Will my silverstone 500w blow up and damage my components?

[MichaelEpicBeast]

Hello, I plan on buying an r9 280x Xfx double d and i have a psu that has 500w. I know that my cpu will bottleneck that card but i was planning on upgrading my cpu on Christmas. If my psu dies will it damage my other components or it won't. I am short with money so i can't afford a better psu right now.

Cpu: Amd fx 4130
Gpu: r9 280x
Psu: Silverstone Strider Essentials 500w
Mobo: M5A78L-M lx3

 

[InvalidError]

Silverstone is a generally good brand so it should be safe.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Silverstone/ST50F-ES/11.html

Not exactly a perfect score but most of their issues with it are largely inconsequential.

 

[nukemaster]

As long as you do not run furmark it should not overload the power supply(but could be very close).

Power supplies with over current protection should shut down without damage to the system or them selves. Only real cheap power supplies tend to take out hardware.

 

[MichaelEpicBeast]

So if my psu dies out I will have to change just my psu.

 

[nukemaster]

Your PSU should shut down on an overload. At this point you have to reduce the power load or get a larger unit.

The 12 volt rail is the most important one on modern computers so look for more 12 volt power(it MUST be a combined rating for multi-rail power supply and not a simple addition of all 12 volt rails.).

Example Image. Some power supplies will show combined rails in watts as well.

Your current unit has 34 amps @ 12 volts or 408 watts(voltage(V) x current[A] = Wattage).

 

[InvalidError]

As long as you do not run furmark it should not overload the power supply(but could be very close).

~250W for the GPU. less than 100W for the rest of the system, that leaves about 150W of headroom... and unlike most other budget PSUs, the Silverstone is able to deliver more than 100% of its rated output even at temperatures over 40C.

So OP's system should be nowhere close to overloading the PSU.

 

[MichaelEpicBeast]

But my cpu needs 125 watts.

 

[Fidgetmaster]

That CPU is a bad bottleneck to the 280x...and if you upgrade to the 6/8 core...I would upgrade Mobo too, you don't want to put a 6/8 core FX on a 760g Mobo....get you a 970/990 board.

 

[nukemaster]

1. The power supplies 12 volt rail is limited to 408 watts not 500. The total is not as important as the 12 volt rail. I have seen 550 watt power supplies on the market with 24 amps on the 12 volt rail. We have less and less of those awful things every day thankfully.

2. My concern is the variation from system to system. Some boards are more efficient than others and that card will take over 250 watts is subjected to furmarks thus the warning.

My personal Media Center pc with a i5 750 + gtx 650 ti has a hard time breaking 150 watts(despite the TDP of all parts. some parts stay well under while others can be over under certain loads. TDP is not a be all and end all) at the wall(I can get it upto 180 if i try idle is in the 40ish area). Yet another system of the exact same specs may pass 200+ on load. No 2 systems are the same(even among cpus some run at lower voltages than others).

I would much rather recommend as safe an upgrade as I can. Even power supply calculators overestimate.

But my cpu needs 125 watts.

the TDP of 125 watts is shared by a full set of those cpu's(not even just your model number) So some will take exactly 125 while others may be well under or slightly over.

I would highly recommend a watt meter from the hardware store. They sell for 20 dollars many places and tell you what the system is taking at the wall. Since the DC power use is lower, being under the rated power supply output means the computer is drawing even less. All power supplies waste some power in the form of heat.

 

[Fidgetmaster]

Because Everyone thinks about the TDP/wattage...that's ignorant...actual rated current that is sufficient is whats more important....

 

[InvalidError]

But my cpu needs 125 watts.

Use a hardware monitoring program and check how much power your motherboard's VRM actually reports. The i5-3470 is rated at 77W TDP but my motherboard only reports around 40W under full-load.

The TDPs in the specs are for the worst-case chips the manufacturer might possibly ship under the worst-case operating conditions that are still within specs. An average chip under normal operating conditions should be nowhere near that worst-case.