Linus goes through all of the stages of upgrading a very basic PC to an extreme gaming rig and shows how much power it pulls from the wall after each upgrade
Bronze won't make a difference, depending on the price you could go 600w platinum if you wanted. System Power consumption on the gtx780 is 350-400w, so if you were to OC you would be leaning towards the hotter side of efficiency. I would reccomend a 750w if your planning on a high end gpu and atleast 950w if you plan to sli 2 high end gpus. High end sli will run almost 600w
Thanks mate. I bring a smile to my face when people appreciate things. I wanted to do something different. So I went with 2 power supplies. 1 for the hard ware, and the second for Pumps fan controllers, fans leds, cold cathodes. I also wanted my hardware have uninterrupted power seeing that I am running Push-Pull with 35 fans. Couldn't see why not,
Superb video about power consumption of a PC. You have cleared all my myths about it. Here at my place there is a lack of continuous power supply and for time being we depend on our inverter-battery set. Your video has given me the freedom of running my PC during that period of time too. Thanks a lot. My rig: processor: intel i5 4670k motherboard: intel 87mc 4th gen ram: hyperx 1333mhz power supply: Cooler master 600W graphics card: nvidia 560gtx (gifted by my friend). :)
This was pretty useless, I'm sorry to say. You should have thrown in the el-cheapo power supply, perhaps before putting in two graphics cards, and made a direct comparison. Or even better, you could have gone with a 80plus rated 600W power supply to show how much difference the range of the PS makes. Right now, we have no clue how much of the wattage the sysstem pulls is due to an inefficient range of the power supply.
Thanks for the video, Linus! I've been wondering for years how much idle power changes with high-end components, but I've never seen anyone review the topic. Its good to finally have an answer.
Thank you. Sure wish we had access to this type of vide when I was studying for my A+ certification back in the early 00s. Now I know why my power bill's so high. LOL! :)
Just the thing I was looking for, I was really confused about choosing a power supply for when I build a computer soon. Looks like 700W is the way to go indeed. Thanks for the video!
It's interesting to see how so many people overestimate the required power supply wattage, so here's how I calculate it: Generally you should find the TDP of the CPU and GPU, increase it by ~20% if it's going to be overclocked. Then add 15-20w per HDD or ODD, an additional ~20w for additional components and another 50w since the rails are split (this makes sure that no rail is getting too much pressure). From there, multiply the total by 1.3 and that would be the recommended amount.
I've been using a Thermaltake TR2 RX 750 watt PSU for over 2 years. I didn't know about its problems once it gets past 650 watts, but I've never encountered a problem with it. I had a XFX 750i motherboard with a Q9650 and 2 Palit Sonic Edition GTX 460s (1024 MB) in sli back in 2010 and recently upgraded my motherboard to a ASUS P8Z68 V with an i5-2500k. I've OC the CPU to 4.6 Ghz and the video cards to 800 Mhz, with 8 gigs of 1600 Mhz DDR3. Runs like a champ.
I use a 550W (or 620W, I can't remember) PSU from Seasonic. I believe its 80 plus gold or silver. My computer specs are in my channel description if you are curious. The system runs well, though I always play games and this increases the power consumption. Last bill I saw was about 666kWh :O.
Quote - "I have 2 560Ti s , given the choice between 2 older lower end cards and a new high end card, I would go for the 680 every time. The 2 Ti s may out pace a 680 under light loads, but will drop off faster as the graphic horsepower is needed. The 680 will do just as good as the 2 little cards and use less power, hold a more constant frame rate, and if you find yourself needing more power, unlike the 2 ti s, a second and third can be added later". I agree with this completely.
@declaration963 then why do they make up to 1500w power supplies? ive heard linus say that you dont need anyhtign more than 1250, or are the 1500w for other things?
Very nice video! I put in a Cosair PSU that is somewhat over powered, as they don't start their fan before they reach 40% load. That means that I have a "fan-less" PSU 99% of the time and since I am only a casual gamer this is perfect for me. A true 650W fan-less PSU is way more expensive than my 850W Cosair.
Oh, i see. So, if you're not doing any overclock, just the default configuration, 600w is ok. The part of "try 650 or 700" was just my personal opinion. I like to have clearance in power output, just to have sure. PLUS, if i want to upgrade your PC, you don't need to upgrade the power supply because you already have a good and powerful one. In my case, i use AX850 and already upgraded my intire build 2 times.
