PSU Replacement/Upgrade Advice

Gray2233

Gray2233

Gray2233

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Joined
25 Oct 2010
Posts
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Hey guys,

I've recently suffered a PSU failure, my trusty old OCZ ZS supply gave up and died roughly a week ago. Luckily I had a spare XFX 450W PRO unit leftover from a salvaged build so my rig is up and running again. The problem is, I'd planned to do some upgrades this year. For context, I'm currently running the following:

I5 3570K
Gigabyte Z77-D3H
Sapphire Flex HD7950
16GB of DDR3 2133
OCZ 460A SSD + a 2TB storage drive
I'm also still sporting a 1080p monitor which I'll continue using for the foreseeable future.

Now my funds are pretty limited, I'd planned on either upgrading my CPU/RAM/MOBO now and then my GPU end of the year or vice versa. With the PSU dying that's ate into my budget and plans a little as I don't feel entirely comfortable using the XFX 450W (being an older PSU much like the one that just died) in the long term. I'll also need to switch it out if I ever want to upgrade to a more beefy GPU anyway.

I'm leaning toward replacing the GPU and PSU now then slapping in a 3600/B450 etc around Christmas, I have roughly £200-220 to spend as of now so I'm leaning toward an AMD 580 and a decent 550-650W PSU. Ultimately Nvidia would be a bit better for my needs but their products seem to be out of my budget.

Any advice on which PSU to get, should I perhaps spend a bit more on a PSU and drop down to a AMD 570? Thanks in advance for any responses.
 
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Depending on what model that XFX is the OEM could be Seasonic, I wouldn't worry about only using a 450w on that build, might not be great long term but it's more than enough for the next 6-12 months. How much is the budget all in? Is your monitor just a 60hz monitor? If so then the RX 570 would be more than enough for it.

TX550M Gold isn't bad for the price at £65.
 
Thanks for the response.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a Seasonic unit. I'm more concerned that it was salvaged from an old (5-6 years) build that's seen fairly regular use.

I'm looking to spend £200-220 on the GPU and a new PSU, and roughly £380-400 on the rest of the components later on. So £620 give or take maximum, I figure the new CPU/Mobo/RAM will set me back £400 or so although the Christmas sales might net me a lower price with some luck. I currently only have £350 to spend of my maximum budget, I'll have the rest available come end of year. I figure my old 3570K will still cut it for a few months with a GPU upgrade, the 7950 is struggling in one or two newer titles (Resident Evil 2 remake for example) or I'd just wait until I had the full amount to spend in one go.

As for the monitor, it's an old 60hz screen.
 
The Superflower Leadex III gold 550w is a steal at the moment at only £65. That price will go up around lunchtime on Wednesday so buy it quickly. For the money you will not get better. It's gold rated, fully modular, had 549.6w on it's single 12v rail and has a 7 year warranty. The cables ar much improved as well and uses all black wiring and plugs now. The 24 pin, 8 pin and pci-e cables all have black braiding while the other cables are black ribbon style cabling.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
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For 1080p60 gaming, I would reccommend a RX580 as a minimum. I used to have a RX570 but it was constrained in nearly every new title and you have to tone down the settings. A RX580 would also need you to lower the settings but just not as much as a 570. Its about 10% faster.
A GTX1660 though is quite good but out of your budget as its minimum 200.
 
Thanks for the response!

I'd originally intended to get a 1660, but with my PSU now needing to be replaced it grew out of my budget unfortunately. I'm half tempted to just pick up a PSU now and grit my teeth until Christmas, hopefully there will be good enough deals that I'll be able to fit one into my budget. I've no brand bias personally, but for my purposes the 1660 is just flat out better.
 
Gray2233 said:
Thanks for the response!

I'd originally intended to get a 1660, but with my PSU now needing to be replaced it grew out of my budget unfortunately. I'm half tempted to just pick up a PSU now and grit my teeth until Christmas, hopefully there will be good enough deals that I'll be able to fit one into my budget. I've no brand bias personally, but for my purposes the 1660 is just flat out better.
Click to expand...

I doubt there will be great deals as all the sales this year had hardly any discounts on the 1660.
May be Christmas will bring in some exciting deals

RX580 is quite a good card as well. If you can increase your budget by say £20, you could get it.
 
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