Is 500w enough for...

[Otaku Mike]

When I build my current computer two years ago, I purchased the Antec Sonata III Chassis and used the 500w PSU that came pre-installed in it. According to Antec's site its an "EarthWatts Green 500 Watt power supply unit (PSU) which is equipped with universal input and Active PFC. This PSU is also 80PLUS® certified making it one of the most efficient PSU’s available."

I also chose the following components:

Core 2 Duo E8500
2 GB DDR3 (2 x 1GB)
Asus P5KC Desktop Motherboard
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card
eVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT Graphics Card
Seagate Barracuda Hard Drive - 500GB - 7200rpm - Internal
Lite-On LH-20A1L 20x DVD±RW Drive

I'm planning on swapping out parts/adding new parts in this order:
1) Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Processor BX80569QX9650A - used, CPU only (already purchased, getting ready to install it)

2) Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory Module 4GB (2 x 2GB) - 1600MHz DDR3-1600/PC3-12800 (more than my 32-bit Windows Vista can detect, but there's a reason I'm getting it...)

3) GigaByte GV-R585OC-1GD Radeon HD 5850 Graphics Card - PCI Express 2.1 x16 - 1 GB GDDR5 SDRAM

4) Seagate USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - 2TB - Retail (MPN: ST320005EXA101RK; I want to offload some files onto an external HDD to make room on the old 500 GB)

5&6) an OCZ Technology Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE120G Solid State Drive, and Windows 7. I'm hoping to do a clean install of 7 (64-bit) on the SDD and avoid wiping the HDD entirely. That should work, right?

Bottom line: will that 500 watt PSU be able to handle all the new upgrades at once? Or is this pushing it too much? I guess I could get a lower-level HD5XXX video card?:'(

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Yup, your 500w Antec should be just fine.

 

[Henry Chinaski]

There are 3 different models for the Antec EarthWatts 500W.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page673.htm
If your PSU has green colour, then indeed you have the EarthWatts Green 500W, which has 440W on the +12V output and it's 80Plus Bronze Certified. If your PSUs is grey, you may have the EA-500 (Seasonic) or the EA-500D (Delta). Both can provide 408W on the +12V output and are 80Plus certified.
The 5850 needs 150W at full load, so in my opinion, you have enough power to run your new system.

 

[Yeem]

You should be more than fine with a quality 500W.

 

[Otaku Mike]

There are 3 different models for the Antec EarthWatts 500W.
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page673.htm
If your PSU has green colour, then indeed you have the EarthWatts Green 500W, which has 440W on the +12V output and it's 80Plus Bronze Certified. If your PSUs is grey *SNIP*

Tsk. I just finished opening and closing the case to swap out the CPU. From what I recall, the part of the PSU I could see was bronze colored. Unless the poor lighting in my basement made green look somehow bronze? Then again, from what I gathered from your post, if it's one of those three, it's all good.

SC2 auto-detect video settings put me back into the "high" quality settings. Looks nice, but can sort of "hiccup" sometimes. Less so than with the old CPU, but it's still there. I'm planning on increasing the RAM to 4 GB from 2, hopefully that will iron out the wrinkles, so to speak?

Hopefully, it'll run at Ultra settings after I put in the new RAM and the new video card I'm planning on getting.

I have no idea if slathering this poor pig with all this lipstick will work. But it should be fun to try! And by fun, I mean that I will be pulling my hair out of my skull on strand at a time. And then switching to my nose hairs once I go bald.