Kaby lake compatibility

[dryfly]

Need to replace MB and CPU. Looking at a Kaby Lake i3-7100 and ASRock B250 Pro 4 motherboard.

I currently have a 5 year old Corsair HX520W supply that I know will provide sufficient current. Where can I find information as to the compatibility with the CPU and MB?

thanks

 

[UsandThem]

You just look at Corsair's website for the PSU, under features.

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/hx520w

It is ATX12V 2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 compliant. You won't have any issues with current motherboards.

The only downside is your unit is only 80 Plus certified, which is 80% effecient at certain load level points. When you get a new one, bronze rated is probably as low as you want to go. With that being said, gold rated is usually the sweet spot for price/performance for most users. One you go above that rating, the PSUs really go up in price.

Here is a nifty explanation from Corsair:

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/blog/2...at-does-it-mean-and-what-is-the-benefit-to-me

 

[dryfly]

Looked on Corsairs web site and don't know how I missed it, but thanks. I was actually more concerned about it working with the i3 CPU.

I built an i7 machine last year and thought I saw somewhere that it required specific power supplies that support it, and other "i" series Intel CPU's, but I can't find any such info at this time.

As far as power efficiency, it's rated at 430 watts. My build will be bare bones and only used for internet, word processing and spreadsheet activity. No gaming or heavy graphic/video applications, so I feel pretty comfortable at 80% efficiency unless there is something I don't know.

 

[UsandThem]

I built an i7 machine last year and thought I saw somewhere that it required specific power supplies that support it, and other "i" series Intel CPU's, but I can't find any such info at this time.

That was just to do sleep states starting with Haswell CPUs. Your PSU isn't that old, and is relatively current in the ATX spec. You shouldn't have any issues. And if you do for some odd reason, you can change the sleep states in your BIOS.

As far as power efficiency, it's rated at 430 watts. My build will be bare bones and only used for internet, word processing and spreadsheet activity. No gaming or heavy graphic/video applications, so I feel pretty comfortable at 80% efficiency unless there is something I don't know.

Nope, just was letting you know in case you cared. When I respond to most threads, I try to answer and educate, so the person leaves learning something new. That's all.

 

[dryfly]

thank you so much for your input, and yes, I'm always interested in as much info as possible. Actually I just looked and the HX520W has been in use for about 8 years. Time flies. But it's always worth a try, and most importantly, wanted to make sure I would not damage any of the new components by trying it.

Speaking of sleep state, the AMD/Biostar system this PS is currently in developed weird problems after upgrading to Win 10. Frequently it will go through periods where it will not awake from the "sleep" state. Requires a restart. It may work fine for a month with emerge from sleep with touching of any key, then reverts to same old problem. I've tried all the remedies found on internet but so far none have worked. Did not experience this in Win 7.

 

[UsandThem]

Windows 10 is quirky sometimes. I had a heck of time getting my son's Z97 based computer to be stable. All sorts of crashes, sudden reboots, etc. Luckily, over the next several months Microsoft released updates that fixed the issue. However, I spent a good month trying to figure out the issues. You can try setting it to a different sleep in your BIOS, and maybe that could be the issue?

As far as the 8 year old PSU, that came with a 5 year warranty, and there are two trains of thought here about putting a older working PSUs in a new build.

One side says it's perfectly fine, and as long as it's a quality PSU, when it finally goes, the safety mechanisms in the PSU will prevent it from damaging your hardware. They will say "That's why you paid a pretty penny for a nice unit in the first place".

The other side will say that is most likely will happen when it dies, but there's always a small chance it could damage something, so why risk it?

I'm kind of in the second group, but I see group one's points. You definitely got your return on the investment (8 years of use on a 5 year unit), so why chance it?

There's no right and wrong here, it simply cones down to what you are comfortable doing. But in the case of your components, since it isn't a $500 CPU, or a $300 motherboard, I'd check the voltages it was putting out, and if they looked good, I'd probably continue using your PSU. As PSU age (and from heat), they begin losing some of their output capacity.

 

[dryfly]

You make a good point and normally I'm in the second group on this kind of thinking. Good power supplies are not that expensive so I think it makes good sense to not take a chance. I'm going to just get new PS that will be good for another 5 years at least. Thanks a bunch for your ideas.