Pls Recommend a PSU - £100 or not much more

myPCBlewUp · 3 Aug 2020 at 18:18

Hi all,

I have an old AMD AM3 based system with M5A97 R2.0 motherboard and what was an OCZ 600W PSU.

The machine was originally built by me in 2012 and has never had a problem until today.

Due to money being tight I have been slowly upgrading components rather than build a new machine.

First was a FX 8350 CPU, then Radeon R9 390 GPU, CoolerMaster AIO, Sabrent 2TB M.2 NVMe and finally a new Silverstone case to house it all in.

I figured most of the parts I can take with me into a new Ryzen Threadripper build when things pick up.

What I didn't upgrade was the OCZ 600W PSU. It was bought brand new when I originally built the machine and I thought it would be ok for my current use case.

I know the CPU and GPU are both power hungry, and I had also overclocked the CPU to 4.5GHz but I was still shocked when it went bang during a FurMark stability test I ran today.

My APC UPS kicked in and tripped the power as it happened, but I'm still worried that the PSU may have taken other components with it to a smoky grave.

Anyway, as there is only one way to find out and because I'd need a new PSU for a new build if I have to scrape cash together to do so...Can someone recommend a good 1000W one.

Thank you.

Sparx · 3 Aug 2020 at 18:37

You don’t need 1000w PSU lol - GPU is about a 330w card. You’ve already been running it on 600w no problem til it went after 8 years of use.

And why on earth would you want Threadripper?? Ryzen is a much more efficient approach in cost and performance...

PSU wise... get either of these if wanna reuse them in a new system soon. Fully modular and 10 year warranty.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/phanteks-amp-650w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-09q-pt.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020194-uk-ca-24r-cs.html

myPCBlewUp · 3 Aug 2020 at 18:51

Thanks Sparx I do work on the machine and game on the side which is why I'm looking at such specs in the future (coding, running multiple virtual machines for test environments, AV etc).

I also wanted good overhead for the machine but you're right 1000w is OTT...and I also saw the prices

Looking at 800 Watters...Thanks for links.

myPCBlewUp · 3 Aug 2020 at 19:00

Sparx I think I'll be going for your Corsair recommendation but in the 750w.

Cheers

merlin6r · 4 Aug 2020 at 00:15

Why are people so obsessed with buying power supplies far beyond what they need???

A PSU is most efficient around 50% load. i5 7700k overclocked and 1080 graphics pulls 300 watts making a 600 watt psu about perfect...

sadat · 4 Aug 2020 at 01:01

Use pc partpicker to build a system similar to what you have or similar to what you want to build and then use some sites to run a power calc. Then add 20% extra on top and you will see for a top end system you will end up with 600 to 800 watts.

I went with EVGA but honestly any good gold rated PSU manufacturer will do with decent warranty. Get a popular one if you chose to get custom sleeving or do it yourself.

Kelt · 4 Aug 2020 at 09:54

You used a known heat and power virus on your system.

Cue me not being surprised it took a component out.

Why people continue to use this when it's known to cause problems, well, not sure, actually.

jigger · 4 Aug 2020 at 13:23

Yeah Furmark will do that to an old PSU. Some of the power supplies OCZ built are time bombs.

myPCBlewUp · 4 Aug 2020 at 13:25

sadat said:
Use pc partpicker to build a system similar to what you have or similar to what you want to build and then use some sites to run a power calc. Then add 20% extra on top and you will see for a top end system you will end up with 600 to 800 watts.

I went with EVGA but honestly any good gold rated PSU manufacturer will do with decent warranty. Get a popular one if you chose to get custom sleeving or do it yourself.

Great advice...Thank you for this.

Looks like Corsair gear is sold out for a while so need to look around.

Cheers.

Sparx · 4 Aug 2020 at 13:28

If you Google the Corsair RM750 is definitely in stock at one or two places

james.miller · 4 Aug 2020 at 13:34

Furmark doesn't fry good PSUs. If that psu blew up as a result of running furmark, then it was well on its way to going bang and would have done so at some point anyway.

What do people think furmark does, add 400 Watts of gpu consumption?

jigger · 4 Aug 2020 at 13:57

james.miller said:
Furmark doesn't fry good PSUs. If that psu blew up as a result of running furmark, then it was well on its way to going bang and would have done so at some point anyway.

What do people think furmark does, add 400 Watts of gpu consumption?

It puts the system under an unrealistic load. I’d had 780ti croaking a frog and pulling bonkers power, 360watt IIRC. I think the Nvidia driver now detect furmark and cap the power consumption as it was killing cards.

myPCBlewUp · 4 Aug 2020 at 14:10

jigger said:
It puts the system under an unrealistic load. I’d had 780ti croaking a frog and pulling bonkers power, 360watt IIRC. I think the Nvidia driver now detect furmark and cap the power consumption as it was killing cards.

It does put the system under unrealistic load but so does Prime95.

Basically software shouldn't be able to permanently damage well designed hardware...As you state yourself....Nvidia put in mitigations for their cards but they should have them there anyway regardless of what software is being run on the system since they know best the limits of the hardware they sell.

Same deal with CPUs in desktops, mobiles, consoles etc having a way to scale down if they are getting close to thermal limits or just shut the system down if something abnormal occurs.

I'm not blaming OCZ or anything...It was an old PSU and I put it under abnormal strain...I believe it would have given many years more service if I hadn't have done to be honest...I don't agree with james.miller that it was on the way out.

I would however expect a modern unit to shut itself off rather than blow up though.

heatonpkmassive · 4 Aug 2020 at 14:11

merlin6r said:
Why are people so obsessed with buying power supplies far beyond what they need???

Sometimes for noise reasons, that's why I did it. This is a super silent PC as a result.

myPCBlewUp · 4 Aug 2020 at 14:11

sadat said:
Use pc partpicker to build a system similar to what you have or similar to what you want to build and then use some sites to run a power calc. Then add 20% extra on top and you will see for a top end system you will end up with 600 to 800 watts.

I went with EVGA but honestly any good gold rated PSU manufacturer will do with decent warranty. Get a popular one if you chose to get custom sleeving or do it yourself.

Spot on mate
https:// ************.com/list/8jbKzN

I think the 750 or 800 would be good.

myPCBlewUp · 4 Aug 2020 at 14:17

Sparx said:
If you Google the Corsair RM750 is definitely in stock at one or two places

Not for the £100 the RM750x is being advertised at.

Sparx · 4 Aug 2020 at 14:28

RM750 I said not the RM750x lol - £109.99

sadat · 4 Aug 2020 at 15:00

Yeah unfortunately PSU prices have increased slightly.

myPCBlewUp · 4 Aug 2020 at 17:17

Sparx said:
RM750 I said not the RM750x lol - £109.99

But the x is the better unit from what I read as uses better caps (Japanese)....Plus certain retailers are selling for £100 delivered, but no stock at the moment. I can wait if its not too long as have a decent laptop I'm using until then.

sadat said:
Yeah unfortunately PSU prices have increased slightly.

Also I don't know why so many are out of stock. Blame it on the COVID I guess.

sadat · 4 Aug 2020 at 17:21

yeah people building systems left right and centre! I have decided to water cool my pc because my head was running to hot with all the lock down measures.