Is a 460 watt PSU enough to power my gaming rig?

[PwncakesNRofls]

I would like to know if a Cooler Master Elite Series Power Supply - 460 Watts, ATX is enough to power my gaming rig, here is my gaming rig so far...


Graphics card- EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti SuperClocked 1GB GDDR5

CPU- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3 CPU

RAM- Patriot Gamer 2 4GB DDR3 PC10666 1333MHz, and CRUCIAL 8GB KIT (4GBX2) DDR3 1333 MT/S

Motherboard- ASUS M5A97 AMD 970 Socket AM3+ Motherboard

Hard drive- WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-6G

Disk drive- Sony Optiarc 24X DVDRW SATA OEM

Case- Cooler Master Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case

CPU Heatsink/fan- Cooler Master V6 GT Multi-Socket CPU Cooler

 

[GI_JONES]

460 watts would be eough if that unit really put out that much. CoolerMaster power supplies arent very good. Go with ct1615's advice and get the corsair
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

 

[PwncakesNRofls]

Thanks for the suggestion but I have have already bought and installed the Cooler master PSU. I was just wondering if it if it was enough to power my system because I have been having some random crashes in games like Skyrim, Shogun Total War 2, and Civilization V and I thought that maybe at times my system was eating up too much power and that is why it crashed, but I trust you when you say that my PSU is good enough for the job so that dismisses that possible culprit. I would also like to ask you If that same PSU would still power my system if I were to add another EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti SuperClocked 1GB GDDR5 to it, this would be very helpful to know because I am planning on buying one to add on soon and I am wondering if I should buy a new PSU with it.

 

[de5_Roy]

the cm elite psu isn't good. it's far worse for 2x gtx 550 in sli. besides, i don't think your motherboard supports x8+x8 sli, only supports x16+x4 [strike]sli[/strike] crossfire.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A97/
pcie slots:
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (blue)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black)
if you still want to sli, look for a psu with better quality like corsair tx750 v2. for single gtx 550ti, i'd recommend a corsair cx 500 v2 at least, to be on the safe side.
from guru3d's msi 550ti cyclone review:
http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=29458
the gtx 550ti has 116w tdp, the cyclone card uses 140w because of the overclock. according to them:

What would happen if your PSU can't cope with the load? Here are a few possible issues:

bad 3D performance
crashing games
spontaneous reset or imminent shutdown of the PC
freezing during gameplay
PSU overload can cause it to break down.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-550-ti-review-msi-cyclone-ii-oc/
edit: double checked the asus page, no mention of sli. sorry for the mistake.

 

[PwncakesNRofls]

Yea that's what I was afraid of, I really shouldn't have been cheap when I was buying my PSU. I will take you recommendation and get the corsair tx750 v2 when I buy another graphics card to go along with my current one. Also if what you said is true about how adding another GTX 550 ti wont work for my mother board do you know of a card that would work out for my motherboard?

 

[de5_Roy]

er.... your motherboard's specifications page (check link in my 1st post) says only crossfirex support up to 4 gpus i.e. only supports up to 2x dual gpu cards such as gtx 690. no mention of sli which is nvidia's system of combining multiple gpus.
edit: the crashing can also be for driver issues or game's software issues, keep those in mind too. i put the blame on the cm elite 460 because of cm's highly variable quality of psus and their habit of over speccing psus.

 

[PwncakesNRofls]

So whats the difference between crossfirex and sli because my graphics card says that it is "SLI ready". Also please try and have patience with me, I am pretty new to this stuff and I would really like to learn it.

Edit: Never mind I did some research on the web to figure it out, but still thanks for all the help guys!!

 

[PwncakesNRofls]

Best answer selected by PwncakesNRofls.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey