29A is still 348W on 12V which is way more than enough.
And Nvidea recommends not using less than a 500 watt psu on this gpu because under full load can use around 200 watts itself. I wouldnt risk ruining whole build for a psu, buy an $80 one online. It aint worth $600 worth of repair
Go for it. If you nerf your gear sucks to be you. I personally wouldnt risk it. Seen and repaired to many systems due to old/underpowered/worn out psu's. Buy a another good psu then on sell the RMA return once you get it I reckon.
Recommended wattages on nvidia/AMD websites are always made to be foolproof so they are overestimations.
970's at stock settings never consume more than their TDP, and peak power consumption of intel system with a 970 is 300-320 watts, so the real minimum PSU for it would be 350W on 12V, which almost any 400W PSU delivers.
Gotta go with dissentint here you can run it fine with that PSU. You only get the TDP of the CPU and GPU if you benchmark the hell out of it. Normal use won't reach 300 and capacitors don't fall 25%.
If anything happens the only thing that would get is a reboot. The PC won't explode if caps get maxed they will just get hot and the system will reboot because it wouldn't be able to deliver the required power.
You won't get power surge scenarios with underpowered systems and that said the system isn't overpowered.
btw the 970 has a TDP of 150 watt it only has 225 watt of PCI-e power so you can OC it.
You can pick up an EVGA 500 watt Bronze PSU for like 40$ if you wan't something while you wait to be safe, you can always use it as a back up if a situation like this arouses again.
Or you can be that buddy with the back up PSU
Just hopping in to say that whoever was arguing about wattage, it seems that you're forgetting one thing; the voltage coming from your socket. Eg. in Europe we're pulling 230 V from the wall, and in The States it's 110 V. And to keep the power (wattage) at a stable level whenever the voltage drops, the current has to rise. And it's excessive current that kills components, not voltage (also applies to people lol). So quick voltage dips in a 110V grid will give significantly harder punches to a PSU compared to a 230V grid, resulting in a greater failure rate. Another thing to consider is the 'cleanliness' of the grid, eg. having a million power-adapters hooked up (also LED bulbs if they're in the same phase) will cause cuts to the sine-waves which in turn will effect your hooked-up devices more or less. Even tho the PSU is an active component, it's output will still be slightly regulated by it's input, even the higher-quality ones will generate some ripple.
Even tho Dissentient is right in that the PSU will suffice, it's also true that the failure-rate is much greater on a 'weaker' PSU (you never know what errors might occur). One option to safeguard your PC with a questionable PSU or grid is to get an UPS, or, simply get a better power supply. In this case, the Seasonic should power the i5 and the 970 + basics easily, but I wouldn't add 10 HDDs to it, simply because the PSU hasn't been in use for a while so there's a chance that the caps have leaked a bit.
You power your monitors with a psu?
Really though if he uses this old powersupply and it works for the rest of this builds lifetime, he profits.
If it fails down the road, he replaces it and nothing was lost.
I don't power monitors from my PSU.... I took that 551 watt reading from my power strip that i have everything plugged into. (pc, monitors, speakers, etc)
Edit: Or surge protector... Whatever you wanna call it.
Not enough power.
Thanks again for all your suggestions.
In the end I've decided to buy a CX 500W to glide me over and possibly return it after the RMA is resolved. I don't want to tempt fate with the ye olde Seasonic.
Excellent decision, sir.
Convenience before all.
Good luck in future endeavors.