is 400w good for a none oc q6600 build?

ExoMale

ExoMale

ExoMale

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hello, thought i would make my first post here..

i am building a 2nd computer of an old generation mainly to play old games with either windows xp or windows 7(currently have the latter, but not installed games yet) and this is what ive come up with so far.

gigabtye ga-g33-ds3r 775 board
q6600 G0 2.4ghz(replaces a 2140 that came with the board)
Akasa K32 cpu cooler
4gb ddr2(mix speed atm, just a trial)
200gb sata hdd
geforce 7200gs 128mb(replaced a gt 610 as it was most valuable card)
dvd-rw
corsair vs350w(replaced original antec 380w that comes with case)
Antec branded atx case

so far this as cost me just over £60(vs350 i had as spare and extra 2x1gb sticks)

i do have a 256mb 8600gt that was bundled with the computer along with the 7200, but a calculator shows that i would pretty much be pushing the psu(close to 260w at load).

now i know the vs isnt the best in the range, but its less than a year old unit and 80 plus and running my system just fine for the few days ive owned it. however i will want a better gpu and even a gtx 750 i own would be pushing it as far as calculator suggests(259w load), so a new psu would be required, but because i dont want to spend much on this i was thinking of a good decent quality 400w and something like a 5770.



all advise and suggestions are welcome and i thank anyone who reads and replies.
 
This is my system.

3750k processor unclocked
MSI 670GTX
1xSSD
4xMechanical Drives (Cant afford an NAS system)

It usually hangs around 240w on the Corsair Link Software when playing games (Mind you I am on World of Tanks at the moment but considering what you will be playing it shouldnt be a problem) so I think 400w should be fine.
 
thanks for reply and that is good to know.

i think the most demanding game i would be playing is crysis or far cry 2 and maybe the witcher, everything else would for most part run on onboard graphics..

i did think of another 350 psu but from the likes of be quiet, however their site says it has 336w on the 12v but other sites say 300 like the vs 350 which would be no good, mean i would just need something that could handle the lowest powered 6 pin card thats still good for gaming.
 
are you talking about the be quiet 500w units?

if the price is not much more then i probably would consider it, but if i dont need 500w then id rather save and put that extra towards a new gpu.
 
that looks good, but would that be plenty even if i decide to overclock? mean i always overclock the gpu to see what they can do, but more to the point if i ever feel the need to overclock the quad upwards of 3ghz?

i desperately need a new gpu for this computer, not matter how much i overclock the 7200 it cant run crysis, smooth menus but 0-3fps so freezes the game ha, but i dont want to put the 8600gt in and risk stretching the psu too much.
 
You should be ok for overclocking the Q6600 and any of the cards you have mention with that psu and still have power to spare. It's a quality unit and would even be good enough to overclock your cpu plus a AMD R7 370 (maybe even a R9 380) or a Nvidia GTX960.

If you wanted to put your mind at rest a quality 550w psu is more than enough for just about any single gpu pc even with overclocking. The Antec Truepower Classic 550w is a quality gold rated unit built by Seasonic with a 540w 12v rail. It cost's more but has more upgrade potential for future use.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £66.05
(includes shipping: £11.10)
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Q6600 can be quite current thirsty when overlocked - should get upto around 3.3GHz fine but beyond that the board may not be capable of supplying enough power stably for a 65nm quad core (this might also have relevance to how much current the rails on the PSU can provide but generally isn't the limiting factor with today's PSUs).
 
thanks for the advise guys, pretty much safe to say with the vs350 being average i shouldnt go beyond the spec i currently have then.

are those antecs of high quality? i know it says 'gold' , but only ever had a 300w that wasnt upgradable because of case and the 380w this case originally had neither of which were 80 plus.

on another note i have a seasonic s12II 520w in my main computer(the one im typing on) and had it couple couple weeks now and been solid for what ive used my computer for, are what you guys suggested equal or better than that regardless of mine is bronze and you chose gold?
 
The Antec I suggested is a excellent quality unit, I wouldn't have suggested it else. The only downside is that it's not modular but in terms of quality it's leagues ahead of the awful VS350 you are using now. It's also better than the Seasonic S12II 520w that you have. The Superflower HX450 that I suggested despite having 70w less total power is only 36w behind your Seasonic on the 12v rail due to your Seasonic only having a 480w 12v rail. Both the Antec and the Superflower are gold rated so more efficient too.
 
ha yeah i know you wouldnt have, i just wanted to be sure as antecs are usually not the main units used/suggested often, so okay i will keep that one in mind :).

modular or not doesnt bother me, mean i wanted the m12 modular version but there was a mix up so i got given the s12 instead, but either way i can work on cable management no big deal.

okay to wrap things up for the suggested, are either better than my seasonic because simply they gold rated or overall quality/performance ratio better? just so i have a better understanding when doing more research.


many thanks
 
Both are better than your Seasonic. Putting aside the difference of one being 450w and the other 550w they both have much stronger 12v rails relative to their wattages. The Antec can deliver 540w of it's 550w on the 12v rail while the Superflower can deliver 444w of it's 450w on the 12v rail. Your Seasonic can only manage 480w of it's 520w on the 12v rail. Both are more efficient and as a general rule (not always the case though) the higher efficiency rating the better the quality of the internal components.
 
ah when you put it like that i can understand, not that it bothers me as the seasonic replaced an okay psu and more than enough for what i need/will want, i wouldve thought being seasonic they wouldve had a stronger rail because 40w is a big difference to 6-10w lol.

many thanks
 
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