Wondering if this PSU will be sufficient?

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FrEaKo

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Hey guys,

I am building a PC for a friend and I am wondering if we can keep his current PSU to save money.

The PSU:

http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/extreme/extreme-power-plus-500w/

Amps are displayed at the bottom of that link.

The specs for the computer are:

16gb DDR3 1600 RAM
Asus B85-Plus motherboard
Intel Haswell i7-4790
Intel 2.5" 120gb SSD
Asus R9-280x 3gb
2TB HDD
1TB HDD
DVD writer

I am think that it probably won't? I am mostly concerned about all the Hard drives and the R9-280x. No overclocking will be done at all. Oh and the PSU is 4 years old today.

Thoughts?
 
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chromedome

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Just watch out for the fan, I have the exact same psu (going strong since 2007). I Just upgraded my pc and was planning on going the same route as you until I realized the psu fan had packed up somewhere along the line. I have to admit since replacing the fan the psu is still going strong in my old pc.
 
Cameronkk

Cameronkk

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For grapghics alone up to 300W additional 6+8 pin PCIe power required.
That PSU only has 1x PCIe 6 pin connector so no won't work.
 
Cameronkk

Cameronkk

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Just use this as a guide line. And read a lot of reviews and user comments about a high end component before you buy. Unless you wanna cheap out then just buy and hope for the best.

Calculator

Also PSU is 4 Years old so it may have lost 20 to 30% of its wattage capacity. You may actually only have a 329 watt PSU there. Which is just enough for graphics only.

What I personally use
 
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Chevron

Chevron

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Rather get a better brand name power supply like Corsair or Seasonic.
 
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EmileS

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Cameronkk said:
Also PSU is 4 Years old so it may have lost 20 to 30% of its wattage capacity. You may actually only have a 329 watt PSU there.
Click to expand...

Never heard of this before. Any legit science or reviews around your theory?
 
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EmileS

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FrEaKo said:
Hey guys,

I am building a PC for a friend and I am wondering if we can keep his current PSU to save money.

The PSU:

http://www.coolermaster.com/powersupply/extreme/extreme-power-plus-500w/

Amps are displayed at the bottom of that link.

The specs for the computer are:

16gb DDR3 1600 RAM
Asus B85-Plus motherboard
Intel Haswell i7-4790
Intel 2.5" 120gb SSD
Asus R9-280x 3gb
2TB HDD
1TB HDD
DVD writer

I am think that it probably won't? I am mostly concerned about all the Hard drives and the R9-280x. No overclocking will be done at all. Oh and the PSU is 4 years old today.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
The PSU won't be a problem. The R9 280X uses between 200 and 250W under full-load. So, he'll be fine since it's the power hungry beast in the case. But, you can upgrade it to something good if you consider a few things. I'm guessing that he want's to get some of the components listed or he owns some of them already?

I'm assuming he wants to get the components listed with the below:
Why 16GB of RAM? If he's only going to game, then 8GB will be plenty which will open up R1k to get him a decent PSU.
B85 motherboard? I guess if he was on a tight budget that would make sense, but he's buying or has an i7 4790, which means he can at least settle for a H87 with a bit more features.
Why the i7-4790? Again, if he's only going to game, the i5-4670k is more than enough. The money saved can go into a bigger GPU, or a H87 and PSU.
Nothing wrong with the 120GB SSD, but he should be looking at the 256GB.
If he's planning on getting a 1TB and 2TB he should rather just get a 3TB. But, I'm guessing he owns one of those already.
Asus 280X is a very good card, just a bit overpriced compared to the alternatives.
 
Cameronkk

Cameronkk

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EmileS said:
Never heard of this before. Any legit science or reviews around your theory?
Click to expand...

Capacitors heat up during use, the hotter something gets the shorter its lifespan will be, over time this degrades its performance. Also depends of quality of capacitor used.
 
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FrEaKo

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Messages
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Cameronkk said:
For grapghics alone up to 300W additional 6+8 pin PCIe power required.
That PSU only has 1x PCIe 6 pin connector so no won't work.
Click to expand...

Oh balls. Okay cool I will look for a new PSU then. I think I will go for a decent modular Corsair and maybe drop the 3TB for a 1TB or leave it out completely as we want to keep this under R15k :wtf:.

Thanks for the feedback guys :D.
 
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FrEaKo

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Messages
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EmileS said:
The PSU won't be a problem. The R9 280X uses between 200 and 250W under full-load. So, he'll be fine since it's the power hungry beast in the case. But, you can upgrade it to something good if you consider a few things. I'm guessing that he want's to get some of the components listed or he owns some of them already?

I'm assuming he wants to get the components listed with the below:
Why 16GB of RAM? If he's only going to game, then 8GB will be plenty which will open up R1k to get him a decent PSU.
B85 motherboard? I guess if he was on a tight budget that would make sense, but he's buying or has an i7 4790, which means he can at least settle for a H87 with a bit more features.
Why the i7-4790? Again, if he's only going to game, the i5-4670k is more than enough. The money saved can go into a bigger GPU, or a H87 and PSU.
Nothing wrong with the 120GB SSD, but he should be looking at the 256GB.
If he's planning on getting a 1TB and 2TB he should rather just get a 3TB. But, I'm guessing he owns one of those already.
Asus 280X is a very good card, just a bit overpriced compared to the alternatives.
Click to expand...


