How Do i Know What Wattage PSU To Buy?

[jackhampolis]

I currently have an HP 700-230 envy that I want to upgrade, but I have no idea what wattage to upgrade to. I have read all of the articles and am still confused. I want to replace my mother board with a Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2H and buy a new gpu, an Nvidia 1050 ti.

Link to current specs: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04058435

Link to new Motherboard: https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/GA-H81M-S2H-GSM-rev-10#ov

Link to gpu: https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-6253-KR

I thought I would include links as it would help maybe.

 

[stdragon]

I typically just spec double what I need. For example, the maximum draw for all components is 300 watts, I'll drop in a 600 watt PSU.

PSUs age over the years, and so aren't as efficient as they age. Consistently pushing a PSU to 80% to 90% maximum load also shortens their life. Sure, they're run to spec...for now. But eventually it will get worn out and become unstable.

 

[Math Geek]

you're barely going to be using 250-300w full load with that machine. you can go for anything above 450w really and be good to go. i tend to go with price over wattage though. often a solid 550w psu is cheaper than a 450w one depending on sales and such.

do be sure to get a quality psu though as some junk no name psu shaped object may say 750w but it is likely only a 400w one with no modern protections and such. here are a few i see right now that are a good bang for the buck kind of price right now.
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/nB3RsY,hgGkcf,Q7L7YJ,FdRFf7/

as you can see going from 450w to 620w is only a couple buck jump in price right now. sure the seasonic is an older model but it is still a very solid psu. the Corsair 550w unit is a solid choice as well and would easily handle the system with a stronger gpu down the line as well.

 

[jackhampolis]

After doing more research, I decided not to replace the motherboard as it is not necessary even though I thought it was, would the same rules for a psu still apply?

 

[jackhampolis]

So would EVGA be a good deal? I am currently looking t an EVGA 450 BT 80+ Bronze 450W, with a 3 Year Warranty.

 

[Math Geek]

little to gain from a mobo upgrade unless there are new features you want but don't have with the mobo you got now. there won't really be any performance gain with it at all.

as for psu. i am not familiar with that one but it looks like a renaming of the older w1 unit. that was a low quality psu and was not recommended at all. it's specs look the same but i do not see any reviews of it anywhere i can find. personally i'd avoid an unproven unit like that. EVGA has some high quality psu's and some junk models and this looks like one of the junk ones. packaging is the same as the other junk models.

 

[jackhampolis]

Thanks I'll just stick to the list that you posted above then.

 

[Math Geek]

just in case you happen to see this. tom's just posted a review of the EVGA 450 BT and it seems like it did rather well. was the old design i thought it was but not by who i thought made it. so it is actually a decent budget choice which was very surprising.

guess you found it when it was too new to have any reviews yet. you'll still get a lot more for oyur money with the others i suggested but if you are still looking and this one is much cheaper than say the CM450, it's worth getting. if it is only a couple bucks cheaper then the others are still the way to go.

here is the review if you wish to get really detailed into the what/how/why and so on
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-450-bt-value-psu,5605.html