

Power query

#1Spikie852Posted 12/26/2013 5:10:28 AM
Hi all

Quite happily upgraded my pcs over the years, even building them 'from scratch', but one thing my little mind consistently struggles with is power (it's been the cause of a lot of my issues...).

Currently have a 700w PSU with a graphics card (N460GTX) using one of the leads, but 2 connectors. I also obviously have my MB being powered by that and a single SATA drive.

I have an abundance of cables still unused, at least one of which is a SATA power cable. So my question is - if I buy a new SATA drive to go alongside the existing one, and replace my GPU with a better one that needs up to 700W of power, am I going to be fine regardless? Say I got a card that needs 700w, I will still have enough power to run several drives, the motherboard, a sound card etc... Won't I? The 'needs 700w' bit for the card doesn't mean the card will take 100% of what the card has to give does it, it's strength not capacity right?

So from a 700w PSU I can run a 700w GPU, 2 SATA drives, a sound card and the MB.

Oh, and reassure me that adding another drive won't affect the boot in any way, so no reinstalling of... anything, just more space.

Thanks all!
Maybe he isn't a troll and he has somehow managed to destroy logic.
#2MonkeymagePosted 12/26/2013 5:25:32 AM
As long as you have a good quality 700w PSU, it will power any single-card setup you can think of, including a Titan, 780 Ti, or an R9 290x.

Adding an HDD will not affect the boot process, unless you were to manually change the boot priority in the BIOS.
#3Spikie852(Topic Creator)Posted 12/26/2013 5:35:05 AM
Cool thanks.

I've found the PSU box and it lists the 12v wattage and amps, which seem to be the important bits, so I'll take them with me to the shop to be sure I don't somehow buy something stupid :)

Glad about the boot bit, the idea is to add 2 Tb and basically move my Steam library to it, so fun weeks ahead!