How many watts do you think I need?

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myrench

myrench

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Nov 29, 2012
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I'm looking to get a new psu and I'm not sure how many watts I need, was thinking maybe between 430 or 500.

2 x AMD Entertainment Edition 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AE32G1609U1-U

1 x ASUS M4A88T-V EVO AM3 AMD 880G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

1 x LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM

1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

1 x Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Thinking about overclocking, don't really feel safe with the stock heatsink or the psu I currently have. Also, I plan on getting a 7750 or 7770 graphics card in the near future.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
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Any 400 500 watts PSU can handle that. But don't buy cheap PSU it can damage your hardware, buy from Seasonic, Corsair or Antec (They make good quality power supply's and sometimes offer up to 5 years of guarantee)

For the Phenom 965, don't overclock with the stock heatsink, buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212+ (Great cpu cooler for the performance).
 
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So the corsair 430w would work? It's real cheap right now and so I was thinking that would be good for what I need. Do you know what preferable temps it should stay around?
 
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Yeah that PSU is fine if your trying to keep it cheap, probably as good as you will find for 25$

It's hard to get high quality PSUs at that size, do you have a specific budget?

edit: A good alternative would be this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703034
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/PC_Power_Cooling/Silencer_MK3_400W/10.html
A little less powerful, but better quality.

or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=225
For more power.
 
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I don't necessarily have a budget right now, I want to keep it relatively cheap like the Corsair pricing unless I just decide to wait a month or so. I'm just a little nervous about the current PSU I have, I was trying to get a cheap system that I could do something with after the end of this month. (Needed something that worked for finals coming up) But I plan on upping the RAM with 8GB G SKills, probably add the Cooler Master 212+ and a 7770 GPU and overclock the cpu, but I don't feel safe with these additions with the Logysis 575w psu that I have.
 
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I just wanna be sure if I go for something that is around 400w is going to be fine, because when I try using any of the psu wattage calculators, it varies so greatly, I am not sure. (I've gotten 280w to 480 watts, so I wanna make sure that I'm not buying something useless)
 
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The big variable is going to be the overclocking, but in general your CPU will use a maximum of 125W, and your GPU will use 75W (max) from the PCIE slot, and an additional 75W (max) for each 6 pin connector (it's possible for those maxes to be violated by overclocking, or if the power requirements weren't well accounted for on a card), add in 100W for a few drives, fans, etc.
A 7770 has 1 6pin, so that puts you at roughly 300w actual maximum, so a good 400w supply is fine.

PSU calculators vary wildly because you don't know if they pad their numbers for you or not. In general, the entire concept is broken, because you really care about the wattage provided for each voltage rail, an imaginary 1000w PSU that supplies 850W to 3.3V and 5V and 150W to the 12V rail will not work be adequate for your computer. (In general the 12V rail is the most important, as it supplies the GPU and your drives, if you use a lot of unpowered USB devices the 5V rail can also be important).
 
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What am I looking for to determine the wattage for each rail?
+3.3V@20A, +5V@20A, +12V@30A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.5A
Thats what it says for the PCP&C 400w psu, but I'm not sure what this means for me and my system.
 
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For a system using a single Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 23 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

For a system using two Radeon HD 7770 graphics cards in 2-way CrossFireX mode AMD specifies a minimum of a 600 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 30 Amps or greater and have at least two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Combined Continuous Power/Current Available on the +12V Rail(s) rated @ 45°C-50°C ambient temperature, is the most important factor.

The PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 400W (PPCMK3S400), with its combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 30 Amps and with one (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors, is more than sufficient to power your system configuration with a single Radeon HD 7770.
 
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013

Well this is better/cheaper and has more W on 12v rail.

And that 7770 23 A while it uses 85 On peak ?
 
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The power consumption of a Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition depends on its brand and model and the GPU Core and Memory clocks used:

AMD Reference Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition
FurMark Power Consumption: 83 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 73 Watts

HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler
FurMark Power Consumption: 75 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 62 Watts

PowerColor Radeon HD 7770
FurMark Power Consumption: 77 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 67 Watts

MSI Radeon HD 7770 OC
FurMark Power Consumption: 91 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 69 Watts

Gigabyte HD 7770 OC
FurMark Power Consumption: 77 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 70 Watts

Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Vapor-X
FurMark Power Consumption: 102 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 82 Watts

ASUS Radeon HD 7770 DirectCU
FurMark Power Consumption: 95 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 75 Watts

XFX HD 7770 Black Edition Super Overclock
FurMark Power Consumption: 77 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 74 Watts

VTX3D Radeon HD 7770 X-Edition
FurMark Power Consumption: 167.44 Watts
Gaming Power Consumption: 103 Watts

Graphics card makers do not size PSU recommendations based on average power consumption. It's based on the peak power consumption of the graphics card reached during real world load testing plus the allowance for the remainder of the system.
 
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I think I'm going to go with the xfx power supply, I appreciate the help with that, 550w should do me just fine. I'm wondering if anybody happens to know more about the radeon 8000 series. I'm startin to think, that I should just wait a couple months, since I've heard that the 8000 series might be coming out in february and this would mean the 7000 series would drop in price right? So I might either go with a cheaper 8000 series or go with a higher 7000 series if the price drops enough.
 
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There is always something new on the horizon that you could wait for, sometimes it's worth the wait, other times it's not, but if you always wait, you'll never have a computer :)

I played the same game about this time last year, waiting on an HD7870, it was something like March or April before they were widely available and reasonably priced (although ~350$ for a 7870 is no longer reasonable). The 7000 series was supposed to be available in January, but they rolled them out very slowly. It was worth the wait, but I also paid a lot extra for the card I got for by buying pretty early (and it was grueling to watch, as I was dieing to upgrade my 4870).

I would expect the 7000 series to get a bit cheaper when the new cards launch (but not a lot, maybe 10-20%), and the new cards will be fairly expensive by comparison. I don't think the next gen is a process change, but if I've heard correctly the new AMD chips are getting alot more silicon space, so they may raise the high end bar. It's not a process shrink though, so it probably won't have as much of an impact on mid-range cards as it does on the top end. (All speculation, and I'm not a huge rumor mill follower, so please don't read too much into my forecasting)
 
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Meh, I'd say 400 is enough but you should get 500 or even 550 for OC headroom. I'd reccomend the 500w MKII Silencer from PC Power and Cooling, or a Seasonic, Antec, or Corsair 500/550 watt.

Also for OC get a fan to cool your CPU, a good, cheap one is the Hyper 212+.
 
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Ya, Im actually going to go with the Corsair 500w and get a Hyper 212+ to overclock. I think in about a month I'm gonna finish off my build with a 7850 or 7870, can't wait to have it completely done.
 
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