Seeking Power Supply

[ivan.cortes12]

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first build and still have not decided on a power supply to efficiently power my rig. If anyone could suggest some because I was looking at a EVGA 80 Gold Certified 550watts. Here is the link to my pc part list. This rig will mainly be for light gaming, but mainly for the basic things for a college student. Also any advice on the parts I picked would be great. Thank you in advance and hopefully to hear some great advice. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

[Torn]

Your link is to a blank list.

[Tylerebowers]

5 minutes ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first build and still have not decided on a power supply to efficiently power my rig. If anyone could suggest some because I was looking at a EVGA 80 Gold Certified 550watts. Here is the link to my pc part list. This rig will mainly be for light gaming, but mainly for the basic things for a college student. Also any advice on the parts I picked would be great. Thank you in advance and hopefully to hear some great advice. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

you have to save the partslist

[Energycore]

10 minutes ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

Hello everyone,

 

This is my first build and still have not decided on a power supply to efficiently power my rig. If anyone could suggest some because I was looking at a EVGA 80 Gold Certified 550watts. Here is the link to my pc part list. This rig will mainly be for light gaming, but mainly for the basic things for a college student. Also any advice on the parts I picked would be great. Thank you in advance and hopefully to hear some great advice. http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

Welcome to the forums!

 

If you want something cheap that's still really good quality I recommend the $60 S12II from Seasonic. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

[Steel_Wind]

Note that there are two mftrs with different ratings for EVGA Bronze PSUs. There is a B1 and a B2 version of the EVGA Bronze. The B2 is by a slightly better mftr and is rated as more dependable IIRC. It also tends to be slightly more expensive. Most think it is worth the extra $5-$10 to get the B2.

[Cyracus]

550W might be fine, if you're getting a graphics card look it up, the manufacturers site should have a minimum recommended/required psu power, you could low ball it a little if you have to, but better to have too much power available than not enough

[ivan.cortes12]

Sorry about that guys, the parts that I have decided on are the following:

 

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core

Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB DDR4-2400

Samsun 850 EVO Series 500GB SSD

WD 1TB HDD 7200RPM

EVGA Geforce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+Video Card

NZXT Phantom 530 ATX Full Tower Case

[ivan.cortes12]

13 hours ago, Steel_Wind said:

Note that there are two mftrs with different ratings for EVGA Bronze PSUs. There is a B1 and a B2 version of the EVGA Bronze. The B2 is by a slightly better mftr and is rated as more dependable IIRC. It also tends to be slightly more expensive. Most think it is worth the extra $5-$10 to get the B2.

So do you think its better to go with a EVGA Bronze PSU rather than a Gold Certified? I know it only matters in efficiency

[ivan.cortes12]

12 hours ago, Cyracus said:

550W might be fine, if you're getting a graphics card look it up, the manufacturers site should have a minimum recommended/required psu power, you could low ball it a little if you have to, but better to have too much power available than not enough

Well if you have too much power wouldnt you risk frying your components or no? 

[MoraisGT]

14 minutes ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

So do you think its better to go with a EVGA Bronze PSU rather than a Gold Certified? I know it only matters in efficiency

It depends on the prices and what you are willing to spend.

 

More often than not it's not worth it to pay the difference.

13 minutes ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

Well if you have too much power wouldnt you risk frying your components or no? 

That's not how it works.

 

A power supply only gives the hardware of the computer the amount of power that said hardware needs to operate.

 

Imagine if you buy a 1000 watt power supply, but the hardware in your computer only uses 300 watts when under maximum load. This just means that your power supply will only be "working" at 30% of it's possibilities. It would be a waste of money....

 

On the other hand if your pc under load needs 500 watts and you buy a 500 watt power supply, that means that your PSU will be maxed out every time you put your pc under load. Wich is obviously not good. Imagine every time you had to go somewhere on foot you could only sprint as fast as possible....

 

In both scenarios both you and the psu would give in to the stress at any moment.

[ivan.cortes12]

35 minutes ago, MoraisGT said:

It depends on the prices and what you are willing to spend.

 

More often than not it's not worth it to pay the difference.

That's not how it works.

 

A power supply only gives the hardware of the computer the amount of power that said hardware needs to operate.

 

Imagine if you buy a 1000 watt power supply, but the hardware in your computer only uses 300 watts when under maximum load. This just means that your power supply will only be "working" at 30% of it's possibilities. It would be a waste of money....

 

On the other hand if your pc under load needs 500 watts and you buy a 500 watt power supply, that means that your PSU will be maxed out every time you put your pc under load. Wich is obviously not good. Imagine every time you had to go somewhere on foot you could only sprint as fast as possible....

 

In both scenarios both you and the psu would give in to the stress at any moment.

Thank you for the information and I understand it more now. I am willing to spend about $80 on a PSU, but I read about the differences between Bronze and Gold but I see other people's builds mainly have the 80+Bronze PSU rather than a Gold, why is that? I know it has to deal with how much you plan to spend which is a factor. 

 

I understand both scenarios, so it would be smart to get a PSU that is a sufficient amount of wattage that way you have room for any additional upgrades or maximum loads.

[MoraisGT]

1 hour ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

Thank you for the information and I understand it more now. I am willing to spend about $80 on a PSU, but I read about the differences between Bronze and Gold but I see other people's builds mainly have the 80+Bronze PSU rather than a Gold, why is that? I know it has to deal with how much you plan to spend which is a factor. 

 

I understand both scenarios, so it would be smart to get a PSU that is a sufficient amount of wattage that way you have room for any additional upgrades or maximum loads.

Exactly, it's always a good idea to choose a power supply that can output more than the computer demands (to an extent obviously). PSU's generally operate at peak efficiency at around 60-80% load. (rough numbers BTW)

[Cyracus]

The difference between bronze and gold is just efficiency, so a 400W with 80% efficiency at full load would draw 500W from the wall and deliver 400W to your system. Buying a super expensive psu because it's more efficient isn't going to give you savings for a long time so not a good reason to go that route, but you do want a psu that delivers power consistently with minimal energy ripple. Linus provides good power supply picking advice, you can skip to 2:30 for the major bits and like he suggests look up reviews on whatever power supply you're considering

 

[ivan.cortes12]

21 hours ago, MoraisGT said:

Exactly, it's always a good idea to choose a power supply that can output more than the computer demands (to an extent obviously). PSU's generally operate at peak efficiency at around 60-80% load. (rough numbers BTW)

Oh okay that makes much more sense, so if my entire rig needs (roughly) 340 and I get a 650watt PSU that will give me enough room for some upgrades, right?

[MoraisGT]

6 hours ago, ivan.cortes12 said:

Oh okay that makes much more sense, so if my entire rig needs (roughly) 340 and I get a 650watt PSU that will give me enough room for some upgrades, right?

That's right