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PSU Good enough for 6850/550ti ?? + SSD Help

Last response: in Components
December 5, 2012 9:00:38 PM

600w PSU able to handle 550ti/6850 ? It is a Sumvision PowerX2 600W PSU .

It doesn't have any 6-pin connectors but I have 2 free 4-pin molex connectors and I was hoping to use them with a 4-pin to 6-pin adapter ?

My only worry is the Amps etc... and any help would be appreciated :D 

I am also wondering about molex power Splitter for a 60GB SSD and how that would workout + will my PSU be able to handle all of this if it all works :D 

I am upgrading from a hd 6450 so any suggestions if my PSU can handle a 550ti/6850 would also be greatly appreciated.

+ I know its a cheap make of PSU.
a b ) Power supply
December 5, 2012 9:15:22 PM

I have never heard of that brand of psu, so I would be wary. It may say 600w on the label, but most of the no name brands lie and they under perform.

However it should handle it, but there is no clear way of knowing besides trying because no one knows anything about that psu. If your system is worth anything to you, I would get a new psu.
December 5, 2012 9:16:24 PM

Thanks form the quick reply I can provide some Amps etc... If that would help ?
Related resources
December 5, 2012 9:27:57 PM


3.3 5 12 -12 -5

38 40 22 0.8 0.3

Hopefully This will help and for the above post ive just recently got my computer and the 600w was suppose to be a good make like corsair or Antec but the person who built it for me went for the cheap option and still charged me the same :/ 
a b ) Power supply
December 5, 2012 9:38:12 PM

The graphics cards you listed are all low power but that seems like it's got 22A on the 12V rail. This is very poor. In theory that means it can do 260W or so, but given how cheap it is, I wouldn't be optimistic about that figure at all.

Can it run those cards? It's certainly possible.

Should you? Not if you have any other option.
December 5, 2012 9:44:01 PM

Any options you would recommend mostly for gaming on low-medium setting for games like arma 2, farcry 3 etc... ive saw the 550ti preform good with these title hence me wanting to buy it but is there any options ?
a b ) Power supply
December 5, 2012 9:55:37 PM

I was meaning you should avoid using the PSU, not that you shouldn't use those graphics cards at all :) 

GTX550Ti is a nice enough card, though it's getting fairly old. HD7770 isn't far off the price. GTX650Ti isn't a bad card either, but because of the fact it's fairly new it's still a bit more expensive.

It really depends what you want to spend and what you want/need to achieve.
December 5, 2012 10:04:02 PM

Thank you for the advice but the PSU i have at the moment what is the best card i can get ? and about the SSD can i put one in with a splitter ?
a b ) Power supply
December 5, 2012 10:27:29 PM

adam45417 said:

Too hard to say dude, anyone who says otherwise will just be guessing. In theory that PSU is capable of supporting a good amount of graphics cards. What is left over for it to use is dependant primarily on your CPU (as you haven't mentioned what it is yet), but also on the other stuff floating around in your system. Generally your CPU and GPU are the only things drawing significant power, so they are the ones to worry about.
Problem is that a well known PSU will have plenty of data online, user experiences and reviews where people test it to see how ambitious it's claims are. I couldn't see much for your PSU, and none of it was good. Your current graphics card is really low power so it's unlikely to be being stressed much.

There are calculators like this - to help with that sort of thing, but even if you know how much power you need, it's unlikely anyone is going to be able to tell you how much power your PSU can provide.

As for connecting an SSD with a splitter, I don't see the harm, they are pretty low power devices. Ideally though, I'd avoid them.
December 5, 2012 10:38:05 PM

Thanks I am currently running a Fx-4100 3.6ghz processor, 8gb of ballisticz ram 1600mhz, 1 tb hard drive, dvd drive, and 2 led fans. Hope this helps and thanks for the advice on the SSD did you mean you try to avoid SSDs or Splitters ?

Personally i thought a 600w PSU would be able to handle a 550ti but then i started to read about amps etc.. and i just need to make sure before i invest in any graphics card if my PSU can handle it :/ 
a b ) Power supply
December 5, 2012 11:09:43 PM

Yeah sorry I'm not being terribly clear this evening. I meant avoid splitters if you can, they tend to be a bit cheap.

Any good 600w PSU will power nearly any graphics card on the market. For your needs, it's likely 300w would suffice.

If the data on your PSU is accurate, you have perhaps 150W to play with. That is more than sufficient for any of the graphics cards mentioned above (GTX550ti etc). The problem is that data might not be remotely accurate, and all of them require a PCIe connector. You can avoid this issue by going for a HD7750, which doesn't need an additional power source, but it does mean it's not going to be a terribly potent gaming solution.

