Should I buy a new power supply?

[devils_advocate]

Today i got a gtx570 from a friend after upgrading his pc, just googled the power minimum recommended. the gpu requares an psu with +12 volt current rating of 38 amps, i have a psu with 36 amps. Should I buy a new power supply?

 

[Chevron]

That doesn't really help much. Rather give us the specs of your PC and what brand and wattage your power is.

Remember that GFX manufacturers overstate power requirements most of the time.

 

[devils_advocate]

i5 750, 4 HDDs, Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 650W...

 

[Pada]

12V @ 36A (432W) would've been more than enough to power that PC of yours.

The problem that I have with that PSU of your is that it has 2x +12V rails @ 18A each, and not a single +12V rail @ 36A, and I cannot tell for sure how the load would be spread across those 2 rails. So there is a chance that the hard drives and graphics card all run on the same rail, and then it's overload protection could kick in when the graphics card is under very high load in combination with the hard drives.

In my opinion you can run that graphics card off that PSU, but you'll be taking a risk of running it at high load, which could lead to a disaster.

If you're going for a new PSU, I'd recommend a +12V single rail design PSU, such as the XFX ProSeries 550W.
Having a single rail design PSU just makes the calculation of whether the PSU will handle the load much easier. Technically a decent multi-rail PSU can be better in terms of protection, but not in terms of performance.
Read more on single vs. multi rail PSU's here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990
http://www.overclock.net/t/761202/single-rail-vs-multi-rail-explained

If you want to run benchmark apps and overclock your graphics card and CPU, then I'd HIGHLY recommend that you buy a new and decent 550 - 650W PSU.
If you're not going to overclock at all, and you have Green/LowPower HDD's, and you're not going to attempt to copy like crazy while playing games, then I suppose your PSU shouldn't have any issues with handling the load. If the load is too high for one of the 2 rails, the PSU should shut down.

 

[Electric]

As pada says, you want a PSU with enough juice on a single rail.

 

[Pada]

As pada says, you want a PSU with enough juice on a single rail.

Either that, or one where you know the PEG connectors are on a separate +12V rail, that isn't being shared with other components, such as hard drives...

 

[devils_advocate]

i have been playing games for hours with no problems but i think i will get a new psu to be on the safe side.
thanks for the help

 

[wizardofid]

12V @ 36A (432W) would've been more than enough to power that PC of yours.

The problem that I have with that PSU of your is that it has 2x +12V rails @ 18A each, and not a single +12V rail @ 36A, and I cannot tell for sure how the load would be spread across those 2 rails. So there is a chance that the hard drives and graphics card all run on the same rail, and then it's overload protection could kick in when the graphics card is under very high load in combination with the hard drives.

In my opinion you can run that graphics card off that PSU, but you'll be taking a risk of running it at high load, which could lead to a disaster.

If you're going for a new PSU, I'd recommend a +12V single rail design PSU, such as the XFX ProSeries 550W.
Having a single rail design PSU just makes the calculation of whether the PSU will handle the load much easier. Technically a decent multi-rail PSU can be better in terms of protection, but not in terms of performance.
Read more on single vs. multi rail PSU's here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990
http://www.overclock.net/t/761202/single-rail-vs-multi-rail-explained

If you want to run benchmark apps and overclock your graphics card and CPU, then I'd HIGHLY recommend that you buy a new and decent 550 - 650W PSU.
If you're not going to overclock at all, and you have Green/LowPower HDD's, and you're not going to attempt to copy like crazy while playing games, then I suppose your PSU shouldn't have any issues with handling the load. If the load is too high for one of the 2 rails, the PSU should shut down.

A COUPLE of things

There virtually no benefit over single or multi-rail, literally makes no difference, as to which one you decide to use.
HDD's use a insignificant amount of power average 0.65amps 12volt and 0.35 off 3.3 and 5 volt rail, it's only when running a file server for example, where HDD's needs to have a stagger start up to avoid exceeding 5 and 3.3volt rails

"2x +12V rails @ 18A" each the GPU only needs 9 amps from each rail, so if he load balances it would be no problem, ran a 570GTX on pcar 500watt for about a month while I waited for my replacement PSU and no problems.

"In my opinion you can run that graphics card off that PSU, but you'll be taking a risk of running it at high load, which could lead to a disaster." How exactly ? Considering the PSU has protective circuity for both rails specially Under voltage and over voltage protection in place there is not risk of danger other than the psu restarting if it isn't able to provide enough juice.The only time there is danger is if the ripple is out of spec which can damage hardware, but that again means the protections would kick in.


