Need second opinion

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MissJ84

2[H]4U
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Dec 22, 2009
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I'm planning to upgrade my entire system to a 3600 or 3700x (x570) and 2070 Super over the Holidays and wondering if Seasonic's PRIME 600w Fanless will do the trick or if it'd be better to wait until they release their 700w version. I'll only be running two drives (both nvmE) and everything will go into a Silverstone FT05.

PS I saw the 2080/600w thread, but I don't know anything about EVGA power supplies or how they compare.
 
MissJ84 said:
I'm planning to upgrade my entire system to a 3600 or 3700x (x570) and 2070 Super over the Holidays and wondering if Seasonic's PRIME 600w Fanless will do the trick or if it'd be better to wait until they release their 700w version. I'll only be running two drives (both nvmE) and everything will go into a Silverstone FT05.

PS I saw the 2080/600w thread, but I don't know anything about EVGA power supplies or how they compare.
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600W is a little low, efficiency-wise. I think your PS should be able to output enough power, but under load it is going to be running hard (read: less efficiently, which means more heat and power draw from the wall). The sweet spot, power efficiency wise is for your average work load power draw to be 1/2 the PS rating, so in your case, you'd want your average draw whilst gaming (assuming that is what you plan to do) should be ~300W.
 
I keep forgetting the 2070 S is basically a 2080 in terms of power draw, so I'll stick with my 660-XP2 until they release the 700w fanless. Thank you for the replies!
 
MissJ84 said:
I keep forgetting the 2070 S is basically a 2080 in terms of power draw, so I'll stick with my 660-XP2 until they release the 700w fanless. Thank you for the replies!
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Honestly shouldn't be an issue if you have decent airflow in your case.
 
mvmiller12 said:
600W is a little low, efficiency-wise. I think your PS should be able to output enough power, but under load it is going to be running hard (read: less efficiently, which means more heat and power draw from the wall). The sweet spot, power efficiency wise is for your average work load power draw to be 1/2 the PS rating, so in your case, you'd want your average draw whilst gaming (assuming that is what you plan to do) should be ~300W.
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Please do not continue spreading this BS. Sure, it is applicable to the rare situation where you're running your equipment at full tilt all the time (i.e. SETI, F@H, etc), but not for the typical home user. The typical home user should aim for a PSU that is at least 10% higher than their max theoretical load, assuming future planned upgrades keep things in the same power envelop.

Reason 1 is that most home computers spend a significant amount of their time idling. In the case where you use a PSU that's double the capacity, you are probably now down in the 5-10% load range while idling, where PSUs are extremely inefficient. Reason 2 is that gaming does not max out a system in terms of power draw; typically, they max out around 80% in the most demanding of games (few exceptions here and there) and can be as low as 50%. Reason 3 is that most modern PSUs have a very flat efficiency curve from 25% up. The efficiency loss from 50% to 100% is normally around 2%. For a 600 watt system, this translates to a maximum theoretical loss of a whopping 12 watts. 12 watts is insignificant, especially when comparing the price between a 600 watt PSU and 1200 watt PSU.

Of course, if you are able to get a higher capacity PSU of the same quality for the same/better price, it doesn't hurt to get the higher capacity PSU.

3700x- 80 watts for the CPU.
Motherboard- Generous 100 watts (typically around 50)
2070 Super- 244 watts peak (Furmark- TPU measured)
Everything else (fans and hard drives)- 50 watts
Total: 474 watts

Recommended minimum: 550 watt PSU.
 
Tsumi said:
Please do not continue spreading this BS. Sure, it is applicable to the rare situation where you're running your equipment at full tilt all the time (i.e. SETI, F@H, etc), but not for the typical home user. The typical home user should aim for a PSU that is at least 10% higher than their max theoretical load, assuming future planned upgrades keep things in the same power envelop.

Reason 1 is that most home computers spend a significant amount of their time idling. In the case where you use a PSU that's double the capacity, you are probably now down in the 5-10% load range while idling, where PSUs are extremely inefficient. Reason 2 is that gaming does not max out a system in terms of power draw; typically, they max out around 80% in the most demanding of games (few exceptions here and there) and can be as low as 50%. Reason 3 is that most modern PSUs have a very flat efficiency curve from 25% up. The efficiency loss from 50% to 100% is normally around 2%. For a 600 watt system, this translates to a maximum theoretical loss of a whopping 12 watts. 12 watts is insignificant, especially when comparing the price between a 600 watt PSU and 1200 watt PSU.

Of course, if you are able to get a higher capacity PSU of the same quality for the same/better price, it doesn't hurt to get the higher capacity PSU.

3700x- 80 watts for the CPU.
Motherboard- Generous 100 watts (typically around 50)
2070 Super- 244 watts peak (Furmark- TPU measured)
Everything else (fans and hard drives)- 50 watts
Total: 474 watts

Recommended minimum: 550 watt PSU.
Click to expand...

I suggest you re-read what I actually said again. I specifically said double the user's average load. If your average load is low because you are just browsing the web or it is sitting idle, than that is the base you start with. So long as your maximum draw at full load does not exceed the power supply limits, you are good.
 
mvmiller12 said:
I suggest you re-read what I actually said again. I specifically said double the user's average load. If your average load is low because you are just browsing the web or it is sitting idle, than that is the base you start with. So long as your maximum draw at full load does not exceed the power supply limits, you are good.
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Which is also completely illogical. A theoretical 600 watt max load computer that spends 50% of its time idling (idle power draw of around 100 watts) will have an average load 350 watts. That will land you in the 400 watt PSU range, which would be completely underpowered for the computer. Of course you put that caveat at the end, but it would be far simpler, for the average home user, to just plan for a PSU that is at least 10% above their max theoretical load and not confuse them with the 50% load myth BS.
 
mvmiller12 said:
600W is a little low, efficiency-wise. I think your PS should be able to output enough power, but under load it is going to be running hard (read: less efficiently, which means more heat and power draw from the wall). The sweet spot, power efficiency wise is for your average work load power draw to be 1/2 the PS rating, so in your case, you'd want your average draw whilst gaming (assuming that is what you plan to do) should be ~300W.
Click to expand...
This was true back in like 2005 but power supplies made now have basically flat efficiency curves. Get a PSU that fits in your power consumption target and you'll be fine.
 
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