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Is 550 watts power supply good enough to run AMD Phenom IIx6 or Intel I7 cpus?

LittlestuartLittlestuart Member Posts: 36

I am currently using a intel dual core and going to upgrade my pc tomorrow. I am kind of on budget here so all i can afford is a motherbpd+cpu maybe a cheap heatsink if possible.

Is Corsair 550 watts sufficent for new set up? my graphic card is ATI 5770.

Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    A Corsair VX 550 is overkill for what you describe unless you're going for a crazy overclock.  Depending on what processor you get, it will have a TDP of 95 W, 125 W, or 130 W.  The video card has a TDP of 108 W.  Add those together plus some more for everything else in your system and it's unlikely that you'll ever pull 300 W from the power supply.  A Corsair VX 550 offers 492 W on the +12 V rail, which is overkill for your needs.  A good quality 400 W power supply would be plenty unless you're overclocking or planning on future upgrades to more power-hungry parts.

  • LittlestuartLittlestuart Member Posts: 36

    Originally posted by Quizzical

    A Corsair VX 550 is overkill for what you describe unless you're going for a crazy overclock.  Depending on what processor you get, it will have a TDP of 95 W, 125 W, or 130 W.  The video card has a TDP of 108 W.  Add those together plus some more for everything else in your system and it's unlikely that you'll ever pull 300 W from the power supply.  A Corsair VX 550 offers 492 W on the +12 V rail, which is overkill for your needs.  A good quality 400 W power supply would be plenty unless you're overclocking or planning on future upgrades to more power-hungry parts.

    I have no idea about TDP, but mostly likely i will go with Amd phenom IIx6 1075T which is 135 watts, is that TDP?

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103858&cm_re=amd_phenom_IIx6-_-19-103-858-_-Product

    Also i plan to get ATI 5870 but not untill Feb or march. Maybe then i need to upgrade my power supply?

  • MehveMehve Member Posts: 487

    With a single card, even a 5870, that PSU will still handle things just fine.

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  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Yes, 125 W is the TDP.  TDP = Thermal Design Power, meaning that the CPU and stock heatsink/fan is designed to be able to safely dissipate up to 125 W.  Realistically, it tends to overestimate real-world power usage even under fairly heavy loads, but overestimating a bit isn't such a bad thing when picking a power supply.

    If you're going to buy a new video card in a few months, you probably don't want to make it a Radeon HD 5870.  AMD has a new architecture, Northern Islands, coming.  The first GPU based on it, Barts, should launch in a couple of weeks.  The high end GPU, Cayman, should launch about a month later.  Both should be widely available by the time you buy your new video card.  A Corsair VX 550 would be an appropriate power supply if you're getting a high end single GPU video card for your new system.  Well, maybe not a GeForce GTX 480, but I doubt that AMD will release a single GPU power hog like that, since they're planning on releasing a dual GPU card, code named Antilles, and if one GPU takes 300 W, you're not going to fit two of them under a 300 W cap.

    Then again, if you're waiting anyway, you might want to wait for Sandy Bridge, too.  Intel is launching a new processor architecture in January.  Pricing is unknown for now, but Intel is launching the mid-range parts first, intended to replace Lynnfield and Clarkdale.  That will probably expand Intel's architecture advantage over AMD to the point that the only reason to buy an AMD processor for a gaming desktop will be because you need something cheap (i.e., under $250 for the CPU and motherboard added together).  AMD should catch up with Bulldozer later on in 2011.

  • LittlestuartLittlestuart Member Posts: 36

    Thanks a lot. Very helpful information ;)

    I had no idea that ATI was releasing new graphic cards. Thats great news and worth waiting till Feburary. And yes you are right i do prefer AMD cpus because they are cost effective. 6 cores under 300 bucks? i am sold. I was going to spend 100 bucks on new power supply, i am glad i posted here first.

    Thanks again.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Right now, you can make a case for a Phenom II X4 965 over a Core i5 760 on the case that you save $50 on the processor, another $20 or so on the motherboard, and get a better chipset from AMD, but still get comparable performance.  The Core i5 760 wins at purely single threaded performance, uses less power, and has more overclocking headroom, so it really is a better processor, but not necessarily $70 worth of better.

    But with the launch of Sandy Bridge, that changes.  A Phenom II X4 965 won't be comparable to a Core i5 2500; the latter might well be 30%-50% faster.  A Phenom II X6 isn't such an improvement over the Phenom II X4 unless you're running programs that can push six cores, which you probably aren't.  Games surely can't, and probably won't be able to until it's time to replace the machine anyway.

    -----

    Just to make sure, you've got a Corsair VX 550, and not some old power supply that is long since off the market and happened to also be rated at 550 W, I hope?

  • thecrapthecrap Member Posts: 433

    You are boarder line ok with 550 since its corsair but i do suggest getting the 600+ of corsair 

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    A good quality power supply rated at 492 W on the +12 V rail is not "borderline" for a system that will likely never draw 300 W from it and almost surely never draw 350 W.  That's an appropriate amount of headroom to have.  Getting way too high of a rated wattage is merely a waste of money and electricity (and hence more money).

