[SOLVED] How big a PSU do I need? 550W enough? R5 3600, 2070 super

[Prad_Bitt]

Here are my specs:

Ryzen 5 3600 (non OC)
CM Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition
Gigabyte 2070 Super Windforce OC 3X 8G
Gigabyte B550 Aorus Pro AC
G.Skill Ripjaws V 8GB×2 3200mhz C16
860 EVO 2.5 inch (500GB +1TB)
860 EVO M.2 (500GB)
Corsair 275R
3×120mm SP120 RGB iCUE
2×140mm SP140 RGB iCUE
Corsair RGB LED Lighting Pro expansion kit (4 strips, 10 Leds each)
Corsair K68 RGB
Corsair M55 Pro RGB
Acer VG240YP
LG 27GL650F

I don't plan on OCing my CPU in the future (100% positive) and I'm confused whether I should spend money on a 650W PSU or not. My options are:

Corsair TX550M/TX650M

 

[Tioym]

650 at the very least. TX650 is good enough. 550W is just not enough to run a 2060S. Even if you don't OC, simply by putting CPU/GPU under load they will end up demanding more power than they are rated for so definitely don't bother with the 550w.

 

[Prad_Bitt]

650 at the very least. TX650 is good enough. 550W is just not enough to run a 2060S. Even if you don't OC, simply by putting CPU/GPU under load they will end up demanding more power than they are rated for so definitely don't bother with the 550w.

Idk a lot of people on the internet are saying it's fine, even according to power supply calculators, load wattage is 478 recommended psu wattage is 528, and this is an 80+ Gold PSU too, i figured it's fine?

 

[Juular]

650 at the very least. TX650 is good enough. 550W is just not enough to run a 2060S. Even if you don't OC, simply by putting CPU/GPU under load they will end up demanding more power than they are rated for so definitely don't bother with the 550w.

How in the hell 550W is 'definitely' not enough for 80W CPU and 220W GPU ?

 

[rcald2000]

Prad_Bitt A 550 watt PSU is a perfect fit for a R5 3600 and RTX 2070 Super IMHO. Their combined 65 and 215 watts equates to 280, which is 51% on the power consumption efficiency curve of the 550 watt unit. If in the future you upgraded to a Ryzen 9 3900X (or 4900X) you'd still be at around 58%. A R9 3900X + 3080 Ti (rumored 320 watts) however, would push the consumption ratio to 77%, which is borderline.

Summary: I personally would feel very comfortable ordering a quality 550 watt PSU for your proposed build. However, were it my money, I'd opt for the Seasonic Focus GX-550 instead of the Corsair TX line, because it would elevate the warranty from 7 to 10 years. 10 years is long enough to cover two generations of builds; I typically keep mine for five years each.

Seasonic FOCUS GX-550
$104.99
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-foc...x-550w/p/N82E16817151189?Item=N82E16817151189

CORSAIR TX-M Series TX550M
$99.98
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-tx-m-series-tx550m-550w/p/N82E16817139210

CORSAIR TX-M Series TX650M
$109.98
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-tx-m-series-tx650m-650w/p/N82E16817139207

 

[Prad_Bitt]

Prad_Bitt A 550 watt PSU is a perfect fit for a R5 3600 and RTX 2070 Super IMHO. Their combined 65 and 215 watts equates to 280, which is 51% on the power consumption efficiency curve of the 550 watt unit. If in the future you upgraded to a Ryzen 9 3900X (or 4900X) you'd still be at around 58%. A R9 3900X + 3080 Ti (rumored 320 watts) however, would push the consumption ratio to 77%, which is borderline.

Summary: I personally would feel very comfortable ordering a quality 550 watt PSU for your proposed build. However, were it might money, I'd opt for the Seasonic Focus GX-550 instead of the Corsair TX line, because it would elevate the warranty from 7 to 10 years. 10 years is long enough to cover two generations of builds; I typically keep mine for five years each.

Seasonic FOCUS GX-550
$104.99
https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-foc...x-550w/p/N82E16817151189?Item=N82E16817151189

CORSAIR TX-M Series TX550M
$99.98
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-tx-m-series-tx550m-550w/p/N82E16817139210

CORSAIR TX-M Series TX650M
$109.98
https://www.newegg.com/corsair-tx-m-series-tx650m-650w/p/N82E16817139207

The problem is Seasonic doesn't sell in my country, and I don't wanna buy off Newegg just to realize they don't have service centers or RMA processes here. That's why I was opting for Corsair, the only brands with options here are Corsair, Cooler Master and Antec.

BTW do you know someone or use a 550w psu with those specs? It'd be very nice to know it actually works well under load

 

[rcald2000]

Ah, then proceed with the Corsair. 550 watts is fine in my opinion. No, I have a 1,000 watt EVGA power supply. However it was for a previous build. I had a 140 watt Intel core i7-5820K and two 980 Ti's in SLI. The two GPUs were 500 watts combined. Honestly 850 watts would have been more than enough for all of that, as I never exceeded low 600 watt power consumption, but I got the 1,000 EVGA PSU on a one-day sale.

