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Will my next upgrade require a PSU upgrade?

ascendant

ascendant

Senior member
Ok, here's my current specs:

motherboard - ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
cpu - AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor ADX250OCGQBOX
ram - Crucial 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
video card - EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
hard drive - Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
psu - XCLIO Goodpower 500w
sound card - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card
cpu cooler - Rosewill RCX-Z940-SL 92mm 2 Ball

I am looking to upgrade my CPU to this:
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103934

Considering I am going from a 65w to a 125w CPU on top of my current PSU demands, would I have to upgrade my PSU as well? I'm really not sure at this point whether 500w will cut it or not?

If I would need to upgrade my PSU, would someone be able to recommend one that would be suitable for my setup that is reasonably priced while at the same time a reliable product?
 
I would say that you would probably be safer to get a PSU update. The reccomended for the 460 is a 460W (at least) with a draw of 160W max. If you're going to be doubling your CPU wattage you might want to think of a decent 700 or 750W PSU.

Kingwin is a great brand (I'm using one of their 1kW PSUs right now) and VERY reasonably priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121085
 
L33tMasta said:
I would say that you would probably be safer to get a PSU update. The reccomended for the 460 is a 460W (at least) with a draw of 160W max. If you're going to be doubling your CPU wattage you might want to think of a decent 700 or 750W PSU.

Kingwin is a great brand (I'm using one of their 1kW PSUs right now) and VERY reasonably priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121085
Click to expand...

700-750 for a X4 and GTX 460??


OP, You are fine. Not my choice of PSU, but even still, your fine.
 
adam_the_giant said:
700-750 for a X4 and GTX 460??


OP, You are fine. Not my choice of PSU, but even still, your fine.
Click to expand...

Yes. Especially if you want to future proof yourself for things like overclocking and even a whole new build a little bit down the line. Your PSU is arguably the most important part of yourwhole PC because if it blows up from being under a heavy oad you're going to probably have some hardware failure to go along with it. That's why it's always been a great idea to have a solid PSU. And for $70, what's the harm in being safe?
 
L33tMasta said:
Yes. Especially if you want to future proof yourself for things like overclocking and even a whole new build a little bit down the line. Your PSU is arguably the most important part of yourwhole PC because if it blows up from being under a heavy oad you're going to probably have some hardware failure to go along with it. That's why it's always been a great idea to have a solid PSU. And for $70, what's the harm in being safe?
Click to expand...

That's a 750W PSU with two pci-e connectors. LOL. There goes the "future proof" bit should you ever do crossfire/sli on two powerful GPU's.

I'd rather get an XFX650W for $55AR with four PCIe connectors. Same +12V output as with the Kingwin which, by the way, has only one year of warranty compared to XFX's five.
 
lehtv said:
That's a 750W PSU with two pci-e connectors. LOL. There goes the "future proof" bit should you ever do crossfire/sli on two powerful GPU's.

I'd rather get an XFX650W for $55AR with four PCIe connectors. Same +12V output as with the Kingwin which, by the way, has only one year of warranty compared to XFX's five.
Click to expand...

Good point. I didn't really do much searching other than clicking the 700-750W button on Newegg.
 
I would go with a corsair cx430watt, cx500watt or cx600watt. If you can spring the cash for a tx650v2 then that works too. I am a corsair fanboy so I always suggest corsair because they have always been reliable for me 🙂
 
I would worry about a corsair cx430watt with a GTX 460. [thread=2216480]I'm considering[/thread] an XFX 450W for myself.
 
You'd still need an molex->PCIe adapter for the XFX 450W though
 
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The real question everyone here should be asking is what you want to accomplish by upgrading to a quad. Is there a specific task that you want to make faster? It may be the case that a similar amount of money can be more effectively spent in another area.
 
