Which PSU should I buy?

It’ll handle what you need without any issues. But—if you're planning on dropping in a much beefier graphics card down the road—you might want to just grab this power supply now and enjoy the peace of mind later.

It really just depends on how much power they plan to pull, so maybe a 550W unit is overkill.

That’s what I'm thinking too—at least things will be quiet for a while 😁

Larry Ortiz5 said:It'll work just fine. But if you’re planning on dropping in a much beefier GPU down the road, grab this power supply now and you won't have to worry about it later..

http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?products_id=9848

Nah, I'm good. I just picked up this HD6850 with the EVGA cooler and it's been running for a year and a half already, so I definitely won't be swapping out my graphics card anytime soon. 🙂

In that case, just grab that Corsair one and call it a day...

I need a new PSU for this build—I was running an Xilencos 550W with a dual-core setup before, but I swapped it out for a Phenom that pulls 140W, and the power supply just gave up the ghost after a bit. Since I'm pretty much a newbie at this, I really don't want to blow a ton of cash on some cheap junk that's just gonna die on me again.

ASRock M3N78D CPU-AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965
ASRock M3N78D CPU-AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965 (3.4GHz)
Corsair Vengeance RAM—4GB at 1600MHz.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 (1GB GDDR5)
Just an old 500GB Western Digital Caviar spinning at 7200RPM—basically a relic from a different era.

I think I’d personally go with this one:

Not sure how much that 80+ rating actually matters if my old 550W unit couldn't even cut it—is there anything with higher wattage out there? Just want to be sure I don't end up with a blown rig in a month.

Edit—I’m not about to flush money down the drain if I’m planning an upgrade anyway—plus, there isn't even any room left in the case to make it happen.

I could probably write a whole book on how terrible some power supplies can be, but I’ll try to keep it brief for you here. 😬

The one you were using definitely wasn't top-tier—unless it was an older unit from a brand like Corsair or XFX that just finally gave up the ghost after years of service. Honestly, it's no surprise it died on you; those lower-end units often don't actually deliver nearly as much power as they claim on the box.

Your GPU pulls about 160W under full load, and once you add in the rest of your components, you're looking at needing roughly 300-350W total—at least, that's my best estimate off the top of my head. The one I picked out for you provides a solid 450W of actual, reliable power. In this hobby, you really shouldn't cut corners on the PSU, because it's essentially the heart that keeps everything else alive. I've heard stories of people dropping $3.25 on high-end parts but cheaping out on the power supply, only to have a single surge fry their entire rig.

I could suggest a 750W unit instead, but why bother? You'd basically just be throwing money away for no reason.

>: I just noticed you mentioned you were using a Xilencos unit. To be honest, I'm not sure what the verdict is on those—I haven't personally used one myself.

Are you being stubborn? Honestly, you're just like me— 😬

If you really want some peace and quiet for once, you might want to look into this:

Or maybe

Thanks a million, lady

That XFX 450W would probably handle it just fine, but if you go with the XFX 550W—which actually delivers a true 550W—you won't have to worry about anything, even with much higher power draws later on.

I keep telling him the same thing over and over—but hey, if he wants to go through with it, that's his call. 😁

Larry Ortiz5 said:I keep telling him, but if that's how he sees it, then so be 😁

honestly, better to go too hard than to be too soft

Hey everyone...

I'm looking to pick up a new power supply for my rig, specifically one that won't drive me crazy with noise. I've been using an EVGA 750W unit, but it’s honestly pretty loud, and I've actually had to swap it out twice in just a single year. According to the guys at the repair shop, there might be some underlying issues with that specific series, so I've decided it's time to move on to something else. My budget is around $750, which is what the current unit is worth to me, though I am willing to put a little extra cash toward a better option if it makes sense. Ideally, I'd love to find something modular like my old EVGA setup was.
cpu: Intel Core 2 Quad
coolermaster 412s
ram: 2x 4gb corsair vegenance
mb: gigabyte 990fx
gpu: hd7850
dvd rom
ssd 128gb
hdd wd caviar black
4x120mm vent i 4 neonke

http://www.newegg.com/p/product_info.php?c...oducts_id=8577

It’s probably total overkill, but I guess you might actually get some use out of that PSU if you decide to throw in a CF setup and go for a crazy overclock on the CPU 😬

The CPU is actually an unlocked 960T and I’ve got it overclocked to 3.8GHz, which I totally forgot to mention earlier. I'm wondering if the CX600 will be enough to handle it, because while I haven't started putting the liquid cooling together just yet, that is definitely my next move...

The cx600 is more than enough. Though, if you ask me, the one from crimsonstag84 is actually the better pick. Hold on, let me check what it's worth $250 - so, because of the warranty claim, do you have to pick something in that same price bracket or pay the difference? You can't just grab a cheaper model and have them refund the rest, right?

Well... I suppose that one with the Bronze certification is decent enough, though I guess I’m not a huge fan of putting those CXeve units in high-end builds.

If they absolutely have to pick something in the $250 range, they should honestly spend every single cent 😬—even if it’s total overkill
. I don't really follow these high-end hardware obsessions myself, but I think it would be much more helpful if you specified which retailer you're looking at. That way, people can actually give you some solid recommendations based on what's in stock...