Anything more than twice your peak power draw is gross overkill. I aim for peak power draw (you can evaluate it pretty accurately on a site like http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp) at 60% to two-thirds of a well-made power supply's capacity, because gaming is a use that will result in peak power over an extended period, 40% to 60% is the most efficient range, and a sustained peak load is where you need the minimum possible conversion of power to heat.
M4xwolf is right; you are well below 450W, though the selection of good PSUs falls off below 500W, and you could consider a model like a 520W Seasonic without getting into overkill territory.
Thanks. I'll bookmark that calculator for future use as it's just what I needed.
Your right as well with having a hard time finding the right PSU under a certain wattage. Considering the pci-e connectors the gpu needs etc (8pin & 6pin) the best I have found so far is a 550watt by XFX (which I know is seasonic so is reputable). I have a month to keep looking but that might be the one to go for.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-xfx-core-edition-p1-550s-xxb9-80-plus-bronze-1x135mm-fan-atx-psu
Yep, it's the magical efficiency of Haswell and Maxwell
I'm looking forward to 14 nm chip CPU with 16 nm chip GPU being even more magical
Last I heard, Intel has started developing 10nm chip CPUs in Israel. I bet those will be even more magicalI'm looking forward to 14 nm chip CPU with 16 nm chip GPU being even more magical
Yeah. Fanless CPUs for desktops may be?-) But that's going to be some time away still.
Hi again, I think I've found a happy final build I am content with and thought I would post it here to get some final opinions from the talented community. In the end I had to choose a 550W PSU as I mentioned above due to finding the required connectors for the 970 being an issue with lower powered PSU's.
This will be my 2nd build after my first back in 2009 and to be quite honest I still feel nervous (but at least more confident than the first time around) which is why I wanted to hear outside opinions to catch anything I might have missed despite my research like the PSU issue from before, which I am glad I asked about. Thanks in advance
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/tqzWyc
This will be my 2nd build after my first back in 2009 and to be quite honest I still feel nervous (but at least more confident than the first time around) which is why I wanted to hear outside opinions to catch anything I might have missed despite my research like the PSU issue from before, which I am glad I asked about. Thanks in advance
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/tqzWyc
Here a smaller PSU (450W) with 80+ gold and the required 6+2 pin connectors: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-power-supply-bn191
And a 500W PSU 80+ bronze, also with the required connectors, bit cheaper: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-power-supply-bn223
The 6+2 / 8 pin connector is actually fairly standard today, most PSUs should have them. But better safe then sorry
Rest is fine, imo.
Here a smaller PSU (450W) with 80+ gold and the required 6+2 pin connectors: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-power-supply-bn191
And a 500W PSU 80+ bronze, also with the required connectors, bit cheaper: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/be-quiet-power-supply-bn223
The 6+2 / 8 pin connector is actually fairly standard today, most PSUs should have them. But better safe then sorry
Rest is fine, imo.
hmm I haven't looked at be quiet, never heard of them before. I'll research the brand but thanks for the suggestion.
Just so I'm 100% certain the XFX 550W is way too much right? I just want to check because reliability is my biggest concern and tomshardware has the be quite pure power l8 500W listed as tier 3 in that department, so it's not bad but there is a bigger risk. Of course hearing that you use it helps alot as well.
Your system shouldn't be able to draw more than 400W even if you torture it with Furmark and Prime95 at the same time, so 550W is quite high.
The pure power line is bequiet's low end, but still they offer stable voltages and mostly silent operation.
Btw, this PSU tier-list seems to me to be suffering from the typical higher-watts-is-better illness - every second 'tier 1' PSU is 1000W+.
They also explicitly refer to 'serious overclocking'-capabilities as sorting criterion, so the question is, is serious overclocking relevant for you at all?
The pure power line is bequiet's low end, but still they offer stable voltages and mostly silent operation.
Btw, this PSU tier-list seems to me to be suffering from the typical higher-watts-is-better illness - every second 'tier 1' PSU is 1000W+.
They also explicitly refer to 'serious overclocking'-capabilities as sorting criterion, so the question is, is serious overclocking relevant for you at all?
Last edited:
Thank you, I think I have the information to make a decision now. I'll mull over the choices for the next few weeks until the sales at the end of the month start. Thanks again you have been a big help
Thank you, I think I have the information to make a decision now. I'll mull over the choices for the next few weeks until the sales at the end of the month start. Thanks again you have been a big help
Check out NewEgg, they've already started a lot of good deals here through this month and they ship to the UK. Expect Black Friday and Cyber Monday to have even more.
I wouldn't go below 250GB anymore. With games nowadays demanding around 30-40 GB each, you don't get far with less.
I'm happy with my 256GB MX100. But a word of warning if you're considering buying 840 EVO series SSDs. They've had some performance issues that Samsung addressed with a firmware update but if I were in your shoes I'd avoid them.
The update fixed my 1TB drive performance and now it works beautifully but I can't say for sure if it fixed everybody else's.
I've still got an 4 TB external, so I'm not overly concerned with having games on there. I'm more wanting it for the OS and general programs (Photoshop, Maya, etc). But still, I may change my mind, especially if some really good deals pop up here for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Decisions, decisions.....