had an unnamed fan which I presume was the box fan or PSU but I can't remember the figures. Something was 2100... Sorry not very helpful. I could install it again.
 
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Myrmidon1989

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Perhaps it's the 2100. As I said I didn't have a clue what half of it meant and most things wouldn't change when they upped them. Gonna reinstall now though and I'll post the stats.
 
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