Question about power requirement

BatJoe

Gawd
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Apr 4, 2012
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I am wondering about my rig and its power supply. Admittedly I have never quite placed much importance on the power supply I have. Currently I have the first release of the Corsair TX750. From what I know it is Bronze certified.

What would the (symptoms?) be if the power supply was not quite up to snuff with the hardware and power demands. Would things feel laggy, or would the computer be unstable in any way? Or would components simply not work because the power isn't there.

I am thinking about upgrading to a newer power supply, but am not sure if it is really required and I'm just spending the cash for nothing. Something like a 850 watt and with Silver certification is what I am looking at.

I've used those online power supply calculators and some say I'm within an acceptable range, then others are recommending over 800 watts.
 
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If your system is the one in your sig, then 750 watts is massive overkill for it. 850 is even more massive overkill and a waste of money. Your system requires a 500 watt power supply at most.

Symptoms of a failing power supply include instability and random shutdowns. Then again, these symptoms can mean anything, from unstable overclock to bad RAM to failing motherboard, etc.
Symptoms of overloading a power supply: full shutdown only in high stress situations.
 
If your system is the one in your sig, then 750 watts is massive overkill for it. 850 is even more massive overkill and a waste of money. Your system requires a 500 watt power supply at most.

Symptoms of a failing power supply include instability and random shutdowns. Then again, these symptoms can mean anything, from unstable overclock to bad RAM to failing motherboard, etc.
Symptoms of overloading a power supply: full shutdown only in high stress situations.

Yes, that is my system, aside from the 4x7200rpm drives I have, plus the several 120mm/140mm fans in the case, plus my Blu-Ray drive.
 
So a single 680. Yes, 750 watts is still massive overkill, and 500 watts is more than sufficient. If you're looking for an upgrade, go get a 500 watt gold or platinum power supply. Maybe one of the fanless models. 750/850 watt power supplies are for when you have at least 2 cards. Any single CPU and single GPU system can be powered by 550 watts or less.

I would just stick with what you have now. No reason to upgrade.
 
The other reason I was looking was to maybe get a modular supply to reduce all the extra cabling and as you said go with something either fanless or quieter than the one I have. And perhaps one day I might go with a more powerful GPU and may need the extra juice. I normally like to stay with single card setup, however who knows how power hungry nVidia's next single beast will be.
 
nVidia and AMD are not going to release a single GPU that consumes more than 300 watts at stock. I doubt they would even release a GPU that exceeds 250 watts. A higher power draw requires a more robust cooling solution, better board components, etc, all of which add to cost. A 500-550 watt power supply will still be more than sufficient for a single GPU setup for the foreseeable future.
 
you have adequate power for your needs from your current power supply, if you are encountering random shutoffs etc. I would suspect your overclocking before I would blame the power supply.

in the future when you buy a power supply it doesnt hurt to buy a little more than you need now so you have room for growth in the future especially if you ever plan to use multi monitors and graphics cards. personally I wouldnt go with a fanless power supply and if you buy a good unit the psu fan should be rather quiet anyhow.

if you are worried about noise you can always switch your case fans out to high quality fans with hydrowave or fluid dynamic bearings, ive used scythe sflex in the past dont see them anymore and recently tried the cougar fans, they offer good cfm and are very quiet.

cheap fans especially sleeve bearings will squeal like a cheap hooker, hydrowave and fluid dynamic bearing fans are very quiet and last a long long time, worth the extra money especially if you want quiet without sacrificing cooling power.
 
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