Is my PSU good?

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fengpwns

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Jan 27, 2012
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Hi. I'm going to upgrade my video card this fall. So I'm wondering if my PSU is good enough to power my whole system. I'm not sure which video card I'm going to get. Depending on the price, I might get a HD 6850,gtx550ti,gtx 460,gtx 640 or a gtx 650.I don't know anything about PSU so a good explaination would help me. How good quality is my 450watt rosewill PSU?

I have a 95watt CPU
1HDD WD brand
1 regular exhaust fan
1DVD burner
1CPU fan

LINK to PSU : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182075
 
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I think you'll be fine with a CX600 PSU. If you had extra cash I might recommend a modular PSU though since you dont have a ton of room inside that case to hide wires you aren't using. If your case is like mine there is a kind of hard drive cage. Since I only have 1 drive in there I stuffed the cables I'm not using in there. It doesn't look pretty but I'm not worried with how it looks and heat hasn't been an issue yet.

I haven't used the CX600 PSU but I do own the TX650 and I know the TX650 runs quiet and cool even under load (with my GTX 560 TI). Hopefully the CX600 will be similar in that respect.

I can't answer your question about video cards so hopefully someone else can weigh in; however I personally don't like AMD graphics...
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You have a low quality (Rosewill), low efficiency PSU of obsolete design (notice the 110/220 volt selector switch.

You need a good 500 watt PSU (Seasonic, Corsair, Antec, or similar quality) for the first three cards. The last two have not been released yet so I have no idea of power consumption.

Your PSU might work for the first three cards. Or your PSU might fail catastrophically ("catastrophically" being defined as "explode or burst into flames").
 
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I agree with the response above and would reccomend investing in a new quality PSU.

Please refer to the following webpage: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

I would only ever reccomend a tier 1 or tier 2 PSU. For a modern single GPU setup I reccomend 650W but for those who plan to SLI I reccomend 850W or higher.

The wattage is not as important as the current on the 12V rails but if you stick to a tier 1 or tier 2 PSU and follow the above Wattage requirements you will be good for sure.

Personally I like the Corsair PSUs:

TX series = 80+ bronze but not modular
HX series = 80+silver +modular
AX series = 80+gold +modular

TX is efficient enough and is great if you dont care about having a modular PSU and/or are on a budget. HX is the sweet spot, it is efficient and modular. The AX series is also modular and would be for those with extra cash who care alot about efficiency (i.e. live where power costs are high etc.)
 
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This is overkill and a half, but I'm with you on the Corsair thing.
 
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I will agree in that you can probably run with a PSU that is 100 or 150W less than I recommend and be absolutely fine; however PSU's generally operate at their highest efficiency when they are under about a 50 - 60% load. In other words its best to buy a PSU rated at about 180-200% of your wattage requirement. Take note that effciency not only relatest to power consumption but also will effect heat and noise.

Of course one can actually be more specific and look at the efficiency vs. load graph for a specific PSU model:

Check out the bottom graph after clicking "Tech Specs" at the following link: http://www.corsair.com/power-supply-units/enthusiast-series-power-supply-units/enthusiast-series-tx650-v2-80-plus-bronze-certified-650-watt-high-performance-power-supply.html

Notice the efficiency peaks at about 50% load. If you look at the noise graph above it you will see that the noise starts increasing at about 350W and continues to increase as the PSU is loaded.

The higher the efficiency rating of the PSU the less this matters because the more flat the efficiency vs. load graph will be. i.e. for an 80+Gold PSU its not as beneficial as for an 80+Bronze PSU. Though I wouldn't reccomend a PSU that is not at least 80+Bronze this becomes extremely important as 80+bronze means that the efficiency never drops below 80% for regions of operation above 20% load. 80+Gold basically means the same thing except it never drops below about 89%. If a PSu is not at least 80+bronze...we can make no assumptions about how its efficiency is effected by the load. For all we know, the full wattage for which is rated can only be attained under a certain set of specific conditions and thats assuming that its wattage/power ratings aren't bogus or overstated to begin with (which is typically the case with cheap low quality tier4 or tier 5 PSU's)
 
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Thanks for your replies guys. If i replace this psu, there is going to be a huge problem because my hp pavilion case doesnt support bigger psu then this rosewill one. Im planning to get a 600watt one with 80+ that can fit inside. Can you guys help me out?
 
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Can you find out the specific model of that rosewill one. There is an ATX standard. When I replaced the PSU in my HP machine the Corsair TX650 was slightly bigger but not in a fashion which inhibited it from easily fitting. Both my case and the PSU support the ATX standard PSU size.

Also useful would be the specific model of Hp Pavilion. I had a Pavilion p6302f. You can see the full specs of my pavilion here: http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01969879&lang=en&cc=us&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=4079858&prodTypeId=12454

Perhaps you can find a similar page for your machine? It would help us out alot in making suggestions.
 
