450W PSU and a Geforce 970

[snipped]

The PSU in question is a Seasonic SSR-450RM. I had originally wanted to upgrade to a Geforce 960 (from a GTX555) but after reading reviews and noticing a substantial performance difference I'm considering getting a 970 instead. Nvidia recommends at least 500w for the 970 so I was wondering if 450w would be enough.

Here are the system specs:
sandy bridge core i5-2320 (from an Alienware x51 R1 transplanted into a new case)
Coolermaster elite 130 mini itx case.
240gb Seagate SSD
1tb 7200rpm sata HD
no optical drive
2 case fans (120mm and 80mm)

I was looking at the EVGA 970, ACX.

I was hoping to get some opinions about this. Thanks.

 

[Outlander_04]

Yes you can do this . The quality of the psu means its even likely to last
But I would use an ASUS strix with a single 8 pin pci-e connector

 

[snipped]

Yes you can do this . The quality of the psu means its even likely to last
But I would use an ASUS strix with a single 8 pin pci-e connector

Thanks. Is the recommendation of the strix over the EVGA based on performance or power consumption? if it's performance, how does the strix stand up against other manufacturer's 970 cards, like MSI, Gigabyte, etc? I'm not planning on OC'ing anything btw.

 

[Outlander_04]

The strix has a maximum 150 watt power draw because it has only one 8 pin pci-e socket . Obviously designed to never draw more than that from the psu .
Most other GTX 970's have a 6 pin and the 8 pin , though possibly just for OCing headroom

IMO the quality of the card is better than EVGA .
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-video-card-strixgtx970dc2oc4gd5
The cooler is 0 Db at idle since the fans switch off completely

 

[Outlander_04]

No.
The vast majority increases in load from 350 to 450 to whatever is on the 12 volt rail, running a power supply 50 watts short of recommendation results in a 12 volt rail running at (or near) 100%. Nvidia state 500 as a 'minimum'. This covers A.M.D. chips,but it is still only a 'minimum'. If you were using an i3 I would say yes,in the short term.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga/15
In game with an overclocked i7 the GTX 970 build is drawing 300 watts .
The OP's processor will be drawing less , so his build will draw less
so around 66% of its rated load of 450 watts

http://hardocp.com/article/2014/04/03/seasonic_gseries_g450_power_supply_review/6#.VgyCEvSByUk
The Seasonic psu torture tested to 380 watts
It holds up well . Very well .

500 watts is the specified minimum because many psu's are far lower quality , and some 500 watt psu's would melt if you tried to draw 500 watts from them .

So while the use of a 450 watt psu is not ideal it is possible , and the life of the psu will still be more than adequate , and there is plenty of headroom on the 12 volt rail

 

[snipped]

It would work all right:no doubt about it but the start up loads would kick the 12 volt rail to death sooner or later. Sooner with an o/c'd strix.

Thanks for the additional info. The PSU provides 37amps on the 12v rail, im not sure if that's what you were asking in the previous comment. The system itself is pretty bare, no optical drive and i'm not OCing the CPU. The 970 supposedly draws 145w, Sandy bridge i5 supposedly 95w. I can't imagine the rest taking up 200w. How high are the start up loads that you mention?

 

[COLGeek]

Be nice or be silent, please. Thank you.

Troll posts deleted.

 

[COLGeek]

Civility, even when at odds with another, is appreciated and required. Don't attack individuals, attack opinions with facts, sources, and good humor.

Have a good day.

 

[4745454b]

Tea, you do realize I run a similar 450W gold PSU with a 3770k, 16GBs of ram, and a 7950 which pulls way more power then a 970 right? Been doing this for quite awhile as well. If the draw is only 300W and the OP doesn't need to use any adapters I'd go for it. (after checking out how good a unit is, but if it's a Seasonic then I'm sure he's ok.)

 

[Outlander_04]

There is some 'B/S' involved with that table; look_
http://www.seasonicusa.com/G-series-450-550-650.htm
The maximum 37 amps (444 watts) is available if the rest of the unit is doing nothing.
(Six Watts)
Trust me, it would not suffice.Not long term_ Edit; will lookin to start up loads.

It is absolutely normal to rate psu's this way
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139054
Volts x Amps = Watts
Taking a look at this Corsair you see its actually capable of 648 watts on just the 12 volt rail . The 5 volt is good for another 125 watts . Over all its rails could individually supply over 875 watts . Just not all at the same time .That figure is largely limited by the quality of the regulation circuitry and the cooling available so instead its a 650 watt psu .

