Power supply help

[Brandon Robbins]

I’m upgrading my pc and was wondering how close I can get with wattage.  My current psu is 430w would that be able to cover the 396w requirement that my new system need or should I upgrade my psu as well. 

[Airdragonz]

500w will be safer. Also allows some headroom for oc and power fluctuations. 

[Canada EH]

Better to go higher 550W or 600W if the price difference is small, but dont skimp on quality neither, check out the psu tier list and aim for tier 3 or 2 or 1

[JustDenDimi]

2 minutes ago, Airdragonz said:

500w will be safer. Also allows some headroom for oc and power fluctuations. 

Indeed, since you're playing with the part that delivers power to all the other parts in your system it's better to leave it some breathing space. Also, if you're not sure about what PSU to choose, here's a PSU tier list. Maybe go even a little bit higher than 500W.

[iRileyx]

What are you upgrading to? chances are you'll never be at full load, or even close to it honestly.

 

Also the only 430 watt psu i can think of is the Corsair CX, and i wouldn't trust that to run any new hardware   especially so close to its max wattage  

[seon123]

4 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

What are you upgrading to? chances are you'll never be at full load, or even close to it honestly.

 

Also the only 430 watt psu i can think of is the Corsair CX, and i wouldn't trust that to run any new hardware   especially so close to its max wattage  

There's also the TR2, W1 and some budget Seasonic. So yeah... Probably not an especially good PSU

[seon123]

What are the specs, and what model is the PSU? PSU calculators are useless, and knowing just the wattage of the PSU doesn't help much. 

[Brandon Robbins]

[Brandon Robbins]

[brob]

The estimate shown in pcpartpicker is based on manufacturer published maximum power ratings, i.e. the maximum amount of power that the component is ever expected to draw. Typically the only time such maximums can be reached is when the component is operating at 100%. A rare occurrence, even in gaming. There are numerous videos around that suggest typical power draws are generally less than 50% of the maximum. As a rule of thumb, a psu should never has less capacity than the pcpartpicker estimate.

 

One should keep in mind that with the exception of Titanium rated units, psu can be very inefficient outside the 80+ envelope, (although Platinum units should not be that bad). Ideally light use draw should not fall below 20% of the rated psu capacity.  

 

When parts are overclocked, power requirements increase. But not usually by a great deal. 

 

PSU components age which can cause a reduction in available power. Numbers vary and depend on the quality of the components involved. I allow for no more than 3% over 10 years on an excellent psu. I might up the allowance to 5% - 8% for lesser quality units.

 

Upgrades over time will add to power requirements. I.E. adding ssd and memory adds to the power requirements.