Replacing Friend's Old PSU

[metaleggman]

I'm diagnosing my friend's 10 yo PC at the moment, and I've gotten to a point where I'm thinking the PSU might be the culprit, but I'm still testing.  My main question is, currently a Coolermaster 850W Silent Pro 80Plus Bronze is installed running a then contemporary i5 or i7 CPU and dual SLi 560 Tis, so should I realistically order him a new 850W PSU, or would something more conservative be fine?  I remember needing like a 800W+ PSU back when I had my Q6600 build, but given that PSU recommendations have gone down in wattage, I wanted to make sure that this is solely because of CPUs and GPUs have become more efficient with less power draw overall (well, Intel and nVidia lately are kind of making me feel silly suggesting this lol), and not that it has anything to do with better PSUs being available.  I've been under the presumption that the main thing with modern PSUs is that you're much more likely, on a quality unit, to actually get the Wattage on the tin under a real load, along with new technology, cooling, efficiency, etc.  Looking at some at possible CPUs (I'm guessing it's a Sandy Bridge i5 or i7), it's possible it might draw up to around 300W, and the 560 Tis could hit about 260W each, which leads me to believe he may very well need a 850W PSU.

This feels like an obvious question, but since I want to make sure this thing works reliably into the future, and he seems to want to run it alongside whatever his new desktop build will be, I want to make sure I get the right wattage.  I'm really only familiar with figuring out replacements for much more modern PCs, as well as looking up the quality of the brand and model.

Thanks in advance

[Bombastinator]

27 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

I'm diagnosing my friend's 10 yo PC at the moment, and I've gotten to a point where I'm thinking the PSU might be the culprit, but I'm still testing.  My main question is, currently a Coolermaster 850W Silent Pro 80Plus Bronze is installed running a then contemporary i5 or i7 CPU and dual SLi 560 Tis, so should I realistically order him a new 850W PSU, or would something more conservative be fine?  I remember needing like a 800W+ PSU back when I had my Q6600 build, but given that PSU recommendations have gone down in wattage, I wanted to make sure that this is solely because of CPUs and GPUs have become more efficient with less power draw overall (well, Intel and nVidia lately are kind of making me feel silly suggesting this lol), and not that it has anything to do with better PSUs being available.  I've been under the presumption that the main thing with modern PSUs is that you're much more likely, on a quality unit, to actually get the Wattage on the tin under a real load, along with new technology, cooling, efficiency, etc.  Looking at some at possible CPUs (I'm guessing it's a Sandy Bridge i5 or i7), it's possible it might draw up to around 300W, and the 560 Tis could hit about 260W each, which leads me to believe he may very well need a 850W PSU.

This feels like an obvious question, but since I want to make sure this thing works reliably into the future, and he seems to want to run it alongside whatever his new desktop build will be, I want to make sure I get the right wattage.  I'm really only familiar with figuring out replacements for much more modern PCs, as well as looking up the quality of the brand and model.

Thanks in advance

The complication is two video cards.  850s are cheaper than 800s atm.  Not sure why.  Modern PSUs last longer than ever.  There is stuff with 10 and 12 year warranties now.  PSUs will likely always be a wear part unless the tech changes radically.  Could happen.  When I really got into things it was 5 years max for a PSU.

[metaleggman]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The complication is two video cards.  850s are cheaper than 800s atm.  Not sure why.  Modern PSUs last longer than ever.  There is stuff with 10 and 12 year warranties now.  PSUs will likely always be a wear part unless the tech changes radically.  Could happen.  When I really got into things it was 5 years max for a PSU.

Ah, the two video cards issue is something I didn't think about.  They're dual six pin cards, so I'll have to keep that in mind.  My question was more just to make sure if he had a 850W PSU back then, it'd be a safe bet he'd need one today.  I would imagine so, but since hardware has changed in various ways the past 10 years, I just wanted to double check.

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, metaleggman said:

Ah, the two video cards issue is something I didn't think about.  They're dual six pin cards, so I'll have to keep that in mind.  My question was more just to make sure if he had a 850W PSU back then, it'd be a safe bet he'd need one today.  I would imagine so, but since hardware has changed in various ways the past 10 years, I just wanted to double check.

Yep.  No matter the size they only last so long.