Is 500w Power Supply is enough for my new PC

**Chakchiuma** · 21-01-2011

I had started to build up my new system. This time I had finished all thing except the psu support. I am making a mini system where I have 4Gb Ram, 1GB gpu and Intel Core i3. That can give you an idea that it is simply a gaming system. Now in future I can go for a sli support. So for that does 500w power supply is enough or I should to add more right now. I had read lots of articles on this which says that it is quiet better than a much lower power supply. I found on some sites saying that 700w is also recommended for a gaming system. But that is going to cost me higher and the 500w one is getting with the cabinet. If not then I have to pay separate for the powersupply
and the old will be wasted. Thanks.

**Howitzer** · 21-01-2011

According to me 500w psu is enough for you. You can go for that blindly. In an regular system build you get a traditional 240w psu. That is the old one which we use for p4 system. Todays systems are more resource intensive especially the ram and the cpu. And if on that you have a gpu then it is needed to get a better ugprade. I run my system on a 240w psu which does has a graphic card. But if I want to add a graphic card then a upgrade is power supply is also needed on the same hand. You cannot simply rely on a low power psu. 500w is enough for the regular system with gpu support and if you want to go for dual gpu suppor then you can choose a 700w psu also.

**samar69** · 21-01-2011

If you want to know the exact voltage consumption of your system then you can use a psu calculator. There are ample of sites which provide you that. You have to just provide information on your system hardware. They will compute and guide you the exact need of voltage on which basis you can choose the power supply. Some things on which the psu selection relies is that ventilation system. Like if you have a big fan on your cpu then it also needs a higher psu. And for liquid cooling more than what you got right now. Simply try to find the most appropriate psu calculator for getting the exact voltage you got for your system.

**Mayur_Jain** · 21-01-2011

If you are buying a branded system then you get the most appropriate support on that. You do need to worry about the minimum usaage. Second the other way to find is by getting the consumption usage. According to me for a system with sli support and a powerful cpu cooler needs around 700w psu or even more than that if you are going to overclock your system. Or else for the traditional use you can simply stick with the 500w usage and that is fine. There is no need to pay additional for the same. If in future
you found upgrade for a higher system then you can at that time choose the higher psu.

**Filiberto** · 24-01-2011

In a modern PC with a Core i7 920 and a graphics card like midrange HD 5770 consumes about 300W under load. This comes under the category of a midrange computer. And even if you overclock the cpu to 4ghz along with a high-end graphics card like a HD 5850 or 5870 then total power consumption on that remains below the 500W. This is a high end consumption for a normal computer. And this is much lower if you have a dual core system. So in that way you can easily figure out. There are different hardware usage and fuel needed. Keeping a high power supply at the starting is really not a bad choice.

**Mindstorm** · 29-01-2011

I have a system with Intel Core i5 and a HD 5770. This is really a very high end system and 500w psu is not enough for the consumption. For that I had already added 800W. This the best recommendation for such system. In future if you are planing to add more hardware then do not forget that you will have to add a psu also. So better begin with a regular system power supply. 500 to 500w is not enough for your system as it a mid range system. For SLi or CrossFire support you must have a 650w of power supply support on your pc.