PSU Help

[Paul Boy]

Hi, i need to upgrade my PSU, due to GPU upgrade. i currently have a Seasonic SS-300GS Active PFC 300w PSU. i would like one at least 500W.

i know nothing about PSU's, so what type do i need and of course what do you guys recommend.

My PC a few years old now its a AMD Athlon64 3200+ with a MSI KT800 AGP Motherboard

Thanks in advance

[LegacyOne]

500w Seasonic S12II or for Modular 520W Coolermaster Real Power M520 or 520W Corsair HX.

[Pob255]

Overkill unless you want modular. and even the an Enermax Liberty may be better.

Corsair VX450w £43.42

With your pc you'll not really be pushing the power too much, then main problem with older PSU's is that newer graphics card put far more load onto the +12v which was fairly under used before.

[Blitzen]

Overkill unless you want modular. and even the an Enermax Liberty may be better

Nothing wrong with a Liberty. Very solid.

[Paul Boy]

Hi, Thanx for the advice, I've upgraded my GPU to a 512MB XFX 7950GT AGP 8x, 256Bit 1300MHz GDDR3, GPU 550MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV. (Scan code LN18561) I think I've read in the specs that it requires a min of 400w. But i although my system is quite old, its quite well loaded, 2 DVD/RW rom drives, 3 hard disks, 7 card reader, etc so i thought that an upgrade to 500w should be enough.

I don't want to spend too much money, as I'm going to replace my PC within the year, however i will re-use it down stairs as a Media PC connected to my 42" LCD, so i need relialibility as well.

Thanx in advance

[Paul Boy]

sorted thanx

[Pob255]

Ok this is a bit late now however.

Even with that graphics card a good 400w would be fine, all the hard drives and dvd drives don't use much power
The main two things in a pc that really use power are the cpu and graphics card
and the athlon64 has a fairly low power consumption if I remember correctly.

If you're planning upgradeing your pc soon then a good 500w psu would be a good choise as it will be able to handle a new spec system. You realy don't need vast amounts of power to run most pc's

The main thing to remember about with PSU's is quality, Make&model is more important than the numbers, simply because the better the mske the more reliable the numbers are.
I think that £40-55 is a good price amount for most people to look at on a new PSU.

Nothing wrong with a Liberty. Very solid.

I never said there was anything wrong with the liberty Although I should of clarified by saying the 400w liberty, I'm currently considering one myself.

[Blitzen]

I have been running either a 500W Liberty or the Corsair 520 for around 11 months now.

I used the Corsair in my previous build but i picked up a brand new Liberty for free last xmas (dont ask ) and use that instead now. Just feels better quality although marginally less in power.