Does your power supply meet the requirements for maintaining performance and overclocking this setup?
Does your power supply meet the requirements for maintaining performance and overclocking this setup?
Alright guys so this is my current build:
ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0
AMD Phenom X4 955 BE @ ~3.6 GHz (Cooler Master Hyper T4 fan)
16GB 1866MHz DDR3 Kingston Hyper Fury X (2x8)
Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970
1x Sandisk 240GB SSD; 1x 500GB Seagate 7200rpm HDD; 1x 680GB Samsung 5400rpm hdd.
3 case fans.
No optical drives.
PSU: Seventeam 550W ST-550PNL
Right now everything runs pretty much fine even in the most demanding games like the Rise of the Tomb Raider, but I'm afraid I don't have much headroom and think this PSU could easily become my bottleneck when I upgrade my Phenom to a FX 6300 in a few weeks and start overclocking it.
Also, I haven't been overclocking my GPU as much as I would like to in fear it could damage my PSU and other parts due to power supply overload.
I've attached a picture of my PSU below. I reckon it's a good unit, despite the fact that Seventeam doesn't have such a great reputation among most gamers. It's never been noisy nor has it failed on me once.
https://s31.postimg.org/4scixbrtn/F711_E...31_FB4.png
So what can you guys suggest me in this case ?
Cheers
Sure, sweet. But there have been a few instances where my computer would crash during gameplay under OC settings (particularly in Tomb Raider) using this CPU, showing the error WHEA_Uncorrectable_Error (Windows blue screen). Would this have been related to the power supply?
A decent 550w PSU would suffice, but the SevenTeams ones are quite poor. This unit features an extremely weak 12v rail, which is crucial in today’s systems. The 12v rails can only deliver a maximum of 380w, which is disappointing for a PSU labeled as 550w. You’re already operating near its limits with this power supply, and if a lower-quality one like this fails, you might end up losing other components too.
You can only improve either your PSU or CPU at the moment because the CPU upgrade would cost more than your budget allows. You should choose the option that offers better performance for your current setup. A Corsair CX 750 PSU could be suitable if it fits your needs, but you should verify its compatibility and efficiency before deciding.
I would tackle the PSU first, since if it fails, you might end up needing many more components to restore a working computer. The CX is an improvement over what you currently have, but it relies on low-quality capacitors that have short lifespans and isn't something I'd suggest. Which stores are you considering for a purchase?