Should I get new PSU while upgrading?

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zorrohere

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Aug 22, 2017
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PS: After writing my entire question I have realized it is little vague question, I wasn't sure which sub-forum it belongs to, any advice/help will be great.

Recently I had upgraded my setup to dual monitor and had purchased new graphics card, following are my specs


  • ■ CPU: Intel i5-4460
    ■ Motherboard: Gigabyte H81M-S
    ■ RAM: 8GB HyperX DDR3
    ■ Graphics card: Gigabyte geforce gt 740
    ■ PSU: Circle 400W
    ■ Two hard disks

Recently I was testing few broadcaster softwares, one morning when I started PC it made a lot of noise so I opened the case and started it again but it didn't make noise so I just made sure no wire is getting in way, next morning same thing happened. In day, I used OBS studio for few hours which basically saved a lot of data on Hard disk. At some point my PC screen froze and mouse was working, it happened more than couple of times. Later I found out that one of the file was corrupted but then everything was working fine.

Next day it froze couple of times and went in recovery mode loop. I opened the case again and found out that PSU fan was making noise and gentle tap on it at center stopped the noise, now it spins fine. But in the end I decided to do a clean install, the installation took a lot more time than usual. After installing, I noticed that whenever I typed or moved mouse, UI would respond late and freeze briefly. When I managed to install all the drivers, it got better but still responds late at times.

I checked hard disk health using Harddisk Sentinel and it shows my bootable disk is at 80% health with 34 weak sectors. So I have decided to get a SSD.

Now coming to my main question, My graphics card's requirement was 400W and my PSU is also 400W which to me feels like borderline, am I being paranoid unnecessarily? Or should I get new PSU?

Right now my plan is to get the SSD and maybe PSU as well. I will clean up my case before installing it, and make sure that cables are connected properly(did it once). Any suggestions will be great. Thanks.
 
Solution
Darkbreeze
Yes, this sub forum is fine.

Yes, Circle power supplies are terrible, and while that is a fairly LOW end graphics card, I'd strongly agree with any statement to the effect that a Circle PSU was unsuitable for even the most basic system, let alone one with ANY PCIe graphics card regardless that it runs strictly off PCIe slot power and does not require any supplemental cables. Unless you have a GDDR5 model that needs an additional 6 pin. Either way, max power requirement for the ENTIRE system with a GT 740 would be 380w, and that's probably a bit overkill.

Most likely, in fact, almost certainly, that Circle PSU would struggle to sustain as much as 250w.

I'd say anything that was tier 3 or higher would be ok for that system but if you...
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Yes, this sub forum is fine.

Yes, Circle power supplies are terrible, and while that is a fairly LOW end graphics card, I'd strongly agree with any statement to the effect that a Circle PSU was unsuitable for even the most basic system, let alone one with ANY PCIe graphics card regardless that it runs strictly off PCIe slot power and does not require any supplemental cables. Unless you have a GDDR5 model that needs an additional 6 pin. Either way, max power requirement for the ENTIRE system with a GT 740 would be 380w, and that's probably a bit overkill.

Most likely, in fact, almost certainly, that Circle PSU would struggle to sustain as much as 250w.

I'd say anything that was tier 3 or higher would be ok for that system but if you want something that's really decent quality AND especially if there is any chance you might upgrade the graphics card later, you would want to stick with Tier 2 or higher units.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I'd say it's 99.999% likely your power supply lies at the heart of your problems.

What country are you in?


Here's a similar thread, related to Circle PSUs, in case you're interested.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/337981-28-circle-watt-trustable
 
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zorrohere

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Aug 22, 2017
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Thanks for the quick reply, I will go through those threads.

I am from India. Yes it is GDDR5, I had to purchase additional 6 pin PCIe power cable for it. I might need to upgrade further in future, so I will consider getting higher end PSU. Thanks.

 
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zorrohere

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Aug 22, 2017
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My overall budget for SSD and PSU would be upto 10k. At the moment I have shortlisted 'WD Green 240GB' which is around 6k on amazon, not sure about PSU at the moment. Thanks again you are being really helpful.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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I see. Well, that makes it hard to make suggestions, since I don't know what they carry for you locally but I DO know that quality power supplies are limited and expensive in India since I help a lot of members that are from various regions in India.

So what I can tell you is that you probably want to try and stick with power supplies that sell under the brand names of Seasonic, Super Flower, EVGA, Corsair or Antec, but not ALL of the units by those companies are good. Some models are very good, some are not so good. AND, since you have a Haswell processor you will want one that is "Haswell certified" to support the lower power C states C6/C7 and not all power supplies do.

Seasonic and Super Flower make the best units overall, but some of their older models do not support Haswell low power states so you want something that is newer and does. If the unit says it is a 620w unit, OR says it is a S12II or M12II, and is a Seasonic, Antec or any other brand (IF it's 620w, then it's made by Seasonic) it is an older group regulated design and does not support Haswell low power states. They can still be used, if you go into the BIOS and turn off the C6 and C7 P states, but these are older designs and I really recommend not using them anymore even though they were very good a few years ago.

EVGA G2 and G3 units are good. Seasonic Focus, Prime and G series are good. Super Flower Gold Leadex are good. If you tell me what is available to you, I can tell you if that model is good or not. Or, you can choose from units on the tier list I linked to before, but some of those units might not be good.

For Corsair, you will want to avoid units that are RS, VS or CX.

If they are CXM, TXM, RM, RMi, HX or AX, then they are good.
 
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zorrohere

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Aug 22, 2017
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Unfortunately I don't get quick delivery, in most cases it goes beyond a week. Anyway, I think you have provided enough information that I will be able to make right choice.

I wasn't expecting the detailed answer when I was posting my question. Thanks for your time and help.
 
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