A question on PSU's and Overclocking

[Akumajin]

I read the whole FAQ above about building a budget PC (this isn't really budget perse, but I read it and found good information anyway).

The Power Source is the most common part that people spend too much on. With all the ad's in magazines and online about "1000w rated PSU's for the high-performance PC! many people have got the wrong impression of what they need to power their system with ease. The most IMPORTANT thing to note about power supplies are that how much power a system needs is in no way the amount of "watts" rated. For most PC's these days what you should be looking at is the amount of Amps rated on the 12v rails. The components that draw the most power on your system use the power on the 12V rails. CPU's, and Video cards draw power from the 12V alone and just those two can easily hit well over 300w's alone. The other rails don't really worry about too much if you can meet the needs of the 12V's, especially on a gaming PC. When choosing a power source you should find out how many amps combined it has the on the 12's first, and on PSU's with multiple rails you cannot simply just add the amps up on both rails as it's nowhere that simple of a process.

Now I'm looking at the manual I have for this PSU I got for free through a rebate, the Ultra XFinity 600w. It says:

Max Output Current
+12V1 - 18A
+12V2 - 20A

So...would that be enough to power a system with a Quad Core and the 8800GTS 320 or even 640 MB with 2GB of RAM?

If it is, I was wondering about OCing. I read the OCing guide posted here that says it will make your part(s) last around 3 years instead of the normal 5+, but the guide I just quoted from said now adays it is very safe and worth it for the benefit:risk ratio. I'm getting a **** good video card and processor for OCing, should I do it? I will be gaming, but not playing crazy FPS like Crysis and Farcry type games, mostly MMOs and Starcraft 2.

 

[turtile]

Ultra PSUs aren't very good. They over rate the wattage (like mentioned in the article). It should be enough to run your system but I wouldn't count on it lasting long.

CPUs are designed to last at least 10 years @ 24/7 100% operation. If you are overclocking, the life will go down by a few years. Make sure you get a good heatsink/fan to keep it cool.

 

[veg1992]

you need like 40amps if you want a lot in your system... plus your gonna overclock.. look into a Corsair 520 or 550

 

[Akumajin]

So this one is not even good if I don't choose to overclock?

Also, will the life on my vid card go down as well? By how much?

 

[commandercup]

So this one is not even good if I don't choose to overclock?

Also, will the life on my vid card go down as well? By how much?

same ratio, most hardware is rated for 5-10 years of life on 24/7 100% USAGE

so it'll be 3+ years for both

 

[veedubfreak]

If you are looking at purchasing it i would go for something a little mroe stable. I'm still running an ultra 500 that has 26a on a single rail and it runs my quad/gts320/4gb ram just fine, but i'll probably be replacing it with a corsair 520 once i find a good price on it.

 

[Akumajin]

So if my PSU what is a good thing to look for in a better PSU? Better amps on the rails for 12v or what?

Say I don't OC at all. Will my current PSU be good enough?

 

[Sora]

I read the whole FAQ above about building a budget PC (this isn't really budget perse, but I read it and found good information anyway).



Now I'm looking at the manual I have for this PSU I got for free through a rebate, the Ultra XFinity 600w. It says:

Max Output Current
+12V1 - 18A
+12V2 - 20A

So...would that be enough to power a system with a Quad Core and the 8800GTS 320 or even 640 MB with 2GB of RAM?

If it is, I was wondering about OCing. I read the OCing guide posted here that says it will make your part(s) last around 3 years instead of the normal 5+, but the guide I just quoted from said now adays it is very safe and worth it for the benefit:risk ratio. I'm getting a **** good video card and processor for OCing, should I do it? I will be gaming, but not playing crazy FPS like Crysis and Farcry type games, mostly MMOs and Starcraft 2.

The Ultra X-Finity has 35@ on the 12v's which is pretty good, I used to own one. Honestly you can overclock your system a good bit if you would like. I would not go above 3.2ghz with around 1.48Vcore, if you can higher with a lower Vcore go for it.

This should bring you with an overclocked video card as long as you don't have tons of drives or anything to around 31-33 total amps on the system. Probably a little less depending. It should be ok for that, Ultra's have stable 12v

 

[Akumajin]

I see, thank you.

And thank you for the previously mentioned guide, as well.