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GTX 480 with a 650W PSU
I've got a pretty straight forward question tonight.
Will an Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU offer enough power to run the power-hungry GTX 480?
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371044
In addition to the 480, the PSU would be powering:
Hard Drive
CD Burner
SSD
Phenom II x4 955 BE 125W @ 3.9 GHz
6 fans
Mobo
2 x 4GB RAM (8GB)
2 Cold Cathodes
Comments
You say an Antec EarthWatts 650 W, but you link an Antec EarthWatts Green 650 W. They're two different power supplies. So make sure that it's the latter that you have and not the former.
With your processor overclock, the processor might well pull 200 W under a heavy load. Add 300 W for the video card and you're at 500 W. And that's before adding in other stuff. For the original EarthWatts 650 W that is only rated at 540 W on the +12 V rail, that's a big problem.
If you have the EarthWatts Green that you linked, my guess is that it would probably work, but it's risky enough that I'd advise against it. Sometimes pulling over 500 W from a decent 650 W power supply isn't really the best idea, especially as the power supply ages.
If you were to either undo the processor overclock or get the GTX 570 that you were looking at instead, then it should be fine if you have the EarthWatts Green 650 W.
You never fail me, Quiz. I read through 9 pages of product reviews for the GTX 480 and found that many people were using it with a 650W PSU. However, as you pointed out, the CPU will make it pretty close. I've decided against getting the 480--I've "cheaped out" on this system in the past and always end up regretting it. Not worrying about my PSU, more efficient power usage, and a cooler running system is worth the $80 jump to the 570 as far as I'm concerned. I'll wait for 6xx and see what happens with benchmarks and prices, though.