I think I see where you are coming from, but I was thinking/talking about a 500W continuous PSU, rather than 500W at peak, which is what the cheap PSUs do. I do agree with you on the 100W extra point, the actually wattage being drawn from the PSU (not from the wall) would be around 350 (taking into account the 80ish% efficiency, so 500W should have ample room!
Im using a Corsair HX750 with a AMD x4 955@4.2ghz and 2x6970's in Crossfire, with 6HDD's, 2xSSD, 8gb 1600mhz ram, 1x optical drive, TV Tuner card, 5x120mm case fans, The H20 setup (1xpump, 8x80mm rad fans) and a fan system controller. The PSU hasnt missed a beat, allthough its definatly the next thing on the list to upgrade.
I use CM700W Silent Pro and soon I'll test the power consumption. The rig is GB990FXA-UD5, FX8150@4.5GHz, 2x4GB Corsair XMS3@2GHz, Radeon 7850. I may get more than 600W at full load :D
@declaration963 i guess that makes sense, but in general the pwoer consumption wont go up by a whole lot because that just means more heat and more innovation with gpu cooling to counteract that, and the heat produced decreases with smaller architecture, i think its more likely future proof for soemthing like 5-6 way crossfire/SLI
Many of their products are top rated products. Including some of their PSUs and cases for examples. The Rosewill Blackhawk is THE best price/performance (airflow/temp wise) case in existence. The THOR V2 and Blackhawk Ultra are also top rated cases. Newegg is the best online computer store. You would expect a Newegg only product to be atleast decent.
Corsair HX850 Pro is ideal for my 2600K@4.6GHz H20, 16GB DDR3, Ati 5970+440GT, SSD, 5x HDDs, blu-ray, soundcard, 4x 120mm fans. Online calculators helped me as did doing previous custom-builds since you take everything into account.
I use a laptop so wont be upgrading anything , but I still enjoyed this video. It was interesting to see how the various upgrades affected power consumption.
For a more accurate demonstration you really should have considered the increased power consumption from adding an array of case fans, a huge CPU cooler, and maybe a second hard drive. That stuff certainly adds up.
RAM is what your main computing programs use, where as the VRAM is only for storing the image on your screen (when using a dedicated graphics card). Thats my understanding of it.
it might be close, especially at peak draws (gaming sessions, etc.). you will know if the psu is maxing out by the sound, if it is getting very loud you know you need more power. for example, in the 3D mark vantage tests, the 680 draws ~340 watts by itself while playing BF3. You want your psu to operate at roughly 40-60% (during peak draws) for best performance. i would go with at least a 700W, but thats just me. cheers
@Thecashflowman should be fine for normal usage. You basically got 1 extra 6970 and 300W more capacity. The 6970 will never use more than 250W (typically around 190W under load) so you should be good to go.
My rig uses a Cooler Master GX750 80+ rated PSU to power up an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 4.0 GHz, MSi 890GXM-G65, 4GB DDR3 1333, 1x500GB and 1x1TB Seagate HDD, an XFX 5850 OCed, 2x120mm fans, and a DVD writer.
i7-2600 cooled by Corsair H60, Radeon HD 6950 2GB, 16GB 1600Mhz 1.5V Corsair Vengeance Ram, OCZ Agility 3 SSD, ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro, 4x200MM fans including the H60 rad fan, 3x200MM fans. I'm using a Corsair GS800 PSU. It's a bit overkill right now, but I plan on Crossfiring in the future.
Corsair CX600. I'm a big fan of the "Builder Series" of PSU's. Great for inexpensive gaming rigs Phenom II 955BE - OC 4.0 GHz 8GB (on 4 sticks) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600MHz 1.6 volts Corsair H60 cooler ATI Radeon 4850 HD - OC core 718MHz 3 in raid - Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 200mm and 120mm fans (Antec 600 case)
@YoshiHDify Most of that 530W is converted via the 12V rails. Generic "550W" power supplies won't deliver more than 350-400ish watts from the 12V rails, so the answer is no. It would take a very high quality 600W minimum (not recommended at all! go for 850+) power supply to run those.
