help with power supply wattage choice

[razablade117]

hey everyone im building a pc but im unsure about what wattage power supply i should get, these are the parts im thinking of getting

 

nzxt phantom

AMD AM3 x6 1090T 3.20ghz phenom II

patriot Gamer2 PGD38G1333ELK 8GB(4GX2) DDr3 1333

kingston 128GB ssd

seagate 3.5'' baracuda green 2TB

Asus M4A89GTD PRO/USB 3

 

and im thinking of getting a corair TX-650 but im not sure if this enough power and i will be getting a graphics card later so please keep that in mind

[paulktreg]

You could power that quite easily from a decent 300W unit but without knowing your future graphic(s) card upgrade path it difficult ro recommend anything.

[El_Capitan]

As well as if you're going to overclock anything...

[Scottike]

The TX 650 will do you just fine. I'm using one on my system and here's my specs: (yea, my sig is out of date)

AMD X3 phenom I I running @ 3ghz

Asus M4A79XTD EVO

4 gb Patriot DDR 3 1600

XFX Radeon 5770 X2 (x-fire)

WD Black 500 gb

OCZ vertex 30gb ssd

LG Super Multi BD rom

NZXT Panzerbox

 

Edit: I think this setup just about maxes out my TX 650, but as you can see, you'll have some room for expansion

and upgrades. Both the X3 and your X6 are 125 watt CPU's.

 

Here's a link to Corsair's Power Supply Calculator: http://www.corsair.com/learn_n_explore/?psu=yes

Edited February 26, 2011 by Scottike

[Alexandre]

The TX 650 will do you just fine. I'm using one on my system and here's my specs: (yea, my sig is out of date)

AMD X3 phenom I I running @ 3ghz

Asus M4A79XTD EVO

4 gb Patriot DDR 3 1600

XFX Radeon 5770 X2 (x-fire)

WD Black 500 gb

OCZ vertex 30gb ssd

LG Super Multi BD rom

NZXT Panzerbox

 

Edit: I think this setup just about maxes out my TX 650, but as you can see, you'll have some room for expansion

and upgrades. Both the X3 and your X6 are 125 watt CPU's.

 

Here's a link to Corsair's Power Supply Calculator: http://www.corsair.com/learn_n_explore/?psu=yes

I really doubt your system will be maxing out your 650W. Even with the 5770s in crossfire @ full load (eg high gaming load) it shouldn't be pulling more than 400w from the socket according to eXtreme Power Supply Calculator. It recommends a 400w PSU and is also known to overestimate, so your 650w PSU should be pretty comfortable. You could try see for yourself by buying a Kill-a-watt plug which measures how much power is being drawn from the socket - giving a rough estimate of the power consumption (ignoring efficiency levels however).

 

@ OP Like Paul said, your system should run fine on a good 300w psu (when using integrated graphics) but knowing the graphics cards you are going to get and how many you wish to get in the future, will allow us to give a more suitable suggestion as to which PSU you should look to getting.

[razablade117]

I really doubt your system will be maxing out your 650W. Even with the 5770s in crossfire @ full load (eg high gaming load) it shouldn't be pulling more than 400w from the socket according to eXtreme Power Supply Calculator. It recommends a 400w PSU and is also known to overestimate, so your 650w PSU should be pretty comfortable. You could try see for yourself by buying a Kill-a-watt plug which measures how much power is being drawn from the socket - giving a rough estimate of the power consumption (ignoring efficiency levels however).

 

@ OP Like Paul said, your system should run fine on a good 300w psu (when using integrated graphics) but knowing the graphics cards you are going to get and how many you wish to get in the future, will allow us to give a more suitable suggestion as to which PSU you should look to getting.

 

yeah im going to get a Asus 2GB 6970 and later if the need arises i might get another.

with this in mind what do you recommend still the TX-650

Edited February 27, 2011 by razablade117

[Alexandre]

yeah im going to get a Asus 2GB 6970 and later if the need arises i might get another.

with this in mind what do you recommend still the TX-650

With 2x 6970s in crossfire your system will draw a maximum wattage of approximately 600w under full load with a max current of ~45 A on the +12 volt rail. The Corsair TX-650 can support a maximum of 53 A on the +12 volt rail so it will be fine.

Also, since I am assuming your system will rarely be under full load, it will probably idle at about 300w meaning that most of the time you will be running the PSU's in the power range where it is most efficient (between 40-60% load).

 

Although this may mean that you will have limited overclocking capabilities of the CPU with 2x 6970s as a high overclock may put your PSU to the edge.

 

EDIT: Given the above it may be better to go for the TX-750 in order to give you the ability to overclock both the GPUs and CPU to higher clock speeds

Edited February 27, 2011 by Alexandre

[paulktreg]

The Corsair TX650W doesn't have the necessary PCI-E connectors (2 x 6 pin + 2 x 8 pin) for two 6970's and I'm not a fan of using adapters so I'd recommend you look round for an alternative. The Corsair HX650W would do the job but it's modular and a little more expensive. (Never been able to work out why the the TX650W has 2 x 6+2 pin and the HX650W has 4 x 6+2 pin?).

 

I've seen figures for fairly powerful systems with crossfired 6970's pulling 550W from the wall which will approximately 450W from the power supply. The TX750W as previously suggested has the necessary connectors and would be my choice although the HX650W would be more than capable.

[Ceej]

You might also consider a modular power supply as well. It helps with cable management, which enables better airflow