Insufficient PSU gradually damage other parts?

[romeodakins]

Would having not enough power supply or barely enough slowly damage my other parts or the power supply itself or if it works for a couple of hours I'm all good? So far I'm running my 7850 off of my antec 400w psu and it's working very good. Is my power supply slowly getting damaged though? I heard that having not enough psu will just cause the pc to not power on but what if you just have barely enough?

 

[ko888]

That depends on the brand and model of the PSU.

Some of the cheap generic PSUs will generate high levels of electrical ripple when they are pushed hard. High levels of electrical ripple will gradually destroy the electrolytic capacitors on your devices such as motherboard VRM circuits, graphics card VRM circuits, ..., etc.

The more well behaved PSUs will just shut them-self down when their protection circuits are triggered, assuming the PSU actually has working protection circuits.

 

[stevieboy21]

I don't think so. I have been using the same 250watt PSU since around about 2000 or 2001, and I have 4 PCI cards and an extra HD kicking around on the mobo. Sometimes my GPU fan hiccups when it's under alot of strain playing Halo, but that can be for another reason. Only thing to note, my PSU is getting up there in age, and it sounds an awful lot terrible -- it makes this high-pitched metallic sound that oscillates. I have been so used to listening to it, even despite it getting worse, that when people are over they wonder what's wrong with my computer lol. They just don't know what reliable components are when they see them.

 

[romeodakins]

That depends on the brand and model of the PSU.

Some of the cheap generic PSUs will generate high levels of electrical ripple when they are pushed hard. High levels of electrical ripple will gradually destroy the electrolytic capacitors on your devices such as motherboard VRM circuits, graphics card VRM circuits, ..., etc.

The more well behaved PSUs will just shut them-self down when their protection circuits are triggered, assuming the PSU actually has working protection circuits.

I have this psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

 

[ko888]

I have this psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

For a system using a single Radeon HD 5770 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 450 Watt or greater system power supply. The power supply should also have a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 24 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Sufficient Total Combined Continuous Power/Current Available on the +12V Rail(s) rated at 45°C - 50°C ambient temperature, is the most critical factor.

Overclocking of the CPU and/or GPU(s) will require an additional increase to the maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating, recommended above, to meet the increase in power required for the overclock. The additional amount required will depend on the magnitude of the overclock being attempted.

You may find power supplies on the market that supply more than enough Wattage to run the system. However, some of them lack Sufficient Amperage capacity on the critical +12 Volt rail, which is necessary to properly power the critical components in the system (i.e. CPU and GPUs). This is the reason why graphics card manufacturers may overstate the power supply wattage, usually by at least 50 Watts, in an attempt to take into account some of those power supplies that have the weaker +12 Volt rail(s).

The Antec Neo ECO 400C, with its maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 30 Amps and with one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector, is more than sufficient to power your system configuration with a single Radeon HD 5770 graphics card. This PSU model is built by Seasonic based on the Seasonic S12II-430 platform. It should be able to maintain its very low electrical noise and ripple levels even when pushed to its limits.

Are you overclocking your CPU and/or GPU? If so, by how much?

 

[romeodakins]

For a system using a single Radeon HD 5770 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 450 Watt or greater system power supply. The power supply should also have a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 24 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Sufficient Total Combined Continuous Power/Current Available on the +12V Rail(s) rated at 45°C - 50°C ambient temperature, is the most critical factor.

Overclocking of the CPU and/or GPU(s) will require an additional increase to the maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating, recommended above, to meet the increase in power required for the overclock. The additional amount required will depend on the magnitude of the overclock being attempted.

You may find power supplies on the market that supply more than enough Wattage to run the system. However, some of them lack Sufficient Amperage capacity on the critical +12 Volt rail, which is necessary to properly power the critical components in the system (i.e. CPU and GPUs). This is the reason why graphics card manufacturers may overstate the power supply wattage, usually by at least 50 Watts, in an attempt to take into account some of those power supplies that have the weaker +12 Volt rail(s).

The Antec Neo ECO 400C, with its maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 30 Amps and with one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector, is more than sufficient to power your system configuration with a single Radeon HD 5770 graphics card. This PSU model is built by Seasonic based on the Seasonic S12II-430 platform. It should be able to maintain its very low electrical noise and ripple levels even when pushed to its limits.

Are you overclocking your CPU and/or GPU? If so, by how much?

No overclocking at all, btw my system has a 7850

 

[ko888]

No overclocking at all, btw my system has a 7850

For a system using a single reference design Radeon HD 7850 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater system power supply. The power supply should also have a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 27 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector. Some of the non-reference design Radeon HD 7850 graphics cards require at least two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors.

The 27 Amp value is to handle the instances where you're using the graphics card for GPGPU tasks or running FurMark or some other GPU stress testing utility.

If your usage is only gaming, and you never run GPGPU tasks or run GPU stress testing applications, then 23 Amps for the combined +12V rail(s) is the minimum recommended.

 

[romeodakins]

For a system using a single reference design Radeon HD 7850 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater system power supply. The power supply should also have a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 27 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector. Some of the non-reference design Radeon HD 7850 graphics cards require at least two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors.

The 27 Amp value is to handle the instances where you're using the graphics card for GPGPU tasks or running FurMark or some other GPU stress testing utility.

If your usage is only gaming, and you never run GPGPU tasks or run GPU stress testing applications, then 23 Amps for the combined +12V rail(s) is the minimum recommended.

So am I good?

 

[ko888]

So am I good?

If all you do is gaming then you'll be absolutely fine.

 

[romeodakins]

If all you do is gaming then you'll be absolutely fine.

Yeah I mostly just game and surf the web/watch videos and I did like 2 or 3 3Dmark tests to test my gpu.