Great explenation Linus, thanks! I'm using an HX1000watt 80+ Gold Modular "Magnetic series". I only got me 1 graphics card. It will do a great job thanks to your explanation of what the components quality mean :)
Previously was running overclocked sli 560ti tops with a 650w psu, but i had constant problems. Upgraded to a 900w high current psu and everything runs smooth now
Sorry typo its a Xion 800w psu and so far I have zero complaints. for the price I would do it again, for a cheap multi task pc its a good psu I have about 5 years on it now with hard abuse still going strong...wait actually I do have one complaint, the leds don't match the blue hue my thermaltake fans put out.
@JOCKATEO just for the GPU 's you need exactly 439W Power! You can find the consumption of your other hardware and find the answer! But I believe you should check that you motherboard supports Crossfire, that you have placed the PSU 's to the right PCI express port! If nothing is wrong i believe you need more voltage!
just a thought, if you went with the 8350 you could always disable some of the cores to require less power on days you're not gonna need them, usually from the BIOS if supported or directly in windows, but this is just a thought, idk if it would work, try googling it see what comes up :)
Corsair VX 550W PSU (80 PLUS) is running my system. I dont use a DVD right now, but ive used two HDDs. My case is Cooler Master HAF 922 Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4, Socket-1155 Intel Core i7 Quad Processor i7-2600 Corsair Vengeance? DDR3 1600MHz 8GB CL9 MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti 1GB PhysX Western Digital Caviar® Black 1TB
I'm going to build a computer using: I5 4670K GA-Z87X-D3H 1tb WD hard drive 8GB ram and will be buying a graphics card later if im also intending to OC how much power do you think ill need?
Im using a Thermaltake TP 750W silver to run a X4 black edition, 5870+5970 X-fire, 1hdd, 1ssd, watercooling system, 13 fans, Asus M4A79XTD Evo motherboard and 4gb RipJaw RAM. Works fine for me
But the 2 560 ti's still beat a single 680 by a slight advantage, even with the lower vram. The dude in the first comment already had 2 560 ti's, going for a 680 would be a waste of money. He should consider either a 690 or 2 670's, not a single 680 which would give him no advantages except for more expansion room.
Volts (V) is different than Watts (W). 230V is the standard voltage for much of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. So - no, the two values are not related. However, your power supply might still be less than 400W.
You can search on google PSU Calculator and a website will come up with a calculator for every thing you have on your computer (You'll have to click in what parts you have) and more to calculate how much power it will take and what future upgrades going to take up when it comes to Power. Hope it helpt =)
Anywhere from 700-800W+ would be good. Of course, if you plan on overclocking and planning on going SLI or any of that matter in the future, then more would be needed for headroom.
@MrWeb06 I had a system similar to yours on a 500w power supply. Using a power meter you can tell that your system probably draws about 300W peak. You'd be fine with the 560. If anything, the 560 might even use less power because of the newer technology.
i5- 2500k w/ hyper 212+, GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozer II OC edition, 12GB 1600Mhz 1.5V Mushkin & G.Skill Ram, Crucial M4 60GB SSD, WD Blue 7200rpm 500GB HDD,Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4, 2X200mm led fans, 3x120mm fans, and a Corsair HX 650 PSU. It's fine for the moment but I'm probably going to have to upgrade to a 850Watt to support a CPU OC and another GTX 560Ti in SLI.
Just make sure if you're planning to buy one, check with the manufacturer. They should have a list of what would and what would not work with their motherboards.
Your PSU powers all aspects of the computer (fans, gpu, cpu, motherboard, hard drives, etc.). AMD's site says you need at least a 400w PSU, however, it would still be better to go with at least a 500w 80+ PSU. If the 450w one you're thinking of is 80+ silver or gold, it will work but I doubt it will be considering sub 500w PSUs are usually garbage.
Q9650 @3.6GHz, 4GB 1066 DDR2, 640GB+1TB harddrives, Bluray DVD-RW combo, HD5770 + Geforce 9600GT, fan controller, lots of led fans and a UV cathode all running off my Enermax 535watt.
Great informative video! I use the corsair tx750m (semi-modular) but when I suspend the computer an electric noise gets out from it, its pretty strange, only happens when I suspend the pc.