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My HP pavilion model is p6211f. The only thing that I'll replace is my PSU, GPU and CPU. I'm going to upgrade my GPU again because my HD 4650 doesn't want to run high end games.
 
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The specs for your pavillion can be found here: http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01892905&lang=en&cc=us&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=3999459&prodTypeId=12454

I'm quite certain that pavillion has the same case as mine and so you can fit most likely any standard ATX PSU in it. Also consider GPU length. Check the dimensions on that spec site or take a ruler. Some of the really long GPU's wont fit. I believe any graphics card longer than my EVGA GTX 560 Ti won't fit.

Your system is very similar to mine. I wouldn't bother upgrading the CPU. I don't think you can really put in a CPU under which you would notice that much of a difference. Perhaps you can try overclocking your existing CPU. You have the same CPU as me - I haven't tried overclocking it yet but have been thinking about it. My system has a little more room CPU wise (I probbaly could invest some money and see a decent difference but I still dont think its worth it)

It would be nice if you buy a GPU/PSU you could eventually carry forward into a new system.

Check out a thread I created a while back before I did more research and settled on a purchase: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/345865-33-athlon

If I could go back and had more money I would have grabbed a Corsair HX850W PSU so that I could eventually carry it forward into a new SLI system. I also might upgrade my video card in the next 90 days through the evga step up program: http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/

Then in a year or 2 I would buy a new mobo/cpu/memory and drop my psu/gpu into a new system. I still might do this but if I had the 850W PSU I could further upgrade the new system with an additional GPU in SLI.
 
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I don't understand why people recommend such outsized PSU's other than to future proof a bit. My system below (sig) only draws 290W under 100% (no I'm not joking). 650W will be plenty, otherwise you have reduced efficiency.
 
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I do agree that having a PSU that is overkill is bad for efficiency. The optimal PSU is one that positions itself at about 50 - 60% when running your system but the system itself will function with a lower rated PSU. I like to follow this optimal load of 50-60% rule to also minimize heat and noise.
 
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Yeah, most people would do the same thing. But to me, i think it'll be a waste since i wont be playing any games or doing video rendring in a few years. My cpu is damaged very bad. I have no choice but to get a phenom ii 955(95watts) and a coolmaster hyper101a. If im lucky enough, ill get a new video along with a psu. I do have a question, is the cosair builder series good? Im planning to get a 600watt one later this year.
 
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I personally have not used a corsair builder series PSU. I believe these are the CX series. I do own a TX series PSU. According to the tiers on that site I posted above the CX series is a tier 3 which is not as good as the TX series which is tier 2.

tier 1: The Most Powerful And Stable Components On The Market.
tier 2: Top Quality components With Top Notch Stability - For Those With Price/Availability Issues With Tier 1
tier 2b: Tier 2 units which have either lower longevity or slightly lower quality output. Still well within spec, and are good units.
tier 3: Power supplies fully able to meet ATX specs, although closer to the edges of the limits than higher tier units. Still solid units.
tier 4: Not Recommend for stressful situations. May not be able to put out full rated power above room temperature, and may slightly fail to meet ATX specs.
tier 5: Other than the units listed above for any of these brands, NOT RECOMMENDED. Replace ASAP if you have one.

Based on my understanding the CX series probably isn't bad but I would grab a slightly higher wattage then you would if you were going to grab a TX series.

For example I would consider the CX600 series to be at a similar level to a TX550. I wouldn't view the CX600 as a PSU that is intended to be the middle ground between TX550 and T650.

As a matter of fact I would prefer the TX550 PSU over the CX600 and if I didn't feel the TX550 was sufficient I wouldn't feel the CX600 was either. I would then have to get a TX650 or higher since CX600 is the highest the CX series will go. CX600 is probably more than sufficient for almost any single GPU setup including your system but I would prefer the TX650 only for piece of mind.
 
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Okay thanks, then it's decided! I'm going to get a CX600 and a HD 6870. Is the Gtx 560Ti the same size as Hd6870? If it's bigger, I might as well get a gtx 560ti..
 
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I think you'll be fine with a CX600 PSU. If you had extra cash I might recommend a modular PSU though since you dont have a ton of room inside that case to hide wires you aren't using. If your case is like mine there is a kind of hard drive cage. Since I only have 1 drive in there I stuffed the cables I'm not using in there. It doesn't look pretty but I'm not worried with how it looks and heat hasn't been an issue yet.

I haven't used the CX600 PSU but I do own the TX650 and I know the TX650 runs quiet and cool even under load (with my GTX 560 TI). Hopefully the CX600 will be similar in that respect.

I can't answer your question about video cards so hopefully someone else can weigh in; however I personally don't like AMD graphics cards. I just prefer nvidia. Some combination of past experiences with card reliability, usability and associated software/drivers have led me to take on this position.

Having said that apparently AMD are the better performers and more efficient power consumers recently...

I wish you the best of luck with your choice!
 
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