[SOLVED] 400W PSU and GTX 1060 3GB Compatibility!

[RLarcosPES2]

Can this PSU support this GPU on a system with many old hard drives?

Specs:
CPU - FX 6300 4.1ghz @1.3875 volts
RAM 16GB 1333mhz
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-78lmt-usb3 or something like that I don't have the PC with me to be exactly correct. The point is this is a low end motherboard and I can't overclock my CPU.

CPU cooler - Hyper Evo 212X with 2 Fans on it(There are no other fans on this PC except from the GPU)

GPU - GT 1030 GDDR5(I am looking to replace this)

1 SSD Crucial BX500 240GB
1 USB Hard drive 1TB Toshiba(that's modern)
1 USB Stick Transcedent USB 3.0 64GB
1 USB Stick USB2.0 16GB
3 OLD HDDs 7200rpm 3.5 inch
1 OLD HDD 5400rpm 2.5 inch
1 OLD DVD-RW drive
1 random USB keyboard
1 Gaming USB mouse
1 USB WiFi Adapter

The CPU is "overclocked" to it's theoretical boost clock and it runs like this all the time. I have disabled all power saving settings and I don't intend to change that.

I want to install the GT-1030 in another PC which is OEM and has a very bad PSU. Also it is a very good chance to upgrade the GPU. The GT-1030 is enough for my need honestly, but I am very curious to see if my PSU with my power hungry CPU and all my OLD and power inefficient Hard Drives can take a GTX 1060 3GB. If the GTX 1060 doesn't fit then can I install a 1050?



THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!

 

[LrnzpKiller]

Your current system appears to have very little spare power. I don't think your PSU can handle a GTX 1060, it will be too tight on power.

You currently use 340-360 watt, the GT 1030 is very efficient and only uses 30W, while the GTX 1060 uses 120W. This along with all your extra's and hungry CPU will probably not work out.

As for the GTX 1050, this could work as it uses 75W. But it might be tight.

It also depends on what quality your PSU is, a sketchy/cheap chinese PSU or so will most likely not cut it.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Oops forgot to say that my PSU is a be QUIET! Pure Power 10. It is a pretty good PSU for the price I got it.

I think that if I replace all the old HDD's with 1TB Western DIgital Black maybe I will have just enough room for a GTX 1060.

What do you think?

 

[LrnzpKiller]

Oops forgot to say that my PSU is a be QUIET! Pure Power 10. It is a pretty good PSU for the price I got it.

I think that if I replace all the old HDD's with 1TB Western DIgital Black maybe I will have just enough room for a GTX 1060.

What do you think?

I made a small mistake, I didn't take your overclock and settings into consideration.

After re-calculating a GTX 1060 might not be possible since your CPU will use 30-40W more due to the overclock.

Even after changing all the drives for one drive you'll only have enough room for a GTX 1050, which makes your total consumption at roughly 380W. Then again, you'll also have to take your fans or so into consideration, which use 3-4W each.

But I think it would work, as long as you don't plan on overclocking more or add more fans (Keep in mind this is with the 1TB WD black drive), aka you won't have alot of breathing room left.

 

[DSzymborski]

Honestly, you're not using 340W-360W currently; you don't have anywhere near the component level to be using that much power. You've got a CPU with a 95W TDP (which isn't precisely power usage, mind you) and a 30W GPU. Hard drives use very little power relative to the CPU and GPU. I have serious doubts you're even at 200W under load right now.

While I tend to like a little more headroom and better build quality, the Pure Powers are about as good as anything else you'll find in this wattage range. I'm not particularly troubled by running a GTX 1060 in this situation and I'm a real power supply scold generally.

Are you or are you not overclocking? The 6300 isn't a 4.1 GHz chip but you say you're not overclocking. If you are overclocking, you likely have another 25-45W in the CPU, which would make me a little more uneasy.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

It isn't an overclock per se I just run the CPU at its boost clock all the time. As much I would like to overclock this CPU to 4.5 ghz it is not possible with this crap motherboard(It doesn't even support USB3 or SATA3 and the SSD runs at half speed). There are only 2 fans and they are enough for my heavily modified case so much airflow it is like being breadboded on a case! So no more fans or overclock planned.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

I am fairly sure the CPU runs at a much higher actual TDP. Also I installed my GTX 970 from my main PC one time and the PSU couldn't handle it.
How much Watts does a typical 15 year old hard drive use?

