Which PSU for new build?

akira181

akira181

akira181

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I'm currently running a Gigabyte GA-870A, AMD Athlon X3 440, 8GB DDR3, AMD Radeon 6800, and a Corsair HX 450W. Bought most of it in 2009/2010 and it was already relatively old by then. Totally ancient by today's standards. I got a legit copy of Windows 10, a Dell Ultrasharp U2311H monitor, and a USB3 Wifi adapter that are probably the only things that'll still be usable.

Use is mainly light gaming (decent quality preferably but don't need ultra high def/fps) and some CAD work. Generally something that just works and is responsive. Anything in the current midrange will be a vast improvement on what I have now so hopefully a budget of £600 to £700 will be sufficient, although I'd prefer it to be at the lower end.

This is what I've spec'd so far, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
  • Ryzen 5 1600 (will use the stock heatsink)
  • ASrock a320m Pro 4 (cheapest 4xDIMM AM4 board I could see)
  • Corsair Vengance LPX 2400 2x4GB (will get another 2x4gb sticks if it turns out I need more)
  • 256 WD Black M.2 NVMe (willing to spend a little more for NVMe to make the OS faster)
  • 1TB Seagate ST1000 SSHD (for storage. Debating if I need a hybrid drive or if a standard will do)
  • A full size 1050ti of some sort (don't know why but don't like mini cards. Plan to upgrade to a 1080ti when prices drop to reasonable levels or if the 1050ti begins to struggle)
  • cheapest case that will fit everything (don't care how it looks)

Main thing I'm struggling with is the PSU. The online calculators tell me I'd need a 650W PSU (for when I get the 1080ti) but I don't know which one to choose that won't blow my budget.

Any suggestions on a PSU or any parts that I should swap out?

thanks in advance!
 
akira181 said:
I'm currently running a Gigabyte GA-870A, AMD Athlon X3 440, 8GB DDR3, AMD Radeon 6800, and a Corsair HX 450W. Bought most of it in 2009/2010 and it was already relatively old by then. Totally ancient by today's standards. I got a legit copy of Windows 10, a Dell Ultrasharp U2311H monitor, and a USB3 Wifi adapter that are probably the only things that'll still be usable.

Use is mainly light gaming (decent quality preferably but don't need ultra high def/fps) and some CAD work. Generally something that just works and is responsive. Anything in the current midrange will be a vast improvement on what I have now so hopefully a budget of £600 to £700 will be sufficient, although I'd prefer it to be at the lower end.

This is what I've spec'd so far, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
  • Ryzen 5 1600 (will use the stock heatsink)
  • ASrock a320m Pro 4 (cheapest 4xDIMM AM4 board I could see)
  • Corsair Vengance LPX 2400 2x4GB (will get another 2x4gb sticks if it turns out I need more)
  • 256 WD Black M.2 NVMe (willing to spend a little more for NVMe to make the OS faster)
  • 1TB Seagate ST1000 SSHD (for storage. Debating if I need a hybrid drive or if a standard will do)
  • A full size 1050ti of some sort (don't know why but don't like mini cards. Plan to upgrade to a 1080ti when prices drop to reasonable levels or if the 1050ti begins to struggle)
  • cheapest case that will fit everything (don't care how it looks)

Main thing I'm struggling with is the PSU. The online calculators tell me I'd need a 650W PSU (for when I get the 1080ti) but I don't know which one to choose that won't blow my budget.

Any suggestions on a PSU or any parts that I should swap out?

thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
If you're set on Ryzen, then I'd recommend waiting the few weeks for Ryzen+ (Ryzen 2nd gen) to launch. Should offer 5-10% more performance for only slightly more money.

Apart from that, I've linked some faster (Samsung B-die based) RAM as Ryzen benefits hugely from higher speeds and low latency, which Samsung B-die offers. 2400mhz wouldn't get the most out of Ryzen, even for casual gaming, and modern games often exceed 8GB (as could CAD). A motherboard upgrade may also be needed for this (B450).

I've also linked a very good 650w PSU which is currently discounted (as is the RAM actually).



