[Baldyloxxx]

Hi, id like to know how far im gonna get with a 400w corsair psu. i got a little bit over excited on ebay and brought it as a replacement for my 600w magna psu (got it for 25 squids!).
Im aiming to get a gtx 460 gpu, will a 400w psu power this as well as a quad core cpu?

[Advertisements]

Hi Baldyloxxx,

Im aiming to get a gtx 460 gpu, will a 400w psu power this as well as a quad core cpu?

NO.


A GTX 460 requires a minimum 450w PSU with 24amps on the 12V rail. To give some wiggle room and prevent the PSU from running flat out most of the time, I would recommend a good quality 550w PSU with 38amps on the 12v rail.

[iammykyl]

Hi Baldyloxxx,

Im aiming to get a gtx 460 gpu, will a 400w psu power this as well as a quad core cpu?

NO.


A GTX 460 requires a minimum 450w PSU with 24amps on the 12V rail. To give some wiggle room and prevent the PSU from running flat out most of the time, I would recommend a good quality 550w PSU with 38amps on the 12v rail.

[Baldyloxxx]

Doh!

the annoying thing is, a corsair 500w psu went next day for £30.

[Akabilk]

Go to Extreme Power Supply Calculator and enter you PC specs and find out for sure.
http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp It is extremely accurate and working out your running an average rig with one hard drive it calculated 277 W minimum power for a 460 card. Add 20% to that to allow some elbow room and yeah a 400w Corsair will handle it standing on it's head, especially considering Corsair is one of the best PSU you can buy. I know the 400w and it's a very good one indeed with a 80+ gold award rating.

Most people overpower their PC's. Not because they have too much money, but because sites selling or connected to in some way to sites selling PSU's (almost) always overstate the power requirements of cards and Video Card manufacturers sell to PC stores and PC stores sell Video Cards !

[Baldyloxxx]

Go to Extreme Power Supply Calculator and enter you PC specs and find out for sure.
http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp It is extremely accurate and working out your running an average rig with one hard drive it calculated 277 W minimum power for a 460 card. Add 20% to that to allow some elbow room and yeah a 400w Corsair will handle it standing on it's head, especially considering Corsair is one of the best PSU you can buy. I know the 400w and it's a very good one indeed with a 80+ gold award rating.

Most people overpower their PC's. Not because they have too much money, but because sites selling or connected to in some way to sites selling PSU's (almost) always overstate the power requirements of cards and Video Card manufacturers sell to PC stores and PC stores sell Video Cards !

thats a relief! thanks.

i was worried for a moment that id wasted my money. (not that ive actually brought my 460 yet)

[Baldyloxxx]

Go to Extreme Power Supply Calculator and enter you PC specs and find out for sure.
http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp It is extremely accurate and working out your running an average rig with one hard drive it calculated 277 W minimum power for a 460 card. Add 20% to that to allow some elbow room and yeah a 400w Corsair will handle it standing on it's head, especially considering Corsair is one of the best PSU you can buy. I know the 400w and it's a very good one indeed with a 80+ gold award rating.

Most people overpower their PC's. Not because they have too much money, but because sites selling or connected to in some way to sites selling PSU's (almost) always overstate the power requirements of cards and Video Card manufacturers sell to PC stores and PC stores sell Video Cards !

Done the calculator thing, says that i need 349w! And thats with 2 hdd's and 2 dvd disk drives.

[Akabilk]

No problems then.
That test site does it's calculation assuming a 90% load by the way. So it's 349w @ 90% load.
Corsairs will run 24/7 at 90% load and you would wear out quicker than it ever would.

The thing to remember when looking at "recommended" power requirements from say New Egg or PSU manufactures sites, is that apart from wanting to nudge you toward a more expensive PSU, is that they have to allow for the "average" store-bought Computer that comes with an "average" PSUs installed in them and those PSU's are mostly cheap and nasty. If manufactures or websites made their recommended power requirements only considering top-shelf PSUs, store-bought computer PSU's would be burning out all over town :-)

iammykyl wasn't wrong though. The manufactures and PC stores all recommended a 450w PSU for a Nvidia 460 ...for a PC with an "average" PSU.

Another thing worth mentioning is that modern CPUs and Video Cards today are using less and less power but come with more and more performance.

for a GTX 460 here is the low-down:
1. Advertised GeForce GTX 460 TDP = 150W (768MB) 160W (1024MB)
2. System in IDLE = 178W
3. System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 307W
4. Difference (GPU load) = 129 W
5. Add average IDLE wattage ~ 25W
6. Subjective obtained GTX460 GPU power consumption = ~ 154 Watts

Edited by Akabilk, 15 November 2011 - 03:55 PM.

[Baldyloxxx]

No problems then.
That test site does it's calculation assuming a 90% load by the way. So it's 349w @ 90% load.
Corsairs will run 24/7 at 90% load and you would wear out quicker than it ever would.

The thing to remember when looking at "recommended" power requirements from say New Egg or PSU manufactures sites, is that apart from wanting to nudge you toward a more expensive PSU, is that they have to allow for the "average" store-bought Computer that comes with an "average" PSUs installed in them and those PSU's are mostly cheap and nasty. If manufactures or websites made their recommended power requirements only considering top-shelf PSUs, store-bought computer PSU's would be burning out all over town :-)

iammykyl wasn't wrong though. The manufactures and PC stores all recommended a 450w PSU for a Nvidia 460 ...for a PC with an "average" PSU.

Another thing worth mentioning is that modern CPUs and Video Cards today are using less and less power but come with more and more performance.

for a GTX 460 here is the low-down:
1. Advertised GeForce GTX 460 TDP = 150W (768MB) 160W (1024MB)
2. System in IDLE = 178W
3. System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 307W
4. Difference (GPU load) = 129 W
5. Add average IDLE wattage ~ 25W
6. Subjective obtained GTX460 GPU power consumption = ~ 154 Watts

Well, the more i read the more my psu seems like a good bargain.

Cheers

[Akabilk]

Your welcome

[Baldyloxxx]

Got my new psu, its brilliant! PC is silent, temp has dropped by at least 6 degess, and 8 from my GT120 (thanks to the big psu fan sitting right on top sucking all the hot air away) and my graphics rating has gone up to 5.5 from 5.2 on my windows index thingy.

Just waiting for my GTX460 to come in the post and im away!

[Akabilk]

Yeah