 

[DSzymborski]

It doesn't run at any TDP - TDP means thermal design power, which measures the amount of heat the cooling solution needs to mitigate.

Remember, these are for the entire system (so there's an idled GTX 670 there, hard drive, and other stuff).

Older 3.5" hard drives likely use between 6-10W apiece, which is split between 12W and 5W power.

Did you test the 970 on this PSU? Because there are a lot of garbage power supplies out there if you were using a different one.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Yes they very same system only replacing the GT-1030 for the GTX 970. It had artifacts on the screen and the PC shut down after 5 minutes while idle. It just couldn't handle it. But if I am not mistaken the GTX 970 is rated for something like 225W TDP and it using the older less efficient Maxwell architecture. The 970 runs fine right now while I am typing this on my main PC.

The FX-6300 out of the box runs at 3.8ghz out of the box under load. When I increased the core clock at 4.1 ghz I HAD to increase the Vcore to 1.3875 vs the stock 1.35 otherwise it wouldn't be stable. So the actual power requirents could be at the range of 150 Watts on my PC.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Also the rated turbo speed of the FX-6300 is 4.1ghz so I am technically not overclocking but on my crappy board I do in fact overclock since I have increased the voltage.

 

[DSzymborski]

Yes they very same system only replacing the GT-1030 for the GTX 970. It had artifacts on the screen and the PC shut down after 5 minutes while idle. It just couldn't handle it. But if I am not mistaken the GTX 970 is rated for something like 225W TDP and it using the older less efficient Maxwell architecture. The 970 runs fine right now while I am typing this on my main PC.

The FX-6300 out of the box runs at 3.8ghz out of the box under load. When I increased the core clock at 4.1 ghz I HAD to increase the Vcore to 1.3875 vs the stock 1.35 otherwise it wouldn't be stable. So the actual power requirents could be at the range of 150 Watts on my PC.

I have to admit that in this case, I'm becoming uneasy. It'll put you near 300W at load just in CPU/GPU and with all those hard drives, getting up near LK's estimates. My very tentative green light was based on stock.

Truth be told, you'll also have issues getting everything out of a GTX 1060 with an FX-6300. Have you considered a 1050 Ti? It'll get you back down into safe PSU territory and it's well-matched with the CPU.

(The technical definition of overclocking doesn't really matter, you're needing additional voltage for stability and that has a cost that isn't linear).

 

[RLarcosPES2]

For gaming, I am getting enough performance out of the 1030. The most demanding game on that system is Yakuza Kiwami 2. The screen resolution is 1360x768. And I don't mind playing even with 20fps low settings as I also have a PS3. But, when I am there(meaning the PC is not on my main residence but on my parents house which I go there once every month) I may need to edit a few videos and use blender for 3D editing on that PC. The hardware encoders on my main PC with the GTX 970 do help in my workflow significantly especially with blender Cycles rendering. Also I plan on teaching my little sister the basics of 3D animation and it would be very helpful having relatively fast render times it will make teaching much more efficient with less rendering times. The GT 1030 is completely useless except for gaming.

The 1050ti is only about 10% better than the 1050 while also being 1.4 times the price where I live. So the only real upgrade is a 1060.

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Also what about AMD. Can my system run an RX 550 or 560 or 570 or 580?

I just saw they are dirt cheap over here. But I think Nvidia is more efficient.

 

[DSzymborski]

You can run a 550 or a 560, but even the 560 isn't any real gain over a non-TI 1050. If you're not confident in your power supply for a 1060, you can't be for a 570/580

 

[RLarcosPES2]

Thank you guys, you were both extremely helpful!

I will replace the old hard drives with one modern one and I will try the 1050!

Thanks!