11:02 "We've got a GTX 570 on there a truly high end graphics card, at least at the time of filming." that comment aged well, wish I could say the same thing about the said GPU :)
you do not need a 1200w power supply for a system that draws 150w at full load. You should use a 400w-500w. But make sure to get a power supply with good parts. Look up psu tiers and google, and click the first site. It should lead you to a forum post of psu tiers.
when they give you watage recomendations they mean if you are going to be very stressful to the unit, as in game which draws a lot of watts. you would be fine pushing the supply out of its range a little but not for long.
usually you want to achieve a 60% load on the psu for full load (gaming or editing) so you get the best efficiency which is 60% when you draw loads of power, so if you draw 600 watt then 1000watt psu would be the sweet spot, or at least a 800 watt but then you get to almost 80% load so yeah efficiency starts to go down
@kooldoggy1 yes I would either recommend a rosewill hive psu 850 watt bronze or a corsair 850 silver psu although the corsair is more expensive you get better quality
Yes, I'm going to SLI to 680's on my Antec EarthWatts 750W with a soundcard. Its a decent PSU. If Linus can run 2x 580's you should be ok with 2x 680's as they are a bit more power efficient.
Corsair VX550... amazing video... I think it's good enough for a i5-2500k, a discrete overclock, WD Black Series, one GTX550Ti and some coolers. Maybe too much ...
You will never need more than a 600w bronze for any single GPU system, even when overclocked.
Bronze won't make a difference, depending on the price you could go 600w platinum if you wanted. System Power consumption on the gtx780 is 350-400w, so if you were to OC you would be leaning towards the hotter side of efficiency. I would reccomend a 750w if your planning on a high end gpu and atleast 950w if you plan to sli 2 high end gpus. High end sli will run almost 600w
***** Agreed. There's OEM microtowers running an i7 and a Titan off a 330w external power brick.
6 years later, rtx 3090 lists 750w as a recommended requirement
@@alexwhite1624 lol was about to make a joke about this
Thanks mate. I bring a smile to my face when people appreciate things.
I wanted to do something different. So I went with 2 power supplies. 1 for the hard ware, and the second for Pumps fan controllers, fans leds, cold cathodes. I also wanted my hardware have uninterrupted power seeing that I am running Push-Pull with 35 fans. Couldn't see why not,
You should redo this video and use all sorts of machines ranging from your Scrap Yard Wars pcs to your gaming pc/ servers.
I LOVE the volume in this video.not low but near loud and clear.
that rabbit video its creepy
Superb video about power consumption of a PC. You have cleared all my myths about it. Here at my place there is a lack of continuous power supply and for time being we depend on our inverter-battery set. Your video has given me the freedom of running my PC during that period of time too. Thanks a lot.
My rig:
processor: intel i5 4670k
motherboard: intel 87mc 4th gen
ram: hyperx 1333mhz
power supply: Cooler master 600W
graphics card: nvidia 560gtx (gifted by my friend). :)
This was pretty useless, I'm sorry to say. You should have thrown in the el-cheapo power supply, perhaps before putting in two graphics cards, and made a direct comparison. Or even better, you could have gone with a 80plus rated 600W power supply to show how much difference the range of the PS makes. Right now, we have no clue how much of the wattage the sysstem pulls is due to an inefficient range of the power supply.
That made things a lot easier to understand, and I have an understanding what I can put in my computer now.
do you have 2 560 ti's and one 680 to prove me wrong? because all the other benchmarks point to that result.
I am using a Silver Power 750W Modular. With only a 550ti.
This video made me understand how little power my PC actually would demand
Thanks for the video, Linus! I've been wondering for years how much idle power changes with high-end components, but I've never seen anyone review the topic. Its good to finally have an answer.
Thank you. Sure wish we had access to this type of vide when I was studying for my A+ certification back in the early 00s. Now I know why my power bill's so high. LOL! :)
Just the thing I was looking for, I was really confused about choosing a power supply for when I build a computer soon. Looks like 700W is the way to go indeed. Thanks for the video!
i use cm 460 w and this video really helps understanding computer's power consumption
It's interesting to see how so many people overestimate the required power supply wattage, so here's how I calculate it:
Generally you should find the TDP of the CPU and GPU, increase it by ~20% if it's going to be overclocked. Then add 15-20w per HDD or ODD, an additional ~20w for additional components and another 50w since the rails are split (this makes sure that no rail is getting too much pressure). From there, multiply the total by 1.3 and that would be the recommended amount.
