Corsair CV Series 550W 80+ Bronze Enough?

Thomas. PLease. · 24 Sep 2020 at 19:17

Hi there,

I recently built the below system, however seem to be running into issues in a couple of games, and particularly when I tried to 3D Mark graphics test, and am wondering if I'm woefully underpowered?
I checked 550w was enough at the time, but now not so sure?...

Ryzen 5 3600x
MSI B550 Gaming Edge Wifi Mobo
Powercolour Red Dragon 5700xt Graphics Card
16gb (2x8 Corsair Vengence) RAM
2x NVM.2 SSDs
Bequiet Dark Rock 2 cooler

pastymuncher · 24 Sep 2020 at 20:12

While 550w should be more than enough the Corsair CV series are a very basic low quality PSU. It is the 4th cheapest psu in the "up to 800w" category sold at OCUK and while you have gone for a high end gpu you have cheaped out on the psu and sadly that is a mistake that people are still making. That card can suck a lot of power and what we would normally adivise is that it should be powered from two seperate pci-e power leads and not from a pair of daisy chained connectors. People have changed to a pair of seperate leads after this has been suggested and their problems (black screens, crashing, bad stuttering etc) are no more. Unfortunately you can't do this as the CV550 only has a pair of daisy chained 6+2 pin pci-e leads. I don't suppose you have another psu with a pair of seperate pci-e leads spare or could be borrowed from a mate? If you do you could try it and see if it fixes things otherwise buy a decent psu and sell the CV550.

Thomas. PLease. · 24 Sep 2020 at 20:18

Thanks for taking the time to respond, and I guess sums up what I expected after having run into these issues. No local friends with PSU's to borrow, unfortunately, so guess it's the latter option.

In which case, is something like this a better bet?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020195-uk-ca-24s-cs.html

Gray2233 · 24 Sep 2020 at 20:23

A high quality 550W PSU can manage with the specifications you're looking at, to be safe I'd recommend a high quality 650W unit. Unfortunately and as stated by @pastymuncher I wouldn't be surprised if any issues you're having are PSU related and if they're not they will be down the line. Your PSU is budget at best and while not the worst in the world it is not something I'd run a demanding GPU on. This is to say you should look into a decent 650W unit, and that doesn't necessarily mean breaking the bank.

That said, what problems are you experiencing exactly?

If you do opt for a PSU update I'd recommend taking a look at the following:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1116640-psucultists-psu-tier-list/

While I do not agree with it 100% it's an excellent rule of thumb guide for the unsure.

If buying specifically from OCUK I would lean towards one of the following:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Phanteks AMP 650W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £96.95
1 x Bitfenix Whisper M Series 750W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £99.95
1 x Phanteks AMP 750W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply= £106.99

Total: £303.89 (includes shipping: £0.00)

Either of the Phanteks would be my choice, they're based on the Seasonic Focus Plus (I believe?) platform and come with a ten year warranty. That said, the Bitfenix is an excellent choice if you want more watts while saving a little bit.

pastymuncher · 24 Sep 2020 at 21:06

Thomas. PLease. said:
Thanks for taking the time to respond, and I guess sums up what I expected after having run into these issues. No local friends with PSU's to borrow, unfortunately, so guess it's the latter option.

In which case, is something like this a better bet?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020195-uk-ca-24s-cs.html

That's a very good psu and for the price pretty good value. It has 3x pci-e leads each with a pair of 6+2 pin plugs on so use two of the leads but only the main plug (1st one and not the daisy chained one) on each. It also has a pair of 4+4 pin cpu leads so should you get a board in future that has a 8 pin and a 4 pin cpu connectors you are good to go. It has a 10 year warranty as well. The Phantels pair that Gray2233 suggests are very good as well being rebadged Seasonic units.

Gray2233 · 24 Sep 2020 at 21:08

While the Corsair RM is a great unit it does use Chinese capacitors from a lesser known company, compared to the high quality Japanese ones found in the Phanteks and Bitfenix units above.

That said, the reality is Corsair are confident enough in their unit to still offer a 10 year warranty on the RM and the capacitors are still of good quality and are unlikely to cause you problems.

PSU's are such a minefield in honesty.