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Power supply recommendations

I’m homeless

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May 13, 2020
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What would the best power supply be for this build

Amd ryzen 5 2600x stock cooler
16GB ddr4 3000mhz
512gb m.2 ssd
2 980ti graphics cards
GIGABYTE B450M DS3H AM4 AMD B450 SATA 6Gb/s micro atx

I was thinking 700 or 750 watt let me know
 
You'll probably want at least a quality 750w unit... I believe each 980 ti uses around 225-250w stock so you'd want at least a bit of headroom in case whatever you're using them in actually fully utilized the second card.
 
550w quality unit would suffice
 
You should always leave a bit of headroom if you get a high quality unit 450 may be ok but most 450w power supplies aren't high quality.
 
So would a 430w due or should I go higher
Most of the 400-430 watt powersupplies are cheaper quality (makes sense, why design a budget powersupply and then make it super expensive internally).

Last thing you want to do is get lower quality and be near your power draw.
 
Ok so 550 right and can you put 2 different gpus in the same mother board for example a 980 with 1070 ti
 
You can but one card wouldn't be doing anything.... you'd typically want identical cards for proper sli support and again if you're going to be doing mgpu grab a 750w psu to give yourself enough headroom.
 
decent 550w for 1 card, 750w for 2 cards, talking seasonic, EVGA, Corsair: gold>platinum rated PSU

or if you're feeling brave put them both under a 400w bronze PSU and hope for the best and see what happens :laugh:

I think your username is ironic but it could well be idiotic and apt considering your logic
 
SLI is not supported on that motherboard, so i would either just use one 980ti you have or sell both and just buy one better card. For the PSU question, i would choose a quality 550w - 650w unit.
 
I'd recommend an EVGA 750 B3 (if you can find one). Had mine for two years so far and it's still going strong. Fan doesn't show any signs of dying soon.
 
I have ran two 980 Ti with an i7 and it pulled 480w with a load. As far as Best. Well you can spend a lot on a 80 plus titanium, but any quality unit will suffice 600+
 
I just RMA'd a ~6.5 year old Seasonic Platinum PSU with absolutely zero hassle from Seasonic (7 year warranty). "Yep, send it in!"
Will see what they say when it gets there but I suspect it will go well.
 
i deff go for a 750w its better to have the extra watts and not need it, i go for a seasonic the gx focus range has a 10 year warranty is modula and hybred and cost about £100 here in the uk.
 
For a single i would go for a Seasonic 750w to get on the better efficiency percentage.
 
With two 980 Ti cards, 750W is cutting it a bit thin!

You didn't tell us everything the PSU needs to support. For example, what type and how many case fans? What type of CPU cooling? Will be there be any connected USB devices (besides keyboard and mouse). Any extra drives? What about any planned (or unplanned) upgrades - like two more sticks of RAM? A DVD burner or a hard disk drive for storage?

While it is very rare for the graphics solution, the CPU, the RAM, the motherboard and the drives to demand maximum power at the exact same point in time, you MUST assume it WILL happen when sizing up your power supply requirements!

I definitely am NOT a fan of "overkill" when selecting a PSU. That's just a waste of money, at best. But it is a HUGE mistake to buy an underpowered PSU too. An underpowered supply will result in unstable operation, crashes, excess heat in the supply and perhaps a PSU fan that must run at full speed (and loudness - I really hate fan noise!) much of the time - and that's with a quality supply. A no-name generic budget supply may overheat resulting in much worse things happening than just crashing the computer! :(

DO NOT JUST GUESS! You need to do your homework and research the maximum demands for EVERY component your PSU will support. Then total them up, add a little headroom for good measure, then select a quality supply that meets those potential needs.

Or, use a good PSU calculator and there is only one, IMO, and that is the eXtreme PSU Calculator. As I said above, the right way to determine the proper size needed is to research all the components, determine their maximum power demand, add them all up, and that is the minimum supply you should get. The eXtreme OuterVision PSU Calculator does this for you. It will calculate your minimum needs and recommend a suitable size for those needs.

Plug in all your current components. Be sure to plan ahead and include all the hardware you think you might add in 2 or 3 years (extra drives, hungrier CPU, more RAM, etc.).

I recommend setting CPU utilization to 100% and Computer Utilization Time to 16 hours per day. These settings will help compensate for component aging, and add a little extra padding to the results. This will also result in a little cooer and quieter operation. Did I mention I hate fan noise?

As seen here, when I plug in the components you list above, then add a DVD drive, 3 x 140mm case fans, and add 1 x 7200RPM SATA drive, the maximum potential load those components could put on your supply is 800W. So the calculator recommends an 850W supply. And I agree with that. But note I did not factor in any overclocking.

