Some of you who are speccing up your own systems or building your own custom systems on our website may find it handy as a rough guide.
YES there are more scientific ways of calculating what your systems power requirements are with fancy calculators online etc, but all I'm a interested in as a system builder is what is the manufacturers system requirements are because anything less is unsupported and not recommended by the manufacturer or Scorptec.
Please remember that I have compiled and shared this list as a guide and a starting point only. These are basic system requirements, meaning 1 or 2 HDDs, a DVD drive and standard cooling and not much else. Also remember having wattage to spare is never a bad thing. Not enough, on the other hand, is a bad thing.
ATI
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5970
- 650 Watt or greater power supply one 75W 6-pin and one 150W 8-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (850 Watt with two 75W 6-pin and two 150W 8-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5870
- 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5850
- 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5770
- 450 Watt or greater power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5750
- 450 Watt or greater power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5670
- 400 Watt or greater power supply recommended (500 Watt for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
- ATI Radeon™ HD 5570
- 400 Watt or greater power supply recommended
NVIDIA
- GeForce GTX 295
- Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 680 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin & 8-pin
- GeForce GTX 285
- Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 550 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin x2
- GeForce GTX 275
- Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 550 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin x2
- GeForce GTX 260
- Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 500 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin x2
- GeForce GTS 250
- Minimum System Power Requirement (W) 450 W
Supplementary Power Connectors 6-pin
NOTE: Not all PSUs are created equal so choose wisely. Cheap PSUs are usually just that. Its usually the difference between 'peak' vs. 'continuous' output.
Peak, meaning it can output 430watts for a few minutes before blowing up.
Continuous, meaning its designed to output 430watts all day long without breaking a sweat.
Check out hardwaresecrets.com for some VERY rigorous testing of PSUs.