L33tMasta said:
Yes. Especially if you want to future proof yourself for things like overclocking and even a whole new build a little bit down the line. Your PSU is arguably the most important part of yourwhole PC because if it blows up from being under a heavy oad you're going to probably have some hardware failure to go along with it. That's why it's always been a great idea to have a solid PSU. And for $70, what's the harm in being safe?
Click to expand...

Can the PSU really cause damage to other components simply because it can't supply them with enough power? I have never heard of that happening to anyone before. I thought typical worst-case scenario is the computer will just shut off on you due to lack of power demands?
 
mfenn said:
The real question everyone here should be asking is what you want to accomplish by upgrading to a quad. Is there a specific task that you want to make faster? It may be the case that a similar amount of money can be more effectively spent in another area.
Click to expand...

At this point, my main objective is improved game performance. I play WOW, Starcraft II, am planning on playing Diablo III once it comes out, and I want to be able to crank my settings up without my frames dropping. From all the research I've done, my current bottleneck seems to be my CPU. The computer booting up and running faster would just be a bonus, but the priority is increased frame rates for gaming.
 
Blain said:
* How old is that 500W PS?
* Has it been run behind a quality UPS all it's service life?
* Are the capacitors in good condition?
Click to expand...

The PSU is 5 years old. It has been behind a UPS (tripp-lite), not sure of the quality of it. As far as the capacitors, if I knew how to check that, I don't think I'd be asking for help on here, lol.

Anyway, I know it might be about time for an upgrade, but I'm on a tight budget. The only reason I'm even considering the CPU is because someone offered to get me one for my birthday.

I know someone mentioned a PSU that is like $100 with a rebate that brings it down to $60, but I don't have the extra cash to mail out a rebate and hope the company actually sends me my rebate. I had a bad experience with that in the past and would really rather avoid the mail-in rebate thing.

If being underpowered won't put me at much more of a risk than my computer shutting down during heavy loads, then I'd be perfectly fine with chancing it and then getting a new PSU if it turns out to be necessary. I just don't want to risk frying my computer with the budget I'm on.
 
First...YES, you need a new PSU. Not because your new system will require more power than your current one is capable of putting out, but because your current power supply is crap and should be tossed in the closest junk pile/trashcan.

Next, WHY go with the AMD Phenom processor, when for just a few dollars more (que Clint Eastwood) you could have a Sandy Bridge processor which is faster and requires less power?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=288
 
BoomerD said:
First...YES, you need a new PSU. Not because your new system will require more power than your current one is capable of putting out, but because your current power supply is crap and should be tossed in the closest junk pile/trashcan.
Click to expand...

Honestly I am at a bit of a loss as to why people say XCLIO is not any good? I did some research and found 6 reviews on the web about their PSU's, every single one was very positive (which I certainly couldn't say for some other manufacturers). Though the PSU's were not my exact one, the company seems to be building decent products from what I saw. If you have any research or other data that has shown otherwise, I would very much like to see it and read up on it myself.

BoomerD said:
Next, WHY go with the AMD Phenom processor, when for just a few dollars more (que Clint Eastwood) you could have a Sandy Bridge processor which is faster and requires less power?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=288
Click to expand...

I think you missed where I said I am on a budget. I'm not looking to rebuild my computer and go Intel. AMD was in the lead years back, now Intel is. It fluctuates, so I don't see any point in swapping over when for all we know AMD might bring out something new in a year or two that will take the lead again.
 
ascendant said:
Can the PSU really cause damage to other components simply because it can't supply them with enough power? I have never heard of that happening to anyone before. I thought typical worst-case scenario is the computer will just shut off on you due to lack of power demands?
Click to expand...

A GOOD QUALITY PSU will just shut off when overloaded or shorted. A cheap crappy PSU (like the kinds that come "free" with a PC case, often will blow if overloaded or shorted, and in doing so, can surge the voltage or current coming out of it, and fry whatever is connected to it, which is pretty-much everything in your system.