I've been using a Thermaltake TR2 RX 750 watt PSU for over 2 years. I didn't know about its problems once it gets past 650 watts, but I've never encountered a problem with it. I had a XFX 750i motherboard with a Q9650 and 2 Palit Sonic Edition GTX 460s (1024 MB) in sli back in 2010 and recently upgraded my motherboard to a ASUS P8Z68 V with an i5-2500k. I've OC the CPU to 4.6 Ghz and the video cards to 800 Mhz, with 8 gigs of 1600 Mhz DDR3. Runs like a champ.
Best and most informative episode about COmputers I have ever seen on UA-cam!!! Nice 1
Great video, I dig this link out every time I see people saying that they "need" a 1000W+ PSU :)
I use a 550W (or 620W, I can't remember) PSU from Seasonic. I believe its 80 plus gold or silver. My computer specs are in my channel description if you are curious. The system runs well, though I always play games and this increases the power consumption. Last bill I saw was about 666kWh :O.
Thanks Linus. A very helpful vid. Interesting seeing how inefficient a PSU is if you are not running it with the better components.
Corsair AX1200
Quote - "I have 2 560Ti s , given the choice between 2 older lower end cards and a new high end card, I would go for the 680 every time.
The 2 Ti s may out pace a 680 under light loads, but will drop off faster as the graphic horsepower is needed.
The 680 will do just as good as the 2 little cards and use less power, hold a more constant frame rate, and if you find yourself needing more power, unlike the 2 ti s, a second and third can be added later". I agree with this completely.
I have a Cougar GX1050 and CMX1000. All I can say is their PSUs are so underrated.
@BloodlessSalvation For reference most PSUs today are at optimal performance at roughly 80%. Also the average optimal temperature is 40c.
@declaration963 then why do they make up to 1500w power supplies? ive heard linus say that you dont need anyhtign more than 1250, or are the 1500w for other things?
I use the XFX 850Watt Black Edition. 70 Amp single rail, Beastly green Fan. I love it.
Very nice video!
I put in a Cosair PSU that is somewhat over powered, as they don't start their fan before they reach 40% load. That means that I have a "fan-less" PSU 99% of the time and since I am only a casual gamer this is perfect for me.
A true 650W fan-less PSU is way more expensive than my 850W Cosair.
My build specs: CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.2GHz. Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD53. Memory: 8GB Kingston DDR3 1333MHz (4 x 2GB). GPU's: 2 x XFX 6870's (CrossFire). SSD: 60GB OCZ Agility 3. HDD's: 2 x Samsung HDD's. Case: CoolerMaster HAF932 Advanced. Optical Drive: Pioneer Blu-Ray Drive.
Running on a CoolerMaster Silent Pro M 700W 80+ Bronze
No problems at all!
With the amount of hardware he uses and tests, it doesn't surprise me that he doesn't want to activate Windows every single time.
Oh, i see. So, if you're not doing any overclock, just the default configuration, 600w is ok.
The part of "try 650 or 700" was just my personal opinion. I like to have clearance in power output, just to have sure. PLUS, if i want to upgrade your PC, you don't need to upgrade the power supply because you already have a good and powerful one.
In my case, i use AX850 and already upgraded my intire build 2 times.
I think I see where you are coming from, but I was thinking/talking about a 500W continuous PSU, rather than 500W at peak, which is what the cheap PSUs do. I do agree with you on the 100W extra point, the actually wattage being drawn from the PSU (not from the wall) would be around 350 (taking into account the 80ish% efficiency, so 500W should have ample room!
Im using a Corsair HX750 with a AMD x4 955@4.2ghz and 2x6970's in Crossfire, with 6HDD's, 2xSSD, 8gb 1600mhz ram, 1x optical drive, TV Tuner card, 5x120mm case fans, The H20 setup (1xpump, 8x80mm rad fans) and a fan system controller. The PSU hasnt missed a beat, allthough its definatly the next thing on the list to upgrade.
corsair HX1000
rig:
CPU: Intel Core i7 950@ 3,8GHz (1,25v) w/ Scythe Yasya
MBD: Asus Rampage II Extreme
RAM: 6 GB G.Skill Ripjaws @ 1333MHz X.M.P.
