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what size power supply is right?

ohhcheezy
Level 7
I just got my maximus vi formula today and I plan on doing water cooling down the road. Would the corsair RM850W PSU be enough? The cpu and graphics card will be a intel i5 4670k and gtx 760 direct cu II.
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8 REPLIES 8

Chino
Level 15
To determine which power supply is adequate for your system, you need to take a few points into consideration.

1. What kind of watercooling are you planning to do? Will you be using a custom water loop or are you opting for one of those closed loop water systems?

2. Will if you adding more GTX 760 in the future? And if so, how many?

3. Will you be overclocking the CPU, the GPU or both?

4. And last but not least, what is your budget for your power supply?

Atlantis852
Level 7
With the listed config, 850 should be ok. Personally, I would go with at least a 1000 watt power supply so you'll have more headroom on power in case you want to go SLI down the road.
Asus M6E | i7 4770K | 32GB Kingston HyperX RAM | 512GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD | GTX 780

ohhcheezy
Level 7
I always wanted to try custom water loop but I have a closed loop at the moment. I might do 2 way SLI. I be overclocking the cpu. My budget is not to exceed $200.

Chino
Level 15
As a minimum, I'd get at least a 850W unit. The SeaSonic Platinum-860 goes for $197.98 or so. It's a quality power supply. A cheaper alternative would be the Corsair AX860i which costs $175.50.

HiVizMan
Level 40
Both those PSU's are good.

How I do it is quite simple. I total up the amount of wattage my system is going to draw when running under load for 24/7. That number has to be 65% of the rated wattage. So if my system will pull 650w the smallest PSU I will buy is a 1000W PSU.
To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

CSN7
Level 7
With respect to the mods but the recommended power supplies are way to powerful for your components. It's a common thing to go overboard with power supplies. Obviously they will all do the job, but you waste a lot of money.

Your system without being overclocked will draw no more than 300W from the wall at MAX(!) load. Now we know that powersupplys work most efficient between the 50% and 65% range. To put it into context your MAX load wattage should be MORE than 50% of what the powersupply is capable of. So a good choice would be a quality ~600W power supply which still gives you plenty of headroom for OC.

To back things up for you I did a quick search about your components and found a review from HARDOCP. Note that the CPU is more powerfull than yours and overclocked to 4.8Ghz at all times. Also the GPU is factory OC. That's why it pulls more than 300W from the wall but it gives you some idea.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/07/09/gigabyte_gtx_760_oc_version_video_card_review/9

You said you want to use watercooling, that means you need to power a couple of additional fans and a pump. I'd go with a 650W power supply for example "enermax revolution87+ 650w" Your needs will be perfectly covered. Adding an additional GPU requires roughly a 850W supply.

HiVizMan
Level 40
Bash4Sure totally agree with you and in fact my reply is completely inline with your views. Nice reply.
To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

ohhcheezy
Level 7
Thank you for all the help I going with the corsair RM850 since its only $155 on amazon.