This is one reason to always purchase a good, name-brand, PSU, with a decent warranty.
I'm an Antec guy myself, but some people like Corsair, or SeaSonic.
Other decent brands are Enermax and Silverstone (enhance).
Sparkle/FSP and SuperFlower used to be good in the Athlon XP days, not sure how much of a market presence they have these days.
Kingwin appears to be an up-and-comer, especially with their "80Plus Platinum"-rated PSUs.
 
Great info, thank you 🙂. I'm going to have to really think about this and see what I can work out with my budget here.
 
ascendant said:
At this point, my main objective is improved game performance. I play WOW, Starcraft II, am planning on playing Diablo III once it comes out, and I want to be able to crank my settings up without my frames dropping. From all the research I've done, my current bottleneck seems to be my CPU. The computer booting up and running faster would just be a bonus, but the priority is increased frame rates for gaming.
Click to expand...

Those games only really use two cores, so spending $170 on an AMD quad isn't really a good use of resources. A Phenom II X2 565 for $105 (edit 960t as posted by monkey is obviously better than this) will get you 90% of the performance in those games for much less money. Hell, for $170 you could get an i3 2100 and Biostar H61MGC mobo to really take advantage of the higher instructions per clock (IPC) of Sandy Bridge. Neither of those two options would absolutely require you to upgrade your PSU.
 
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ascendant said:
Great info, thank you 🙂. I'm going to have to really think about this and see what I can work out with my budget here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sometimes budgets just don't allow for a new rig, and I agree with you that you are probably suffering from a CPU bottleneck.


Do you overclock? If so, I suggest you get this 960t for $110 shipped and go for 4 ghz.


If you don't like/want to do overclocking then a 970 for $130.- shipped is running at 3.5Ghz. It will give a nice FPS bump http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/121?vs=186 If you get the OC itch this CPU should get you around 4Ghz too. I wouldn't spend all that extra to get a 980 though. The difference in games would be tiny.


Your gtx 460 should be good for a bit longer while you save up some funds for the next greatest graphics card.
 
Thanks for the info. As far as the CPU, it is something I might be getting as a bday gift, so an extra $30 or so on it for the 980 over the other options is fine by me. Plus I certainly wouldn't mind my comp being faster with other things as well other than just the games. They are just the priority at this point is all.
 
ascendant said:
Thanks for the info. As far as the CPU, it is something I might be getting as a bday gift, so an extra $30 or so on it for the 980 over the other options is fine by me. Plus I certainly wouldn't mind my comp being faster with other things as well other than just the games. They are just the priority at this point is all.
Click to expand...

Just because you can spend $170 on a Phenom II doesn't mean that you should. It's not worth spending more than $100 or so on a new CPU for the platform. Any higher and you are better off just upgrading to Sandy Bridge.
 
mfenn said:
Just because you can spend $170 on a Phenom II doesn't mean that you should. It's not worth spending more than $100 or so on a new CPU for the platform. Any higher and you are better off just upgrading to Sandy Bridge.
Click to expand...

Really? So you are going to tell me I could get both the Sandy Bridge as well as a whole new mobo for it as well for under $170???

So many people are hopping on the Intel bandwagon now because they are the top of the line. Everyone did the same thing back when AMD was ahead. If AMD's new line that's coming out soon ends up topping Intel, then everyone will be switching back again, and the Intel compatible mobo would eventually become worthless.

This isn't even considering that AMD's have always shown to perform better for gaming. Maybe it's not the case anymore with the new Sandy Bridge, idk. All I know is that during the time when I was building my comp, everyone was swearing up and down that AMD was what it was all about.

I'm not looking to follow the latest trend, I just want a modestly priced upgrade is all. I know everyone suggesting Intel means well, but from my perspective, it really just seems like people are loyal to whatever is considered the top competitor at the time. Personally I would much rather just replace my CPU and get a great upgrade from what I have now, as opposed to replacing my entire mobo along with it just for a marginal increase in performance compared to the CPU I'm currently looking at.
 
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