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Is my PSU good enough?

R

ringoffire

n00b
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
4
I have a 2.5 year old Antec true power trio 550w.

I recently upgraded my system and I am uncertain as to how far I can overclock without risking my power supply.

I am running a GTX 260, Q6600 G0, 2x2gb ddr2, 1 7200rpm hard drive, 1 74gb raptor, 4 80mm fans on my case. CPU has a xigmatek rifle cooler. Also have an x-fi FPS and one dvdrw drive.

It runs fine, but I want to push things as far as I can on OC, and I am worried about overloading the PSU. Id like to push the Q6600 to around 3.5ghz, and Id like to push the GTX 260 to around 650-700mhz core and 2.6ghz plus on memory.

Is it safe to OC to those levels on both the CPU and graphics, or am I risking my power supply?
 
Thats pushing it for a 2.5yr old 550W, especially if its already been pushed hard (max output drops the more it is used, so its easier to push hard).
If not overclocking hard I'd say it would be ok.
ie if not raising voltages much, you should get another good year out of the PC without worry.

As a power hardware user, dont look to get anything more than 3 years from a PSU unless it is one of the more recent models with 10 year warranty (ie they have solid state caps)
 
Nenu said:
unless it is one of the more recent models with 10 year warranty (ie they have solid state caps)
Click to expand...
Very few quality PSUs have any solid-state caps, and in general they make practically no difference. PSUs still use electrolytic caps almost exclusively.
 
ringoffire said:
I have a 2.5 year old Antec true power trio 550w.

I recently upgraded my system and I am uncertain as to how far I can overclock without risking my power supply.

I am running a GTX 260, Q6600 G0, 2x2gb ddr2, 1 7200rpm hard drive, 1 74gb raptor, 4 80mm fans on my case. CPU has a xigmatek rifle cooler. Also have an x-fi FPS and one dvdrw drive.

It runs fine, but I want to push things as far as I can on OC, and I am worried about overloading the PSU. Id like to push the Q6600 to around 3.5ghz, and Id like to push the GTX 260 to around 650-700mhz core and 2.6ghz plus on memory.

Is it safe to OC to those levels on both the CPU and graphics, or am I risking my power supply?
Click to expand...
You should be fine. Contrary to what the previous poster may be implying, power supplies don't really decline perceptibly in performance and power delivery over time. Certainly not 2.5 years.

Your power supply wattage is a little lower than most enthusiasts would choose when building a new system, but it should be plenty of power. There is a chance your 12V rail could be weak, but hard to say for sure.

I would overclock and try it. The worst you'll likely do is burn out your power supply, I would have little to no fear of over drawing on an Antec like that of damaging any components if it did fail. I've had numerous Deer, Allied, etc crappy supplies fail and never hurt system components. If it fails, then you know you needed to upgrade ;-) if it works fine for you, then you saved a chunk of money.
 
It has three 12v rails each with 18 amps, so I doubt itd be weak in that department unless they degrade significantly?

As long as it wont damage my other components, I am not afraid to risk blowing it.
 
ringoffire said:
It has three 12v rails each with 18 amps, so I doubt itd be weak in that department unless they degrade significantly?
Click to expand...

The number of rails and how much amps there isn't big of a factor.
 
So when decent quality power supplies blow they dont take other components with them? I am willing to risk it as long as theres no real danger to the rest of my parts?
 
ringoffire said:
So when decent quality power supplies blow they dont take other components with them?
Click to expand...
Ideally, yes. In practice, not always. However, the chance of a quality PSU taking other components with it is much lower than the chance of a crappy PSU doing the same.
 
Zero82z said:
Ideally, yes. In practice, not always. However, the chance of a quality PSU taking other components with it is much lower than the chance of a crappy PSU doing the same.
Click to expand...

QFT. There are some cases where a quality PSU will take out a system. However, as Zero82z said, that happens significantly more with low quality PSUs.
 
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