mrwhit30ut :
Beenthere, I am really confused on your comment, 3rd paragraph. I just kind of lost your thinking. If you could slow it down for me a bit that would be good. You just zipped through it so fast, it seemed confusing.
Check Tom's Article on PSUs, it might clear some things up for you. If I understand it correctly, which I think I do, here are the main points: (
bear with me if you already know some of this, I'm not trying to talk down to you. )
Check the PSU label, here's an example from that article.
First, I'm assuming you know that voltage x amperage = watts, right? Just checking. In that image, look at the row of +12V boxes. Under each of them is an 18A, meaning each +12V line can carry up to 18A or 216W ( international standards say they can't exceed 20A. ) However, the long box under that shows that all +12V lines together can't draw more than 41A or 492 W ( so at most you can max out two lines at 432W and have a little left over for the other two. ) So from that 492W, subtract the watts required by your CPU ( 100 in the case of the i5, though OC'ing it will marginally raise that, ) then subtract enough for the rest of your system ( mboard, drives, and fans rarely go above 100W total. ) I then generally subtract 10% of the PSU's rating to give a good buffer zone, so 55W in this case. So continuing this example above, 492W - 100W( CPU ) - 100W( rest of system ) - 55W( buffer zone ) leaves you with 237W for a GPU. That's enough for a single card, but a second GPU would be too much for the PSU ( most current cards are 150W or more. )
The reason for the buffer is that PSUs work the best when they're operating at 50% - 80% of their maximum load, so an 800W PSU would work best if it's feeding 400W - 640W. This is where it's most efficient ( power it's feeding to the computer / power it's drawing from the outlet. ) Most PSUs are very inefficient under low loads ( under 20%, ) and they start to lose efficiency as you approach 100% load ( though the drop off is not as great as the low end. ) So example: if your PSU is under a 50% load at 400W and it's running at 80% efficiency, the 400W is 80% of the electricity it's pulling from the outlet, meaning it's actually running on 500W at the time.
That's what the
80 Plus certification means. It basically means the PSU will be at least 80% efficient at a load greater than 20%, though many 80 Plus models can actually hit 90% efficiency in certain load ranges, usually 70% - 90% load.
That help? Again, I'm not trying to talk down to anyone, I just didn't know how much you already knew so I broke it down to the absolute basics.
If you want a GTX 570, those cards run about 220W. So strictly speaking, a good 550W PSU
could power this system for you, but it'd be at its limit. If you ever want SLI, or even to upgrade the card, you'd have to change your PSU as well. With that in maind, I'd recommend a 750W PSU as the bare minimum for you. If you want the PSU to last a while, maybe even through two GPU SLI upgrades, I'd consider an 850W instead.