Need help with wattage needed

May 13, 2009
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Bought everything but a power supply. 2400g, b450 mobo, 16gb ram 2666, 1 tb ssd, msi ventus 2070. Might add a spinning drive 2tb later. Would need a little room for maybe a better cpu down the line or a slightly more power hungry video card. What wattage would I need? Also will be buying a quality power supply unit. Thanks
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
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You would be fine with a good quality 550w (with plenty room to spare), but if you're concerned about buying a power hungry GPU in the future, you could go 650w.

You really don't need anything larger unless you are planning running multiple GPUs (or want to run a space heater with a card like Vega RX 64) :p.
 

Gt403cyl

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Jun 12, 2018
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You would be fine with a good quality 550w (with plenty room to spare), but if you're concerned about buying a power hungry GPU in the future, you could go 650w.

You really don't need anything larger unless you are planning running multiple GPUs (or want to run a space heater with a card like Vega RX 64) :p.

Yeah I do agree, 550w would cover the current requirements easily, the reason I said 620w is pricing is nearly identical and you get a little more headroom down the road.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I draw 460W at the wall (at the KAW), with Ryzen 5 1600 (stock), and 2x RX 570 8GB (MSI, stock) cards, mining. Two SSDs and one HDD. I have an EVGA G1+ 80Plus Gold 650W PSU.

I wouldn't go any lower than 650W, honestly. Not a fan of running a PSU close to it's limit, to me, that's a quick way to a shortened lifespan.
 

UsandThem

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May 4, 2000
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I'd be surprised if the system in the OP ever hit 300w (maybe if they ran a power virus utility like Unigine Heaven), and that puts them right in the middle of efficiency. Their GPU version has a TDP of 175w, and this site had their test PC only hit 263w when they increased the power TDP up to 105%:

https://www.geeks3d.com/20181130/msi-geforce-rtx-2070-ventus-8gb-gddr6-review-turing-tu106-gpu/

That said, if the OP finds a great deal on a 650w gold+ unit, it wouldn't really affect efficiency that much (a little bit at very low loads like sitting at the desktop).
 
May 13, 2009
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Thanks for the replies. I actually swapped out power supplies with an old computer I have which has a year old 750w evga b2 in it. The 750w b2 evga is going in the new computer. I put a 10 year old antec quattro 850w in the old computer. 2600k, gtx 1080, 4 hard drives, no overclocking. It's been lightly used. Maybe 150 hours of gaming total in 10 years. I opened it up and looked at all the caps. No signs of bulging. It was fairly clean as I spray my computer with compressed air every 8 months or so. Fan working with no extra noise. Is the antec still safe to use? Thanks
 

VirtualLarry

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I wouldn't put an 850W load on the Antec PSU, if it's 10 years old, but if it has seen light duty, and especially if it has Japanese caps, I might consider re-using it for up to maybe 450-500W in a backup rig. But its days are numbered. Be on the lookout for weird glitches that you can't explain, and if they happen, suspect the old PSU first.
 
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May 13, 2009
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I wouldn't put an 850W load on the Antec PSU, if it's 10 years old, but if it has seen light duty, and especially if it has Japanese caps, I might consider re-using it for up to maybe 450-500W in a backup rig. But its days are numbered. Be on the lookout for weird glitches that you can't explain, and if they happen, suspect the old PSU first.
You're right. It's only a matter of time. I guess I'm going to replace it when a good deal on a 650w comes up.
 

BonzaiDuck

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Jun 30, 2004
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I still go to the Outervision Calculator "online". I think I actually had a subscription to it, but while I used to average building one system per year, I might now go two or three years between building projects.

Replacing HDDs with SSDs, the demise of SLI and Crossfire, and other factors promise less power draw so less required wattage of PSUs. You can do the arithmetic on a piece of paper, even so. If your CPU has a TDP rating of 95W, you might find it pulling 140W under strenuous overclock stress-tests once you come close to a practical limit. If you have more fans in the case as opposed to a few, be mindful of that component of power draw. My GTX 1070 over-clocked would never exceed 200W addition to total power-draw. Did I cover everything? I would think this summary includes most of it.

And just as a trivial footnote, some of the 650W units I have now were chosen with 2x SLI in mind, and I've since pulled out the spare graphics card.