Help!

[RayTheKing]

I'm buying a FX-8320 and a R9 270 this Christmas for a rig I've been working on. What would be a good wattage for this setup?

*I plan on overclocking both parts a good bit*

 

[meeshu]

It would help to have more details of the components being used, so that an appropriate PSU rating can be determined more accurately.

How many SSD's?
How many HDD's?
Liquid cooling? If so, brand and model?
Memory configuration (1 x 8GB or 2 x 4GB etc)?
Extra fans running? If so, what sizes?
Optical drives?
And how much overclocking (ie frequencies hoping to reach)?

 

[TemjinGold]

Most of those details don't matter and if the OP is getting a 270, I doubt liquid cooling is in the budget...

OP: How much overclocking are you planning? Even with that in there though, you really don't need more than a 500-550 watter...

 

[Greenlepricon]

I ran a 8320 at 4.2 with a 7950 at 1015, so mild overclocks on both. Normally I don't see my wattage (measured with a kill-o-watt) go above 310-320, but it will spike at just above 400 if I run synthetics. Be aware that if you overvolt the CPU close to 1.5V, your power usage will probably blow mine out of the water. Mine sat closer to 1.25 if I remember correctly. This is all running on a 600w 80+Bronze PSU.

Based on this, 500-550 is a good estimate. If you're going to go as high as your chips will take you though, I would recommend 600w though. It's not uncommon to find decent cheap PSUs that are Gold rated now in this range, so I would shoot for one of those.

 

[RayTheKing]

Most of those details don't matter and if the OP is getting a 270, I doubt liquid cooling is in the budget...

OP: How much overclocking are you planning? Even with that in there though, you really don't need more than a 500-550 watter...

Liquid cooling and SSDs are indeed out of the budget

2x4 GB RAM setup, no extra fans (although I'm getting a Hyper 212 EVO for the CPU cooler), and a single cheap optical drive.

I'm thinking of a 4.3-4.5 GHz on the CPU, and at least a GHz on the 270 (make it a 270x c: )

 

[meeshu]

With no liquid cooling for the CPU, no SSD's, no extra fans etc, the base power requirement for the system with the overclocked CPU (@4.5GHz and @ ~ 1.45V) would be around 450W.

Allowing for a bit of overhead and PSU degradation due to aging, suggest a good quality PSU with a rating of at least 550 ~ 600 watts.

 

[RayTheKing]

With no liquid cooling for the CPU, no SSD's, no extra fans etc, the base power requirement for the system with the overclocked CPU (@4.5GHz and @ ~ 1.45V) would be around 450W.

Allowing for a bit of overhead and PSU degradation due to aging, suggest a good quality PSU with a rating of at least 550 ~ 600 watts.

Thanks for the response!

PS: What good quality PSU would you recommend? I really don't want to go over 60 bucks, under 50 bucks preferably ;~;

 

[lehtv]

Thanks for the response!

PS: What good quality PSU would you recommend? I really don't want to go over 60 bucks, under 50 bucks preferably ;~;

550 watts, quality and under 50 bucks... pick 2 or get lucky.

Rosewill Capstone 550w $65 (high quality Super Flower build)

EVGA 750B $49 after rebate, not incl. shipping
- not the best quality but could be much worse (built by FSP)
- also not as energy efficient compared to the Rosewill
- but it's a bit oversized so you don't have to worry about pushing it too far
- 5 year warranty is a huge plus at this price, but Rosewill's 7 year warranty is still better
- I'd expect it to be somewhat noisy, even EVGA's Gold units are a bit noisy

XFX 550W $53 AR
- similar quality to Rosewill, but less efficient and with 5 year warranty
- solid choice, but some people complain about it being noisy (not 100% sure how it compares to Rosewill on this front)

EVGA 600B $35 AR
- worst quality of the bunch (built by HEC) but still works... cost is the only redeeming quality, but with 3 year warranty, it may come back to haunt you

I'd go with the Rosewill...

 

[RayTheKing]

550 watts, quality and under 50 bucks... pick 2 or get lucky.

Rosewill Capstone 550w $65 (high quality Super Flower build)

EVGA 750B $49 after rebate, not incl. shipping
- not the best quality but could be much worse (built by FSP)
- also not as energy efficient compared to the Rosewill
- but it's a bit oversized so you don't have to worry about pushing it too far
- 5 year warranty is a huge plus at this price, but Rosewill's 7 year warranty is still better
- I'd expect it to be somewhat noisy, even EVGA's Gold units are a bit noisy

XFX 550W $53 AR
- similar quality to Rosewill, but less efficient and with 5 year warranty
- solid choice, but some people complain about it being noisy (not 100% sure how it compares to Rosewill on this front)

EVGA 600B $35 AR
- worst quality of the bunch (built by HEC) but still works... cost is the only redeeming quality, but with 3 year warranty, it may come back to haunt you

I'd go with the Rosewill...

Well when you put it that way, I can put in a couple of bucks for quality!

PS: Is there a good modular unit under 70 bucks?

edit: I just noticed that the EVGA model you linked is modular. Do you think I should buy it or just stick to the Capstone?

 

[meeshu]

As requested, some suggested good quality PSU's that are modular (and use a single +12V rail). Note, single rail PSU's usually preferred over multi-rail PSU's as full output available on single rail. Outputs on each rail of multi-rail PSU's is usually limited and may not provide sufficient output for some heavy load components.

Rosewill Capstone 550M @ $80 here

Antec High Current Gamer HCG-620M @ $80 here


Non-modular PSU's (with one +12V rail) are as referenced in post #8 -

Rosewill Capstone 550 @ $65

XFX TS 550 @ $63

There are modular PSU's available at less than $70 but they are not really recommended as they are of less quality than the suggested units.

 

[lehtv]

Quality has nothing to do with modularity nor number of rails, meeshu.

 

[meeshu]

I think you have definitely misinterpreted my previous post.

I mentioned single rail PSU just to clarify that my suggested PSU's were not multi rail, that's all.

Single rail preferred over multi rail because the full PSU output is available on that single rail, whereas with multi-rail PSU's, there are usually limits on outputs per rail.

I mention modular PSU's in the context that the the OP was asking about modular units, so I simply just suggested some modular PSU's for consideration.

So, I am aware that there is no relation between modularity, number of rails and quality of PSU's. Thank you very much!

 

[Blain]

What would be a good wattage for this setup?

620W