Power Supply Wattage Question

[mbc07]

Well, I'm planning to upgrade my HTPC (want to get full speed with Dolphin) and want to maintain my current case. The issue that I'm getting is about the PSU: for this case, this must be a TFX one, and, from what I read these PSUs doesn't exist in wattages higher than 300W. In fact, a local technician here told me that the most important in a font is the total electrical current in the 12V outputs. Well, I'm planning getting the Seasonic SS-300TFX power supply, it was the best I could find, it have a constant output of 300W and a electrical current of 21A in the 12V output.

In a test that I've seen this font is capable of output 362W without any issues (with higher outputs, like 400W, it activate the over power protection and shut down). So my dilemma is finding if it'll be able of powering my system after the upgrade (using an PSU calculator it says that I need 400W at 100% workload for this):

• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77M Pro
• Processor: Intel Core i5-3570k (I plan to overclock it to around 4.2-4.5GHz)
• RAM: around 2 or 4 DDR3-1600MHz banks
• Video Card: nVidia GeForce GT 440 (MSI N440GT-MD1GD3/LP -- it's overclockable but it'll run at stock speed)
• Fans: three 80mm fans (or 1 80mm fan plus 2 40mm fan for the small radiator of the water cooling kit)
• Small water cooling kit (already found some that may fit) or some high end air cooler that fits in my case (choosing yet)
• 1 standard SATA hard disk
• 1 standard SATA DVD±R/RW reader/writer
• 1 frontal generic card reader
  

That's all I remember now... Also, if this font isn't going to do the job, what is the possible workarounds? Remember that I'm not going to switching to a new case, I can lower the specs of some part but this case must be used...

[admin89]

Quote:PSU calculator it says that I need 400W

Add 50-100W to the result
PSUs do degrade over time . You will need more headroom if you want a stable system (500W 80 plus bronze for example)

[mbc07]

Actually 400W is the result with the extra watts from the degradation... the RAW result was 360W...
Also, the Seasonic SS-300TFX have 80 Plus bronze certification...

EDIT: More details about this PSU

[admin89]

300W x 80% = 240W Real Power ....
if you overclock the CPU , that i5 will eat more power
Idle : 67W
Full Load : 121W
Overclocked to 4.4GHz : around 150W (maybe abit higher or abit lower)

[mbc07]

So, I will need a more powerful PSU? What's the consequences if I use a PSU with wattage lower than the recommended?

[Starscream]

Your system will be unstable and crash.

[admin89]

Quote:What's the consequences if I use a PSU with wattage lower than the recommended?

Kill Mobo , Hard Drive , Ram , GPU lifetime .

[McNuggets89]

(11-23-2012, 10:47 AM)Jhonn Wrote: So, I will need a more powerful PSU? What's the consequences if I use a PSU with wattage lower than the recommended?

You will fry the PSU and in the worst case it could take out some components so its not recommended but that isn't too likely but still not worth the risk.

[mbc07]

Ok, I'll do more research to find another solution... This was expected, when I build this HTPC initially (about 4 years ago), finding a PSU that fit in the case and attended the requirements was very hard too. Silly TFX power supply restictions!

[McNuggets89]

(11-23-2012, 11:08 AM)Jhonn Wrote: Ok, I'll do more research to find another solution... This was expected, when I build this HTPC initially (about 4 years ago), finding a PSU that fit in the case and attended the requirements was very hard too. Silly TFX power supply restictions!

Pretty sure the highest TFX is about 300-400watts not 100% sure but a 400watt could just about power your system.