My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £260.48 (includes shipping: £10.50)



Or, if you prefer to stick more to original spec and forego the RAM upgrade:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £725.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​
 
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b]My basket at Overclockers UK:[/b]
Total: £647.99 (includes shipping: £11.10)


B350 board over A320 so you can overclock the cpu to make most of Ryzen
3000/3200 ram again to make the most of ryzen as it likes fast ram, 2400 will hurt performance

Got the budget, 2600 ryzen will be great ! But x470 boards will cost more :(​
 
thanks for the detailed answers folks, never knew you could link your basket to a forum post, very nifty! They're really close to my budget, think I might actually be able to pull this off with your help!

I'm not particularly tied to using Ryzen, I just figured it would give me best performance for the price. If Ryzen+ is coming out soon, I'll definitely wait. Lasted this long with my current rig, what's a few more weeks. I'm not keen on the Bitfenix PSU as I've never heard of them and the last unknown PSU I bought took half my PC with it when it popped. Plus it's only 450W, which would be undersized if I make the jump to a 1080ti according to online PSU calculators. I've never actually checked my RAM usage when doing CAD, I've just assumed all my hardware was struggling. Will definitely check that tomorrow, good tip!

Do mini gfx cards perform the same as their full sized counterparts? Is the board upgrade purely for overclocking reasons or is it a compatibility thing?

My basket at Overclockers UK: (Subject to change :))
Total: £630.04 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​
 
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akira181 said:
Ryzen+
Click to expand...
this is going to be launched with x470 boards. b450 boards arent going to be launched until a couple months later.
price differential between 1600+b350 and 2600+x470 likely to be >£100.
performance differential estimated between 3% for single core to 10-15% for multicore. worth the extra outlay? dunno...wait till next week and we'll know ;)
suggest wait and see - 1600+b350 may have sales when ryzen 2 series launches next week (or it may not :p)

akira181 said:
1 x Asrock A320M Pro4 AMD A320 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £64.99 (board upgrade req?)
Click to expand...
lousy platform. better to get a b350 board instead

akira181 said:
1 x WD Black 256GB M.2 2280 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS256G1X0C)= £104.99 (only item I found notably cheaper elsewhere, sorry OC :()
Click to expand...
lousy SSD. although this is in m.2 form factor, it is still a sata3 ssd, so still limited to 500MB/s transfer rates. and WD black performance pales in comparison to samsung 850 evo.

akira181 said:
I'm not keen on the Bitfenix PSU as I've never heard of them
Click to expand...
it's not the brand that matters, it's the OEM of the PSU that's more telling.
see the review (750w version but all made by the same OEM) from jonnyguru - one of the most respected PSU testers around: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=535
 
tamzzy said:
this is going to be launched with x470 boards. b450 boards arent going to be launched until a couple months later.
price differential between 1600+b350 and 2600+x470 likely to be >£100.
performance differential estimated between 3% for single core to 10-15% for multicore. worth the extra outlay? dunno...wait till next week and we'll know ;)
suggest wait and see - 1600+b350 may have sales when ryzen 2 series launches next week (or it may not :p)
Click to expand...
you're probably right that it'll be >£100, which would blow my budget. Anything is going to be better than my current rig, don't think I'll miss the 3%-15%. Will chance my luck and wait to see if there's a bundle deal or something.

tamzzy said:
lousy SSD. although this is in m.2 form factor, it is still a sata3 ssd, so still limited to 500MB/s transfer rates. and WD black performance pales in comparison to samsung 850 evo.
Click to expand...
really? The description claims a sequential read speed of 2050MB/s and write speed 700MB/s. This garbage? Didn't think WD would inflate their figures to fictitious levels.

tamzzy said:
it's not the brand that matters, it's the OEM of the PSU that's more telling.
see the review (750w version but all made by the same OEM) from jonnyguru - one of the most respected PSU testers around: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=535
Click to expand...

So lost on the world of PC parts now. Used to have a small idea of what I was doing, not so much anymore :( 450W would still be too small for a 1080ti or is 650W overkill?
 
