Need help on choosing a new PSU/upgrades?

[JoseCansecoJnr]

Hello,

I bought the below pre build from overclockers late 2021. Unfortunately the pc just turned off when I was writing an email. I tried a different power cable but no dice.

Doing some research online I feel like the PSU may have stopped working. I want to get the pc working again, does anyone recommend any PSU? Budget is workable, I would rather spend more and get something that would last.

If anyone has further upgrade suggestions I am all ears. The gaming I do on it is a bit of everything but tend to be indies or city builders.

I would say when I do play some more "advanced" games I feel the fans are quite loud, is there a way of fixing that?

Kolink Modular Power 700W 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply

OcUK Value Power Adapter 3 Pin Fan Power to 4 Pin Molex Adapter (RB-523)

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core 4.7GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Tray

Zotac GeForce RTX 3070 TI Trinity 8GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card

WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCle Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2BO(

Asrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 AC (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard

Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHZ Dual Channel Kit

Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 240 AIO CPU Cooler - 240mm

Phanteks Eclipse P400 Air Midi Tower DRGB Case - Black

OcUK Value Power Adapter 3 Pin Fan Power to 4 Pin Molex Adapter (RB-523)

EK Water Blocks EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan (10cm)

Thanks everyone for their help!

 

[Tetras]

If anyone has further upgrade suggestions I am all ears. The gaming I do on it is a bit of everything but tend to be indies or city builders.

Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHZ Dual Channel Kit

For city builders I'd go 32GB as a minimum, preferably 64GB if you're playing the kind that munch RAM.

I would say when I do play some more "advanced" games I feel the fans are quite loud, is there a way of fixing that?

Which fans are causing the problem? E.g. CPU, graphics, case?

Doing some research online I feel like the PSU may have stopped working. I want to get the pc working again, does anyone recommend any PSU? Budget is workable, I would rather spend more and get something that would last.

The TUF is usually one of the cheapest PSUs with a gold rating and a 10 year warranty. There's a review at Anandtech and THG here.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £114.90
• 1 x Antec HCG 850 Pro Platinum 850W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02745) = £159.95

Total: £282.84 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

The Antec is derived from the Seasonic Vertex (minus 2 years of warranty) and has quite a few users on the forum already.

There's a review here:

Antec HCG1000 Pro Platinum 1000W PSU Review - KitGuru

It has been some time since we last looked at a power supply from Antec, however today we analyse a

www.kitguru.net

There's a PSU list linked to here, which has info on almost all PSUs:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1iry3a3/new_and_updated_psu_tier_list_is_out/

 

[JoseCansecoJnr]

For city builders I'd go 32GB as a minimum, preferably 64GB if you're playing the kind that munch RAM.


Which fans are causing the problem? E.g. CPU, graphics, case?


The TUF is usually one of the cheapest PSUs with a gold rating and a 10 year warranty. There's a review at Anandtech and THG here.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £114.90
• 1 x Antec HCG 850 Pro Platinum 850W ATX3.1 Full modular Power Supply (SKU: POW-ATC-02745) = £159.95

Total: £282.84 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

The Antec is derived from the Seasonic Vertex (minus 2 years of warranty) and has quite a few users on the forum already.

There's a review here:

Antec HCG1000 Pro Platinum 1000W PSU Review - KitGuru

It has been some time since we last looked at a power supply from Antec, however today we analyse a

www.kitguru.net

There's a PSU list linked to here, which has info on almost all PSUs:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1iry3a3/new_and_updated_psu_tier_list_is_out/

Thank you for this! Will digest it further tomorrow at work but will probably go with the antec one due to the write up.

Unsure regarding the fan noise if I am honest, I just know it's pretty loud when I boot some games. I don't think it's the case, as the sound comes from inside. I'm pretty sure it will be the fans on graphics card? I really need to learn more about computers.

I will update my ram for sure, is there a max I can have, until it becomes wasteful? Was thinking of just adding another 32gb kingston hyperx fury.

Thank you again!

 

[Tetras]

Unsure regarding the fan noise if I am honest, I just know it's pretty loud when I boot some games. I don't think it's the case, as the sound comes from inside. I'm pretty sure it will be the fans on graphics card? I really need to learn more about computers.

