[SOLVED] Should I get a new psu?

hephaistos

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So, I have a hkc usp 5580 pfc psu, and I am planning to upgrade my gpu, from a gtx 950 toa gtx 1060 3gb. I used this psu for about a year with the 950 which consumes 90w so I am wondering if I'll be okay with the 1060. Also this model has been released I think in 2009. I have also noticed that sometimes (not always), when I power off my pc I hear a high pitch noise from the psu? What does this mean? My other specs are: i5 4590t 35w, a hdd, an ssd, dvd drive, h81-sm mobo, and 2x4 gb of ram. Will I be okay?
 
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Well my friend has a 600w chieftec psu with an msi gtx 1060 armor, and an i5 8600k and has it for nearly 7 months now, yet still hasn't ran into any problem? I can get a chieftec or zalman 600w psu for the same price, I might as well go for one of them. Is it ok?


Well, DSzymborski said it. Even the worst quality PSU doesn't have a 100% failure rate but that doesn't make it a good choice. The only thing that is 100% crap is crap itself.

Considering your budget and usage I'd say he named two good PSUs. I'd personally go with the SeaSonic but get either one and you're good to go and REALLY don't get used PSUs.

ebosss03

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580W is enought to power a 1060 3gb you can even put a 1080 in it. The high pitch noise can be the fan of the PSU did you ever cleaned it? I did it once with my old pc that i had for 7 years and there was so much dust it was incredible.
 
You should upgrade your PSU ASAP unless you want your system to literally catch fire. It's nothing short of a miracle that that power supply worked well for a year, perhaps owing to the fact that your system was fairly low-power till now. Get a better unit, even a Corsair CX450 is fine for a GTX 1060. It's not the wattage of the PSU that's the problem, it's the quality - 580 watts can support a 1080 Ti, yes, but considering the quality of the unit I wouldn't put anything over a GTX 1050 with it, and even that would only be if I had no other choice.

Get a better PSU, your current one is a fire hazard.

PS: Try to get a 1060 6 GB instead, or a GTX 1660 if possible.
 

hephaistos

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Thanks for the response, yeah I guess I'll just get a new psu. Is the 1060 3gb that bad? In my country you can get it pretty cheap second hand, and I'm also short on cash. Also how about chieftec? I heard they make good PSU's, and I can get a second hand 500w for quite a low price.
 

DSzymborski

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Thanks for the response, yeah I guess I'll just get a new psu. Is the 1060 3gb that bad? In my country you can get it pretty cheap second hand, and I'm also short on cash. Also how about chieftec? I heard they make good PSU's, and I can get a second hand 500w for quite a low price.

Most Chieftecs are mediocre at best and you should never, ever buy a used power supply unless it's a top-tier one (power supplies essentially move down a tier when they're used given the uncertainty of use and the lack of warranty coverage).

You say you're short on cash for a dependable PSU, so how short on cash would you be if a low-end, used PSU of unknown usage fries your new GPU or your existing components? Going cheap on a power supply is frequently an extremely expensive decision.

And also, your current PSU isn't actually a 580W PSU on any PC newer than a Pentium III. With 30A on the +12V rail, it's a real-world 360W even in a scenario in which every part is high-quality, an extremely dubious scenario given the universal quality of off-brand PSUs.
 
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Satan-IR

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No 1060 GPU is the same, 3GB more VRAM means you can get higher resolutions and settings in games.

As Shektron said that is one bad PSU.

Chieftecs are not that good either. Many of them are not even average quality but low quality.

I wouldn't get a second hand PSU either. You can't really know if it was broken and repaired at one time or if the previous owner sold it because it was problematic or not. Don't skimp of PSU as every compnents performance and life depends on it.
 

hephaistos

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Well my friend has a 600w chieftec psu with an msi gtx 1060 armor, and an i5 8600k and has it for nearly 7 months now, yet still hasn't ran into any problem? I can get a chieftec or zalman 600w psu for the same price, I might as well go for one of them. Is it ok?
 

DSzymborski

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Well my friend has a 600w chieftec psu with an msi gtx 1060 armor, and an i5 8600k and has it for nearly 7 months now, yet still hasn't ran into any problem? I can get a chieftec or zalman 600w psu for the same price, I might as well go for one of them. Is it ok?

Not really, no.

Lots of drunk drivers drive without getting into fiery crashes. That you friend has survived so far without anything catastrophic doesn't make it a good idea. And he doesn't really know if he hasn't run into any problem; the poor voltage regulation and noisy electricity due to poor ripple control could very well slowly be sending his GPU or other components to an early grave.

Zalman sells some decent, though not great, power supplies made by FSP/Enhance, but you'd have to be specific as to which exact one. They also have some real low-end Hui Cheng junk.

And I still wouldn't buy any of these used.
 

hephaistos

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Not really, no.

Lots of drunk drivers drive without getting into fiery crashes. That you friend has survived so far without anything catastrophic doesn't make it a good idea. And he doesn't really know if he hasn't run into any problem; the poor voltage regulation and noisy electricity due to poor ripple control could very well slowly be sending his GPU or other components to an early grave.

Zalman sells some decent, though not great, power supplies made by FSP/Enhance, but you'd have to be specific as to which exact one. They also have some real low-end Hui Cheng junk.

And I still wouldn't buy any of these used.
how about a seasonic 520w? It would really set me back financially, (cuz I'm a 14 year old kid), but it might as well be a good investment.
 

Satan-IR

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Well my friend has a 600w chieftec psu with an msi gtx 1060 armor, and an i5 8600k and has it for nearly 7 months now, yet still hasn't ran into any problem? I can get a chieftec or zalman 600w psu for the same price, I might as well go for one of them. Is it ok?


