520w PSU pushing my luck?

EdGey · 30 Jun 2013 at 21:38

Hey

I plan to run the following using a Corsair HX 520w:

i7 2600k moderately overclocked
8GB 1600
2 x HDD
1 x SSD
GTX780

And all the usual extras including a few fans.

So OcUK, am I pushing my luck with that or will it be just fine?

Thanks

james_2k · 30 Jun 2013 at 21:58

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_780_sc_acx_review,7.html

should be ok. just

mickyflinn · 30 Jun 2013 at 21:58

You are looking at 400w approx draw for system and your psu is say approx 80% effiecent which doesnt leave any headroom.

Khazzer · 30 Jun 2013 at 22:16

Borderline, I would go for a good manufacturer's 600W.

Idleman · 30 Jun 2013 at 22:58

Khazzer said:
Borderline, I would go for a good manufacturer's 600W.

I would have to agree.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_780_review,9.html

EdGey · 1 Jul 2013 at 00:29

Damn. Thought it might be a close call...

Thanks

OliverDavis · 1 Jul 2013 at 02:33

mickyflinn said:
You are looking at 400w approx draw for system and your psu is say approx 80% effiecent which doesnt leave any headroom.

The efficiency is the conversion rate from AC to DC. The rating of the PSU is after the conversion. 400w draw from PSU would actually leave a 120w headroom. A 400w draw from the wall would leave 200w headroom. Not sure on how you done your math there.

mickyflinn · 1 Jul 2013 at 11:31

OliverDavis said:
The efficiency is the conversion rate from AC to DC. The rating of the PSU is after the conversion. 400w draw from PSU would actually leave a 120w headroom. A 400w draw from the wall would leave 200w headroom. Not sure on how you done your math there.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Power-Supplies/181/1

ubersonic · 1 Jul 2013 at 11:43

Should be fine, that PSU is a Seasonic and looking at the wattage involved it should be fine.

silversurfer · 1 Jul 2013 at 13:12

From what I know you would be fine certainly in windows. Ive run a i7 system on a 300w psu and it was very cheap one that came with a case however it couldnt power the graphics card at full load.

It should run and if you find its crashing in a game then you have a strong reason why. Also PSU degrade 10% each year so Im presuming its new.
The main reason to upgrade is really stability , age also maybe efficiency of power used. do you have a spare low power graphics card to test with, that'd be the main tipping factor but I suspect the 780 can idle low enough that its fine always
Stick with that then get a gold psu though I never seen a cheap one :eek:

Audigex · 1 Jul 2013 at 14:50

You're well within range - your high-end normal power usage will be in the 400W region, and you've got 520W sustainable output. Even if your power peaked over 25% from typical, you're still within the PSU's max power range, never mind it's peak wattage which is over 600W

As for the 10% PSU degrading, I've not seen any evidence for this. It may have been true 10 years ago, but solid-state capacitors and better electronics have lead to much better degradation.

As a rule, unless you're going for a very high overclock or a multi-GPU setup, 500W is more than adequate for any desktop system.

Sasahara · 1 Jul 2013 at 22:59

mickyflinn said:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Power-Supplies/181/1

Was there something specific in that link you referring to in that vague post?

Sasahara · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:15

Given that the 3D Guru link showed 349 W usage from the wall on an i7-3960X @ 4.6 Ghz, GPU Maxed, not CPU.

PSU used AX1200i, so assuming 90% efficient, that's only 315 W output.

So yeah, you will struggle to exceed 400 W output on your system with a GTX 780.

My system hasn't exceeded 360 W from the wall, loading CPU and GPU, GTX 780 is rated around 80 W higher than my GTX 670.

There aren't that may instances when you'd max out the GPU and CPU at the same time, normally mine is below 300 W from the wall.

Corsair HX 520w should be fine.