Tom's Hardware > Forum > CPU & Components > Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods > [Solved] PSU Suggestions? Quality Build?

[Solved] PSU Suggestions? Quality Build?

Forum CPU & Components : Power Supplies, PC Cases & Case Mods - [Solved] PSU Suggestions? Quality Build?

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Best answer from JohnnyLucky.

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Hopefully this is the correct board to post on.

This will be the first system I've built from scratch, but I've done a little upgrading here and there on my current one. Either way, I'm a little confused on what power supply I should be getting, in terms of ATX vs. ATXv12. Suggestions on a CPU cooler are also welcome. I'd also appreciate any comments on the build I post below. I'm aiming for a high quality gaming system. Thanks!

i5-750

Radeon HD 5870

ASUS P7P55D EVO LGA

OCZ Gold 6GB

Western Digital Caviar Blue

HT | OMEGA STRIKER 7.1

SONY Black 18X

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel

Windows 7

Again, any suggestions to improve the build are welcome, along with a PSU suggestion. Thanks!

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The general rule of thumb is a high quality 500 to 550 watt power supply with sufficient current (amps) on the 12 volt rail(s) can easily power a system with any single video card made. A high quality 700 to 750 watt power supply with sufficient current (amps) on the 12 volt rail(s) can power a system with two video cards operating in dual mode. There are a few exceptions like the new ATI Radeon HD 5XXX series cards which use less power due to their energy efficiency.

Here are the official power requirements for the brand new ATI Radeon HD 5850 and HD 5870 video cards.

ATI Radeon™ HD5850 System Requirements:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended

600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode

ATI Radeon™ HD5870 System Requirements:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended

600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in • dual mode

The power supply recommendations are for an entire pc system.

Before purchasing a new psu you will need to decide whether you will eventually have a pc with one or two video cards.

Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, and Seasonic are some of the brands that have a reputation for high quality power supplies that consistently earn high marks in technical reviews. They are reliable, stable, and come with a 5 year warranty. Lately we've been seeing a few other brands offering some high quality units.

Any power supply from Antec, OCZ, or Corsair will be fine. 600 watts will be sufficient

as for a heatsink, i would go with the zigmatek rifle for $45, just be sure to get the one compatible with this socket

Reply to snurp85

If you will never go beyond a single GPU, a 550W Antec Truepower New would be good. It is semi-modular and 80+ bronze certified. If you think you may add a second GPU for Crossfire, then get the 750W model.
For the CPU cooler, www.frostytech.com has a lot of reviews and some top-10 lists.

Reply to jtt283

Best answer

Reply to JohnnyLucky

Hello lithium123;

A couple ideas for you to consider.
P7P55D Pro instead of the EVO.
4GB of RAM instead of 6. The P55 MBs are dual channel and 4GB is plenty starting out.
The 1200 case is very nice but you can get the 900 or 902 and still have an awesome case.

Reply to WR2

The egg has a stonking deal on the Corsait TX850 at the mo - you would never need another PSU

(or at least for the period of it's 5 year warranty)

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to jamesgoddard

If you're looking to shop at NewEgg check the combo deals:
Antec 900 and Antec Truepower New 650W $180 thats $20 off just for getting them together.
And for some strange reason the 550W and 650W PSUs seem to be the same price....

Reply to WR2

bah - why can't I edit

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=850tx

Reply to jamesgoddard

jamesgoddard wrote :

The egg has a stonking deal on the Corsait TX850 at the mo - you would never need another PSU

(or at least for the period of it's 5 year warranty)

850 seems a bit of a waste if he's not gonna crossfire or do some massive OCing across the board. esp with the idle efficiency of the gpu and cpu is impressive. A 620 650w psu would be much more appropriate be around the 40% mark of the avg draw from the computer and would last a good several years, psu's degrade in their abilty as you use them more a few % every year.

Reply to IzzyCraft

IzzyCraft - Normally I would agree; however, it's those darn sale prices. It's a bargain basement deal. The TX850 is available at newegg.com for a final price of $109.99 while the final price for the HX650 is $129.99. Both of those are designed for Crossfire mode with four 75 watt PCI-e 6 pin power cables. As jamesgoddard correctly pointed out the OP would be all set for the next 5 years.

Reply to JohnnyLucky

If you are considering an Antec 900/902/1200 case, be aware that it does not include a case speaker - something every PC should have.

Reply to jsc

jsc - That's what I would have thought too. Have you seen some of the new motherboards? They're using a couple of red and green led lights instead of speakers. For the life of me I can't remember which board it was but one has a small digital led display with two digit codes instead of a speaker that beeps.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to JohnnyLucky

JohnnyLucky wrote :

My xfx board downstairs has one of these

Reply to jamesgoddard

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