Hello. I'm currently building a new pc and would appreciate some advice on the PSU. It'll be a Phenom 965 BE (not overclocked), 8 gigs DDR3 1600 Ram, 2 HDD, 3 fans and a XFX HD 7870 DD. I ordered an XFX 550W PSU after checking on various PSU Calculators which said roughly 400W was fine.
But I just noticed on the card specs that XFX recommends a 650 W PSU. Should I cancel the 550 and go with 650?
The recomended spec for a PSU is baisically what you would get if you crammed your system full of crap that uses power. the spec from AMD says that you will only need a 500 watt PSU for a 7870 so a 550 watt should be just fine.
here is a link to the system requirements that AMD recomends.
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7870/Pages/radeon-7870.aspx#2
Yeah, a decent 550 Watt PSU should have no problem with that kind of system. Go with what AMD recommends. Beyond 500 Watts is usually only needed for Crossfire or SLI setups.