Replacement PSU spec + other options

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Hi :),


looks like my Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply may of died after 9 years!.

850Watt is probably over kill and i dont want to go crazy if im getting a new PC soon.
the alternative is i buy a good one now that will do as in my New PC as well.

so can i have 2 options :

1) a minimuim wattage i need based on these old specs below.

2) recommendation for a future proff PSU for a new system that will do for years to come that i can use for the time being till im ready to buy.

ALSO i like quite PSUs

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366)
Corsair 12GB DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz XMS3 TwinX Tri Channel Kit (6x2GB)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 WindForce 3x OC Rev2.0 3072MB GDDR5
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
TP-Link 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter
Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler
1x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic
1x Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache
1x One old HDD i can't remember
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case (5fans)

Option 3 :

i'd like to make a Mini PC out of these spare parts eventally for use as a spare / travel / TV PC / Steam PC.

what can i recycle from this? if i decide to strip it out and make it now. surely the cheepest intel CPU replcemnt now is better than a Intel Core i7 920?

Thanks for all your help

P
 
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The GPU and CPU are already 380W assuming default (no overclocking). Add in MB and peripherals for another 150W (guestimate) and you're looking at 530W minimum with some but not a lot of breathing room. The gold and higher rated PSU's handle 20-25% loads quite efficiently now so it wouldn't hurt to go a little larger for future proofing. Even current GPUs won't stretch 250W unless you go into flagship territory. CPUs won't break 130W either since the trend is for efficient performance. So the extra power head room is really for more components in future. Also better to run the PSU day to day at sub 80% to not strain it (versus say 95%) so maybe 650W minimum?
 
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Thanks for the reply BaugBait, very appreciated :) i actually have a 600w in the system at the moment which i have borrowed from a kind person at my work. hooked it up and its running well but it does depend on load. not tried it in any games yet so that its always a concern. i am thinking of splashing out and getting something for the future which will go in a new system when i am ready to buy. so it will have to be good enough for the latest processor, Gcards and all the latest and greatest.

so im thinking 850w at £144 or maybe stretch the extra £30 for a 1000w... this will them be my PSU for the new system and a stopgap for the mean time, which makes sense.

if you or anyone else has any recommendations i'd be very grateful. :)
 
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my Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply may of died after 9 years!.
Snap! Almost :)

My Be Quiet DPP 650W of 9 or 10 years sadly gave up the ghost earlier this year. Loved that thing, lasted an age and a trip to and from New Zealand. Gave up without taking anything else with it.

Switched now to a 750W EVGA G3. Been flawless so far, quiet as a quiet thing too.

Edit: Running an i7 3770/16Gb/1080 btw.
 
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looks like my Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 850W ATX2.2 Modular SLi Compliant Power Supply may of died after 9 years!.

what can i recycle from this? if i decide to strip it out and make it now. surely the cheepest intel CPU replcemnt now is better than a Intel Core i7 920?
That old BeQuiets used cheap standard capacitors.
So with very high probability it died because of not having been made to last.
And before that it might have caused wear to components.


Case is of course usable, though that work complicating multi compartment design was basically made for bad efficiency PSUs of 15 years ago.
And limits half of intake airflow to compartment with small minority of heat output, unless using three 5.25" bays for another intake.

HDDs will work, though with their age they might have low density platters and hence slow transfer rate compared to more recent HDDs.

840 EVO was one of those drives in which Samsung pushed TLC to too small node, causing performance issues because of drive having hard time in reading data.
So while still usable wouldn't be comfortable with using it from reliability perspective.

Optical drive is also usable, if you're satisfied with it being limited to DVDs.

WLAN adapter is usable and would remove need to look out for that in motherboards/buy new one if you're using WLAN.

Well, also graphics card would work.


