Higher rated PSU yes/no

[Berger]

I am doing a few upgrades at the minute to my desktop pc, unsure if I’ll need a higher rated psu or not.

Currently has a Corsair 400w.
i5 lynnfield 2.67 @ 3.2ghz
4x2GB DDR3 XMS
It has two Sata 7200 drives and one DVD RW.

I plan on installing an SSD and disconnecting the IDE drives unless I need to access the data from them (unlikely).

The current graphics card is a Gainward GTX 260 Golden sample, google suggests 500w min psu required and consumption of 185w for this.

I am replacing with a GTX 970, which also says min 450/500w psu.

Will I get away with changing the card and using the current PSU or is it worth swapping out for a 600-750w unit. Long term I can’t really see myself upgrading the computer as I don’t play FPS style games, I use the PC to play Zwift which the new card will do great.

If I need to replace, I’ve read the Gibbo guide, Antec or similar Gold/Platinum rated psu. Any shining stars which I should go buy over any others?

 

[Berger]

They sound quite good and not too pricey.

A little digging and it’s the original CX400 which is Seasonic internally pretty much. The computer is old but only had use in 2011 as I then moved abroad and had a laptop/MacBook Pro so it hadn’t been used for 5 years (it hurt running those windows updates!)

Thanks for the advice, I’ll probably pickup one of the above if it gives me a little overhead for the future without going nuts!

 

[Berger]

Sprung for the 650w.

Seems a quality item, how it took so long to come up with the idea of the modular psu I don’t know, simple yet works great.

What happened to Enermax? They used to make quality stuff and now I don’t seem them talked about.

 

[Berger]

All installed, but the Molex for the hard drivers is upside down with a top mounted psu... so you have to twist the wires around or mount the drives upside down.

Bit of an oversight!

 

[Berger]

How freaking old case you have?
PSU on top design had its expiration date dozen years ago.

7 years, same as the rest of the system! Back then all PSUs were on top!

Changing the graphics card, doubling the ram and upgrading to an SSD has given it another lease of life.

 

[Berger]

My Case is 10.5 years old and has a bottom mounting PSU as well.

PSUs back in the day of top mounted cases tended to have faster fans (and louder), that could expel a reasonable amount of extra heat from the case.

With a modern PSU the case my get a bit hotter, but it's not a major issue with that PC and it's power usage.

I won’t worry about it then, the computer is in my summerhouse and only sees 2-5 hrs use a week.

It’s a Coolermaster case, whatever the machine was built with.

The last case I bought was a Coolermaster ATC 200 which is probably older than half of the forum