smallest psu i can use?

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Ruckus

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lets say im building an i5 system,
i5 2500 or 2400
motherboard with onboard vid (hdmi), onboard wifi
8GB ddr3
1 60gb ssd (os drive windows 7 pro probably)
1 2.5" 250GB laptop HD (movie\music storage)
1 blueray/dvd-r drive

whats the smallest psu i can get away with? Im asking because im looking at smaller cases to use in my bedroom on my TV set and a lot of these cases come with 300 watt psus which coming from an e8400 system with dual vids seems small.
 
Ruckus said:
lets say im building an i5 system,
i5 2500 or 2400
motherboard with onboard vid (hdmi), onboard wifi
8GB ddr3
1 60gb ssd (os drive windows 7 pro probably)
1 2.5" 250GB laptop HD (movie\music storage)
1 blueray/dvd-r drive

whats the smallest psu i can get away with? Im asking because im looking at smaller cases to use in my bedroom on my TV set and a lot of these cases come with 300 watt psus which coming from an e8400 system with dual vids seems small.
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The 300W PS would work but I would make sure its a quality one. I dont know
what case w/ps that you are looking at.
 
Hagrid said:
The 300W PS would work but I would make sure its a quality one. I dont know
what case w/ps that you are looking at.
Click to expand...

haven't really made a decision yet, just looking at the htpc cases out there guess until i make a decision on the motherboard (micro atx or mini itx) that will determine the case. trying to keep everything semi cheap, so case/psu combos under $100 caught my eye.
 
Ive been running a lot more than that on a 350 for about 5 years now. My system is a dell core 2 quad q6600 @2.4ghz with an nvidia 9600gt PCIe videocard , 6gb ram, blue ray burner, 1 500gb 7200rpm hard drive, onboard nic and pci gigabit ethernet nic

5 years, stable, no problems.
 
Maybe a bit over your price range, but this is one of the best small/fully modular SFX psu's on the market right now.



Chopped, your system has much more than his does, and he is running on board video, not a 175w (or whatever a 9600gt is) gpu. 450w is more than enough (OP could get away with a 670 with this setup if he wanted to as well.
 
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yeah, I dont really game, overclock, or anything like that anymore and this is more of a facebook and movies on my bedroom tv type system. thats why im trying to keep it cheap. I have 4 full computers in an office in my house for work and my band stuff, this is more for my downloadables(movies/music) and the wife's FB addictions LOL. Excuse my ignorance on this subject but whats a 670?
 
Ruckus said:
yeah, I dont really game, overclock, or anything like that anymore and this is more of a facebook and movies on my bedroom tv type system. thats why im trying to keep it cheap. I have 4 full computers in an office in my house for work and my band stuff, this is more for my downloadables(movies/music) and the wife's FB addictions LOL. Excuse my ignorance on this subject but whats a 670?
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An Nvidia video card. I think they thought you might want to game on it instead of the built-in video.
 
nah, only games i play are on my iphone or facebook really. I dont have much time to play games.
 
Basically just make sure its a quality PSU and you will be fine with the 300W.
Since you are not going to OC or put in a discrete video card.

And really if its just for watching movies and FB, an i3 would work fine too.

Were you looking into htpc cases and/or even towers also?
 
as others have stated i think you could easily get away with a 300 watt psu
 
I have almost the same build except it's an i3 (20w less) and it runs fine on a Pico 150W PSU.
 
A quality 250watt or 300watt. Considering you're not using a graphic card then you should have plenty of power with either of these. I know that my HP has a 250 watt and runs an i5 with a sapphire 7750 gpu
 
Hagrid said:
The 300W PS would work but I would make sure its a quality one. I dont know
what case w/ps that you are looking at.
Click to expand...


wow havent used a 300 watt in AGES, NOT A GOOD RECOMMENDATION

you dont want your power supply to run at more than an ideal load of 50%

these days 500 watt bare minimum.

It goes without saying buy QUALITY POWER SUPPLY

dont skimp and get more power than you think you need.

you shouldnt be trying to skimp with the absolute bare minimum you can get by with.
 
conghelach said:
wow havent used a 300 watt in AGES, NOT A GOOD RECOMMENDATION

you dont want your power supply to run at more than an ideal load of 50%

these days 500 watt bare minimum.

It goes without saying buy QUALITY POWER SUPPLY

dont skimp and get more power than you think you need.

you shouldnt be trying to skimp with the absolute bare minimum you can get by with.
Click to expand...

Terrible advice, and should be ignored. The 50% myth has been debunked several times over.

500w is good for a Hexcore and a GTX680 now. This guy is running a Quad that at WORST pulls 125w, and then he has negligible load from the remainder of his system. He's going to pull 150w maxed out.

Suggesting 500w is akin to using his money as toilet paper. It's just fucking stupid.
 
On a VP-450 I'm running a 2500K, H61 board, 2x4GB 1600, 6950 IceQ X Turbo 2GB, 2 platter HDD, 1 SSD, 1 burner, 4 fans.

You can probably get away with 300 fairly easily using onboard video.
Keep in mind though most of those "bundled" PSUs are garbage....if I were you I'd spend a little towards a CX430 or a VP-450 just to be on the safe side. You can get CX430's for <$20 after rebate and I got my VP-450 for just over $30.
 
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Jorona said:
Terrible advice, and should be ignored. The 50% myth has been debunked several times over.

500w is good for a Hexcore and a GTX680 now. This guy is running a Quad that at WORST pulls 125w, and then he has negligible load from the remainder of his system. He's going to pull 150w maxed out.

Suggesting 500w is akin to using his money as toilet paper. It's just fucking stupid.
Click to expand...


what decade are you in???
seen prices of power supplies lately???

a good power supply purchase does not solely bear in mind todays needs but leaves plenty of room for tomorrows needs.

ever heard the proverb penny wise pound foolish???

put that in your pipe and smoke it bro
 
conghelach said:
what decade are you in???
seen prices of power supplies lately???

a good power supply purchase does not solely bear in mind todays needs but leaves plenty of room for tomorrows needs.

ever heard the proverb penny wise pound foolish???

put that in your pipe and smoke it bro
Click to expand...

The OP stated this is a movie/music system thats going in a small case.

If he had said I am going to play games on this too, then he would of asked for a video card, and the people suggesting a bit bigger PS might be right.

He only needs a quality 300w, and that will give him more then he needs already.

The OP also stated he was looking for a case/PS for under 100, though I am sure he could go over a bit, if he needs too.
 
Hagrid said:
The OP stated this is a movie/music system thats going in a small case.

If he had said I am going to play games on this too, then he would of asked for a video card, and the people suggesting a bit bigger PS might be right.

He only needs a quality 300w, and that will give him more then he needs already.

The OP also stated he was looking for a case/PS for under 100, though I am sure he could go over a bit, if he needs too.
Click to expand...

my bad
 
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