GPU 1: Gainward GTX 480 (sold today, but tomorow a LIghtning will accomodate here XD )
GPU 2: PoV GTX 480 TGT Charged
SSD: Mushkin Calisto Deluxe 60GB
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB
SOUND: Creative SoundBlaster FX
CASE: Cooler Master HAF 932
I use CM700W Silent Pro and soon I'll test the power consumption. The rig is GB990FXA-UD5, FX8150@4.5GHz, 2x4GB Corsair XMS3@2GHz, Radeon 7850. I may get more than 600W at full load :D
@declaration963 i guess that makes sense, but in general the pwoer consumption wont go up by a whole lot because that just means more heat and more innovation with gpu cooling to counteract that, and the heat produced decreases with smaller architecture, i think its more likely future proof for soemthing like 5-6 way crossfire/SLI
Many of their products are top rated products. Including some of their PSUs and cases for examples. The Rosewill Blackhawk is THE best price/performance (airflow/temp wise) case in existence. The THOR V2 and Blackhawk Ultra are also top rated cases. Newegg is the best online computer store. You would expect a Newegg only product to be atleast decent.
Corsair HX850 Pro is ideal for my 2600K@4.6GHz H20, 16GB DDR3, Ati 5970+440GT, SSD, 5x HDDs, blu-ray, soundcard, 4x 120mm fans. Online calculators helped me as did doing previous custom-builds since you take everything into account.
I use a laptop so wont be upgrading anything , but I still enjoyed this video. It was interesting to see how the various upgrades affected power consumption.
Corsair TX950w, i7 950, 6gb ram, GTX 570 SLI, 3d Vision kit. runs rock solid.
Might be a bit on the limit there, but if you don't mind that fan spinning to full RPM and the noise it will make, I think it should work just fine.
i have a Corsair TX750 powering:
CPU:i5 2500k
GPU:XFX 5770
MOBO:MSI P67 GD-53
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws(2 x 2GB)DDR3 1333
HDD:SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB
DVD:ASUS DRW-24B1ST
Cpu cooler:CoolerMaster Hyper 101
For a more accurate demonstration you really should have considered the increased power consumption from adding an array of case fans, a huge CPU cooler, and maybe a second hard drive. That stuff certainly adds up.
Coolermaster Silent pro 600W, powering a GTX280 and a 3.7GHz 1055T. Consumption from the wall at max load was 550W
just bought Corsir AX 750 80+ gold, fully modular psu. Great product!
RAM is what your main computing programs use, where as the VRAM is only for storing the image on your screen (when using a dedicated graphics card). Thats my understanding of it.
it might be close, especially at peak draws (gaming sessions, etc.). you will know if the psu is maxing out by the sound, if it is getting very loud you know you need more power. for example, in the 3D mark vantage tests, the 680 draws ~340 watts by itself while playing BF3. You want your psu to operate at roughly 40-60% (during peak draws) for best performance. i would go with at least a 700W, but thats just me. cheers
great videos as always dude... love your comments and the way you think about computer hardware specs, thanks keep posting and ill keep watching
@Thecashflowman should be fine for normal usage. You basically got 1 extra 6970 and 300W more capacity. The 6970 will never use more than 250W (typically around 190W under load) so you should be good to go.
My rig uses a Cooler Master GX750 80+ rated PSU to power up an AMD Phenom II X6 1090T @ 4.0 GHz, MSi 890GXM-G65, 4GB DDR3 1333, 1x500GB and 1x1TB Seagate HDD, an XFX 5850 OCed, 2x120mm fans, and a DVD writer.
Corsair 850W Gold. When i was building my system i wasn't planning to use SLI but thanks to my careless, i still have enough power for another GPU :)
i7-2600 cooled by Corsair H60, Radeon HD 6950 2GB, 16GB 1600Mhz 1.5V Corsair Vengeance Ram, OCZ Agility 3 SSD, ASRock P67 Fatal1ty Pro, 4x200MM fans including the H60 rad fan, 3x200MM fans. I'm using a Corsair GS800 PSU. It's a bit overkill right now, but I plan on Crossfiring in the future.
Corsair CX600. I'm a big fan of the "Builder Series" of PSU's.
Great for inexpensive gaming rigs
Phenom II 955BE - OC 4.0 GHz
8GB (on 4 sticks) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600MHz 1.6 volts
Corsair H60 cooler
ATI Radeon 4850 HD - OC core 718MHz
3 in raid - Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM
200mm and 120mm fans (Antec 600 case)
@MikesGotJelly they set the watt amount, when sold at its most used. so every socket used scenario
very cool video!!!! I had a lot of questions about power consumption but after seeing this they are all cleared out! Great job Linus!