"Technically a decent multi-rail PSU can be better in terms of protection, but not in terms of performance." There ZERO, performance difference, if you actually spend the time reading the jonny guru link, you would have notice where he mentions ZERO practical difference....Single rail, is only at risk with really high wattage units, and at that is still a theoretical...18 gauge wires can take a whole lot more than couple amps it's rated for, high wattage units don't supply enough to even melt wires during normal operations let alone catch fire.Multi rail down side is exceeding rail output, but proper planning and load balancing there is no risk.

graphics card is under very high load in combination with the hard drives.as appose to what other load ? already mentioned no impact from the HDD's side, HIGH GPU and HIGH CPU load, would cause more problems that high GPU load with active HDD'S....

Besides it would be virtually impossible to load all rails 100% while gaming if all hardware connected is within total output of the PSU, as there will be hardware in the system that would be either in a idle state or using nominal power.Gaming has a peak usage, so even if it manages to be 100 percent load on both CPU and GPU, it doesn't mean the rail is at 100% too, CPU usage monitor is also not reliable...

decent 550 - 650W PSUFor overclocking you will be needing a fair bit more, pushing 850watt and still have overhead for future upgrades.And no there is no such thing as too much power either in fact higher the wattage the less the load on the PSU and the less heat is generated which is good for efficiency and PSU, efficiency rating has to be good at both low and high loads, if you buy a decent PSU in the first place. Considering efficiency ratings are done at 25 degrees, PSU's fail efficiency ratings in real world usage often.

 

[Pada]

wizardofid:
Thanks for the feedback. It's always great to have 2 sides of the story
I don't completely agree on everything that you said, but lets just leave it at that.

What scares me about the Coolermaster EPP 650W is its protection... because like in the Hardware Secrets' review of the 600W unit, the unit's switching transistor burned out near peak load. During their analysis, they mentioned that the PSU had no OCP (over current protection), which meant that if the load was spread incorrectly, you'll most likely burn out components.
Secondly, when the PSU is under high load, its voltage regulation is very poor, which can lead to instability and even damage components if it goes too high.

Fortunately in that review they actually gave the exact power distribution of the +12V rails:

• +12V1 (solid yellow wire): Main motherboard cable, SATA power cables, peripheral power cable, and one of the video card power cables
• +12V2 (yellow with black stripe wire): ATX12V/EPS12V cable and one of the video card power cables

So the graphics card should get its power from both +12V rails and not just from a single one, meaning the 18A limit on the rail shouldn't be an issue, unless you're going to overclock your CPU very far.
Also take note that the load due to the graphics card shouldn't be that high, unless you're going to run Furmark in particular, and it would be even higher if you ran it while the graphics card was overclocked.

I had issues with my office PC today, after 3 years of using a Coolermaster EPP 460W, where I first had a RAM module gone bad and then BSOD due to sound card driver - so now I'm suspecting the PSU of starting to fail and perhaps even be the cause of my RAM going bad

So my conclusion/recommendation is that you can use that CM EPP 650W PSU as long as you don't overclock or run Furmark. In the long run it is better to have a good and trusted PSU, because the odds of having stability problems or damaging your components are less!

 

[wizardofid]

wizardofid:
Thanks for the feedback. It's always great to have 2 sides of the story
I don't completely agree on everything that you said, but lets just leave it at that.

If you have issues come clean now, and it's not two sides of the story, it's either right or wrong, nor is it based on opinions. I don't use hardware secrets, or any other website reviews other that jonnyguru, hardware secrets half of time don't get the gist of it and their reviews are highly opinionated, even if factual they fail to take that into consideration certain things.

Um have a look at the date of the hardware secrets review PSU's get updated and revised regularly, 2010 model will not be the same 2013 model.

http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/extreme/extreme-power-plus-650w/
The 650watt is touted to have those protections.In fact I have a 2012 EPP made by FSP, and has a daughter board installed with protections in place as well as the rail protections on 12volt rails.

Oh I never said, CM PSU's in general are good I wouldn't use one for longer than I have to, it's in fact in an old Q6600 rig I couldn't care less,CM does have protections in place in the event of under or over voltage protection.
However that still doesn't protect the Hardware from failures, however, Should it not be able to supply enough power it would simply shutdown, very high voltage jolts for example and a power surge, will by pass all matter of protections even the fuse, and kill hardware....lightning is a prefect example of this... seen PSU's come out working 100% after a lightning strike.

 

[Electric]

i have been playing games for hours with no problems but i think i will get a new psu to be on the safe side.
thanks for the help

So you just asked the question?
Did you test it before asking?
It seems like you didn't even need to ask the question because a simple trial and error would have sufficed.

 

[devils_advocate]

So you just asked the question?
Did you test it before asking?
It seems like you didn't even need to ask the question because a simple trial and error would have sufficed.

no i didn't test before asking.
i wanted to get a second opinion before starting