  • ParadoxyParadoxy Member Posts: 786

    Is Corsair vx 550 really that good? i am gonna grab myself one of those.

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    To put it in a nutshell, our society is about to hit the fan, grades are dropping, obesity is going up,childhood the USA is going to lose its super power status before too long, but hey, as long as we have a cheap method to babysit our kids, all will be well no?
    Im picking on WoW btw because its the beast that made all of this possible

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Corsair's VX 550 is pretty good.  But if that's the wattage range you're after, you might want to try this, which is cheaper and arguably better:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

  • ElsaboltsElsabolts Member RarePosts: 3,476

    I was always told if your using a computer for gaming then never skimp on the power supply and case.

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  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Don't skimp on the power supply means get something of good quality.  Tight voltage regulation with little ripple is critical to feed parts the proper voltages they need to function properly.  Sufficiently bad voltage regulation can fry other parts of your system, too.  Good quality parts that are unlikely to break with the passage of time and the stress of powering up and down many times are also important.  High energy efficiency means less heat, less noise, and a lower electricity bill.  Various failsafe mechanisms to shut down the power supply in case of too much current drawn, bad voltages from the wall, or too high of temperatures are nice safety measures, too.

    But saying don't skimp on the power supply doesn't mean that you need something of absurdly high wattages.  A good quality power supply may be able to deliver 120% of its rated wattage for short periods of time, though it's not smart to try to pull that much from it.  But if you're pulling 50% of the rated wattage at typical gaming load and 70% of the rated wattage under an artificial stress test from a power supply that would probably work just fine if you pulled 100% of the rated wattage, that's perfectly safe.

    A lower end gaming computer may use 200 W at very heavy load, and getting a good quality 400 W power supply is appropriate for that.  A typical higher end gaming computer may use closer to 300 W at very heavy load, and getting a good quality 500-600 W power supply is appropriate for that.  The only gamers who need a power supply rated over 600 W are those going nuts with huge overclocks, video cards that run unreasonably hot (GTX 480), and/or CrossFire/SLI setups.

    But the "good quality" part is critical here.  A bad quality power supply isn't appropriate for any gaming computer, regardless of the rated wattage.  If you're going to pull 250 W from it, you're far better off with a good quality 500 W power supply than a bad quality 1000 W power supply.  The good power supply might be cheaper, too.

  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904

    Originally posted by Littlestuart

    I am currently using a intel dual core and going to upgrade my pc tomorrow. I am kind of on budget here so all i can afford is a motherbpd+cpu maybe a cheap heatsink if possible.

    Is Corsair 550 watts sufficent for new set up? my graphic card is ATI 5770.

     

    HD5770 is very green :) running 2 in crossfire /w 650w.

     

    Use these to calculate your power requirements.

     

    http://www.corsair.com/psufinder/default.aspx

     


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  • 190100190100 Member UncommonPosts: 52

    Originally posted by Quizzical

    Corsair's VX 550 is pretty good.  But if that's the wattage range you're after, you might want to try this, which is cheaper and arguably better:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

    I was under the impression that the majority of Corsair PSU's, were rebranded Seasonics.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    The lower wattage Corsair power supplies are mostly made by Seasonic.  A lot of their higher wattage ones are made by Channel Well.  But not all power supplies made by a given company are the same, just like not all video cards made by a given company are the same.

    For example, this power supply is a lot nicer than the one I linked earlier, even at near the same wattage:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151098

    The energy efficiency is a lot higher.  It's fully modular, so you can have any cables you don't need out of your case entirely.  At low loads, the fan will shut off entirely to make the power supply completely silent without overheating (which is only possible because of the very high energy efficiency).

    And it costs a lot more, too.  That degree of quality is overkill for most gaming machines, but there are some reasons why people might want it:

    1)  An extreme aversion to noise.  Liquid cooling a lot of things can help, but a lot of power supply fans would still be audible if the case fans were quieter.

    2)  A need for lower heat production when trying to cram too hot of parts into too small of a case.  Normally it's better to just get a bigger case with more fans, but a small case can be nice if you really need something portable.

    3)  Putting together the best system that you possibly can, without regard to the price tag.

    4)  Bragging rights.  Don't laugh; this is a major selling point on a lot of pointlessly high end hardware.  Unlike a "gaming" mouse pad or some of the other nuttier products out there that offer no discernible benefit, a super high end power supply will demonstrably pull less power from the wall for the same performance, among other things.

    5)  Extreme reliability demands, for the sort of person who wouldn't even think of running the computer without a good uninterruptible power supply.  This isn't good enough for mission critical servers, though; those run power supplies in something analogous to RAID, where if one power supply dies entirely, the others pick up the slack and the machine keeps running without a hiccup.

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