PSU for new graphics card

archerz · 23 Sep 2013 at 13:43

Ive just got a new HD7970 Matrix Plat card and the min specs say 650w PSU.. however mine is only 600w OCZ ModX.

Currently I have:
i5 3750K Processor
GA-Z77X-D3H Motherboard
HD7970 Matrix Plat
4 x 750GB HDDs
1 x 240GB Intel 520 SSD

I've taken off my overclocking for now as I am going to assume if I start to OC then I definitely wont have enough power?

So my question is please recommend me a new PSU (would like fully modular to keep tidy) and nice Gigabyte blue cables (not imperative though)

Thanks!!!

oh yeah and budget of +/- £100..

pastymuncher · 23 Sep 2013 at 14:10

It will be fine. Stick your overclock back on and enjoy your rig.

archerz · 23 Sep 2013 at 14:34

good stuff! exactly what I wanted to hear

Loving the new gfx card too..

Leprechaun312 · 23 Sep 2013 at 14:43

archerz said:
good stuff! exactly what I wanted to hear Loving the new gfx card too..

Lol, tbh OCZ isn't the best make for a power supply anyway if you want to be safe i would recommend these

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair RM Series RM 750 '80+ Gold' 750W Power Supply (CP-9020055-UK) £101.99
1 x Antec High Current Gamer 750W Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (0-761345-06223-7) £99.95
1 x Seasonic G series 650w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £99.95
Total : £313.88 (includes shipping : £10.00).

the seasonic one may only be 650 however it will be able to handle your current build and also will last years before it needs replaced, the other 2 have more wattage but aren't seasonic however should last you for an upgrade or two and also all of them are modular or partially modular

DaleTheWhale · 23 Sep 2013 at 14:57

^ The Antec has seasonic internals if I'm not mistaken?

Leprechaun312 · 23 Sep 2013 at 15:02

ThaReaperGuy said:
^ The Antec has seasonic internals if I'm not mistaken?

Not a clue, but if it does even better

Make · 23 Sep 2013 at 15:02

First reviews of the corsair have come out and it seems to be of equal quality.

But the Antec is cheaper if you don't care about Corsair Link or Semi-fanless up to 50%.

I wouldnt care about those as PSU's are superquiet anyway compaired to the rest of the set.

snips86x · 23 Sep 2013 at 15:08

Leprechaun312 said:
Not a clue, but if it does even better

Yes it does!

linktoinsanity · 23 Sep 2013 at 15:14

People seriously overspec PSUs these days. A 500W Corsair for £50 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 will be fine for most computer systems. With a lot of hard disks I may bump that up to 600W, so the OCZ you have will be fine, not that I'd trust OCZ, but even so if it blows it should be in warranty and you can swap it then.

Doomedspeed · 23 Sep 2013 at 15:42

linktoinsanity said:
People seriously overspec PSUs these days. A 500W Corsair for £50 http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-034-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084 will be fine for most computer systems. With a lot of hard disks I may bump that up to 600W, so the OCZ you have will be fine, not that I'd trust OCZ, but even so if it blows it should be in warranty and you can swap it then.

the 7970 matrix isn't in "most computer systems"... So 500W won't be fine for this rig.

The PSU he's got will be though..

pastymuncher said:
It will be fine. Stick your overclock back on and enjoy your rig.

Agreed,

archerz · 23 Sep 2013 at 16:29

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll refrain from buying a new PSU at the moment and wait till the OCZ one dies! (I have had it a couple of years mind).

Then can look about getting some nicer power cables/connections as that is the only thing irritating me about my build

linktoinsanity · 23 Sep 2013 at 16:53

Doomedspeed said:
the 7970 matrix isn't in "most computer systems"... So 500W won't be fine for this rig.

The PSU he's got will be though..

If the 7970 is not in most systems then 500W will be fine for most systems, so is that you arguing or not? My point was I often see people speccing an 850 Watt or higher PSU for a system similar to this, which is definitely overkill. Even 750Watt is a bit much.

Also here are the power draws of the 7970: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,3232-18.html

And posted in another forum:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1238560/7970-and-power-consumption

A 600W PSU will be fine for this, which I understand that you agree with anyway.

Doomedspeed · 23 Sep 2013 at 17:02

linktoinsanity said:
If the 7970 is not in most systems then 500W will be fine for most systems, so is that you arguing or not?

I was just a bit baffled you bought up "500W is fine for most Pc's" in a thread that is completely un-related to that fact, that is all!

linktoinsanity said:
My point was I often see people speccing an 850 Watt or higher PSU for a system similar to this, which is definitely overkill. Even 750Watt is a bit much.

Do you mean high end systems with a 7970/7950/GTX 670/770/680/780?

Mostly that due to Xfire/SLI compatibility.. Most the people who spec here know exactly what their doing and why..

linktoinsanity · 27 Sep 2013 at 15:57

Doomedspeed said:
I was just a bit baffled you bought up "500W is fine for most Pc's" in a thread that is completely un-related to that fact, that is all!

Because it is annoying me looking through spec threads with people overspeccing PSUs and I just thought I'd make that point for the benefit of people reading this thread, being in a discussion forum and all it can be useful for those skim-reading.

Do you mean high end systems with a 7970/7950/GTX 670/770/680/780?

A single of those will happily run on a 600W-750W PSU. Now if you want to go Crossfire/SLI then I agree it's different, but not for a single card. This is about the price difference between the two wattages of PSUs.

Corsair are a good brand so we'll go with them.

600W decent quality PSU = £63. If you want higher end it goes up to £78.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

Now you cannot get the "decent" quality 850W PSU (not from OcUK anyway), however you can get a higher end one which sets you back £120. That's almost double the price.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-039-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

Now telling someone who just wants to use their PC to game and watch a few movies and do some browsing/email/typing that they have to spend £120
to run that decent graphics card is a tad unrealistic and not to mention untrue. The only time you need and 850W or higher PSU is with multiple graphics cards. I have a work colleague who runs a GTX570, a water cooling kit, an overclocked Nahalem i7 930 (@ 4Ghz) and 5x HDDS in RAID 5 with an SSD, all on a 400W PSU, which max load goes up to 395W (it has a digital readout on the back) and this is when he's gaming on his 1440p monitor. I appreciate you need a bit of headroom, but most users won't be running the Watercooling kit as well as those extra 4 hard drives, mostly just an ssd and a hard disk, so actually, a 500W would probably just about cope, if it had to.

Another case had me running my i7 3770K with an ATI HD6950, 8GB RAM, 2x HDDs, an optical drive an ssd and some case fans on a 450W Coolermaster PSU when my 1000W Corsair died, so a budget one. I use a 750W now.

Mostly that due to Xfire/SLI compatibility.. Most the people who spec here know exactly what their doing and why..

You'd hope so, but see above. :rolleyes: