42 amps minimum?

[RokuKushala]

Hey, i'm not so techy when it comes to computers and such but i know some here and there. I want to upgrade my graphics card I have now to a GeForce GTX 770:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130948&cm_re=4gb_770_acx-_-14-130-948-_-Product

As I read through the specifications it says "600 watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 42 amps on the +12 volt rail."

Which made me unclear, if my power supply has the power to handle it

This is the power supply I have now: http://i.imgur.com/6CoB5nt.jpg

So my Question is: Is my current power supply good enough to handle the new graphics card?

If you can also teach me how to read it that would be great!

 

[i7Baby]

No - It's Dell (bad quality) for a start.

You can see the 12V rails can only carry 18A each. Even though its a 875W in total psu.

Get a good one per - http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html eg Seasonic 620, XFX 650, Antec HCG 620M

- http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_226&products_id=19763 as you can see, it only has one 12V rail.

 

[MagicPants]

Maybe...

Your powersupply has 5 12 volt rails(VA-VE) each at 18amps. So it's not able to power the card off of one rail. It might work if you plug-in the 6 and 8 pin connectors from different rails, and make sure that the rail that powers the motherboard isn't being used for the extra power connectors to the video card. (The card can draw about 60 watts from the pci-e bus itself.)

For the purpose of powering video cards you can pretty much ignore anything but the 12volt rails (5v, 3.3v)
FYI volts x amps = watts
12volts x 18 amps = 216

 

[mickypheonix]

Hi RokuKushala
I agree with i7Baby ,
i would suggest a PSU of about 700 watts or there abouts for some headroom
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207015&cm_re=xfx_psu-_-17-207-015-_-Product
this PSU has 62A on the +12v rail and at 750 watts will give you lots of headroom

 

[RokuKushala]

Thanks all. And as for power supply i dont have to check to see if its compatible with anything else right? Those are mainly swappable at anytime?

 

[i7Baby]

All ATX psu's are the same physical size. Dell sometimes has its own special connectors - different to everyone else. You'd need to check.

 

[mickypheonix]

you can swap over your PSU at anytime , as long as the psu you select has the power connectors you need for your card most other things are standard like your 12v eps 8 or 4pin , your 20/24pin atx
and all your peripheral cables - sata power , 4pin molex

 

[4Ryan6]

Since Dell originally put an 875w in that computer I would at least get closer to the wattage with a higher quality power supply!

This Silverstone will do the original job the Dell was tasked for, and easily handle the new Graphics load.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256100

 

[dark_globe]

he doesn´t need 850 or 700w power supply for single gtx770 ...
600w quality psu is all he needs ...
i7baby made a good selection for him ...

 

[4Ryan6]

Many base their power supply buys on what they can get by with, in the past I did the same until I had failures from overloading the power supply.

I now really could care less about just getting by when it comes to a power supply simply because if you get a more powerful supply than you really need it cruises to handle the load never kicking into high cooling mode.

So now a power supply is no longer the last thing I take into consideration when considering a build it is on the top of the list!

Then if I want to upgrade later and add more load to the machine there's no problem.

 

[dark_globe]

system with gtx770 and say i5 or i7 haswell or even lot more power hungry cpu
and couple of hard drives consumes from 300w to about 350w during gaming at best ...
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_770_gaming_review,5.html
so in fact even 600w decent psu is plenty of power for such machine ...

i´m not afraid to say even 450w seasonic G or capstone would handle such setup with no "overheating" , but for more headroom 600w is more than enough...
the myth people need almost 1kw psu for gaming pc with single video card
"comes from" 20 dollar 850w power supplies manufacturers
which are in fact about 500w/600w units at best , have low efficiency
and produce high ripple and noise under load ...

 

[4Ryan6]

system with gtx770 and say i5 or i7 haswell or even lot more power hungry cpu
and couple of hard drives consumes from 300w to about 350w during gaming at best ...
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_770_gaming_review,5.html
so in fact even 600w decent psu is plenty of power for such machine ...

i´m not afraid to say even 450w seasonic G or capstone would handle such setup with no "overheating" , but for more headroom 600w is more than enough...
the myth people need almost 1kw psu for gaming pc with single video card
"comes from" 20 dollar 850w power supplies manufacturers
which are in fact about 500w/600w units at best , have low efficiency
and produce high ripple and noise under load ...

I understand where you're coming from, but I'll keep doing things the way it's worked for me! Thanks