What size PSU for this build?

J

JJ Johnson

Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
802
Should a 500-550W PSU be sufficient for the following? No overclocking. Might add another HDD in the future.

Motherboard: ASUS P8H67-M microATX
CPU: Intel i5-2500
VideoCard: PowerColor SCS3 AX6850
Memory: 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR 1333
Sound Card: M-Audio Revolution 5.1
SSD: Samsung 830 128GB
HDD: Western Digital WD1001FALS 1TB 7200RPM
Optical Drive: ASUS DVD-RW
 
Yes a good 500W to 550W PSU will be enough.

Though some of those parts aren't exactly good bang for the buck choices.
 
Danny Bui said:
Though some of those parts aren't exactly good bang for the buck choices.
Click to expand...

Feel free to comment. :)

I have the M-Audio sound card and WD hard drive already, and may only go with 8GB RAM. I'd like a passively cooled video card, if possible. I need to drive three monitors or I might just go with the integrated graphics.
 
The Sammy SSDs are kind of overpriced in my opinion.

Yes, 500-550w should be more then enough. 400w should really be sufficent.
 
Well unfortunately that WD drive was a bad buy: It's a fairly old drive that's now been surpassed by newer drives from Samsung, Seagate, Hitachi, and even WD. In fact, it's so old, there are some 5400RPM drives out there that'll perform faster than that WD drive. Hopefully you got it for $100 or less.

CPU wise, zero reason to get the Core i5 2500 as its clock speed incraese does not justify the extra $20 over the $190 Core i5 2400.

RAM wise, make sure that the 16GB of RAM costs $80 to $85 max and runs at a voltage of 1.5V or lower. Otheriwse, it's not a good buy.

Video card wise, that Power Color HD 6850 costs way too much for the performance it offers. A similar performing card costs $73 less:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

At $208 shipped, it's not a good buy when a fairly quiet and significantly faster GTX 560 TI costs $12 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

Unless noise level trumps good value, that Powercolor SCS3 AX6850 is not a good buy.
 
What do you plan on doing with that build?

Seeing the 3 monitors part, and the single 6850 being too weak for any kind of eyefinity gaming, I'm going to assume office productivity type work. If you can wait for Ivy Bridge, it is rumored to support 3 displays simultaneously. If not, get a lower end graphics card, like the 6770, which can still support 3 displays.
 
I would go with a decent 650w unit, such as a Corsair TX650, if you want to upgrade the gpu anytime you have the headroom to do so.
 
The power supply is adequate, but if you ever plan on upgrading get a bigger one
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top