Choosing the right power supply?

cirx08

Hi i'm building a brand new computer and I want to know how I should go about buying a power supply, How do I know how many watts I will need?

So far the build consists of an Intel i5 3570k overclocked to 4.0GHz, 8GB Corsair Vengeance memory, this mother board, a Corsair H50 CPU water cooler, an EVGA GTX550 ti 2GB graphics card, a 500GB HDD, a 128GB SSD and a Lightscribe DVD burner, also about 5 120mm fans

Eboggles

That's a crap graphics card, and the water cooler is poor.

You'd need a 450 watt PSU. Try and use Hardwareversand instead.

Monotype

You don't need 5 fans.

Eboggles wrote: »

You'd need a good 450 watt PSU.

Fixed your post.

The XFX, Antec HCG and OCZ ZS PSUs are all of good quality on dabs and are about the best value. If you buy from hardwareversand, the Superflower Amazon PSUs are nice and cheap (while maintaining quality).

cirx08

Eboggles wrote: »

That's a crap graphics card, and the water cooler is poor.

You'd need a 450 watt PSU. Try and use Hardwareversand instead.

I'm not a real big gamer so a 2GB GTX 550 ti should be fine for playing MineCraft don't you think? on my laptop I can run it on high using nothing but the integrated i5 graphics, and I was thinking the Corsair CX500 V2 PSU?

I compared both from dabs and hardwareversand and there wasn't a difference in price so i'm going with dabs because i'v used them before in the past :P as for the water cooling my mistake I meant H60, do you not think it would be ok? and i'm only getting 4, 2 for future upgrade...

Procrastastudy

4Ghz isn't really an over clock on an i5-3570K the turbo frequency is 3.8Ghz - so the need for water cooling is pretty moot. If it wasn't from what I've read you're better off with a good air cooling solution unless you go for the H100. Just as a RL example mine does 4.3Ghz under volted.

Why buy the GPU? I simply wouldn't buy any if it was for mine craft. If its for the odd game here and there go for a 6870 so you have eyefinity support for what every you need an over clocked i5 for - I assume its some of graphics or video work.

Memory doesn't matter so don't spend more than €40 on 8GB.

ED E

OT: You're up late GCD

Monotype

There's probably better value PSUs than the 500W CX. Some 450W PSUs are better than it.
Where are you looking?

I agree with GCDLS, do you need a graphics card at all?

Procrastastudy

ED E wrote: »

OT: You're up late GCD

Procrastastudy

ZeroThreat

Got a superflower golden green 650W PSU myself, but now I'm thinking I should've got the 750W instead, in case I ever decide to add a 2nd 670.

cirx08

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

4Ghz isn't really an over clock on an i5-3570K the turbo frequency is 3.8Ghz - so the need for water cooling is pretty moot. If it wasn't from what I've read you're better off with a good air cooling solution unless you go for the H100. Just as a RL example mine does 4.3Ghz under volted.

Why buy the GPU? I simply wouldn't buy any if it was for mine craft. If its for the odd game here and there go for a 6870 so you have eyefinity support for what every you need an over clocked i5 for - I assume its some of graphics or video work.

Memory doesn't matter so don't spend more than €40 on 8GB.

I need the 8GB of memory because my main purpose is software and web development and I need to be able to run programs and compile them at a fast speed, as for the GPU what if instead of a GTX 550 ti I went for something really really cheap like this just so I won't have to run the games of my CPU? With the H60 how high do you think I could get the overclock and I was thinking along with the H60 adding 3 outtake fans and 3 intake fans just for extra cooling because this think could be a 24/7 web server too so I need it to stay cool?

Procrastastudy

As I've said H100 or air cooling tbh. Should be able to >4.5Ghz easily but as I've not done it myself I don't like to comment.

Yes you will be running games from your CPU but there is a dedicated part of the die that does it - a 5th core if you like.

While I have to qualify this by saying I am a huge AMD fanboy when it comes to video cards why do you keep selecting rubbish nVidia cards when there is an AMD card at the same price? Thats not to say all nVidia cards are pants the 670 is a monster - at the end you're looking at by AMD. As a programmer will you will need to use other OSs like linux? If so you are forced down the AMD route is Linus's F-bomb is anything to go by.

On memory yep def go for 8GB just don't shell out of faster more expensive RAM - in your situation I'd possibly even go for 16GB but keep it a cheap as possible.

cirx08

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

As I've said H100 or air cooling tbh. Should be able to >4.5Ghz easily but as I've not done it myself I don't like to comment.

Yes you will be running games from your CPU but there is a dedicated part of the die that does it - a 5th core if you like.

While I have to qualify this by saying I am a huge AMD fanboy when it comes to video cards why do you keep selecting rubbish nVidia cards when there is an AMD card at the same price? Thats not to say all nVidia cards are pants the 670 is a monster - at the end you're looking at by AMD. As a programmer will you will need to use other OSs like linux? If so you are forced down the AMD route is Linus's F-bomb is anything to go by.