AMD is now more than valid option for Intel.
Situation is now simply very different than when you bought that PC.
Intel is little faster in majority of games, mostly because of higher clocks.
But AMD supports current AM4 socket to 2020 giving possible upgrade path to actually architecturally improved CPUs.
While Intel basically hasn't improved CPU architecture any since 6th gen Skylake, despite of changing sockets.
Newer models have been just clock speed tweaks and now slapping in additional cores.
And Intel's actually improved architecture is depending on their 10nm node, which is simply completely broken at the moment.
(who knows if those come out before 2020)
 
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is there much of a difference between a Platinum PSU and a gold standard PSU?
About two percents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus
Titanium makes more actual difference with efficiency requirement for load where most of the PCs spend most of their time.



Add in MB and peripherals for another 150W (guestimate)
More like WAG.
That would need freaking dozen HDDs.
50W is basically enough for other parts than CPU and GPU in any modern PC.
Anything without notable heatsinks simply can't draw much of power.
 
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Thanks All for your insightful input.
im probably going to go with the Bequiet! Straight Power 11 1000w PSU, the last one lasted 9 years so that a good stint in my book. this will be the stop gap for the new system. Esat the 11 internal design is a much better design by the looks of it and used Japanese 105 capacitors so they should be the better right?
hopefully this should keep at its most efficient draw at 50% at 93% efficiency most of the time.

Any reason why i shouldn't buy this?
 
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That old BeQuiets used cheap standard capacitors.
So with very high probability it died because of not having been made to last.
I thought 10 years out of my Be Quiet was quite good going tp be fair.

You could be right though, mine started smelling quite bad before it finally went with a whimper.
 
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im probably going to go with the Bequiet! Straight Power 11 1000w PSU
hopefully this should keep at its most efficient draw at 50% at 93% efficiency most of the time.
Because of extreme oversizing it's going to run at around 80% efficiency most of the time when PC is on.
Especially when you update rest of the PC idle consumption will drop.

Even for 80+ Titanium PSU maintaining efficiency would be challenge.
Unless you're going to cram in another high end GPU for making space heater, there's simply zero sense in 1kW PSU.

I mean you don't have some big V8 engine in your car just in case you need to tow all your neighbours at once, or do you?
 
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Even 750W is more than enough for single GPU PC unless you overclock heavily.
650W is pretty sweet spot to keep some attempt of high efficiency during idling, like now when you're reading this forum or other web page.
Except with some most power hogging graphics cards it's hard to get over 400W power draw in gaming.
For your current PC gaming draw is likely around 350W.

Most PSUs literally have clearly higher efficiency under 100% load than 10% load.
Because they simply need some amount of power to keep themselves running.
And just like bigger car engine guzzles more fuel just to power itself, so does bigger PSU. (for similar design)

80+ Titaniums are only ones which really keep high efficiency down to low loads, with Seasonic shining in there:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seasonic-prime-titanium-650w-psu,4690-5.html

For comparison here are low load efficiency numbers for 750W Gold and Platinum PSUs:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seasonic-ssr-750fx-focus-plus-750-gold-psu,5206-5.html
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/seasonic-focus-plus-platinum-750-psu,5556-5.html
 
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since you recommend them maybe i'll go for a Seasonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 850W that is within my budget and the warranty with 10 years so that is a Plus.
i want to keep it at 850w as that is what i had previously and may want to upgrade in future.

the Titanium psus are far to much.
 
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Soldato
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Unless you're going to cram in second graphics card or go for extreme overclocking 850W is overshooting.
Current modern high end PC without mechanical HDD etc easily idles around 50W power draw if paying little attention to idle consumption of GPU.
 
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i saw the Sea sonics do not come with a UK plugs. that kind of sucks :(
Unless you buy from outside UK, or from someone importing other country's stock, it's pretty darn guaranteed that there's UK power cable.

Would be hell of noise if sold PSUs came out with wrong power cable.
Even it being mentioned in product description along with need to buy UK power cable would do that.
@Gibbo can no doubt confirm what amount of "grey hairs" that would cause to OCUK.
 
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Have installed the Seasonic 850w and wow its great...or my old one was incredibly dead for a while and the 600w Coolermaster one i was using temporarily was also not that fab. somehow my PC seem way faster and responsive now, maybe my 780 is now getting the correct juice?. anyway thanks all so far i am dead please with it lets hope it continues and thanks again Esat for your advice. Cheers :)
 
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