Hey, thanks for the feedback. He is going to game yes but he also does a lot of rendering and architecture work. He wants a beast of a PC but is also on a budget so therefore the cheaper motherboard. I believe its sufficient as he wont need or use anymore features than what it currently has? Once he gets this system it will stay like this for another couple of years, so extra motherboard features won't matter.

And yeah, he owns the 1TB drive already and we are dropping the 3TB drive for a 1TB to save money for a new PSU. I will look into the Core i5 but thing is people hear "i7" and get happy but when they hear i5 they think oh its inferior. So I think I am gonna stick with that since I don't want to explain to his whole family why they are paying so much for an i5 based computer when they can get an i7 computer from Incredible Corruption or wherever for cheaper. :p. They specifically also requested it be an i7 initially.
 
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EmileS

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FrEaKo said:
Hey, thanks for the feedback. He is going to game yes but he also does a lot of rendering and architecture work. He wants a beast of a PC but is also on a budget so therefore the cheaper motherboard. I believe its sufficient as he wont need or use anymore features than what it currently has? Once he gets this system it will stay like this for another couple of years, so extra motherboard features won't matter.

And yeah, he owns the 1TB drive already and we are dropping the 3TB drive for a 1TB to save money for a new PSU. I will look into the Core i5 but thing is people hear "i7" and get happy but when they hear i5 they think oh its inferior. So I think I am gonna stick with that since I don't want to explain to his whole family why they are paying so much for an i5 based computer when they can get an i7 computer from Incredible Corruption or wherever for cheaper. :p. They specifically also requested it be an i7 initially.
Click to expand...
Hahaha I get what you're saying... That "i7" syndrome, "I want an i7, but I want to save money"

With regards to the connector, just check in the PSU box or the GPU box for the Sata to PCI-e connector (if he still has those boxes), it usually comes with the connectors.
 
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EmileS

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Cameronkk said:
Capacitors heat up during use, the hotter something gets the shorter its lifespan will be, over time this degrades its performance. Also depends of quality of capacitor used.
Click to expand...
This is true. But, your figure of 20%-30% is way off. Even with the cheapest caps in the PSUs on the market. People usually bargain for 10% loss over 5 years, since cap tech has moved forward over the past 10 years. Going with your 20% means that his PSU is now 400W, and at 70-72% efficiency means he'll only get 280W out of it. Thus the PSU won't be big enough.
 
wizardofid

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Don't buy mid range or entry coolmaster PSU's ever, point period the antec in this thread will be a better buy for the OP.Regardless of the know it all's in this thread, you ALWAYS buy headroom in a PSU regardless.

@EmileS average cap derates at about 2% to %5 a year on good caps, crapcitor's derate as much as 10% to 20%. However that said even good caps will possibly derate at a higher rate pending airflow, and relative humidity and general usage.Point is why you by a slightly larger PSU to reduce CAP overhead, irrespective of how much you will be using, A PSU running a 60% capacity will universally last you 10 times longer than a PSU at 80% even 90% peak load.

and PSU's don't "lose" wattage, a PSU derates.


Cameronkk@ Heat does not degrade, it suffers from the same as above "derate", even thought it is a temporary flux, ripple is serious enough to both kill HDD's and other hardware, on a limb.Heat degrades performance in games for example, Even then, you need to apply serious amount of heat to a capacitor, to do any irreversible damage, usually with in a few % of the rate temp, However even if is capable of reaching 85 degrees like teapo for example, which isn't a half bad cap, will derate as low 45 degrees, which in general what the average PSU can handle before you have some serious ripple issues, it also means, efficiency goes out the door, a gold rating gets quickly knocked down to bronze when you apply some serious heat, like this past summer.

Gold rating means jack smith, considering they test at a measly 25 degrees.
 
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EmileS

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wizardofid said:
@EmileS average cap derates at about 2% to %5 a year on good caps, crapcitor's derate as much as 10% to 20%. However that said even good caps will possibly derate at a higher rate pending airflow, and relative humidity and general usage.Point is why you by a slightly larger PSU to reduce CAP overhead, irrespective of how much you will be using, A PSU running a 60% capacity will universally last you 10 times longer than a PSU at 80% even 90% peak load.
Click to expand...
Okay. Since you hate the CM PSU, I guess you're assuming it has "crapcitor's" (hehehehe). Let's say it derates at 8% a year then. This PSU is 4 years old, so we are looking at 24% cap degradation. How would this 24% affect his PSU then? In terms of wattage use and efficiency? And do you state that the 500W CM PSU in question here won't handle the new components?

OP, please use the old PSU... If that fails, get a new one. Want to test some PSU theories on all my old PSUs that are still working when this fails. Theory #2 sounds good, but no statement is given around the actual PSU in question.
 
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