On memory yep def go for 8GB just don't shell out of faster more expensive RAM - in your situation I'd possibly even go for 16GB but keep it a cheap as possible.

At the moment I can't afford a H100 but the H60 with 6 fans should be more than enough for a 4.0 - 4.5GHz overclock, as for the other operating systems I have them on my laptop so I don't need to worry about them and I won't be working on them too much. But back to my original question is 500W enough to power all this keeping in mind in the future I will be getting a better GPU so I can run dual monitors?

deceit

Instead of getting them extra fans I would just upgrade the the cooler to a noctua d14 or a h100 cooler as that would be more affective at keeping temps down than more fans.
Also the gtx550 ti 2gb card is a waste. If you want a card around the same budget get a hd6850 or a gtx550ti 1gb card as 2gb on a low end card like that is wasted as it doesnt have the grunt to make use of it. It would only be useful if you run about 10-20 vm's at a time from your pc.

Procrastastudy

It really doesn't make much sense to buy a very expensive cooler that doesn't cool as well as one that costs less money regardless of how they cool. Especially as you are going to have a lot of air cooling going an anyway. That said it's your build.

cirx08

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

It really doesn't make much sense to buy a very expensive cooler that doesn't cool as well as one that costs less money regardless of how they cool. Especially as you are going to have a lot of air cooling going an anyway. That said it's your build.

What? The H60 is only €60 whereas the H100 is €110

cirx08

deceit wrote: »

Instead of getting them extra fans I would just upgrade the the cooler to a noctua d14 or a h100 cooler as that would be more affective at keeping temps down than more fans.
Also the gtx550 ti 2gb card is a waste. If you want a card around the same budget get a hd6850 or a gtx550ti 1gb card as 2gb on a low end card like that is wasted as it doesnt have the grunt to make use of it. It would only be useful if you run about 10-20 vm's at a time from your pc.

Then I might go for the GTX 550 ti 1GB version because it has 2 DVI ports to run my dual monitors, the HD6850 doesn't.

deceit

Most 6850's have two dvi ports also like this one http://www2.hardwareversand.de/1024+MB/39499/HIS+HD+6850+Fan+GDDR5+1024MB+Native+HDMI+Display+Port+Dual-DVI.article
I would prefer the 6850 if you ever intend on gaming on mid-high settings in the future on the likes of battlefield but if you dont have plans for this just get the cheapest one available.

Procrastastudy

cirx08 wrote: »

What? The H60 is only €60 whereas the H100 is €110

Better coolers using air are cheaper than €60

cirx08

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Better coolers using air are cheaper than €60

Like what?

cirx08

deceit wrote: »

Most 6850's have two dvi ports also like this one http://www2.hardwareversand.de/1024+MB/39499/HIS+HD+6850+Fan+GDDR5+1024MB+Native+HDMI+Display+Port+Dual-DVI.article
I would prefer the 6850 if you ever intend on gaming on mid-high settings in the future on the likes of battlefield but if you dont have plans for this just get the cheapest one available.

Maybe in the future but for now will this play MineCraft on far with good FPS? because I highly doubt the integrated Intel HD 4000 will, My laptop is running an AMD Radeon HD 6470m on maxed settings with 150 FPS so I want that?

Procrastastudy

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

H60 doesn't even feature

cirx08

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

H60 doesn't even feature

Name one of those like you said is under €60

Procrastastudy

Some are less than $70 - any way your build - not making much sense but if your happy.

deceit

I'm not sure about the graphics requirements for minecraft as i've never bothered with it as its not my type of game. I would be sure it could be played with onboard graphics though as its minimum requirements are a 3200 which is really old.
I only mentioned to switch coolers to the dearer one if your where going to bother buying 5 fans. If you where buying 5 fans I would remove them and the h60 from the budget and but the h100 for the same price as a h60 and 5 fans and have better/quieter cooling and then not bother with buying other fans. Also the h60 is an okay cooler. The ones gcdlawstudent is showing are generally much more expensive and it seems to be a crappy list in anyway is it puts a d14 in 10th position.

deceit

I would get this cooler over the h60 though if you can get it for the same price but mostly because it looks awesome
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cases_cooling/be_quiet_dark_rock_pro_review/1

cirx08

deceit wrote: »

I'm not sure about the graphics requirements for minecraft as i've never bothered with it as its not my type of game. I would be sure it could be played with onboard graphics though as its minimum requirements are a 3200 which is really old.
I only mentioned to switch coolers to the dearer one if your where going to bother buying 5 fans. If you where buying 5 fans I would remove them and the h60 from the budget and but the h100 for the same price as a h60 and 5 fans and have better/quieter cooling and then not bother with buying other fans. Also the h60 is an okay cooler. The ones gcdlawstudent is showing are generally much more expensive and it seems to be a crappy list in anyway is it puts a d14 in 10th position.

Would it make much of a difference because I looked it up and I wouldn't be able to properly fit the H100 in the case, I could attach it but only with four screws as the case has two 140mm fans but the 120mm screw mounts are in the middle of the 140mm's so the spacing for the second fan screws would be off and to be honest i'm not really worried about too much noise.