@YoshiHDify Most of that 530W is converted via the 12V rails. Generic "550W" power supplies won't deliver more than 350-400ish watts from the 12V rails, so the answer is no. It would take a very high quality 600W minimum (not recommended at all! go for 850+) power supply to run those.
2021 update!
great stuff Linus Thanks
I'm using a XFX XXX Edition P1-650X-CAG9 650W
Great explenation Linus, thanks! I'm using an HX1000watt 80+ Gold Modular "Magnetic series". I only got me 1 graphics card. It will do a great job thanks to your explanation of what the components quality mean :)
700w osz psu, looks good and performs amazing, plus i got it for like $70 a year ago which at the time it's price tag was $110
Previously was running overclocked sli 560ti tops with a 650w psu, but i had constant problems. Upgraded to a 900w high current psu and everything runs smooth now
Very informative. I would like to see more videos like this one
Sorry typo its a Xion 800w psu and so far I have zero complaints. for the price I would do it again, for a cheap multi task pc its a good psu I have about 5 years on it now with hard abuse still going strong...wait actually I do have one complaint, the leds don't match the blue hue my thermaltake fans put out.
@JOCKATEO just for the GPU 's you need exactly 439W Power! You can find the consumption of your other hardware and find the answer! But I believe you should check that you motherboard supports Crossfire, that you have placed the PSU 's to the right PCI express port! If nothing is wrong i believe you need more voltage!
@IDixuu Yes. Corsair is a VERY good manufacturer overall.
just a thought, if you went with the 8350 you could always disable some of the cores to require less power on days you're not gonna need them, usually from the BIOS if supported or directly in windows, but this is just a thought, idk if it would work, try googling it see what comes up :)
Corsair VX 550W PSU (80 PLUS) is running my system. I dont use a DVD right now, but ive used two HDDs. My case is Cooler Master HAF 922
Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD4, Socket-1155
Intel Core i7 Quad Processor i7-2600
Corsair Vengeance? DDR3 1600MHz 8GB CL9
MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti 1GB PhysX
Western Digital Caviar® Black 1TB
Thermaltake 750W 80+ bronze modular psu. It is a number of years old but its a genuinely good power supply.
Awesome video mate, it's great to still continue to learn more and more about computers even though I'd consider myself a pretty hardcore user.
I'm going to build a computer using:
I5 4670K
GA-Z87X-D3H
1tb WD hard drive
8GB ram
and will be buying a graphics card later if im also intending to OC how much power do you think ill need?
Im using a Thermaltake TP 750W silver to run a X4 black edition, 5870+5970 X-fire, 1hdd, 1ssd, watercooling system, 13 fans, Asus M4A79XTD Evo motherboard and 4gb RipJaw RAM. Works fine for me
Hey Linus, could you please redo this test with parts of 2018? It is really interesting to see what your PC does to your electricity bill.
Chat on the LTT chanel i think this channel is inactive
thanks linus, going to build my desktop coming up got a CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX for my built, as I am planning on doing SLI down the road
But the 2 560 ti's still beat a single 680 by a slight advantage, even with the lower vram. The dude in the first comment already had 2 560 ti's, going for a 680 would be a waste of money. He should consider either a 690 or 2 670's, not a single 680 which would give him no advantages except for more expansion room.
Volts (V) is different than Watts (W). 230V is the standard voltage for much of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. So - no, the two values are not related.
However, your power supply might still be less than 400W.
You can search on google PSU Calculator and a website will come up with a calculator for every thing you have on your computer (You'll have to click in what parts you have) and more to calculate how much power it will take and what future upgrades going to take up when it comes to Power. Hope it helpt =)
Anywhere from 700-800W+ would be good. Of course, if you plan on overclocking and planning on going SLI or any of that matter in the future, then more would be needed for headroom.
@MrWeb06 I had a system similar to yours on a 500w power supply. Using a power meter you can tell that your system probably draws about 300W peak. You'd be fine with the 560. If anything, the 560 might even use less power because of the newer technology.
Thank you for this awesome video. It did help me understand more about power consumption. I use the OCZ ModXstream Pro 700 watts.
