SOLVED What PSU wattage for new build?

[TheCapedAvenger]

Building a new gaming PC but im not sure what wattage of PSU i need. i used this PSU calculator http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp and it said 960W recommended and did another one on another site and it said 1250W? im wanting this pc to last me about 5 years with some upgrades along the way so ill need room for expansion and cap aging. not too concerned with it being modular or not but i want cheepish with good quality. dont need the best but one that will last me a few years. if you have a sugestion for one im aiming for $200 tops but was seeing some in the 1000-1200W range for about that as cheep so $250 for buget only if i need it. thanks for all the help. this site is way better than yahoo answers.

system specs
crossfire 2 R9 270x GPUs
ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 mobo
AMD FX-4300 Vishera 3.8GHz 95W CPU (may get this one in a couple years http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113284)
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series RAM 16GB (2 x 8GB) x2(getting one pair now and another later when the money burns a hole in my pocket)
one ssd for os 4 WD black drives in RAID10 for storage and maybe more later
2 optical drives and one floppy drive
liquid cooling for CPU (havent picked it out yet if you guys have any suggestions)
case has room for 10 120mm-140mm fans
will be using about 12 USB devices that draw power from pc

 

[Supertrucker]

500watts would run that computer at stock or a mild overclock, I would go with a 650 if you plan to move up to an 8 core cpu.

 

[TheCapedAvenger]

ive seen many places say that 700W PSU is recommended for a single R9 270x setup (550W minimum) and have seen a couple places say that 2 of the GPUs in crossfire at 100% will use anywhere between 500-600W just for the cards.

 

[Supertrucker]

The cards have a 150w tdp. If you don't adjust the powertune slider they will throttle if they try to pull more than 150w. Even if you max the powertune slider to 20% it's only 180w per card. And an overclocked 8 core amd will get close to 200w if you push it hard. That leaves you with about 100w of overhead for fans and hard drives room if you go with a 650w.

Most psu reccomendations are very high to account for the horrible psus on the market. If you buy a quality unit. And we have a list of them in the sticky, they will deliver the power they say and you won't have to worry.

 

[TheCapedAvenger]

Most psu reccomendations are very high to account for the horrible psus on the market. If you buy a quality unit. And we have a list of them in the sticky, they will deliver the power they say and you won't have to worry.

is this the sticky[note?] you are talking about?
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=589708

 

[TheCapedAvenger]

Most psu reccomendations are very high to account for the horrible psus on the market. If you buy a quality unit. And we have a list of them in the sticky, they will deliver the power they say and you won't have to worry.

so this one is more than enough and is it a good quality PSU?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207011

way better price than i thought.

 

[Supertrucker]

That is the list yes, but at that price I would take a 750gold over an 850 bronze since it's still more than you would need. Something like
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139061

 

[TheCapedAvenger]

whats the difference between gold and bronze and are modular the way to go at this level?

 

[Supertrucker]

Modular is preference. Makes it a bit easier to hide wires and looks neater because you don't have a bundle of unused wires. Gold and bronze are efficiency ratings, it goes 80+ then 80+ bronze silver gold platinum and titanium. At 50% load the efficiency goes 80% 85% 88% 90% 92% and 94%. So say you have a thousand watt unit pulling 500w from the wall, a standard 80+ unit would be 80% efficient so 400w makes it to the pc. With a gold unit, 90% makes it to the pc so for 500w at the wall you have 450w going to the pc.


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

Edit: if you don't care about modular you can save a bit more, by getting a rosewill capstone gold rated 750w.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182073

 

[TheCapedAvenger]

ok thanks that helps a lot.