My advice (and I suspect the advice of anyone else who happens upon this thread) is to avoid the hassle, and find some money in the budget for a decent PSU. An entry level Antec/Corsair/XFX type of 400-450W will likely serve you well and have the right connectors.
To illustrate the point, your PSU provides 264W on 12V, or 44% of its total power. An Antec VP450, a totally baseline (and cheap) modern PSU provides 360W on 12V, or 80% of its total power. The remaining 300W+ from your PSU is essentially functionless, as very little runs on anything other than 12V, and what does is low power use. Having such a large percentage of it's power dedicated to other things (not to mention the lack of PCIe connector) suggests this PSU is quite antiquated and not really fit for purpose.

Also, if you haven't had the PC for long, you might want to try and hassle whoever sold you it, if they sold you something of such poor quality when promising you better.
December 6, 2012 3:09:47 PM

Thanks for all the information I think ill be save and go with a 7750 :D  Really no point in getting a 600w PSU after all. I would love something with a bit more power like the 550ti/6850 but think it might be a bit risky + having to get connectors etc... Hopefully the 7750 will be able to meet my gaming needs, as i don't have the money at the moment to buy a PSU and Graphics card at the moment.

And yes the person who build it got a bit extra money about £100 + his building costs as he went cheap on my motherboard as well.

So just to make sure a 7750 is the best bet for me ill be playing MMO`s, dishonored,farcry 3, day z etc...


If not any other suggestions ?
a b ) Power supply
December 6, 2012 9:27:05 PM

Yeah I'd be pretty cross if I were you, if you haven't had the PC for long and it wasn't what was advertised then you should maybe try hassling the guy who sold it to you. Seems like your budget was quite healthy to start with and you got sold a bit of a lemon.

HD7750 isn't a very good card, but it's the only reasonable modern card that doesn't require additional power connectors, which basically puts it in a class of one. The Toms review of it is here might give you some more info.
Performance you are likely to get is dictated a lot by your resolution. If you are happy to run stuff on lower settings and low resolutions, then you should manage to get it to work fine. There's not a huge gap between a GTX550ti and a HD7750 but neither are going to be setting the world alight.
HD6850 is a bit more expensive, there's also the HD7770 and GTX650 but with all of those you run into the connector issue.

At sub £100 (I'm guessing your budget) you are really going to struggle to get a PSU+Graphics like you said. If however, you could maybe push that to ~£125, you can solve most of your problems with a combo like this-
450W PSU

I know it's not what you want to hear, but I'm not sure you have many options if you want to use this PC for gaming.
December 8, 2012 9:42:21 PM

Thanks alot for all the support, but Ive decided in the end to put a bit extra money into my computer and get a good branded PSU (Any suggestions would be nice.) And get a card like the 6850 or 6870 (Any suggestions would also be nice.) Budget on the PSU is around £60 and Graphics budget is around £120.

Any ideas on a nice keyboard and mouse for the future :D 

And i think my motherboard is 24-pin.
a b ) Power supply
December 9, 2012 3:02:23 AM

You can cut the PSU budget down significantly if you want to, the two obvious entry level PSUs are the
XFX Pro series -
Corsair CX430 -
Both are around £35, both are pretty reputable, and both are really well reviewed. The XFX seems the better value right now for sure, it's slightly higher wattage and a better OEM (Seasonic). They only have 1 PCIe power cable each, but if you step up to the 500/550W versions of both, you can get 2 of those without spending a lot more (under £50). Whether or not you need two PCIe cables depends on which graphics card you pick and any future plans you might have.

As for graphics cards, there's probably only one winner in terms of a graphics card for £120,
I know it's a tiny bit over, but it's definitely worth it. It's a 1Gb version of the really good HD7850.
If your total budget can go as high as £180, then you might want to consider stepping up to one of the 2Gb versions-

There's a couple of other cards floating around in that budget but I'm not sure they are worth considering. It's better than a HD6870 and GTX650Ti, and will play games at decent resolutions, though I don't know what resolution you use.

As for keyboard/mouse, I tend to avoid those discussions as they are a bit subjective. My girlfriend has a Razer Naga which I despise for its awkward shape and silly number of buttons (not to mention how much it cost), she loves it.
December 9, 2012 6:34:58 PM

Haha I was actually looking at razor products, Mostly because of there look and the name its self :D 

And yes i was looking at the 7850 but thought they cost more thanks for the links and all the help you have given me I will consider the 7850 along with other cards on the market it really depends on the money I have at the time, I am going to buy the PSU soon and the graphics card after Christmas.