Is it safe to run my computer on a cheap 500w Power Supply?

[ivtecm]

Hey, recently I've been looking at getting a new power supply to power a HD7970 or HD8000 series (when it's released) graphics card, which I will be getting near the end of the year.

The Power Supply I concluded with after my search for a price : peformance PSU was a Seasonic M12II Bronze Series 850W.
Unfortunetly this one is out of stock and will not be available for another month and I cannot wait that long as I have no power supply to power my computer until then.

I'm left with these options:
- Buy a cheap power supply around $30, a 500w Aywun or 350w Coolermaster - and then use until I buy a good PSU (will either be a month later once in stock or months later around time I get my graphics card)
- Buy a 850W Corsair TX-850v2 for $10 more than the Seasonic M12II BUT it won't be modular

What do you think I should do?
If I do decide to temporarily buy a cheap power supply will it SAFELY power my build?, since there is no graphics card so won't be much power drawn from the PSU.

--==--BUILD--==--
CPU: Intel i7 3770k 3.5ghz, 3.9ghz turbo (standard clocks)
RAM: 8gb Kingston 2x4GB 1333MHZ
HDD: Western Digital Caviar WD5000KS 500GB
MOBO: ASROCK Extreme 4 Z77

 

[anxiousinfusion]

...a cheap power supply will it power my build?

Yes.

will it SAFELY power my build?

No.

SAFELY power my build?, since there is no graphics card

*Yes.


Is there another modular PSU you would be willing to purchase? You don't need 850W to power this build unless you want to crossfire two 7970s.

 

[chesteracorgi]

I would never run that CPU & mobo with a cheap PSU. Even if you go budget get a quality PSU for a few dollars more. And if you are going high end look at PCP&C 950 W. Goes for about $129 without discount and about $109 at discount.

 

[julian23561]

A cheap 500W PSU is a bad idea for the your card. Never ever skimp on your PSU as you it may cause serious problems in the near future. Go buy at least 80+ Bronze certified or at least certified with 80% efficiency, so you won't burn down your components.

 

[ivtecm]

I'm not going to be running a graphics card with a cheap power supply. I'm going to buy a better power supply once it's in stock or when I get my graphics card.
The reason I wanted to buy a cheap psu temporary is because I found a Seasonic M12-II 850w for only $200 and it's out of sock ATM. I either wait and get a cheap psu temporarily, or pay around $90 more for the equivalent PSU with a newer model.

Everything is expensive in my country (New Zealand) as we don't have access to sites such as Newegg, etc.

 

[chesteracorgi]

OK, I get your reason. but I still would not buy a cheap PSU. The reason is that you may get power spikes or fluctuations that kill the rest of the system while you wait. A quality PSU will keep, a cheapo will be a throw away and has the potential for many other problems.

You don't need 850 W + to run a single card. You need that much wattage only if you plan to run in Xfire or SLI. Buy a quality PSU with over 600 W for your rig if you plan to run a single GPU. The extra wattage is a waste.

I have a system running a 470 GTX (one of the most notorious power hogs) with a quality (Corsair TX) 650 W PS. As a single GPU it never had even a burp. It is only when I went to 2 X GTX 470 (god what a pair od power hogs) that I bumped the PSU to a 950 W PC Power & Cooling.

Get a quality PSU, Seasonic, Corsair, PCP&C, Antec, OCZ, etc. A cheap PSU is a waste of money and can kill a system.