PSU wattage recommendations

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I am building my PC next week and was wondering if anyone could advise what wattage PSU I should get. I have been looking at a 700watt seasonic M12 PSU.

The system will have 6 led fans 5 at 120mm and one at 200mm
Tuniqu tower 120 cooler
1 250GB 7200rpm hard drive (samsung spinpoint)
1 DVD RW combo drive
Either a Nvidia GTX 260 or 280 (depends on the money)
2 x 2GB RAM (geil 8500CS)
C2D CPU E8400 running at 3GHz
Asus Rampage formula X48 mobo

I do intend to overclock this CPU to about 3.5GHz

will 700Watts be enough or should I be looking at a higher wattage?

 

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Disclaimer: I am not an employee of PC Power & Cooling nor am I a stakeholder. It is just simply the best chart of it's kind that I know of.

Greenbrucelee,

You might want to look at the following link to help you to calculate the PSU power that you may need for your system.

Link:

1. "Power Supplies: How Much Power Do You Need?" webpage @ pcpower.com - http://www.pcpower.com/technology/power_usage/

 

Excellent Link r.h.lee

That website answered my question on Modular PSU. Because the guy at work believes Modular is better than standard PSU. But from reading that article myths about PSU, I guess not!

myth - DON'T LOSE POWER WITH MODULAR PLUGS

 

Hi,

Just built a new pc couple of weeks ago, see below for PSU full PC spec. Runs find and I have not had any problems so far.

Unless you are going to use a very large screen the 260 will be ok, I wanted a 9800 GX2 but could not get one made by EVGA so went for the GTX260.

Hope this helps in any way

Coolermaster RealPower 620W Modular PSU - SLI Ready

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache
DFI LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS Socket 775 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
2 X OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC
EVGA GTX260 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card
Western Digital WD2500AAKS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATAII/300 16MB Cache
Coolermaster CM690 Dominator Black Mid Tower Case
5 x 120mm Blue LED Fan - 4pin Molex Connection
Pioneer DVR-115DBK 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE Black Bare Drive

Regards

 

Hi Gbl, I think considering the link of how modular psu power consumption is assumed you're right in going for the seasonic 700watts psu.

 

Thanks for that, I never realised modular PCs could cause a bottleneck. I will have a look into one of those PC powe & cooling PSUs.

 

Doesn't matter if you go over the top and leave some margin to play around with in the future.

Your system will draw its required current demand, as long as you can still supply it.

Current is pulled not pushed !

 

I have been looking at a corsair TX750 also, I may go for that since it isn't modular and can take plenty of power.

 

Is it worth going for a top brand PSU (enermax galaxy) even if you are not going to use it to anywhere near its full capacity?

 

Well I would look at it as the quality of product you're getting plus the performance. After all you could have a high performing PSU but the quality might not be so good or you can have both quality and performance.

Now I don't know how well the PSU performs but I would always go for a quality psu.

 

greenbrucelee,

Are you planning to upgrade your computer in the future?

 

Most likley yes, that will include probably GPU and GPU and maybe an extra Hdd.

 

greenbrucelee,

Then take that into consideration when choosing the appropriate PSU for now because according to my calculations, buying one high wattage PSU now is going to be cheaper than buying one PSU now and another more powerful PSU later when you upgrade.

 

I have been looking at 750 - 850 watts, it's just deciding on which one to get. I am stuck between PC Power & cooling, Seasonic and Enermax

 

Either should be fine matey. If the price difference is only marginal then get the latter.

Qs

 

I guess it comes down to what you can afford mate? Although it would be nice to max everything out for a power hungry gamers PC. Sometimes you have to remember to stick to the budget!

I think R.H.Lee's right in thinking ahead and buy a bigger wattage PSU even if you don't need that extra power now!

But it still comes back to budget!

 

I suppose like UCM says it depends on the budget, it all depends on how much I get paid tomorrow. If I get enough I will get the enermax one which is the most expensive but is supposed to be the best, if I have to go for the second option that would be the PC Power & cooling one as that also has top notch components and stabilty. Seasonic are supposed to be good too but not as top quality as the other two.

If I get paid what I think I am gonna get paid then the enermax one will be ok, that all depends on the bloody tax man as I am getting £400 bonus but that gets taxed, I have about £160 worth of overtime which gets taxed then my basic which gets taxed.

 

does anyone know if the official recommended PSU requirements for graphics cards are appropriate or under stated.

 

Although I've never purchased one, Seasonics are top notch according to numerous reviews scattered across the Internet.

On my last build, my PSU choice came down between Enermax and Seasonic. I ultimately chose Enermax based on the price and availability. It is a modular PSU, and I have detected absolutely NO decrease in voltage due to increased resistance.

 

I have the choice of any of those PSUs although the Enermax is the most expensive and is 850w the seasonic and PCP PSU are both 750w. I want a psu that is very reliable and has top notch components and will last me at least another upgrade.