Will this PSU power my build effectively?

Hello all,

I recently put together my first gaming computer, and I'm having doubts about my Thermaltake TR-600 600w PSU (TR2, Non-PFC).

I will need it to power a

120 Gig SSD,
a 1 TB Hard drive,
an EVGA GeForce Gtx 670 FTW - possibly will overclock more
an Intel i5 3570k cpu
a DVD/RW+ player

and I believe that is all.

One thing that concerns me is the graphics card I have says it requires 500w of power and 30a on the +12v rail, but this PSU has split rails, +12v1 has 23a and +12v2 has 20a.

I've read a few reviews that say power dips low a lot, and the PSU sometimes will dip below 11 volts on one of the rails - this was on Newegg or Amazon I believe. Tigerdirect seems to have good reviews on it though.

Thanks guys!

Thermaltake TR PSU are okay for a casual PC, not for overclocking. I believe you would be on the very limit with that GPU requirements, even if you do not overclock the system. We'd need to know what cooling system you will use, too. But I suggest that you change the PSU. TR are not even Bronze certified, and Bronze means at least 80% of the specified output at all times. Less than 80% of 600W = less than 480W at all times.

You wanna go at least with a Bronze certified 600W+ PSU. While you're there, you might wanna consider going for a modular or hybrid.

I'm just using the stock fan that came with the case and the one that came with the GPU

I've decided to return that one and ordered

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0092ML0OC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

That one instead. It's a Corsair Builder Series CX 600W ATX/EPS 80 Plus Bronze Certified.

Your PSU is ok. This is not a "top quality" PSU but its OK.

My rig pump no more tha ~350w while gaming at the wall. 4.2ghz I7 3820 + ~1100mhz GTX670. ( also have 2 SSD's, fan controller and 5 fans )

Yes but that is the tr-600, not the tr-600p which has good reviews.

Do you think I should take the risk of my GPU/CPU/SSD/HDD etc peaking at the same time that my PSU is dropping to below 450w?

GTX670s are extremely power efficient. Build is going to be around 320W without OCing. Probably still under 400W with it.

So I should keep this one and cancel my other one? Sorta confused. I really don't want to risk my brand new gaming computer as I've invested heavily in it.

Do you think you'll ever go multiple cards?

Mod-R said:

Thermaltake TR PSU are okay for a casual PC, not for overclocking. I believe you would be on the very limit with that GPU requirements, even if you do not overclock the system. We'd need to know what cooling system you will use, too. But I suggest that you change the PSU. TR are not even Bronze certified, and Bronze means at least 80% of the specified output at all times. Less than 80% of 600W = less than 480W at all times.

You wanna go at least with a Bronze certified 600W+ PSU. While you're there, you might wanna consider going for a modular or hybrid.

Click to expand...

Just a note, this is NOT how PSUs work. If a PSU is rated at 600W, that means you can draw the full 600W from it, no matter what the efficiency rating is. Efficiency comes to play with how much it's drawing from the wall. A 400W PSU at 80% efficiency is drawing 500W from the wall. This does not mean that you're exceeding the maximum rating of the PSU. The same rated PSU at 90% efficiency can still be loaded to 400W, it'll just draw 440W from the wall and impact your power bill that much less.

Just a note, for a normal computer that's mostly used for gaming, the savings on your power bill are rather small. If your running your computer max load 24/7, the savings are significantly higher.

Sorry for the double post. Editing in mobile is annoying.

As a bonus note, the TR2 series PSUs, excluding the TR2 Bronze that I've seen OK things about, are absolute total junk.
You won't get 600w out of a 600w TR2 unit. You miiiight get 350w with ripple within spec, or it might go BANG.

Thermaltake does have some (extremely) good PSUs, but the TR2 series are not them.

The corsair CX units are good.

Bobnova said:

As a bonus note, the TR2 series PSUs, excluding the TR2 Bronze that I've seen OK things about, are absolute total junk.
You won't get 600w out of a 600w TR2 unit. You miiiight get 350w with ripple within spec, or it might go BANG.

Thermaltake does have some (extremely) good PSUs, but the TR2 series are not them.

The corsair CX units are good.

Click to expand...

+1. Had a TR... piece of garbage if you ask me.

Knufire said:

Just a note, this is NOT how PSUs work. If a PSU is rated at 600W, that means you can draw the full 600W from it, no matter what the efficiency rating is. Efficiency comes to play with how much it's drawing from the wall. A 400W PSU at 80% efficiency is drawing 500W from the wall. This does not mean that you're exceeding the maximum rating of the PSU. The same rated PSU at 90% efficiency can still be loaded to 400W, it'll just draw 440W from the wall and impact your power bill that much less.

Just a note, for a normal computer that's mostly used for gaming, the savings on your power bill are rather small. If your running your computer max load 24/7, the savings are significantly higher.

Sorry for the double post. Editing in mobile is annoying.

Click to expand...

Huge thanks for that, this is what happens when you try to read too much things on too much things. I feel stupid now, but it won't happen again.
A long string of bad PSUs helped into making me read the Certification as a promise of delivery, not consumption.

Which is why I keep by my advice, in the end, as for the PSU. It's not worth it not paying 20-30$ more and discovering later down the road that the 500W PSU doesn't even have that second PCI cable you need to fire up a Crossfire/SLI, which the 600-650W of the same model did have. Even if you're sure you won't need it, another advantage is that higher-power modular PSU usually offer more cables, and though you might not need the quantity, you may appreciate the flexibility it allows when building, especially if you have many Molex fans and many drives to operate. And then again, if you want to add more hardware later down the road, having a spare SATA/Molex power cable around means you won't have to wire the whole system all over again. I have a pretty tight cable management, and I'm glad I have another Molex and another Sata power cable ready, because I know I will probably add another fan and another HDD down the road.

@ Mod-R Maybe a click and save this for future reference my friend, and also jonny guru a good place to read PSU Reviews as well! AJ.

1, http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=589708

This is a good link for the OP and yourself to look at!