PSU calculators

Telecaster · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:00

How accurate are they?

I've just used one to see what I need if I were to go for a GTX 780 (most places quote 600w minimum) and it calculated 429w :confused:

What's the best way to calculate to be safe?

Doomedspeed · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:06

600W minimum for a GTX 780.

Telecaster · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:44

But doesn't the quoted figure give head room for a whole boat load of components like multiple drives and such? My system is quite a minimalist ITX system with no optical drives etc..

Make · 28 Oct 2013 at 14:47

To be honest you'll be fine with a 500w too.

Just make sure it's a high quality one so it does not blow from being run at high load potentially when gaming.

Intel CPU's for example take only 84W max, but overclocked can take 150W.. Same for the card, it takes around 220W non-OC'd, but raise the powertarget and/or volts, and it can pull a max. of 285W or so.. but very unlikely and almost never that high. Other components don't take much at all.

The calculator is right. Probably around 430W real world usage. I'd still go with a 500W one for some overhead.

hakank68 · 28 Oct 2013 at 16:56

I've recently used a psu calculator and it said I needed 700w, I will have a overclocked 4670k as well as a 7970 matrix platinum. What will I need as most people say 650w will be fine

Telecaster · 29 Oct 2013 at 12:41

I bought one of those plug top power usage meters yesterday and it's just arrived. Surprised to find that with prime95 running and benchmarking the GPU at the same time it never goes above 255w, that is a 2500k @ 4.3ghx and a GTX 660 SC.

I can't imagine swapping the 660 for a 780 will require another 350w alone.

sockky · 29 Oct 2013 at 12:59

I just used a PSU calculator to see what it told me I needed, apparently a 600w will suffice for my PC. I wouldn't wanna try that

Telecaster · 29 Oct 2013 at 14:03

Well I've just put in my current system to compare it with what the plug top power meter says- calculator says minimum PSU wattage of 293, power meter with CPU and GPU @ 100% says 260w.

Not bad I reckon.