WD Black isnt a bad NVMe - but when you can have 480GB from Team Group for £100... its a no brainer- storage space over speed if your a gaming . unless like this thread - a NVMe drive isn't fast enough and need it in raid! haha

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...amount-of-mobile-mapping-data.18814242/page-2

honestly would get the larger Drive to Install OS/ CAD program and any games - then HDD for cad storage and less key games .

dont forget when formatting, you lose 10-15GB of your disk so thats 25GB drive would actually appaer 240GB odd before you install windows at 20-40GB

Recommend for gtx 1080ti is 650w but a solid quality 600w can run it fine . gtx 1060 = 450/400w
 
orbitalwalsh said:
WD Black isnt a bad NVMe - but when you can have 480GB from Team Group for £100... its a no brainer- storage space over speed if your a gaming . unless like this thread - a NVMe drive isn't fast enough and need it in raid! haha

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/t...amount-of-mobile-mapping-data.18814242/page-2

honestly would get the larger Drive to Install OS/ CAD program and any games - then HDD for cad storage and less key games .

dont forget when formatting, you lose 10-15GB of your disk so thats 25GB drive would actually appaer 240GB odd before you install windows at 20-40GB

Recommend for gtx 1080ti is 650w but a solid quality 600w can run it fine . gtx 1060 = 450/400w
Click to expand...

I see that the WD Black is quite a slow one in benchmarks now, this NVMe thing is a completely new for me so I got a lot more reading to do. A good and fast NVMe might just be out of my price range.

My current setup has a Samsung SSD 470 Series 64GB as the boot drive (moment of madness!) and 3x500GB HDD for storage so a 128GB or 256GB boot drive would already be a huge upgrade. Currently I’m limited to pretty much Windows 10 home, my CAD software, and one game less than 8GB. It works for me most of the time but it’s not a situation I want to keep in a new build. More is better but if I can trade off a little capacity for notable speed gain (128GB being the absolute minimum, 250GB+ ideally), I’d consider it. Not looking likely at the minute though.

The PSU is the only thing I'd want to futureproof as I think I'll be looking at a 1080ti in a couple years when prices become reasonable. I don't think a Ryzen 5 1600 would bottleneck it so that would be my only planned upgrade.

Some more research and then I'll see what the new build plan will cost me
 
akira181 said:
really? The description claims a sequential read speed of 2050MB/s and write speed 700MB/s. This garbage? Didn't think WD would inflate their figures to fictitious levels.
Click to expand...
6mbps suggests a sata3 SSD. Might just be a labelling error on ocuk's part.
But either way, there are better drives for the money
 
akira181 said:
The PSU is the only thing I'd want to futureproof as I think I'll be looking at a 1080ti in a couple years when prices become reasonable. I don't think a Ryzen 5 1600 would bottleneck it so that would be my only planned upgrade.

Some more research and then I'll see what the new build plan will cost me
Click to expand...

problem there is depending how many years, a mid level current card with warranty would out perform the gen Gen flagship etc etc
also next gen using V-Ray - handy if your rendering your models ?

Focus 650w PSU i think is for £73... good buy!
 
tamzzy said:
6mbps suggests a sata3 SSD. Might just be a labelling error on ocuk's part.
But either way, there are better drives for the money
Click to expand...

Will have to do more research tonight, I've fallen really far behind on the advances of parts these days, so NVMe terminology is basically confusing jargon to me right now. If I can stretch my budget (found it around £20 cheaper elsewhere) to include a Samsung 960, like the one below, would the speed gain be notable or worth it?
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Nevermind, apparently the 250GB variant goes back to the older 32 layer NAND and smaller die, killing any performance gain. Apparently MyDigitalSSD BPX is the best budget option in that bracket but I don't think the speed gain is worth sacrificing capacity. Looks like normal SSD is the answer for me.

orbitalwalsh said:
problem there is depending how many years, a mid level current card with warranty would out perform the gen Gen flagship etc etc
also next gen using V-Ray - handy if your rendering your models ?

Focus 650w PSU i think is for £73... good buy!
Click to expand...

Not quite sure I'm following. You mean if I wait too long, there could potentially be better midrange cards than the 1080ti? If that's the case, wouldn't a 650W PSU still be the better option for futureproofing (assuming the future midrange aren't power hungry monsters)?

I'm not 100% set on a 1080ti btw, I'm just aware that a 1050ti is a little old and may eventually struggle so I would like an upgrade option without having to replace multiple parts. The 1080ti looks like a powerhouse that would exceed my current needs, so I thought it would be a good target to aim for in respect to upgradability.

I don't render my models purely because it crashes my current machine or slows it to a jumpy laggy mess. Hopefully won't be the case with the new build. The 2 PSU's I'm considering now are the Seasonic Focus 650W and the Bitfenix Formula Gold 750W. Leaning towards the Focus at the minute.
 
