Newbie trying to choose the right PSU

[madaz]

Hi, I just purchased a Dell XPS 8500 and here are the Base Specs:

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz)
Operating System: Windows(R) 8

Memory: 12GB4 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600Mhz - 4 DIMMS

Hard Drive: 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s

Optical Drive: Blu-ray Combo Drive (BD-R, DVD+/-RW), Write to CD/DVD

Chipset:Intel® “Panther Point” H77

Form Factor:Mini Tower

Network Card: 10/100/1000 Gigabit
Media Card Reader: 19:1
Audio n Speakers:Integrated 7.1 Surround
Bluetooth: BT 4.0 with Wi-Fi card

Video Card: 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640

Ports

REAR: (2) USB 3.0, (4) USB 2.0, Audio Jacks, RJ-45, VGA, HDMI
Front: (2) USB 3.0, MCR
Top: (2) USB 2.0 (One Powershare) Microphone, Headphones

Power: 460W
Dimensions & Starting weight5

L (445mm) x W (185mm) x H (406mm)
Weight 12.86 kgs (28.3 lbs)

Slots: 4 DIMM Slots

I want to turn this into a gaming PC by adding a GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 2GB which would require me to upgrade the PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

I calculated the new Recommended Wattage with the GTX 660 and it came out to be about 450W <---Please correct me if I'm wrong on that number

So I know the rule of thumb is to give about 100-150W of overhead so I'm debating between a 550W and a 600W PSU and came down to these two options:

Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-550 550W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V v2.92, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active-PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182131

or

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&Tpk=CORSAIR%20CX600


The ROSEWILL has better reviews and is rated as Tier 2 on Eggspert http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx and the CORSAIR is two tiers lower at Tier 3, so my concern is:

a) Do i need the extra 50W?
b) The output on the CORSAIR at 12V is 46A, but the ROSEWILL is only at 38A, which I know is an important thing to look at for gaming.

So in the end which one is more suitable for me if I plan on using the computer for moderate-to-intense gaming?

I apologize for the long post and would greatly appreciate any advice.

 

[Soda-88]

Grab the Corsair PSU.

 

[Azn Cracker]

Well the corsair one is $10 less, so id get that. Both will work so just get the cheaper one. If they were both the same price, I'd go for the Rosewill one though.

 

[madaz]

Hmmm thanks guys, what do you think of this ANTEC one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

 

[toyftw]

Hi, I just purchased a Dell XPS 8500 and here are the Base Specs:

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz)
Operating System: Windows(R) 8

Memory: 12GB4 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600Mhz - 4 DIMMS

Hard Drive: 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s

Optical Drive: Blu-ray Combo Drive (BD-R, DVD+/-RW), Write to CD/DVD

Chipset:Intel® “Panther Point” H77

Form Factor:Mini Tower

Network Card: 10/100/1000 Gigabit
Media Card Reader: 19:1
Audio n Speakers:Integrated 7.1 Surround
Bluetooth: BT 4.0 with Wi-Fi card

Video Card: 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640

Ports

REAR: (2) USB 3.0, (4) USB 2.0, Audio Jacks, RJ-45, VGA, HDMI
Front: (2) USB 3.0, MCR
Top: (2) USB 2.0 (One Powershare) Microphone, Headphones

Power: 460W
Dimensions & Starting weight5

L (445mm) x W (185mm) x H (406mm)
Weight 12.86 kgs (28.3 lbs)

Slots: 4 DIMM Slots

I want to turn this into a gaming PC by adding a GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 2GB which would require me to upgrade the PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

I calculated the new Recommended Wattage with the GTX 660 and it came out to be about 450W <---Please correct me if I'm wrong on that number

So I know the rule of thumb is to give about 100-150W of overhead so I'm debating between a 550W and a 600W PSU and came down to these two options:

Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-550 550W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified, Modular Design, Single +12V Rail, ATX12V v2.31/EPS12V v2.92, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active-PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182131

or

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028&Tpk=CORSAIR%20CX600


The ROSEWILL has better reviews and is rated as Tier 2 on Eggspert http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx and the CORSAIR is two tiers lower at Tier 3, so my concern is:

a) Do i need the extra 50W?
b) The output on the CORSAIR at 12V is 46A, but the ROSEWILL is only at 38A, which I know is an important thing to look at for gaming.

