Is 700w enough?

what is your psu exactly, if it's true rated branded psu, the answer to your question is YES, definitely yes.

It's a coolermaster ultimate UCP 700w

Well it would do you fine. But the PSU isn't that good!

Check out the review:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-UC...

When I bought it it was sort of a like a split second decision as I needed a psu urgently....

Hopefully I can do a bit more research the the new one, thanks everyone!

Glad to help.

Thumb rule would be to stick to Corsair, Seasonic or Antec in that order.

you would want to gor for a 800w psu to be on the safer side, but a 700 would do

Hello, I know how hard it is to make a decision on a PSU, I just picked up a Corsair 850HX. One thing to keep in mind though is that you can have too little power but theres no such thing as having too much (well I think in the US a wall socket can handle ~1200w PSU from what I've heard)   On that note from looking at what you have listed you should be just fine with the PSU you have.

For when you do start looking for your new PSU here are a few links that I have saved while looking for my own to power an i7 machine. I would suggest IMHO from the research I have done and PSU's I've owned that in no particular order: Antec, Corsair, Seagate, and PC Power & Cooling(now owned by OCZ) just as others here have said, have some of the very best PSU's made, along with great warranties.


Here are a few VERY good review sites that you may want to check out before making a decision:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDR

http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/psu_power_supplies/

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power



Here are some handy PSU calculators to help you out:

http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine --- Very detailed and simple/clean design.

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp --- Basically Antec barrowed from this, but made it look good.

http://www.raptoxx.com/calculator.php --- Far more detail but alot more PSU knowledge needed.



The rest hear are normal/avergae calculators:

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power

http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply/

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=power

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html


***SIDE NOTE - I have heard that the Wester Digital Caviar Black 640gb provides a slight performance increase over the 500gb due to the platter configuration***

I prefer the following order...


#1. Seasonic - basically the premier PSU manufacturer
#2. XFX - because all their PSUs are manufactured by Seasonic
#3. Corsair - because only some of their PSU are manufactured by Seasonic. The others are manufactured by CWT. They are shifting more business to CWT to cut down on costs.
#4. PC Power & Cooling - because some of thier PSUs are made by Seasonic.
#5. Antec - because some of their PSU are made by Seasonic, however they are known for cutting corners to reduce cost. Not the same top notch PSU quality they were known for several years ago.

Hey, thanks for the replies everyone, very helpful!

Jsyk: I already have the 700w from my old system, reason I was asking is that I can't afford a new one just yet.