PSU Upgrade?

iviv

iviv

iviv

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Currently I'm powering the rig in my sig with an oldish enermax liberty 620W psu, and its been great. However, there's three real problems. Firstly its at least 4 years old, so I'm guessing its fairly inefficient now. Secondly, I lost the bag of cables which came with it, completely removing the modularity and meaning I'm running 3 hard drives, 7 fans and a dvd drive just off two of the modular cable things, while there's space for 4 more of those cables in the back of the PSU. And finally I'm considering upgrading my GPU to something more powerful which may need a second 6pin cable. And lacking this modular cable, I would have to use one of the molex convertors, again placing even more load onto those two modular cables I'm running almost everything off, which isn't really much good.
I've emailed enermax to see if there's any way I can get more cables, if they can sell them for fairly cheap I may well just buy a couple to even the loads out on my PSU meaning I can keep it, even with a new GPU.

However, like I said, its possibly coming on 5 years old, so would upgrading be a good idea anyway? Get a more efficient PSU which will save on my bills in the long run? The PSU calculator estimates that I need a 430W psu at the moment, jumping to a 600W if I switch to a 6970 (Which is my current plan, 6950 unlocked).

Would there be any real benefit upgrading the PSU if I can source more modular cables for it? If so, what would be a good pick? I don't think I actually need a modular one as my PC has so much room at the back I could tidy all the cables over there which means I could get a cheaper, non-modular one, which would be great.

Thanks in advance!
 
I don't think I'd really be spending more than £60 unless there was something a large step up for not much extra money. That StealthXstream looks great, and I don't think I could justify double the price just for the 80+ gold cert :p
 
I have a similar question (sorry for the thread hijack!)

I've been using a non-modular Corsair VX450W in a non-OCed Q6600 build (main use was HTPC).

Should i get a new PSU for the following or would it be ok to use the one i already have?

I've just ordered the following from ** No Mentioning of Competitors **

Overclocking - Intel i5/i7 professionally overclocked to 4.5Ghz!

CPU ------- Intel Core i5 2500K - 3.3Ghz Quad Core, 6Mb Cache
Cooler ---- Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus
MoBo ----- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3, Intel P67 - Rev3!
RAM ------ 4Gb (2x2Gb) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 1600Mhz


Thanks all
 
SeeknDestroy said:
This is probably what you're looking for m8
Click to expand...

What would be the difference between that and the OCZ one? The Antec is 80+ Bronze, though looking at Hardware Secrets review of the OCZ (Albeit the 600W model) the OCZ one meets the bronze specifications. And at £20 cheaper, the OCZ does seem to do everything I'd need from it?
 
I'd go with the XFX 650W modular. Plenty of power for a single card setup.

As for vipstarr PSU, it depends on the graphics card. It'd be OK with a low power graphics card (basically a token GPU, or up to a 5770). You do need a GFX with the P67 I believe.
 
@ Iviv - The ocz one will handle your spec just fine, the one seek linked will just leave more room to upgrade.

@ vipstarr - If your not using a graphics card then that psu should be fine for that build, for any modern, decent gfx card and that setup you want around 600-700watt :)
 
iviv said:
What would be the difference between that and the OCZ one? The Antec is 80+ Bronze, though looking at Hardware Secrets review of the OCZ (Albeit the 600W model) the OCZ one meets the bronze specifications. And at £20 cheaper, the OCZ does seem to do everything I'd need from it?
Click to expand...

Better quality, efficiency, more 12V power, some modularity, although the OCZ 600W will do the job. Not keen on the 500W version, only one PCI-E (although can use an adapter), and not the same design.

Between the OCZ and the Corsair TX / XFX Core 650W, I would take the Core / Corsair any day.

the XFX 650W xxx is modular, and would be my choice. It's very versatile, good power, very good quality, and very good efficiency.
 
Thanks for the replies lads

I'm not a PC gamer - I've been using a 'ATI Radeon 2600 HD PRO' (a Powercolor fanless card)

I'm going to eventually use the parts I'm swapping out to build a proper HTPC. I'll then transfer out the PSU and GPU and replace them in the Sandy Bridge build with something a lot better.

My only concern was if the PSU was sufficient for the over-clock
 
Yeah, I wouldn't be going that low in power, would deffinately get the 700W OCZ, more room to expand as said above. I don't have any plans for crossfire, so it should easily be beefy enough, I dont see graphics cards being able to draw too much power given the ATX spec limits, and those probably aren't going to change anytime soon, so it would be a pretty strong thing to keep, all in all. Perhaps the only problem with the 700stealthXstreme is that it only has a 6 and a 6+2 pin, but I'm not sure there are any cards that require 2x 8 pins? Certaily not at my price level!

The XFX is slightly out of my price range, and the corsair is almost too expensive as well, at £10 more, though I could stretch if it was really worth it... so is it? :p
 
vipstarr said:
Thanks for the replies lads

I'm not a PC gamer - I've been using a 'ATI Radeon 2600 HD PRO' (a Powercolor fanless card)

I'm going to eventually use the parts I'm swapping out to build a proper HTPC. I'll then transfer out the PSU and GPU and replace them in the Sandy Bridge build with something a lot better.

My only concern was if the PSU was sufficient for the over-clock
Click to expand...

Yes, more than enough. You will be limited by the cooler, which is good for a sustained 4.4GHz-4.6GHz I would estimate (or 4.5GHz as stated in the bundle :)).
 
iviv said:
Yeah, I wouldn't be going that low in power, would deffinately get the 700W OCZ, more room to expand as said above. I don't have any plans for crossfire, so it should easily be beefy enough, I dont see graphics cards being able to draw too much power given the ATX spec limits, and those probably aren't going to change anytime soon, so it would be a pretty strong thing to keep, all in all. Perhaps the only problem with the 700stealthXstreme is that it only has a 6 and a 6+2 pin, but I'm not sure there are any cards that require 2x 8 pins? Certaily not at my price level!

The XFX is slightly out of my price range, and the corsair is almost too expensive as well, at £10 more, though I could stretch if it was really worth it... so is it? :p
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I'm a big fan of good PSUs, so I'd say it's worth it. But at the same time, the OCZs will do the job for you as well, and it's not bad by any mean. You can also shop around and see if you can get a good deal.

IMO there wouldn't be much benefit going from 600W to 700W if you only plan a medium range graphics card (GTX460, GTX 560, HD5850, HD6950). 650W is basically the sweet spot for a high-mid range rig.

If you want cheap, the OCZ 600W. If you want quality, stretch to £65 Corsair TX650W / XFX Core 650W. If you want modular, the XFX 650W xxx or Antec TruPower 850W.
 
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olivier renault said:
I'm a big fan of good PSUs, so I'd say it's worth it. But at the same time, the OCZs will do the job for you as well, and it's not bad by any mean. You can also shop around and see if you can get a good deal.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's the review of the original StealthXStream, here is the V2 in question. And its even better, saying that the 600W easily meets the 80+ Bronze cert, and able to pull over 700W staying over 80% efficiency. And it was that review which attracted me towards the OCZ one, based on the assumption that the 700W would be of similar quality. Obviously I wouldn't be using it over spec, but being able to go over 15% over spec and still being highly efficient, shows that it seems to be high quality.

I fully agree that you shouldn't skimp on power supplies, but the problem with PSUs is that its hard to quantify exactly how much better one is than another :(
 
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