Sufficient power supply wattage for i7-920 OC and new video card

[huitlacoche]

Hi,

I'm planning to do an overclock on my i7-920 (probably no more than 3.5gHz) and I'm going to upgrade to either a radeon 7870 2gb or gtx 570 2gb.
Right now I have a corsair 650W supply, I think this should suffice but I wanted to get some feedback and opinions before I do anything rash.

Thanks!
-- Mark

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hello,

Your current PSU should be fine. Do you know the exact model name of your power supply?

The 7870 and 750 aren't exactly power hungry GPUs.

 

[ko888]

For a system using a single GeForce GTX 570 graphics card NVIDIA specifies a minimum of a 550 Watt or greater power supply that has a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 38 Amps or greater and that has at least two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors.

For a system using a single Radeon HD 7870 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 27 Amps or greater and have at least two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Continuous Amperage Available on the +12V Rail(s) is the most important factor.

Corsair Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 (CMPSU-650TXV2)
• +12 Volt continuous current rating of 53 Amps
• two (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors

Corsair Enthusiast Series Modular TX650M (CMPSU-650TXM)
• +12 Volt continuous current rating of 54 Amps
• two (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors

Corsair Professional Series HX650W (CMPSU-650HX)
• +12 Volt continuous current rating of 52 Amps
• four (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors

Corsair Professional Series Gold AX650 (CMPSU-650AX)
• +12 Volt continuous current rating of 54 Amps
• four (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors

All four Corsair 650W models are more than sufficient to power your system configuration with a single GeForce GTX 570 or a single Radeon HD 7870.

There is plenty of reserve capacity available for overclocking of the CPU and GPU.

 

[huitlacoche]

I don't have the manual in front of me right now but i'm about 75% certain its a TX650 corsair.

Thanks for all the input!
-- Mark

 

[huitlacoche]

While on the subject, is there a windows utility that shows what the wattage/amperage is during use? (cpu, gpu, etc)

Thanks,
-- Mark

 

[huitlacoche]

Best answer selected by huitlacoche.