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it depends on how you define 'IN A FEW YEARS i'll pick up a gtx 1080ti"....

gtx 1060 (07/2016) - mid range card is in between gtx 970-980 (09/2014) cards that or High range cards and beats the gtx 780ti (11/2013) before them

rule of thumb tends to be- buy the most powerful card you can afford at the time that matching your screen resolution or screen upgrade.
Then its also- do i need that card if i can afford it, could the next version down do the job i require with minimal performance impact .
 
akira181 said:
Nevermind, apparently the 250GB variant goes back to the older 32 layer NAND and smaller die, killing any performance gain. Apparently MyDigitalSSD BPX is the best budget option in that bracket but I don't think the speed gain is worth sacrificing capacity. Looks like normal SSD is the answer for me.
Click to expand...
If youre desperate to get nvme SSD, then look at the sm961. It's the OEM version of the 960 pro - some nand changes, and sits between 960 Evo and 960 pro in performance
 
orbitalwalsh said:
it depends on how you define 'IN A FEW YEARS i'll pick up a gtx 1080ti"....

gtx 1060 (07/2016) - mid range card is in between gtx 970-980 (09/2014) cards that or High range cards and beats the gtx 780ti (11/2013) before them

rule of thumb tends to be- buy the most powerful card you can afford at the time that matching your screen resolution or screen upgrade.
Then its also- do i need that card if i can afford it, could the next version down do the job i require with minimal performance impact .
Click to expand...

Fair point. I think the 1060 3GB is the most I can realistically afford but the 1050ti should do the job. I'm in 2 minds right now.

Originally, I was thinking get the 1050ti and some point in the next 4 years I'll get a new monitor and hopefully the 1080ti will be around £200 so I can get that too. Then 4 years after that it'll be approaching time for a new setup. Or just get a smaller PSU and spend a little more on a 1060 3gb now and leave it for 8 years again. The final build cost will be the decider here I think, I'll price that up tonight.

tamzzy said:
If youre desperate to get nvme SSD, then look at the sm961. It's the OEM version of the 960 pro - some nand changes, and sits between 960 Evo and 960 pro in performance
Click to expand...
when I first read that NVMe was 3 or 4 times faster than SATA3 SSD's, I got excited about the speed increase Windows would see, especially with bootup. But now that I read more about it, it seems like the options that are within my budget don't really offer much over the sata3 ssd to justify the storage trade off. I'll check out the sm961 but I think a larger sata3 ssd is going to be the best option for me
 
4 years, monitor tech should have caught and surpassed TVs. they have been a bit behind with no HDR models. should change this year and hitting 4k monitors above 60hz!

GTX 1050ti is a solid card for 1080p 60hz medium settings gaming

think you'll find in 4 years time you'll be getting a new GPU and Monitor :D 4 years, we should be on one generation of card after the incoming one this year , maybe two - mid range cards should be hitting 4k gaming nicely ;)
 
nvme not worth the price premium over sata3, unless you are regularly hammering the ssd eg for video encoding.
i dont know how hdd heavy your cad work is, so may (or may not) make sense to get nvme
 
tamzzy said:
nvme not worth the price premium over sata3, unless you are regularly hammering the ssd eg for video encoding.
i dont know how hdd heavy your cad work is, so may (or may not) make sense to get nvme
Click to expand...

Yeah, I eventually came to the same conclusion after more research. I don't expect to move a lot of big files around that often so I don't think I can justify the extra cost and sacrifice 250GB+ SSD capacity just to have Windows boot up 2 seconds faster.

Been doing a bunch of CAD stuff all evening and so far peak RAM consumption was 5GB. Simulations will probably take me over the 8GB mark but I'll cross that bridge when I actually learn how to do simulations properly :p So looks like 8GB will be enough for now and I can get another 2x4GB sticks in a year or so. Hopefully cryptominers will be a thing of the past by then and RAM prices drop accordingly.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £794.52 (includes shipping: £12.60)​
​

of course there's areas to skimp on, but i think this spec gives the best price/perf/quality ratio.
 
if you want to save a bit, reuse your HX450 PSU - this will safely run the ryzen 1600 and a 1050ti
and reuse the case.

when you do eventually get your graphics card upgrade, then buy a PSU at the same time.
 
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