Is 500 watt enough to overclock properly?

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Gdog96

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I have an I5 3570k and a GTX 660, 1 HDD, and the usual stuff. Im getting a 360 radiator for water cooling so obviously I want to overclock. So will 500watts from my PSU be enough to get a decent overclock from it? Decent meaning I wont be held back by the limits of the power supply.
 
Not an expert in overclocking, but I would think those OC people would want to know the brand power supply. All PSUs aren't built the same.
 
There are plenty of PSU wattage calculators out there. be quiet! offers one, for example.

If you don't run much stuff on your rig, 500 watts should be enough (then again, I would check that for myself, if I was in your place). Doesn't seem like that would leave you with much headroom, though.
 
I guess you have the OCZ CoreXStream 500W, which has a dual-rail 12V line with 25A and 20A, combined 37A. I'm uncertain if it will be enough for an OC'd system with a watercooler, it may be.
 
djinline
I guess you have the OCZ CoreXStream 500W, which has a dual-rail 12V line with 25A and 20A, combined 37A. I'm uncertain if it will be enough for an OC'd system with a watercooler, it may be.
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That's it. Say I overclocked it and it became unstable. Would there be a way to tell if it was the power supply causing rather than the cpu being too hot etc etc
 
You could always get a program that reads out CPU/GPU temperatures (like Everest or CPU-Z, GPU-Z) to see whether the computer is still operating at normal heaat levels.
 
Luminis
You could always get a program that reads out CPU/GPU temperatures (like Everest or CPU-Z, GPU-Z) to see whether the computer is still operating at normal heaat levels.
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Yeah I monitor temps now, but are high temps the only cause of instability with an overclock?

Also, I should have mentioned, I'll only be overclocking the CPU as I can't be bothered to fit a water block to my GPU.
 
You shouldn't even need to overclock... I've built a system already with a 3570k for a friend and he's yet to say to me "You know, this 1500$ gaming computer you built for me is 'nice' but I could REALLY use an overclock on it." Why? Because you don't need to. There is no reason to be overclocking it. It's fast enough, it's powerful enough. Just don't worry about it. Put the watercooler on it call it a day, enjoy your nice temperatures and low noise and leave it at that. Your PSU was probably not even meant for overclocking unless it was expressly said somewhere on the packaging that it would be good for it. If you go through with it, you're going to end up with a problem somewhere along the line. Especially if it's your first time attempting an overclock.
 
Gdog96
Yeah I monitor temps now, but are high temps the only cause of instability with an overclock?

Also, I should have mentioned, I'll only be overclocking the CPU as I can't be bothered to fit a water block to my GPU.
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Lack of voltage is the common cause of instability, but as you raise voltages, temps go up that need to be dealt with. Once temps are in line and you push the processor more, it will need more voltage and the cycle continues until you reach the limits of your cooling, the chip's OC ability, or the voltage supply of the MOBO and other related components.

Depending on how you overclock, instability can also be caused by your RAM as well, not to mention the other 20 things that could go wrong, but those are the main ones. :)

Edited: To answer your first question, I would be worried that the 500w would be too small for your components along with a water pump and additional fans for the rad. If you sandwich the radiator, you could be adding 6 more 120's plus a fan controller, and pump along with pushing your system harder. You can always try it and upgrade your PSU later if you have to.....
 
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OCZ CoreXStream seems to have an over-power protection so if your computer starts acting weird and/or unexpectedly shutting down after getting a stable overclock with acceptable temps, especially during a gaming session, you should look for a more powerful PSU. If nothing bad happens, just enjoy your rig.
 
bergauk
You shouldn't even need to overclock... I've built a system already with a 3570k for a friend and he's yet to say to me "You know, this 1500$ gaming computer you built for me is 'nice' but I could REALLY use an overclock on it." Why? Because you don't need to. There is no reason to be overclocking it. It's fast enough, it's powerful enough. Just don't worry about it. Put the watercooler on it call it a day, enjoy your nice temperatures and low noise and leave it at that. Your PSU was probably not even meant for overclocking unless it was expressly said somewhere on the packaging that it would be good for it. If you go through with it, you're going to end up with a problem somewhere along the line. Especially if it's your first time attempting an overclock.
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This. Unless you're rendering/exporting lots of video, leave it be. Your CPU won't be a bottleneck for 99% of the games you play anyway.
 
Your water pump will need to be connected and when you overclock you will need more.

But we need to know what other things you have connected to the PC.

And how much are you going to overclock by?

Plus I use an OCZ 850w ZX PSU, nothing wrong with OCZ
 
Gdog96
I always hear people bash OCZ PSUs, like they're hell spawn.
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Nah. Not hell spawn. Ultra, OCZ, Antec, PC Power and Cooling, Corsair, I've used them all with success of their rated use.
 
Gdog96
I always hear people bash OCZ PSUs, like they're hell spawn.
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In my experience, PSUs attract the same sort of discussion as hard drives. In that no matter which manufacturer gets mentioned, someone pipes up with an assertion as to their products being like canine faeces, together with n examples illustrating the point.

My own experience of the PSU market is that there are a cabal of manufacturers (Pako's list pretty much sums it up) which are "quality", and the others are to be avoided. If you look on a reseller's web site you'll see that for a given power rating, all of the quality manufacturers are similarly priced, and that there's a gulf of around 20% between those and the to-be-avoided brands.

To throw in my $0.02 on the original question: I tend to throw huge amounts of power at systems, because a flaky power supply destroys the user experience and then the machine. My Core i7 system (with a 2.66 -> 3.8GHz overclock and 5 hard drives) is running a 1000W power supply.
 
My rig is running a 850w

i5 3570k @ 4Ghz, GTX680 3 HDDs and a water cooled loop.

Plus as PSUs age their capacitors hold less charge so after a while it wont be a 850w but a 800w or even 775w.

From what I heard getting a powersupply more powerful than needed is bad as it is not efficient at 50% load when all your hardware is at 100%, try to stay around 80% load when all your hardware is at full tilt.
 
Yeah I heard that too Grayfox. Too be honest I cheaped out on my power supply and I regret it, the cables aren't sleeved apart from the 24 pin and that is terrible, terrible sleeving as you can see right through it. They are also barely long enough for a small case. lol
 
Gdog96
Yeah I heard that too Grayfox. Too be honest I cheaped out on my power supply and I regret it, the cables aren't sleeved apart from the 24 pin and that is terrible, terrible sleeving as you can see right through it. They are also barely long enough for a small case. lol
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Well, what can you expect from a cheap power supply, although OCZ isn't one of the worst manufacturers in the market. But after doing a little research it's starting to seem like it's actually fairly capable of running your system (I estimate it shouldn't use anywhere close 300W without overclocking). My system is being powered by a Corsair CX430 V2 and it uses a bit more power in stock condition than yours (your 77W + 140W + 50W extra for RAM/HDD's/PCI cards against my 110.7W + 150W + 50W extra).
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It's been doing fine in supplying my rig at the moment. Once I get my watercooling set up I might tinker with overclocking but start slow. I can always buy a new one if needed.
 

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