Will this PSU be sufficient for the build?

star78

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Jul 21, 2016
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My build is:

GPU - GTX 1070
CPU - Intel Core i5-6500
RAM - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 8GB 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-H110M-A
SSD - Pny CS1311 120GB 2.5 Sata 3 6 Gbps
PSU - EVGA 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V/EPS12V Power Supply, 100-W1-0500-KR
Case - TT VERSA H22 (CA-1B3-00M1NN) MID BLK CSE

Will the PSU be enough to power the system? Thanks for your help!
 
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Yes that would be sufficient. Would not leave too much for overclocking if you ever tried with a k variant cpu.
 
it would probably be enough but not sure why people cut it so close spend alittle more and leave some overhead.you can get an evga 750 watt for like 90 bucks on newegg
 
it would probably be enough but not sure why people cut it so close spend alittle more and leave some overhead.you can get an evga 750 watt for like 90 bucks on newegg

1. It is not cutting it close. 1070 is 160 watts, i5 is about 70 watts, system is 50 watts, it is a less than 300 watt system, well below the 500 watt capacity. Even with an overclock on the 1070, it would barely break 300 watts.

2. The EVGA 500 watt is under $40. You're saying spend more than double for a PSU that wouldn't benefit the OP in any way. Not everyone can treat $90 like it is nothing.
 
1. It is not cutting it close. 1070 is 160 watts, i5 is about 70 watts, system is 50 watts, it is a less than 300 watt system, well below the 500 watt capacity. Even with an overclock on the 1070, it would barely break 300 watts.

2. The EVGA 500 watt is under $40. You're saying spend more than double for a PSU that wouldn't benefit the OP in any way. Not everyone can treat $90 like it is nothing.

This, a thousand times. There is no benefit to going overkill, unless you view higher cost and reduced efficiency to be benefits.
 
I always try and get a PSU that is around DOUBLE the wattage my system will use as I have found that 1) I frequenty reuse PSUs in future builds and 2) the power supply efficiency curve is always highest around 50%. I use a few different online power supply calculators just to see if all give the same general expected wattage needed. For your potential build, I went to the MSI and EVGA power supply calculator sites and here is what I got..

MSI has your build needing 246 watts although it didn't have an SSD option, only HDD so most likely with an SSD, 230 or so watts as MSI has a HDD using 25 watts.

EVGA doesn't give a wattage figure but gives recommended EVGA power supplies.. it recommended PSUs between 400 and 550 watts.

Things have come a long way from my 1993 Gateway 2000 486/33MHz having a 145 watt PSU!!

image.png
 
and 2) the power supply efficiency curve is always highest around 50%.

This is a partial fallacy. Those graphs usually start at a high number (zoomed in curve), so 50% load looks like it's MUCH more efficient than 20%/80% loads, but it's usually 1-3% difference. For Example

Load (rounded to nearest 10) - Efficiency
10% - 84.3%
20% - 88.9%
50% - 90.5%
80% - 89.6%
100% - 88.1%

Example 2:
Load (rounded to nearest 10) - Efficiency
10% - 93.1%
20% - 94.4%
50% - 94.0%
80% - 92.8%
100% - 91.7%


PSU lose efficiency somewhere below 20% (second one didn't). From 20% to full load they have a relatively flat curve. That's true of pretty much every modern high quality PSU. Now, if you're buying a low-end PSU, then yes, aim for double the wattage. But that's less to do with efficiency and more to do with the actual load that the PSU can handle.
 
I always try and get a PSU that is around DOUBLE the wattage my system will use as I have found that 1) I frequenty reuse PSUs in future builds and 2) the power supply efficiency curve is always highest around 50%. I use a few different online power supply calculators just to see if all give the same general expected wattage needed. For your potential build, I went to the MSI and EVGA power supply calculator sites and here is what I got..

MSI has your build needing 246 watts although it didn't have an SSD option, only HDD so most likely with an SSD, 230 or so watts as MSI has a HDD using 25 watts.

EVGA doesn't give a wattage figure but gives recommended EVGA power supplies.. it recommended PSUs between 400 and 550 watts.

Things have come a long way from my 1993 Gateway 2000 486/33MHz having a 145 watt PSU!!

image.png

1. Are your systems drastically different from your previous systems in terms of power requirements? If you're like most people, they stay within a similar power range when they upgrade, so getting double size is moot. 100-200 watts over, sure. Not double.

2. Your computer is never operating at 100% unless you're running something like folding@home or SETI on the GPU and CPU. Most games will tax your computer at anywhere from 40% to 80%, depending on system configuration and game. At idle you're at about 20%. If you buy double your power requirement, you're idling at about 10%, where PSUs are notoriously inefficient.
 
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