new power supply help

[Illydan88]

Hello everyone!
long story short: after almost 5y my psu decided to give up so i need a new one (dejavu )

long story: lots of random reboots for last month and windows log saying kernel-power issue, I put in a friend's psu and all is fine now.
I'm quite disappointed because it was a good purchase (XFX XTR650w 110€) and while still in warranty (4,5 of 5 years) the RMA is a hell ( ship on my behalf to NE then hongkong>china and way back... what the??) so I better buy a new one.
Loved the full modular but i guess a semi modular will do as well saving money, the same model is now 137€ which is a no for me so if you can suggest some model I'll search on italian local/web stores (amazon usually the best).
then some questions:
how many Watts? this one i'm using is 550W, I get that 600/650W is a enough wattage for anything (even in a possible future build i wont oc or double gpu)?
is RMA something to consider when purchasing or you are just unlucky if a fail happens?

[Sheor]

I'd get between 650-850 Watts. And a few really good brands that I usually stick to and have no problems with are Seasonic and EVGA. Get atleast 80+ bronze. You can usually find 80+ gold in that wattage range for $100-150 USD.

[Temp name]

What is the rest of your computer specs? We don't know how many watts you need if we don't know what PC you have.

The answer could be as low as 200, or as high as 1000

[Shakadam]

I'd go for either one of these:

Corsair RM650

FSP Group Hydro G

550W is probably enough as well so this one is something I'd consider also:

Corsair TX550M

[Illydan88]

right thanks for the answers, this is my current spec:
Intel Core2 Q8300 @2.50GHz; GTX550ti; 2ssd, 1 hdd
I think 550W should be ok (actually i have them now powering up so i guess they are enough), my question is how do I know how much power I need now or in a future build?

[potis]

right thanks for the answers, this is my current spec:
Intel Core2 Q8300 @2.50GHz; GTX550ti; 2ssd, 1 hdd
I think 550W should be ok (actually i have them now powering up so i guess they are enough), my question is how do I know how much power I need now or in a future build?

Since your components are ancient and you are gonna be upgrading in the next 2 years no matter what eventually, get a 650W to cover all basics.

A good 650W can pretty much handle everything out there, unless you somehow go one of the upcoming 300W CPUs with a 2080 Ti then you might see a problem?

Considering you are still using that your needs are probably low so a 550W would also work for your future needs, but you never know, you might actually decide to use your PC

[Illydan88]

Since your components are ancient and you are gonna be upgrading in the next 2 years no matter what eventually, get a 650W to cover all basics.

A good 650W can pretty much handle everything out there, unless you somehow go one of the upcoming 300W CPUs with a 2080 Ti then you might see a problem?

Considering you are still using that your needs are probably low so a 550W would also work for your future needs, but you never know, you might actually decide to use your PC

haha yeah I know... I'm proud of my old machine still running WoW at low settings
thanks

[Illydan88]

so i tried to figure out how much power my system consumes and it's something close to 400W according to some calculator, than i simulated build of the month (dolphin, which is around my budget) here and it gives 400W ish... I know I can't pick it as gold but does it mean Dolphin build could run with a 550W psu?

[LordVargK]

Since Dolphin uses a 650W PSU, I'd recommend that you buy at least that. 80+ means an efficiency of at least 80% in all workload situations. But most PSUs have a different efficiency based on current load: full load ist less efficient that half load, but low load is also less efficient. So you don't want the power of your PSU to be too small, but not too large either.
Also you have to know your power usage while idle and while under load to make an informed decision. But generally I would think you can't go wrong with 650W. It's also not really more expensive than 550W.

[Triggered Fridgekin]

I treat 650w as a catch-all recommendation which reflects the components you can afford within the scope of this particular budget and can be something of an investment. Even though the Dolphin will not use anywhere near the rated amount it's still peace of mind to have that extra head room especially if you decide you want to do some upgrading down the road without having to factor in the cost of a new PSU.

[khazmodan]

right thanks for the answers, this is my current spec:
Intel Core2 Q8300 @2.50GHz; GTX550ti; 2ssd, 1 hdd
I think 550W should be ok (actually i have them now powering up so i guess they are enough), my question is how do I know how much power I need now or in a future build?

Intel core2? holy crap, I thought my i7 3930 was ancient, its time to plan around a completely new build.

[Illydan88]

Intel core2? holy crap, I thought my i7 3930 was ancient, its time to plan around a completely new build.

haha yeah! I've been planning to get a new build for years and every time I read a new post my enthusiast mood awakens but then I think that maybe I don't actually need it: I've been playing with this for 10 years with some updated (still old) so I believe we are maybe too exagerated when it comes to upgrade, aren't we?

- - - Updated - - -

so before buying the new supply (I thougth I'd go for the corsair rm650) I wanted to give it one more try and plugged the old one again and guess... so far no reboot in the last 24h... meanwhile amazon rised PSU price by 13€! lol