Well, DSzymborski said it. Even the worst quality PSU doesn't have a 100% failure rate but that doesn't make it a good choice. The only thing that is 100% crap is crap itself.

Considering your budget and usage I'd say he named two good PSUs. I'd personally go with the SeaSonic but get either one and you're good to go and REALLY don't get used PSUs.
 
Solution
Here in my country there is like $3 difference between the cx 450 and the s12 should I go with the cx?

Either is fine, go with whichever is cheaper, but I would personally recommend the CX450, it's a bit more recent and slightly better quality IMO.

As for the 1060 3 GB vs 6 GB, the difference is not just in VRAM, but the 6 GB also has better performance thanks to more CUDA cores, and the 3 GB VRAM is not enough for some modern games at high settings, although most can get by. Still, get the 6 GB one if you can, in the future games might require more than 3 GB to run at high.
 
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Satan-IR

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I agree that the 6GB is the one to get. But how much you're able to benefit from a few more CUDA cores is also to some extent relative. What game and at what resolution? In some game titles the FPS is the same between 3Gb and 6GB versions.

With that i5 and 8GB RAM I would imagine the difference is mostly somewhere between 5-10 fps. Granted they're different numbers but I'd say not a really meaningful difference (to me) considering the financial factor.

OP, with all that, I too would say go for a 1060 6GB if it's the same price or if you can get a good deal.
 

hephaistos

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Umm, 5-10 fps difference between the 950 and the 1060 or 5-10 fps diff between the 3 and the 6gb version. Btw I'll be playing GTA V mostly, on a 1440x900 resolution. I'm sure I can get above 60 on high settings.
 

hephaistos

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The 5-10 FPS difference is between the 3 GB and the 6 GB 1060. Buy the 1060 6 GB, I think most settings can be turned up to highest on GTA V with a 1060.
Ok, I know I'm messing too much with this topic, but I almost ordered the cx450 then i checked prices and saw an evga 450b for pretty good price new, and was thinking if it'll be ok. Does it have protection and etc? All I need is something to power a 1060 or an rx 570. But if it won't explode than I think this is the one I'm getting.
 
Ok, I know I'm messing too much with this topic, but I almost ordered the cx450 then i checked prices and saw an evga 450b for pretty good price new, and was thinking if it'll be ok. Does it have protection and etc? All I need is something to power a 1060 or an rx 570. But if it won't explode than I think this is the one I'm getting.
There's a reason I recommended the CX450:


If you look closely, the CX series is Tier 3, and the 450B is Tier 5. That two tier difference is major enough to not recommend the 450B and to recommend the CX450. Buy the CX450.
 

hephaistos

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Ok, I know I'm messing too much with this topic, but I almost ordered the cx450 then i checked prices and saw an evga 450b for pretty good price new, and was thinking if it'll be ok. Does it have protection and etc? All I need is something to power a 1060 or an rx 570. But if it won't explode than I think this is the one I'm getting.
Update: I've also found an fsp hexa 450w for like $3 more and it's 85+ bronz.
There's a reason I recommended the CX450:


If you look closely, the CX series is Tier 3, and the 450B is Tier 5. That two tier difference is major enough to not recommend the 450B and to recommend the CX450. Buy the CX450.
There's a reason I recommended the CX450:


If you look closely, the CX series is Tier 3, and the 450B is Tier 5. That two tier difference is major enough to not recommend the 450B and to recommend the CX450. Buy the CX450.
So I've ordered the cx 450 should be arriving on Monday, my question is, what if want to upgrade my cpu or something, will 450 watts be good? I saw a video where somebody used a 1080 with it.
 
Update: I've also found an fsp hexa 450w for like $3 more and it's 85+ bronz.


So I've ordered the cx 450 should be arriving on Monday, my question is, what if want to upgrade my cpu or something, will 450 watts be good? I saw a video where somebody used a 1080 with it.
The CX450 can handle mid-range components. The 1080 is a bit overkill for it IMO, but a 1070, 1660, 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 will all be fine with it, maybe even a 1070 Ti. Above that, you probably shouldn't use this PSU. As for CPU, you can use any Ryzen CPU, and Intel's i7's and below will work just fine, but if you want i9 then again you'll need a better unit(although it's not necessary, but for the safety of the PC a good quality PSU would be advised for an i9, even for some high-end i7's).

Whether the CX450 is enough for an upgrade depends solely on what the upgrade is, and how much power the new components require.
 

hephaistos

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The CX450 can handle mid-range components. The 1080 is a bit overkill for it IMO, but a 1070, 1660, 1660 Ti and RTX 2060 will all be fine with it, maybe even a 1070 Ti. Above that, you probably shouldn't use this PSU. As for CPU, you can use any Ryzen CPU, and Intel's i7's and below will work just fine, but if you want i9 then again you'll need a better unit(although it's not necessary, but for the safety of the PC a good quality PSU would be advised for an i9, even for some high-end i7's).

Whether the CX450 is enough for an upgrade depends solely on what the upgrade is, and how much power the new components require.
Ok, also I've found that used rx 480s cost less, or the same as the 1060 3gb, and I think, I'd be ok with 8 gigs or vram, certainly after the gtx 950, even if my cpu bottlenecks it. Will the psu handle it. And also thanks for all the help.
 
Yes, an RX 480 is almost equal in performance to the GTX 1060 6 GB, but since it's used you should first make sure that there is nothing wrong with the GPU. It might have been used for mining, which means it ran at heavy load for long durations, which can damage the GPU. So test the GPU before buying it if possible, and if the owner isn't allowing you to test it first then just avoid buying from them since that is fishy in itself. The CX450 can handle the RX 480 without problems, but you'll have to make sure the card only requires one additional power connector, because the CX450 only comes with one additional PCI-E power connector, and some cards may require two of them.

The CPU connector can be split into 4+4, so I think you're fine.