Personally I try to stay in the 50% power consumption curve, which means for a 1080 Ti and R7 3700X, 650 watts is ideal. If you ever see yourself upgrading to a top tier GPU and CPU, then yes you may want to consider raising your wattage requirements.

 

[Tioym]

How in the hell 550W is 'definitely' not enough for 80W CPU and 220W GPU ?

Idk a lot of people on the internet are saying it's fine, even according to power supply calculators, load wattage is 478 recommended psu wattage is 528, and this is an 80+ Gold PSU too, i figured it's fine?

I've seen most GPUs go above their rated wattage under heavy load. Although a good 550W will barely be okay, he hasn't said anything about OC his GPU in the future. If he does do OC I think the 550w wont be enough.
First of all, when you have a high end system why would you ever buy the bare minimum required in terms of PSU anyway? Why not keep some headroom for later? What happens when you want to switch your CPU up with the upcoming 3600XT? Now you have to change PSU because those processors use more power.
Saving a few bucks now ends up causing a 100 complications later

 

[Juular]

I've seen most GPUs go above their rated wattage under heavy load. Although a good 550W will barely be okay, he hasn't said anything about OC his GPU in the future. If he does do OC I think the 550w wont be enough.

OP said they wouldn't be OC'ing this PC under any circumstances but regardless, total power draw of this PC under OC would be barely around 300W anyway.

First of all, when you have a high end system why would you ever buy the bare minimum required in terms of PSU anyway? Why not keep some headroom for later? What happens when you want to switch your CPU up with the upcoming 3600XT? Now you have to change PSU because those processors use more power.
Saving a few bucks now ends up causing a 100 complications later

That's a completely different case than '550W definitely is not enough'. But whether they'll indeed need these extra watts depends on their usecase. For gaming ? Definitely not, as even with the highest end hardware you wouldn't see power draw more than 400-500W in games. But i agree, if they plan to upgrade to smth considerably more high-end or this is workstation PC - 650W or even 750W PSU (a good one) would be better investment.

 

[Tioym]

OP said they wouldn't be OC'ing this PC under any circumstances but regardless, total power draw of this PC under OC would be barely around 300W anyway.

That's a completely different case than '550W definitely is not enough'. But whether they'll indeed need these extra watts depends on their usecase. For gaming ? Definitely not, as even with the highest end hardware you wouldn't see power draw more than 400-500W in games. But i agree, if they plan to upgrade to smth considerably more high-end or this is workstation PC - 650W or even 750W PSU (a good one) would be better investment.

OP said they wont OC their CPU* not GPU. GPU OC has the biggest impact on power draw.
Whatever bruh I don't need to fight over this.
Buying a 2070 Super then saving $10 on PSU and somehow you guys think that's a good idea. 550W may be enough to run your system, well you can try I guess it's not my system.

 

[Prad_Bitt]

OP said they wont OC their CPU* not GPU. GPU OC has the biggest impact on power draw.
Whatever bruh I don't need to fight over this.
Buying a 2070 Super then saving $10 on PSU and somehow you guys think that's a good idea. 550W may be enough to run your system, well you can try I guess it's not my system.

I will also not OC my GPU btw, it's just that the only stores that sell 650w PSUs like RM650x and TX650M either take 10 days to deliver (in which case a return would be a pain), or they're not authorised resellers, which might be a red flag for the warranty, as their website states the warranty is available from authorised resellers

 

[rcald2000]

Prad_Bitt Any update? How did you make out?

 

[Prad_Bitt]

Prad_Bitt Any update? How did you make out?

Well, I got the TX650M, but the package was all beat up and the PSU dented, and it was the last one in stock, so I returned that

Then I had the options RM650, TX550M, TX750M. And I figured I'd just ditch the 550 because there was a different gold 650 available anyway, started a new thread RM650 vs TX750M, had Jonnyguru recommend the RM650, got the RM650. It's working well till now, touchwood

 

[Prad_Bitt]

Prad_Bitt Any update? How did you make out?

I also have a friend with real big pp energy who's running a 3600/2060s off an Antec VP550P, a non modular white psu which costs $40 where I live, and it has a heck lot of coil whine, I don't know how he sleeps at night

 

[rcald2000]

That's a great ending to the story. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad that it all worked out.

 

[Prad_Bitt]

That's a great ending to the story. Thanks for sharing. I'm glad that it all worked out.

Moral of the story is don't cheap out on your psu because I had a CX650M at the start of the build and it had a huge coil whine under load. Then I discovered CXM is actually one of the poorest PSUs corsair makes and it's the semi modular marketing that makes it costlier than the CX550. I'm never recommending CXM to anyone. RM650 is totally quiet even under heavy load