All of which is moot . The OP's build will be pulling around 20 Amps from the 12 volt rail under a normal gaming load . The 37 available is more than adequate

 

[Outlander_04]

There is some 'B/S' involved with that table; look_
http://www.seasonicusa.com/G-series-450-550-650.htm
The maximum 37 amps (444 watts) is available if the rest of the unit is doing nothing.
(Six Watts)
Trust me, it would not suffice.Not long term_ Edit; will lookin to start up loads.

It is absolutely normal to rate psu's this way
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139054
Volts x Amps = Watts
Taking a look at this Corsair you see its actually capable of 648 watts on just the 12 volt rail . The 5 volt is good for another 125 watts . Over all its rails could individually supply over 875 watts . Just not all at the same time .That figure is largely limited by the quality of the regulation circuitry and the cooling available so instead its a 650 watt psu .

All of which is moot . The OP's build will be pulling around 20 Amps from the 12 volt rail under a normal gaming load . The 37 available is more than adequate

I will not even get dragged in to this, you are so far off the mark

I would be very grateful if you would take the time to explain to me why I am wrong .
If I have been building pc's wrong for the last 30 years I need to know

 

[Outlander_04]

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules/NDReviews/images/CorsairRM650/DSC_1468.jpg
Here you go. The words ' MAXIMUM COMBINED WATTAGE' and 'TOTAL POWER : 650 WATTS'
Indicates that under no circumstances shall this unit be capable or expected to provide more than 650 watts total across all rails _The primary power conversion side unlikely has the chops for anything more.
30 years, eh? Time taken.

I'm not sure you explained anything and I cannot see how this relates to the OP's situation where he will be drawing around 300 total watts from a psu rated at 450

 

[Darkbreeze]

I believe by "inductive startup load" he means this:

Inrush current, input surge current or switch-on surge is the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when first turned on. For example, incandescent light bulbs have high inrush currents until their filaments warm up and their resistance increases. Alternating current electric motors and transformers may draw several times their normal full-load current when first energized, for a few cycles of the input waveform. Power converters also often have inrush currents much higher than their steady state currents, due to the charging current of the input capacitance. The selection of overcurrent protection devices such as fuses and circuit breakers is made more complicated when high inrush currents must be tolerated. The overcurrent protection must react quickly to overload or open circuit but must not interrupt the circuit when the (usually harmless) inrush current flows.

But I could be mistaken. It's happened before. Once.

 

[Outlander_04]

I believe by "inductive startup load" he means this:

Inrush current, input surge current or switch-on surge is the maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when first turned on. For example, incandescent light bulbs have high inrush currents until their filaments warm up and their resistance increases. Alternating current electric motors and transformers may draw several times their normal full-load current when first energized, for a few cycles of the input waveform. Power converters also often have inrush currents much higher than their steady state currents, due to the charging current of the input capacitance. The selection of overcurrent protection devices such as fuses and circuit breakers is made more complicated when high inrush currents must be tolerated. The overcurrent protection must react quickly to overload or open circuit but must not interrupt the circuit when the (usually harmless) inrush current flows.

But I could be mistaken. It's happened before. Once.

Yeah , thats always been a huge problem for the computers I build too .
It affected me a lot . Never .

 

[turbopixel]

I had a 400 W bequiet! Gold rated psu and run a MSI GTX 970 with it (6+8 power connection). It worked, but with problems. From time to time I had crashes on gaming, sometimes the game only and sometimes the whole system. The system was not very stable, even without overclocking the card and with a 80 W cpu.

You have a great Seasonic unit with 50 W more and at least, it can truly deliver the power what it says.
> http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/04/03/seasonic_gseries_g450_power_supply_review/6
If you take a GTX 970 with only a single power connection like the ASUS Strix, then it will even take less power on peak and you can't it overclock like the others.
> http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/09/19/nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review/11

If you even experience problems with this, you could try to underclock or limit the power the card, so it takes less power until you get a new psu. I think MSI Afterburner can do this. The 500 W requirement from Nvidia is just because many are using cheap psu units, which cannot really deliver the full 500 wattage and are not very stable at full load. Also Nvidia is measuring this with a processor needing higher wattage.