Can my PSU support it?

Alright so my current system is a

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5400 2.7GHz
Geforce 9500 GT
1 Sata
1 DVD
2 Sticks of DDR2 667MHz


I would like to Upgrade to a AMD Phenom X4 9850, with a 450W PSU, (Motherboards are practicably identical).

I already check the extreme PSU calculator but it said only about 275W which makes me a little bit skeptical. So what wold you say?

Under load, the Phenom uses 311 watts - 185 watts at idle. Add that to the 9500GT, and you may be over the limit.
But why do you want to "downgrade" from a 2.7GHz CPU to a 2.5GHz CPU. Don't expect too much from the 4 cores because most programs will not be using them. I am very disappointed with my quad processor. My slightly faster duo core is better.

PS: The wattage was measured by a German computer mag

ignatzatsonic said:

For what it is worth:

AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition review

which says:

So in combo with a fully build system with the Radeon HD 3870 active, we idle at 170 Watt, that's quite a lot actually.

Once we stress the 4 CPU cores we peak at 246 Watt, when we start to play a game we peak at 269 Watt.

Once we overclock the processor towards 3 GHz we see an idle power consumption of 215 Watt, 321 Watt when we stress the 4 CPU cores, and measured while playing some games we peak towards 334 Watt.

So your PSU looks OK to me.

What about the 9500GT that needs a minimum of 400 watts setup itself.

I was always under the impression the recommended wattage a GPU gives is taking into account the rest of the system. (Recommended System Power for a typical mainstream setup that is)

Not actually what the card needs itself.

Wishmaster said:

I was always under the impression the recommended wattage a GPU gives is taking into account the rest of the system. (Recommended System Power for a typical mainstream setup that is)

Not actually what the card needs itself.

That is correct. But the key here is " typical mainstream setup ". The CPU that we are talking about is a particularily intensive power user. So I think we are outside a "typical" setup. Maybe I am just too prudent in power matters, but better be safe than sorry.

whs said:

Under load, the Phenom uses 311 watts - 185 watts at idle. Add that to the 9500GT, and you may be over the limit.
But why do you want to "downgrade" from a 2.7GHz CPU to a 2.5GHz CPU. Don't expect too much from the 4 cores because most programs will not be using them. I am very disappointed with my quad processor. My slightly faster duo core is better.

PS: The wattage was measured by a German computer mag

Well to start I can actually get the quad core for the same price. Belive it or not,

In a benchmarking test my 2.7Ghz Pentium scored 1800

While the Phenom scored a 2966. Its close to double of the Pentium.

Also if I were upgrading what would be a recommended PSU Wattage?

whs said:

Wishmaster said:

I was always under the impression the recommended wattage a GPU gives is taking into account the rest of the system. (Recommended System Power for a typical mainstream setup that is)

Not actually what the card needs itself.

That is correct. But the key here is " typical mainstream setup ". The CPU that we are talking about is a particularily intensive power user. So I think we are outside a "typical" setup. Maybe I am just too prudent in power matters, but better be safe than sorry.

I misunderstood the original question then.

I agree with you. But the wattage I think it depends greatly on the type of PSU as well.
A good 450-550W would be plenty I would think.


Kidfork,
I personally prefer Corsair PSUs. But there are a few other good quality ones.
I believe something like a 450W Corasir would be enough, but I would go with a 500-550W simply because youll have more headroom for future upgrades.

Main thing is get a good PSU (whichever brand you choose), and look more at the 12V rail amperage and effeciency.