I was considering getting a Corsair GS700. I have heard some things that says it makes the psu less effecient if you do not use the larger size. I have a 7970 and hopefully a soon to be 4670k. Would it make the psu less effecient vs getting the 600w model? Also will it make a difference with my setup.
It will work fine. Yes, you would gain less efficiency, but it also comes down to cost. Why pay more for something that you are never going to use?
The XFX 550 Bronze + power supply can be bought cheap, it's a solid unit (rebranded Seasonic), and it's enough for any single GPU gaming system.
Double the size you need.
No, you can't get too large of a PSU and cause damage based purely on wattage, but you can drastically increase your power bill and upfront cost with a lower efficiency. Even if a 1600W PSU rated @ 80+ Gold was powering your system, which will pull about 300W full load, you will get pretty low efficency, not 80+ Gold, most likely, not to mention you already spent all of that money on a pointlessly large PSU.
I'd get the Seasonic G 360, G 450, Rosezill Capstone 450, 450 M, or any number of better PSUs that are more appropriately sized.
So I think I when I get the money I will go with the 600w or 500w model sound good?
Sure, but those wattages are double sized. You don't need more than a Seasonig G 360.
a 360 on a 7970? o.o Did you not put in HDD and stuff... The minumum i would get is a 500W. if you want to CFIRE in the furute get the 600 watt.
I have a few hard drives, plan to make a ssd as the boot drive. I do not plan to xfire. I also am using a thermaltake water 2.0 performer for a cooler and a few fans, but I do not think that adds a high power draw.
Hell yeah, full load, it won't pull much more than 340 W when OCed pretty heavily, especially with Haswell.
Even so it's not good to pull 100% of the PSU for extended periods of time. It's good to keep about 50-100 watts headroom.
I recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182261
450 watts is good enough for your system and gives safe headroom plus you can add in some more hard drives, optical drives (as if people use those things anymore lol) and fans. Plus power for your usb components
With a quality unit like the Seasonic G 360, and this applies to pretty much all PSUs anyway, the ones worth buying, anyway,they can do more than the "rated" wattage, while still well within ATX spec. I bet that G 360 could even deliver 450W, maybe 500, without breaking a sweat. It wouldn't be running at full load, it would perfectly safe. Any cap degradaiton you are worried about isn't an issue, I promise.
So eventually I will have a total of 2 HDDs and 1 SSD. I also have an optical drive.
Hey I used my drive once about six months ago.
http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power
^PSU Power calculator.
at 100% load, the build you've described will draw 543 watts, before OC'ing. 550 if you have 4 sticks instead of 2.
100% load is freakishly rare though. but you still want to plan head room from 100% load. and while its true that most good PSU's *can* push more wattage then is on the box, thats in a freezer. as it warms up, wattage *DROPS* when its over 40-50c, you can see losses of 50-60 watts, cheap PSU's are even tested at room temp for wattage so they can put higher numbers on the box. From what I know though, Seasonic, XFX, Corsair, and the 'high end' rosewill PSU's are tested for continuous draw. so thats what they'll provide in the heat of the moment.
still, add 50-100 Watts for headroom. a 600-650 will serve you well.
No, it won't. PSU calculators are absolutely horrid in terms of accuracy. This system will not pull more than 360W full load, ever, with a single GPU.
never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, NEVER plan for 'engineered overhead' in a PSU, that overhead is there FOR A REASON! its 'engineered' to take up slack as the PSU heats up and looses efficiency.
The overhead is pointless for his rig, anyway. He won't pull more than the rated wattage, and he will be well below ATX spec even if he does, somehow, get a 3gHz OC on the 7970, and 7gHz on the 4670k. 360W is plenty for quite literally 99% of all single GPU configurations.
So if it matters I do use 4 sticks of RAM, and my GPU has a factory OC. I also plan to eventually OC my CPU.So the PSUs I am considering is Seasonic SSR-650RM,Corsair GS 600W, or Corsair CX600M with later blue cables. I have a black and blue look to my system and would prefer for it to stay that way.
So what would everyone recommend? The Seasonic is more effecient(according to the rating), but is about 20 dollars more. I mostly like the way the corsair models look but everyone says seasonic is also a good brand.
I recommend the Seasonic G 360. It is cheap, it is well built, has a great ripple, and overall, is a nice unit.
Brands, however, don't mean anything. If you like the way a Corsair unit looks, at least spring for a higher end OEM, like the Corsair HX series or AX series, which use much nicer OEMs, some of them are Seasonic (most, even). Corsair doesn't make their PSUs; they buy them, and slap a sticker on it.