Buying a 500 watt power supply, will it blow out the mother board and processor?
Question by The Dragon: Buying a 500 watt power supply, will it blow out the mother board and processor?
Im planning on buying a new Graphics card and power supply to support said Card. How ever since it my first time buying power supplies I have a few questions.
1. Will buying a 500 Watt blow out my Processor and/or Motherboard?
2. Should I buy higher seeing that the graphics card needs 500 Watts?
3. Is there anything i should know before doing the switch out?
Im currently in a hardware class on PCs so you can go Techy on me. I need to make this PC ready for Skyrim :3
Forgot to add the original is a maximum of 350 watts
Best answer:
Answer by BlkHeartWolf
the 20-24 pin power connection for your system board is regulated and no need to worry this.
PSU’s are stable to 80% of the rated power so Watts \ volts = amps 500 watts = 41.7 amps.
your 500 watt requirement tells me a 52 amp PSU is needed or up to 30AMP on the card connection.
do get a 600watt to compensate for the 20% lack of stability in PSU
Add your own answer in the comments!
A little more info mainly the graphic card you are purchasing and the model of the motherboard and processor a quick program that will let you know is cpu-z at the http://www.cpuid.com
September 16th, 2012 at 8:11 pmNo, it will not hurt your processor or mobo. Your computer will only draw as much power as it needs. Make sure the new PSU has the required connectors for your set up and don’t “cheap out” (you get what you pay for). Here use this psu calculator to determine how big of a psu you need. (and remember to allow some “head room” for future upgrades, I always go about 50 – 100 watts higher than what I need)
http://images10.newegg.com/BizIntell/tool/psucalc/index.html
September 16th, 2012 at 8:52 pmThe 500 Watt rating on the power supply is the maximum it can deliver. It won’t force the power into your computer; there’s no risk to your processor or motherboard.
The graphics card recommendation for a 500 Watt supply is an estimate. The graphics card manufacturer has no way of knowing what else is in your computer. If you’re planning some kind of future power-hungry upgrade (like a second high-power graphics card, or liquid cooling, or fancy case lighting), you may want to go bigger – but 500 Watts is already pretty big.
September 16th, 2012 at 8:57 pmThe power supply is an on-demand type of device, it will only put out what is required by the hardware.
As all the posts indicate, (good posts by the way) you should not limit yourself to the “minimum required” for determining a PSU, A more efficient PSU will serve you better than one spec’d out for minimum requirements. A PSU operating at 60% load will give you a much better system than one operating at 90% load. In other words, if the minimum required (determined by your GPU spec’s) is 450 watts then you want to go with a 550 to 600 watt PSU. A PSU with a higher wattage is a more stable PSU.
September 16th, 2012 at 9:53 pmNo, your power supply will not blow out your processor or motherboard. The wattage is a maximum that it can pull and not what it gives to your system consistently.
What graphics card are you planning on upgrading to that only needs 500-watts? It wouldn’t be a bad idea to add maybe 50-100W of headroom but it shouldn’t be an issue.
Nothing really to know about switching out a power supply, just make sure you ground yourself to discharge static electricity and find a high quality power supply. Do not cheap out on this part as if it goes bad it can take your whole system with you.
I was just recently looking at an OCZ power supply on dailytechdeals.net. Looks like a good price and fit for you?
September 16th, 2012 at 10:25 pm