430 watt with geforce 260 216?

J

Jared701

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 9, 2002
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My parents old computer died and I ordered parts for them for a new build. Their new power supply which I was simply counting on one dvd drive, i3 2100 cpu, 1 stick of ram and integrated graphics from the cpu at stock is thermaltake 430 watt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

I've read that the 260 geforce requires a 500 watt power supply but wondering with this few of components and the new sandy bridge processors requiring almost no power if this may be enough.

3 80 mm case fans, 1 dvd rw drive, 1 stick of 4 gigs of ram, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130588 is the mb
and i3 2100 cpu at stock
 
I just reread that page on the power supply and it's saying simply 65% efficient. It's also much louder than I was expecting so have been considering RMAing it due to noise and getting something quieter and if I do, more efficient the next time. I have the video card just sitting here is why I was considering sticking it in their computer.
 
According to wikipedia.org, the TDP on that card is 171 watts, so I would go with at least a 500W power supply. Personally, I have that card and I went with a 650W unit, but I also had a very thirsty CPU (125W).
 
Red Shirt said:
According to wikipedia.org, the TDP on that card is 171 watts, so I would go with at least a 500W power supply. Personally, I have that card and I went with a 650W unit, but I also had a very thirsty CPU (125W).
Click to expand...
The TDP does not reflect actual power consumption. A good 380W or 430W unit is enough for this PC.
 
Zero82z said:
A good 430W PSU would be enough. However, that Thermaltake PSU is pretty shitty, and I would not trust it for that purpose. I recommend one of these units as an inexpensive replacement:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139017
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I agree. That Thermaltake TR2 430W (in its current revision) is a low-grade PSU itself - and it's made by HEC, one of the not-so-good manufacturers, to boot. And one of the signs of a crappy-at-best PSU such as that one is the lack of a stated combined +12V capacity. It has one +12V "rail" of 14A and another +12V "rail" of 15A, with the common output source capacity unknown. Using the formula of adding 60% of the lesser "rail" to attain a ballpark combined +12V capacity figure, that TR2 430W has a combined +12V capacity of only 22A (or 264W) - and that's if it could even deliver anywhere near its rated 430W. That's well short of the capacity of other "good" 430W units such as the Antec EarthWatts EA430D Green (which has a combined +12V capacity of 32A, or 384W) or even that of the 380W Antec EarthWatts EA380D Green (28A / 336W). Unfortunately, the W0070RU's very-low-end HEC platform has shown to have failed to provide even 300W, let alone 430W, under realistic operating conditions. At least most Thermaltake PSUs will cut themselves off in case of such an overload (such as too powerful of a GPU for the PSU in question) rather than exploding; thus, the PSU would have sacrificed itself to save the other components.
 
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E4g1e said:
I agree. That Thermaltake TR2 430W (in its current revision) is a low-grade PSU itself - and it's made by HEC, one of the not-so-good manufacturers, to boot. And one of the signs of a crappy-at-best PSU such as that one is the lack of a stated combined +12V capacity. It has one +12V "rail" of 14A and another +12V "rail" of 15A, with the common output source capacity unknown. Using the formula of adding 60% of the lesser "rail" to attain a ballpark combined +12V capacity figure, that TR2 430W has a combined +12V capacity of only 22A (or 264W) - and that's if it could even deliver anywhere near its rated 430W. That's well short of the capacity of other "good" 430W units such as the Antec EarthWatts EA430D Green (which has a combined +12V capacity of 32A, or 384W) or even that of the 380W Antec EarthWatts EA380D Green (28A / 336W). Unfortunately, the W0070RU's very-low-end HEC platform has shown to have failed to provide even 300W, let alone 430W, under realistic operating conditions. At least most Thermaltake PSUs will cut themselves off in case of such an overload (such as too powerful of a GPU for the PSU in question) rather than exploding; thus, the PSU would have sacrificed itself to save the other components.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions and comments everyone. After reading that and doing some research on the green power supplies I found out that the Neo line should apparently be quieter than the green series due to the larger size of the fan (from the research I've done at least this seems true). With sound being one of the priorities here I decided to go with this power supply. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030 It may be slightly overkill for their system but it wasn't much more expensive than the others and is at least as efficient and hopefully quieter.
 
That was a good choice. More power than you need, but it certainly doesn't hurt, and for that price you can't complain.
 
a good 430 watt psu is really enough.

a 65% efficiency is actuallly worrying me.
 
Yep a good 430w is way more than enough for a normal system with a gtx 260, you'd figure about 300w under load at max. Unfortunately like mentioned, that thermaltake is NOT good. The Neo Eco is good and so is Earthwatts and a number of other budget psus. I think I prefer neo eco also though.
 
There is going to be a StealthxStream 2 500 watt sale today for ~$20 at Newegg AR. From what I've heard, the StealthxStream 2 are fairly decent, nothing spectacular, but will do the job.
 
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