That's a recommended PSU wattage, saying which card it is would help a LOT.
Another great video, linus.
Only its no use upgrading my psu. I´ve got a 630W psu with a dualcore Q9400. The whole system is like old fashion..
i5- 2500k w/ hyper 212+, GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozer II OC edition, 12GB 1600Mhz 1.5V Mushkin & G.Skill Ram, Crucial M4 60GB SSD, WD Blue 7200rpm 500GB HDD,Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4, 2X200mm led fans, 3x120mm fans, and a Corsair HX 650 PSU. It's fine for the moment but I'm probably going to have to upgrade to a 850Watt to support a CPU OC and another GTX 560Ti in SLI.
Just make sure if you're planning to buy one, check with the manufacturer. They should have a list of what would and what would not work with their motherboards.
Your PSU powers all aspects of the computer (fans, gpu, cpu, motherboard, hard drives, etc.). AMD's site says you need at least a 400w PSU, however, it would still be better to go with at least a 500w 80+ PSU. If the 450w one you're thinking of is 80+ silver or gold, it will work but I doubt it will be considering sub 500w PSUs are usually garbage.
You've given me an idea! I'll build my new PC on a bookshelf like that!
Q9650 @3.6GHz, 4GB 1066 DDR2, 640GB+1TB harddrives, Bluray DVD-RW combo, HD5770 + Geforce 9600GT, fan controller, lots of led fans and a UV cathode all running off my Enermax 535watt.
Great informative video! I use the corsair tx750m (semi-modular) but when I suspend the computer an electric noise gets out from it, its pretty strange, only happens when I suspend the pc.
11:02 "We've got a GTX 570 on there a truly high end graphics card, at least at the time of filming." that comment aged well, wish I could say the same thing about the said GPU :)
Would a 750w psu be enough for a 4.2ghz 2500K 16gm of ram at 1600mhz and a 7970?, it is a good quality 80+ gold psu but im not sure
you do not need a 1200w power supply for a system that draws 150w at full load. You should use a 400w-500w. But make sure to get a power supply with good parts. Look up psu tiers and google, and click the first site. It should lead you to a forum post of psu tiers.
SuperFlower 650W 80+ GOLD
CPU:AMD Phenom II X4 955 OC@3.6GHZ
CPU-Cooler:CoolitECO A.L.C.
RAM:4Gb Corsair XMS3
GPUs:2 Sapphire HD6850
Motherboard:Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H
Storage drives:64GB corsair SSD, 2TB WesternDigital HDD
Case:CoolerMaster HAF 912PLUS
Crysis2@ extreme preset, 1080p, VsyncON [BoishockCrossfireProfile] @50FPS
when they give you watage recomendations they mean if you are going to be very stressful to the unit, as in game which draws a lot of watts. you would be fine pushing the supply out of its range a little but not for long.
I am using a Corsair TX 750 for an sli build with dual overclocked 560 ti's :)
And yes, this was very informative :)
usually you want to achieve a 60% load on the psu for full load (gaming or editing) so you get the best efficiency which is 60% when you draw loads of power, so if you draw 600 watt then 1000watt psu would be the sweet spot, or at least a 800 watt but then you get to almost 80% load so yeah efficiency starts to go down
@kooldoggy1 yes I would either recommend a rosewill hive psu 850 watt bronze or a corsair 850 silver psu although the corsair is more expensive you get better quality
I would say so, since it does come with 4x6+2 PCI E connectors. Of course, more would be better just to give you headroom.
Thermaltake ToughPower 675W. A bit noisy comparing to Seasonic bit very good high quality 80+ PSU. It also has 5 years warranty which is great today.
would be interesting to see this on the new amd llano apu's for the budget system.
Great video thanks dude.
It still runs fine, I regularly play bf3 with graphics on a little bit less than high
e2160 @ 3.2GHz, 4Gb ddr2, nvidia 9800gt, 320Gb hard, DVD RW, tv card, all runs on fortron 350W now more than 3 years without any problems.
Yes, I'm going to SLI to 680's on my Antec EarthWatts 750W with a soundcard. Its a decent PSU. If Linus can run 2x 580's you should be ok with 2x 680's as they are a bit more power efficient.
Corsair VX550... amazing video... I think it's good enough for a i5-2500k, a discrete overclock, WD Black Series, one GTX550Ti and some coolers. Maybe too much ...