What PSU do I need?

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demonweare

New member
What wattage do I need and what brands do you guys recommend?

I have the following installed:

Intel Tomcove H55
Intel Core i5 670 (3.4 GHz)
4 × Kingston DDR3-1333MHz 2GB
EVGA nVidia GTX 550 Ti

It's currently running on a Corsair CX430 (which outputs 400W and not 430W) and it keeps cutting off randomly - while I'm typing a Word document and not while I'm fighting 500 Fallen in the huge water-pump in the Dalghur Oasis in Diablo III with graphics set to max!!

I talked to my supplier and he reckons I need a more powerful power supply! What do you guys think?
 
585w didnt quite manage with a 460gtx my mate had a while back and eventually packed up even when he switched to the less power hungry HD5850..so id keep it above 600w to be save.if your planning on going sli then 800w+..decent makes i trust are corsair and antec
 
Don't buy Gigabyte PSU's.. They are quite meh.

I would recommend Corsair, Antec, Coolermaster et all.
 
I talked to my supplier and he reckons I need a more powerful power supply! What do you guys think?
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I disagree with your supplier. 550ti and 4gb ram will not unduly stress a decent brand 400w supply. And if it was going to cut off, it would be in high-stress circumstances such as gaming, not Word processing. What happens when it cuts out, does it BSOD or just suddenly the power goes off without any warning?

Huntkey is also pretty good..
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Be careful, not all Huntkeys are equal. The X9's are good, otherwise avoid avoid avoid. You'll be better off with a 400w corsair than a 600w Huntkey Green Power.
 
So I uninstalled the graphics card and it still cuts out.

The tower just cuts out without warning, waits one second and then powers up again. It's just the tower; the monitor (running on the same split-cable do-hickey), the external hard drive, the modem, the amplifier - all fine. Just the tower.

But thanks for the advice guys. When I get refunded for this one I'll buy a 700W power supply.
 
Here's what you do, when you are on this thread:

Go back one page to the Computer Hardware section, look for PSU calculator. And use it. Makes life that much easier.

I made it even easier for you and calculated it: You need a 430W PSU at least.

Back to your probelm, this could be something entirely different though. It could be your motherboard that's damaged. Or it could be a grounding problem, though I don't think that'll do this.

If I were you I'd take my hardware somewhere to be tested individually. Maybe do it yourself, test for any power fluctuations. Sometimes its something as easy as your memory not making a nice connection with your board. Which you can fix by using a eraser on the copper points of your memory.
 
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when you say cut out does it shut-down or what exactly?
have you checked if the cpu is being cooled correctly,maybe run a stress test on it and see what happens while watching the temp.

I agree with axon a 400-500w should be fine.
 
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