Is 620W enough to OC a 4770K?

[childofthetao]

Hi, is a Seasonic M12II-620 620W enough to OC a 4770K (as far as a H110 can take it) and use a 4GB Gigabyte GTX 770 at the same time? Or would a 750W PSU be better (I'm trying to save money).

 

[cliffordcooley]

GTX 770 - 230W
i7-4770K - 84W

Leaves 300W for the rest of the system, including over-clocking. The average users motherboard and drives might use 150W, and if so that still leaves 150W for over-clocking headroom with the 620W PSU.

Without knowing for sure how the power recommendations are calculated. I'm guessing when specifications for the motherboard are calculated, power usage for all card slots are calculated. This gives massive headroom, when each card slot is alloted 75W's. You are looking at 300W's allocated just for 4 card slots. If you are not using the card slots, then the allocated power essentially could be subtracted from the system power recommendation. But then the motherboard probably has a ceiling for power usage, which is used instead of calculating card slots. But the card slots do play a roll in the total power supplied to the motherboard.

 

[childofthetao]

So would a 750W PSU be more beneficial to me? I don't really understand the point you tried to make.

I'll only be using one gfx card slot.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I was trying to point out that the GTX 770 calls for a 600W power supply. This 600W is based on the potential system power usage that is much higher than the average power usage. If what I said is confusing, please disregard. I'd rather you ignore me, than get confused.

Make a long story short. You can get a 750W power supply, if that is what you want. It seems I am failing in getting you to understand which one you need. If you stick to the power requirements that nVidia posted for the GTX 770 (600W), you should be fine.

However I truly believe your actual usage would be far less than what nVidia recommends, even while over-clocking. If you would rather play a safer side, that is your call. Just look at the system Valve put together for the Steam Machine. It is comparable to your specifications and is packaged with a 450W PSU.

 

[childofthetao]

Ah I see, so there's no reason a 620W PSU shouldn't be perfect, but a 750W would be a more cautious buy.

Well I can't say that I understand enough about this to not be cautious so I guess I'll go with the 750W just to be on the safe side.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Ah I see, so there's no reason a 620W PSU shouldn't be perfect, but a 750W would be a more cautious buy.

Correct

 

[GhostRyder]

Ah I see, so there's no reason a 620W PSU shouldn't be perfect, but a 750W would be a more cautious buy.

Well I can't say that I understand enough about this to not be cautious so I guess I'll go with the 750W just to be on the safe side.

Like @cliffordcooley said, you should be fine with that PSU at 620watts. I would normally say when dealing with a gaming rig in general and overclocking, more is better because it can relieve stress on your PSU and extend the life of it. Now while I think you will be more than fine with a 620, a 750 would be stressed less and give you more expandability options later in the future.

But you should be more than fine either way!

 

[Jad Chaar]

I would get the 750W just in case you want to SLI in the future. but if you dont plan on it, then the 620W is fine.

 

[captaincranky]

FWIW, here's a PSU calculating tool : http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

It's been updated as recently as this year, so all the newest sockets, boards CPUs and GPUs are represented.

just plug in everything you have, and everything you might treat yourself to in the coming months, and you're in business.