Note that no calculator wants to recommend a PSU that is underpowered so they all pad the results, some more than others. The eXtreme OuterVision calculator is and can be the most conservative for 2 main reasons. (1) They have a team of researchers on staff constantly researching components for us to keep their extensive databases accurate and current. And (2), it is the most flexible and has the most extensive databases of available options we can enter. This allows it to factor in all possible components to accurately calculate our needs rather than guess.

Want more proof 750W is not enough? Okay. See this Guru3D review and note where it says the card can demand a maximum of 250W and with an "average" system and just one 980 Ti, they recommend 600W minimum. You are using two cards.

Now doubt 850W is big. But it is not "overkill". But more importantly, it is not underpowered either.
 
Go for a 1.1 Jiggawatt power supply !!!! A good 750 to 850 should be more than enough, and offer any upgrade path in future..
 
I hate to sound like I'm constantly plugging Seasonic here, but their Power Supply Calculator is pretty decent.

Plugging in those specs gives this. I think that calculator is overly cautious. It said my desktop rig should be pulling 500w under load. I haven't hooked it up to the Kill-A-Watt yet, but I kind of doubt it's pulling quite that much under load.

1589407836768.png


Edit: Keep in mind that not all wattage ratings are created equal. Nice ones will output their rating all day long while cheap ones will output their rating for 5-10 seconds before letting out the magic smoke.
 
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An 850 watt PSU has been what is recommended for 2 top end GPU's for quite some time now. 650 for one.
 
750w is perfectly fine. You can power a Tesla off it. Not really, but your PC will be fine.
 
750~850W quality PSU at gold or better 80+ and a reasonable length warranty (5+ years)
 
I hate to sound like I'm constantly plugging Seasonic here, but their Power Supply Calculator is pretty decent.
It is very decent but note the reason why is because it is NOT their PSU calculator! Scroll down and you will see it is an abbreviated version of the same PSU calculator I linked to above, the eXtreme Outer Vision's Power Supply Calculator.

And yes, it is decent but Seasonic's version is less extensive, less flexible, and less informative. Still better than others, but, for example, you cannot tweak overvoltage values on the video cards. The liquid cooling options are very limited on Seasonic's version. Very importantly for the enthusiasts, the Seasonic version does not break down the demands for the +3.3V, +5V and +12V rails like the original does. And there are no informational results presented like estimated energy costs. Also missing is UPS size recommendations (which I consider important) and for us forums goers, no provided links to post and share findings.

For the record, Seasonic has earned a reputation worth plugging! And I think it worth noting that they also recognize the value of the OuterVision calculator. Seasonic using it is them them is their endorsement of it. But I also think if users want the most accurate estimates, they should use the full OuterVision Power Supply Calculator instead.

I think that calculator is overly cautious.
Please go back and read what I said above about calculators padding the results (third paragraph from the bottom) and note the OuterVision PSU calculator is cautious (as all calculators - even human - must be) but certainly NOT "overly" cautious. If you think it is too cautious, then go by the provided "Load wattage" value and get a 750W and then "hope" both graphics cards, the CPU and other components don't decide to max out their demands all at once!
It said my desktop rig should be pulling 500w under load.
No it didn't! That is a misconception many users get with calculators. That 500W value indicates what your desktop "could" (not "should" but "could") demand "IF" all your components (graphics solution, CPU, RAM, all your drives, all you fans etc.) demand the maximum they could at the exact same point in time. There's a big difference between should and could. And the point is, because it "could" happen (even if rare), users "should" buy a supply that "could" support the maximum demand that "could" happen - or risk a quality PSU (like Seasonic or EVGA) suddenly shutting down to protect :) its connected components. Or risk a cheap, generic PSU going up in smoke and taking out the connected components with it. :(
I haven't hooked it up to the Kill-A-Watt yet
And it is not likely a Kill-A-Watt meter will show 500W because you will need to have a benchmarking or stress test program push every device inside your case to 100% utilization at the exact same point in time! And to my knowledge, no benchmarking or stress test program can do that.

And by the way, you said the calculator was "overly" cautious - if it was, it would default to 100% CPU utilization, not 90% which is probably one reason you "only" got 787W instead of the 850W I got as seen here.

The point is, we must not guess and we must not assume. This is not computer science, folks. This is electronics science. And any proper student of electronics knows you always, ALWAYS ensure the power supply is capable of supporting the maximum current demand that "could" be presented - even if that possibility is rare. So a quality 850W PSU is definitely the way to go to ensure any possible demand that "could" happen (no matter how remote) with the OP's dual graphics card setup is in capable hands.
 
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