i7-860 OC and 960 on 400 watt

[Supportsneedlove]

I've been looking at graphics cards and I've found a 950 and a 960 at about 67 euro each, I've got an i7-860 and I'm planning on overclocking it. Which would be better considering my PSU is only 400 watts?

 

on a side note how big would a difference be between 2 and 4 GB of ram?

[Guest]

I'd say get the 960. as long as your PSU is decent and has the adequate power connectors you should not have any problems. 

[Supportsneedlove]

Just now, Konrad_K said:

I'd say get the 960. as long as your PSU is decent and has the adequate power connectors you should not have any problems. 

As far as I can see I only need a 6 pin. Is that wrong?

[Guest]

Just now, Supportsneedlove said:

As far as I can see I only need a 6 pin. Is that wrong?

As long as your PSU has that, yes. What PSU is that by the way?

[Supportsneedlove]

Just now, Konrad_K said:

As long as your PSU has that, yes. What PSU is that by the way?

An older Corsair CX 400 unit 

[Guest]

Just now, Supportsneedlove said:

An older Corsair CX 400 unit 

That's a pretty old PSU, if you are not planning to switch it I'd play it safe and get the 950 than. 

[Supportsneedlove]

Just now, Konrad_K said:

That's a pretty old PSU, if you are not planning to switch it I'd play it safe and get the 950 than. 

Could my system say, break or blow up if i got the 960 or would it just not run at full speed?

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Could my system say, break or blow up if i got the 960 or would it just not run at full speed?

It depends on the power supply, some will just shut down and you can reboot while others just fry.

[Zando_]

3 minutes ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Could my system say, break or blow up if i got the 960 or would it just not run at full speed?

Well you could toast your PSU. IIRC all the CX units before the 2017 refresh are pretty much crap, and with an OCed 1st gen i7 and 960 you'd probably be pulling close to it's limit under load, so I doubt it could handle outputting a full 400W all the time. Defo look at getting something like the 2017 CX units or a CXM.

[Supportsneedlove]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Well you could toast your PSU. IIRC all the CX units before the 2017 refresh are pretty much crap, and with an OCed 1st gen i7 and 960 you'd probably be pulling close to it's limit under load, so I doubt it could handle outputting a full 400W all the time. Defo look at getting something like the 2017 CX units or a CXM.

Would underclocking and undervolting make it so I can still buy the 960? It's for resale and I'd say 960 sounds better than 950.

[Zando_]

2 minutes ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Would underclocking and undervolting make it so I can still buy the 960? It's for resale and I'd say 960 sounds better than 950.

I don't know the specific power draw so RIP. I'd say try it, but if your PSU is always running at full power (the fan will probs come on and be super noisy and all) then try and upgrade to a better unit. I forget if I run my i7 950 and 660 off a 550 or 450W CXM unit, but it seems to be fine. 

[bimmerman]

I'd say upgrade PSU then worry about GPU, personally.

 

I also don't understand why you'd want to buy a faster GPU only to underclock it. Seems to me like wasting money on performance you won't use.

 

The realist in me would say screw it, buy the fast GPU, and then if the PSU blows up then oh well, but if budget is a stretch I wouldn't go that route.

 

I had my OC'd i7-950 paired with 2x R9 290 on a 850W from cooler master's 2010 lineup. Currently the same, except with a really OC'd Xeon.

 

I think 400W on a lower clocked CPU with a much less power hungry GPU is doable, especially if you downclock the CPU....but if you can't afford a component failure then don't risk it.

[Supportsneedlove]

23 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

don't understand why you'd want to buy a faster GPU only to underclock it.

I think it sounds better.

24 minutes ago, bimmerman said:

Seems to me like wasting money on performance you won't use.

They cost the same

 

[Pasi123]

7 hours ago, Supportsneedlove said:

on a side note how big would a difference be between 2 and 4 GB of ram?

Difference between 2gb and 4gb is huge. 2gb RAM for Win10 is pretty much unusable while 4gb ram is okay for basic stuff. For gaming you need at least 8gb of ram but even it is not enough for some games.

[Supportsneedlove]

9 hours ago, Pasi123 said:

Difference between 2gb and 4gb is huge. 2gb RAM for Win10 is pretty much unusable while 4gb ram is okay for basic stuff. For gaming you need at least 8gb of ram but even it is not enough for some games.

Vram, I'd be getting 16 GB of system ram.

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Vram, i've been looking at getting 16 GB. 

I'm pretty sure no gpu has that. RAM and VRAM aren't the same thing.

[seon123]

5 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

I'm pretty sure no gpu has that. RAM and VRAM aren't the same thing.

Think they mean that the GPU has 2 or 4GB VRAM, and they've been looking at getting 16GB of system RAM. 

[Supportsneedlove]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

I'm pretty sure no gpu has that. RAM and VRAM aren't the same thing.

Yeah, i was asking whether having 4 GB of Vram as supposed to 2 GB would make a big difference. He misunderstood and thought i meant system ram, of which i'll be getting 16 GB. 

[Pasi123]

16 hours ago, Supportsneedlove said:

Vram, I'd be getting 16 GB of system ram.

Oh, sorry.  4gb of vram would make a pretty big difference in some games. I have a GTX 960 2gb and the 2gb vram isn't enough imo.