650W overkill for E8400 w/ overclocking?

[j0man]

C2D E8400 Oc'd (Moderately oc'd)
Geforce 8800GT
2x2gb ram
1-2 HD's
Tv Tuner Card w/ Hardware compression

I am looking at the "SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC" http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16817151028.

Is this overkill? I want room to overclock and upgrade in the future, and the reason I chose this particular one was because reviewers said that it was very quiet. I would rather pay a premium for a quiet PSU than a noisier or hotter PSU that is cheaper.

Edit: This will be used primarily for gaming, plus some cable streaming and recording, btw.

 

[DSF]

Yes that's overkill.

Corsair's PSUs are known for being quiet. Given that you want room for future expansion, I'd get the 520HX (modular cables) or the 550VX (no modular cables.) I think buy.com has a good price on the 550VX right now. Even on the 520HX, their price is probably better than Newegg's.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: j0man
C2D E8400 Oc'd (Moderately oc'd)
Geforce 8800GT
2x2gb ram
1-2 HD's
Tv Tuner Card w/ Hardware compression

I am looking at the "SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC" http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16817151028.

Is this overkill? I want room to overclock and upgrade in the future, and the reason I chose this particularly one was because reviewers say that it is very quiet. I would rather pay a premium for a quiet PSU than a noisier or hotter PSU that is cheaper.

Edit: This will be used primarily for gaming, plus some cable streaming and recording, btw.

I do not see a down side ,how often do you upgrade a power supply ,for 10-20 dollars it's no big deal if the unit is under used , better ripple , less stress,
But if you upgrade it will be in line for a more demanding system.

[up grades ] 3780 x2 requires a 550 watt

9800X2 requires a 580 watter with 40 amps on the 12V rail ,per rumors
Also when using one of the PSU charts I got a 536 watt EST. PSU required, when people reported a lot less for thier systems , looking for why ,so I changed the hard drives from 4 to 1 and got a 450 apox.watts required, so having the to add on room is not bad ,

 

[jonnyGURU]

It is overkill, but there is no downside.

Go with your gut.

 

[j0man]

Thanks for the responses guys. How can I estimate on my own how many watts I need? Any links to lists or programs?

 

[PolymerTim]

Originally posted by: j0man
Thanks for the responses guys. How can I estimate on my own how many watts I need? Any links to lists or programs?

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/powercalc.jsp

Antec has one, but I do think it overestimates a little bit. I remember seeing another on one of the review forums somewhere that looked like they copied the format of this one, but reduced the numbers, but I can't remember where I saw it.

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: j0man
Thanks for the responses guys. How can I estimate on my own how many watts I need? Any links to lists or programs?

If you want to know how much you're currently using get a Kill-a-watt tester, be sure to factor in your power supplies efficiency. I believe they are on sale at Newegg this week, sign up for their news letter. If you look at reviews that use a similar setup you can get a rough estimate.

In most of the 8800GT reviews, that with a Extreme Edition C2D only used a little over 200 Watts. Those tests they didn't overclock, but a E8400 is more efficient so you are probably using a similar amount of electricity.

 

[chuckm]

Here's the link for the VX550 @buy.com. Remarkable deal;
http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsai...loc/101/205852646.html

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: j0man
Thanks for the responses guys. How can I estimate on my own how many watts I need? Any links to lists or programs?

If you want overhead for overclocking, future expansion and want the fan to run at a lower RPM than it would at higher loads, then why are you concerned with the PSU being "overkill"???

You do realize that a PSU only produces whatever power is demanded of it. If you only need a 500W and have a 650W, that doesn't mean that 150W is going to waste.

Help me try to understand your perogative here.

 

[rich168]

go for the 650w

 

[j0man]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
why are you concerned with the PSU being "overkill"???

You do realize that a PSU only produces whatever power is demanded of it. If you only need a 500W and have a 650W, that doesn't mean that 150W is going to waste.

Help me try to understand your perogative here.

I guess I was thinking about price, possibly size (I can't find size measurements on the newegg specs page), and I didn't know if under-utilizing a power supply would have any issues.

So any small price difference doesn't seem too bad in the grand scheme of computer building, and now that you guys have told me there are no problems using a supply with a lot more power than I need, I am going to go with the more powerful supply. I am going to switch to the Corsair 620hx http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?item=N82E16817139002 , because reviewers said that the cables with the Seasonic I listed above are too short for the Antec p180 case I want.

Thanks for all the responses!