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What size power supply should i need?

F

Fred McGaughey

Junior Member
Case: Thermaltake MK-I

MOBO: Asus P8Z77-V LK Desktop Motherboard - Intel Z77 Express Chipset

Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz

GPU: MSI HD7950 Twin Frozr III

Sound Card: Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz

Cooling System: Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro

Optical Drives: LG Black 14X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 12X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray Burner
and
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model

Hard Drive:Western Digital WD Black 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Keyboard: RAZER Blackwidow Ultimate 2013

Mouse:Mionix Naos 3200 Black 7 Buttons USB Wired LED-optical 3200 dpi Mouse

Speakers:Eagle ET-AR506-BK 100 Watts
2.1 Speakers

Honestly unsure of what size of PSU to get looking for some insight please.

Case will also have 3 200mm fans
 
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You are only running 1 video card, so even with the pump 600 should be plenty (reputable manufacturer, of course). With such a nice system I am surprised you are not getting and SSD.

But I'm one to talk, I didn't get one either. Love my WD Black.
 
I was thinking of getting an SSD but ill be doing lots of downloading and so on, so i need the extra space and an SSD is so expensive for not really much space, thanks alot for your input i appreciate it as now i can save a few bucks on my power supply
 
Do you need the sound card? Boards have pretty good audio nowadays, and Creative is terrible with drivers. You could save some money on that too.
 
500-600 watt depending on the efficiency rating of a particular unit. Bronze minimum...personally I recommend silver or better. It is worth it to spend more for a quality power supply.
 
The power supply required isn't impacted by the efficiency rating...

You could manage that on a good 400w without overclocking.
If you want to overclock, 500w for mild, 600w if you want to push things. All assuming a quality PSU manufacturer.
 
consider future upgrades too.....are you ever planning to add a second vid card? 600watt may not cut it...a good quality PS can last many years and even power a totally different setup down the road..

I'd spend a little extra now and go with a 850/950 ...I've had great luck with the Corsair TX line.

Lastly is that case a full or mid tower? Does it have good cable management? Think about a modular if it doesn't.
 
This is how it goes. You separate the 12V rails(s). How much amp you got there. Does it cover your CPU and GPU(s). In the case of several GPUs it might be a good idea to look for SLI certified. Back to the initial, do you have enought amps to cover those minus 10% then it's a go. The saying is a PSU looses about 10% each year, but that is not entirely correct. It's maybe 10% year 1 and then a small faction each year that gets increasingly smaller. Don't know the right english term. The rest of your system that also draws off your 12V rail are uninteresitng in that context also the other rails.

Hope that made sence and then add a safe margin to it all if you so wish.

If the system is underpowered with a brand psu it should not accumulate damage, just so you know.

Oh and when I remember get a 80+ certified platinum or something. That is a measure of how well the unit performs under a condition. How much af the juice pulled off the wall actually gets through the psu as intended, not heat eg. This is really important, because it indicated the efficiency of the unit and it will make you save money on you el bill and have less heatbuildup in your case. The less el wasted the less heat.

Really important.

Jonnyguru is the site to look psus really is. 🙂
 
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Thank you all for your input and thank you Ketchup im gonna take your advice and drop the sound card. Im going to upgrade to SLI with 2 video cards after a short time, just dont have the extra cash now, i have not overclocked before but want to give it a shot. I think from the advice i have been given i will be looking in the 800-900w range. I will also be looking for something 80+ certified atleast a silver. The tower is a full tower and seems to have good cord management, i was also still thinking of getting a modular PSU as i dont have huge experience in building my own pc and managing the cords.
 
Fred McGaughey said:
Thank you all for your input and thank you Ketchup im gonna take your advice and drop the sound card. Im going to upgrade to SLI with 2 video cards after a short time, just dont have the extra cash now, i have not overclocked before but want to give it a shot. I think from the advice i have been given i will be looking in the 800-900w range. I will also be looking for something 80+ certified atleast a silver. The tower is a full tower and seems to have good cord management, i was also still thinking of getting a modular PSU as i dont have huge experience in building my own pc and managing the cords.
Click to expand...

Bear in mind that if you go modular, there are enough power cables for both cards.
 
Look at the seasonic x series, or corsair ax850/hx850. If thats too expensive look at the corsair tx850v2. Bronze rating but they are seasonic oem.

**EDIT**
Xfx also makes rebranded seasonics. Look into them for perhaps a better price.
 
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Fred McGaughey said:
Thank you all for your input and thank you Ketchup im gonna take your advice and drop the sound card. Im going to upgrade to SLI with 2 video cards after a short time, just dont have the extra cash now, i have not overclocked before but want to give it a shot. I think from the advice i have been given i will be looking in the 800-900w range. I will also be looking for something 80+ certified atleast a silver. The tower is a full tower and seems to have good cord management, i was also still thinking of getting a modular PSU as i dont have huge experience in building my own pc and managing the cords.
Click to expand...
Unless your monitor is unusually large SLI is probably not going to do a ton for you. A 7950 is already a pretty powerful card.
 
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