If the fan noise is the card, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

These fans are not user replaceable. If the card is dusty you can clean it, but that's about it. I don't recommend taking it apart and repasting if you're not familiar with computers.

There are some things you can do on a software level:
- Tweak the fan curve (though that may increase temperatures).
- Set an FPS cap/target, since the lower the FPS, the less power it uses and the less heat it produces.
- Undervolt and/or set a lower power limit.

The last option can be very effective with some cards, giving you almost all the performance for a large reduction in power usage.

I will update my ram for sure, is there a max I can have, until it becomes wasteful? Was thinking of just adding another 32gb kingston hyperx fury.

Which games do you play specifically?

There are some city builders which can happily munch through 32GB, but it depends. DDR4 is pretty cheap though, so not the end of the world if you buy too much.

I'd recommend getting a 2x16GB kit and trying it alongside what you have. If it doesn't work, then you can take out the old memory. Running 4 sticks can need some manual tweaking because of the increased load.

 

[JoseCansecoJnr]

If the fan noise is the card, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

These fans are not user replaceable. If the card is dusty you can clean it, but that's about it. I don't recommend taking it apart and repasting if you're not familiar with computers.

There are some things you can do on a software level:
- Tweak the fan curve (though that may increase temperatures).
- Set an FPS cap/target, since the lower the FPS, the less power it uses and the less heat it produces.
- Undervolt and/or set a lower power limit.

The last option can be very effective with some cards, giving you almost all the performance for a large reduction in power usage.

Hmmm, I'm still unsure what it is but I can imagine it's the card but I will clean it etc but I feel when I use compressed air it actually doesn't blow a ton of dust out of it. I will figure it out.

That last option of undervolting sounds interesting will Google it once I get the PC! I hope its the PSU and not something more serious.

Games I tend to play are sim city 3000/4 / city skyline 1 and 2, Crusader Kings 3, CIV 5, anno, transport tycoon and then sprinkle some rpgs but unfortunately don't have a ton of time anymore.

Thanks for your help! Will order the ram and power supply and see how that goes, I think I have space for 2 more sticks.

 

[Tetras]

Hmmm, I'm still unsure what it is but I can imagine it's the card but I will clean it etc but I feel when I use compressed air it actually doesn't blow a ton of dust out of it. I will figure it out.

It would need to be very dusty to have a dramatic impact on the temps and fan noise, so if there's not an obvious build up of dust, then that's not your problem.

That last option of undervolting sounds interesting will Google it once I get the PC!

It works pretty well for these cards. A frame cap or power limit is a more 'brutal' option, but very effective at keeping temps/power usage down.

I hope its the PSU and not something more serious.

If everything is otherwise working fine then there's no reason to be worried about the noise. You can check your temps with something like hwinfo (sensor tab).

Games I tend to play are sim city 3000/4 / city skyline 1 and 2, Crusader Kings 3, CIV 5, anno, transport tycoon and then sprinkle some rpgs but unfortunately don't have a ton of time anymore.

Skylines I'm aware can use A LOT of memory, not sure about the other ones.

 

[JoseCansecoJnr]

Computer isn't really that dusty, I do clean it every couple of months. So I doubt it's that but just know when a game starts the fans become quite loud!

What is the average temp your computer should be at? What's healthy for the CPU/Card?

Again, thanks for your help!

 

[Tetras]

What is the average temp your computer should be at? What's healthy for the CPU/Card?

Graphics: there's a little chart at the top of the page for the cards that they reviewed:

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition Review

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is designed to bring the fight to Radeon RX 6800 non-XT. To achieve their goal, NVIDIA maxed out the GA104 GPU design and switched to faster GDDR6X memory. Unfortunately, this also resulted in an increase in power consumption and heat output.

www.techpowerup.com

CPU:
Ideally, I'd want to be comfortably under 80 when gaming. The 5800X on release was known for being a bit hot, but I'd expect the later models to be lower.

Computer isn't really that dusty, I do clean it every couple of months. So I doubt it's that but just know when a game starts the fans become quite loud!

There's a couple of ways you can test that, if you can't isolate the noise.

For the graphics: try the suggestions above.

For the CPU: you can turn off precision boost and make the CPU run at the base clock, or alternatively you might be able to choose a different TDP/Eco mode (like 65 watts).