So in the end which one is more suitable for me if I plan on using the computer for moderate-to-intense gaming?

I apologize for the long post and would greatly appreciate any advice.

I would take a tier 2 over tier 3 always. It usually means the internal psu components
are of a higher quality.

You do not need the other 50w the cx600 offers. You can eve upgrade your
vid card to almost any single card out there with 550w. Always opt for better
quality when you can

 

[ko888]

For a system using a single GeForce GTX 660 (non-Ti) graphics card NVIDIA specifies a minimum of a 450 Watt or greater power supply that has a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 24 Amps or greater and that has at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

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

I don't see any reason why you even need to upgrade the power supply unit.

The Dell XPS 8500 OEM 460 Watt power supply unit, with its combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 32 Amps and with two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors, is sufficient to power your system configuration with a single GeForce GTX 660 (non-Ti) graphics card.

The Dell OEM power supplies in the XPS 8500 are made by Delta Electronics.

 

[madaz]

I would take a tier 2 over tier 3 always. It usually means the internal psu components
are of a higher quality.

You do not need the other 50w the cx600 offers. You can eve upgrade your
vid card to almost any single card out there with 550w. Always opt for better
quality when you can

Thanks for the response. So you think that the 12V Output at 46A for the Corsair vs the 38A for the Rosewill is that big of a deal if I'm considering using this system for intense gaming?

 

[delluser1]

Hi, I just purchased a Dell XPS 8500 and here are the Base Specs:

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3770 processor (3.40 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.90 GHz)
Operating System: Windows(R) 8

Memory: 12GB4 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600Mhz - 4 DIMMS

Hard Drive: 2TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s

Optical Drive: Blu-ray Combo Drive (BD-R, DVD+/-RW), Write to CD/DVD

Power: 460W
I want to turn this into a gaming PC by adding a GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 2GB which would require me to upgrade the PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

I calculated the new Recommended Wattage with the GTX 660 and it came out to be about 450W <---Please correct me if I'm wrong on that number

So I know the rule of thumb is to give about 100-150W of overhead

I apologize for the long post and would greatly appreciate any advice.

It's a 220-230 watt system ( actual peak DC power consumption when gaming ), nothing that would "require" a psu upgrade

 

[madaz]

For a system using a single GeForce GTX 660 (non-Ti) graphics card NVIDIA specifies a minimum of a 450 Watt or greater power supply that has a maximum combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 24 Amps or greater and that has at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

I don't see any reason why you even need to upgrade the power supply unit.

The Dell XPS 8500 OEM 460 Watt power supply unit, with its combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 32 Amps and with two 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors, is sufficient to power your system configuration with a single GeForce GTX 660 (non-Ti) graphics card.

The Dell OEM power supplies in the XPS 8500 are made by Delta Electronics.

I didn't want to near max out the stock PSU, and thus reducing its life expectancy and wanted some overhead in case I wanted to overclock the CPU sometime later on. Correct me if I'm wrong I just felt that going with the stock 460W with 450W recommended was pushing it a bit.

 

[toyftw]

Thanks for the response. So you think that the 12V Output at 46A for the Corsair vs the 38A for the Rosewill is that big of a deal if I'm considering using this system for intense gaming?

Hi again - No, you don't need the xtra amps of the cx600, in fact
I think ko888's above statement shows you don't need anywhere
near 38a much less 46a. So, you can keep your current unit,
but if you do upgrade, I'd always opt for a tier2 vs tier3.

Tom

 

[danny2000]

Well the corsair one is $10 less, so id get that. Both will work so just get the cheaper one. If they were both the same price, I'd go for the Rosewill one though.

Corsair, never Rosewell.

 

[ko888]

I didn't want to near max out the stock PSU, and thus reducing its life expectancy and wanted some overhead in case I wanted to overclock the CPU sometime later on. Correct me if I'm wrong I just felt that going with the stock 460W with 450W recommended was pushing it a bit.

You're planning to overclock your CPU on an H77 chipset motherboard? I don't think you'll get very far.

You'll require a Z77 chipset motherboard with an unlocked K suffixed Ivy Bridge CPU if you're going to be doing any serious overclocking.

 

[madaz]

Best answer selected by madaz.