Question about upgrading desktop

[Xenovia_]

I plan on upgrading my graphic card to a Zotac GeForce GTX 960 2GB DDR5 PCI-E 3.0 Video Card. But it says i need to 600 watt power supply and i currently have a 300 watt power supply im wondering if i can just upgrade to a 520 watt power supply. Also i was wondering if my processor will bottleneck the GTX 960

My Specs:
Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 3.20 GHz
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R7 240
Ram: 8 GB
300 Watt power supply

 

[Darkbreeze]

A good 450w PSU is plenty, so long as it has the necessary PCI power connectors for your particular graphics card model. Different models of GTX 960 have different requirements so verify via the card model product page. If you want a half decent budget power supply I'd recommend the Antect EA-450 which has two 6+2 connectors and is relatively fair as budget units go. Better would be something like the XFX unit seen here:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $55.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-15 20:06 EST-0500


The Seasonic or Antec 520w units are good choices as well.

 

[Xenovia_]

A good 450w PSU is plenty, so long as it has the necessary PCI power connectors for your particular graphics card model. Different models of GTX 960 have different requirements so verify via the card model product page. If you want a half decent budget power supply I'd recommend the Antect EA-450 which has two 6+2 connectors and is relatively fair as budget units go. Better would be something like the XFX unit seen here:


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $55.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-15 20:06 EST-0500


The Seasonic or Antec 520w units are good choices as well.

could this power supply power a gtx 960 and a i5 4460? http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/thermaltake-thermaltake-tr2-430-watt-atx-power-supply-w0412ru/10240720.aspx?path=e568120905e4216e6e280381eaf91724en02

 

[Darkbreeze]

I would avoid Thermaltake, Cooler Master and Corsair power supplies except their high end offerings which of course are expensive. The TR2 units are lousy. I'd stick with Tier 1 or Tier 2 units of 450w or more as listed here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html


Looking at the available units on that Best Buy website, I don't see any reliable units in the budget category. Are you planning to buy one directly from the store as a walk in, or order it online? If you are looking for one you can just go buy the same day, what other tech stores do you have that might have better models?

 

[Xenovia_]

I would avoid Thermaltake, Cooler Master and Corsair power supplies except their high end offerings which of course are expensive. The TR2 units are lousy. I'd stick with Tier 1 or Tier 2 units of 450w or more as listed here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html


Looking at the available units on that Best Buy website, I don't see any reliable units in the budget category. Are you planning to buy one directly from the store as a walk in, or order it online? If you are looking for one you can just go buy the same day, what other tech stores do you have that might have better models?

what do you mean by "lousy?" I'm kind of new to this whole computer upgrading thing so bare with me DX I talked to one of my friends how it relatively good with computers I said I'm planning to buy this graphics card https://www.zotac.com/us/product/graphics_card/gtx-960-2gb-2 and the recommended watts is 400 and this power supply is 430 watts so is it almost confirmed that the graphics card won't fry?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Watts has absolutely nothing to do with the internal quality of the power supply.

This is why you don't want a cheap unit, which includes the TR2:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2236978/blue-screen-death-driving-insane.html?siteFrom=EPR-8807#xtor=EPR-8807

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2194316/likelihood-psu-failure.html



Don't make the mistake of thinking name brands with good reputations always make and offer good products, especially when it comes to power supplies. Corsair, Cooler Master and Thermaltake, among others, are well known for having crappy power supplies when it comes to their budget models. Typically, most units from Antec, Seasonic, XFX, EVGA and Superflower are good but you should verify any potential model purchase is verified by either matching it's model number to a ranked unit on the tier list or finding and reading a positive review of the EXACT model on a reputable review site like HardtechX or JonnyGuru, to name a couple.

Don't use any calculators. They are not accurate. Use the GPU recommendations on the page I listed above. It includes overhead for the CPU and other components, so long as no overclocking is involved. If you're overclocking the CPU or GPU, add another 50-100w depending on if you're overclocking one or both, and how much. Clearly a mild or medium overclock isn't going to increase the demand and load like a high or extreme overclock is so just use good judgement. In most cases, if you're overclocking one component I recommend an additional 50-100w. If you're overclocking two components, increase the capacity by 100-200w. If the overclocking will be extreme, an extra 200w minimum is probably a good idea. These are basically guesswork as every overclock and the derived load will be different for every system, but it's fairly close.


If you want a very in depth look at the reasons why, to further understand, you should take a look at these:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,2862.html

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/04/80_plus_irrelevant_to_you_when_buying_psu/#.Vk4SQfmrRhF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRBu5egS6Ig