Higher wattage or higher efficiency?

[Dorkenstein]

Currently have a power issue that I cannot fix (no pun intended), I was thinking of getting a new power supply in an attempt to fix it. I have a 750w Silverstone PSU right now. If I was getting a new power supply, is it better to jump to higher power like 1kw or get another 750w with mega efficiency like enermax or seasonic?

Here's my setup:

Q9550 @ 3.6ghz
EP45-UD3P Motherboard
8gb DDR2-1066
1 ssd
3 mechanical drives, 7200RPM
DVD drive
HT Omega Claro Halo sound card

Thank you.

 

[TemjinGold]

Where's your video card?

 

[Dorkenstein]

The minute I left for work I realized that I forgot to include that. It's an Asus Radeon 5970.

 

[jonnyGURU]

If I was getting a new power supply, is it better to jump to higher power like 1kw or get another 750w with mega efficiency like enermax or seasonic?

Why not a high power PSU with mega efficiency?

Actually, you don't even need 750W for your set up, so just get a nice, efficient PSU and call it a day.

 

[Dorkenstein]

I plan on overclocking the 5970 at some point, am I still good? Hopefully a new PSU is what I need. Thanks jonnyguru.

 

[superccs]

Why do you think you have a power issue?

A good 750W PSU should be all you need for that setup, unless you have to run your CPU at 1.4V to get that OC...

Total system power in this article was 640W when a 5970 was OC'ed http://www.anandtech.com/show/2877/16
and that was on a x58 + i7 930 which uses comparable power.

 

[Big Lar]

I've got just the fix for you, sent you a pm.

Larry

 

[snarl]

I'd think a Corsair HX750 or HX850 would be great and would provide for some expansion room. Personally I prefer Balance, I want reasonable efficiency i.e. Bronze/Silver but I also like lot's of headroom so If I calculated a (http://www.antec.outervision.com/) requirement of 550 Watts I'd go for 750 however this is just my personal opinion on the matter.

Good Luck

 

[Stefan Payne]

Hi, Dorkenstein

For your build, I'd suggest you buy a high efficiency (silver or gold, doesn't matter that much) 600W PSU with DC-DC technology.