Hi,

so I am getting a 27" LCD and while at it, I decided to upgrade my GPU as well. I am getting GTX 770 and I would like to ask more technically competent folk here as to whether my 1,5 year old FSP Aurum 80 PLUS 600W PSU - Gold will be up to task (I may post the link to Amazon.co.uk, but I am not sure whether it is ok or not to do so here).

The PSU Calculator tells me I should be fine with 550W PSU given my set up (i5 3570, SSD, couple of fans), while the official requirements are 600W PSU, which is exactly what I have. What I would want to know is how resistant to degradation GOLD PSUs are, i.e. how long after installation are they able to supply sufficient power. I would like to get at least 2 more years out of my PC, after this mid-way upgrade, before complely upgrading (i.e. 4 years total).

Cheers

4 lines of 18A each one at 540W
You are going to be very "tight" that psu it's pretty good, fsp it's a good brand but I will suggest to get a bigger one in a long term.

Here are some brands to look up in the future:

seasonic (one of the best)
fsp (very good)
enermax
antec
cooler master (depend on the model not all of them are good even if they are high wattage )
topower
super flower (if you can get them)
Imposible to go wrong with any of those brands with a 700+psu

The limitation of only 18 amps on each of the four rails might be a problem for your PSU in the long term, as a single gtx 770 will draw about 30 amps during high load. I recently had to replace the PSU in my brother-in-law's computer for a single-rail design as his PC was crashing during intensive gaming.

To be honest, the Aurum doesn't receive stellar reviews even though it is rated as Gold. At the end of the day, testing the GPU with your current PSU will be unlikely to cause any serious problems other than a hard crash during gaming if the amps turn out to be too low.

The post above lists good brands to consider if you do upgrade and, if so, I would personally go with a single rail design these days.

Thank you for suggestions. I will definitely go with a bigger PSU for the next build.

I have been looking around the internetz right now and it seems that it should not be that tight, with GTX 770 at least. First I stand corrected, PSU Calculator shows Minimum PSU as 470W (that would be 500W effectively) and Recommended PSU as 521W (which is 550W effectively). I was not explicit about the actual recommended value.

FSP Aurum 600 Gold can provide 72A on 12V. No, please tell me if I am wrong, but GTX 770 could draw up to 250 W (that would be like running Furmark I imagine, which I will not be doing), with 180-200 W in usual intensive gaming situations. CPU i5 3570 TDP is 77W. So that would be around 330 W needed for 12V rail, an unlikely scenario anyway. This makes Amperage 27.5A.

I have a non-K CPU and I do not intend to OC GPU either. My question essentially would be how many years would a good GOLD PSU be able to deliver according to its specifications. I need it to run the system with GTX 770 for next two years :-)

Thank you again for your kind assistance. Thank you, I see your point. Do I understand it correctly that PSU will be delivering to GPU 36A (2 rails?)? That should still be within the margin, right?

Would I be on the safe side with GTX 760?

On paper that would be the delivered amps, which should be ok for the GTX 770. What is harder to predict is the real world load due to capacitor wear, cross-loading, etc.

My guess is that you will probably be fine with current PSU for a year or two, after which capacitor wear will reduce the power output to just below what is needed for the 770. If you test your new 770 with the Aurum, you'll find any instabilities pretty quickly when gaming intensively. The Aurum is still a good enough build quality that it shouldn't damage the GPU if unstable, it'll just shut down.

I know people bang on a lot about PSU quality on techy forums these days (myself included), but it really comes down to what you can afford. I would say just go with the 770 as your PSU should be good enough for a while yet, then upgrade down the line if you get some spare cash together.

You shouldnt have a problem at all with your PSU and it will probably last long enough, wonder why people suggest very high Watts PSUs for single GPU without overclocking. Just make sure to connect correctly one rail per connector..

PCI Express slot delivers a max of 75 Watts, so you only need 180 Watts for the connectors, the 6 pin delivers another 75W (which at 12V means approx 6.5A), The 8-pin connector needs to deliver 100W which means 8.5A at 12V, so way below max specs. Only if PSU is quite unstable it should give problems.

Yep, the thing is to be able to run it for those two years. I will build a new rig then, so until then I need to be sure that it will not go kaboom in the meantime. Instead of buying a PSU mid-way I would rather downgrade a bit my upgrade aspirations (i.e. to GTX 760). But as you say I will give it a try with GTX 770. PSU has been pretty solid so far, so I have faith. Thanks for pointing out that I should take care to connect one rail per connector... In the excitement of fitting the card in I imagine I might not notice this very fundamental fact. :-) (Actually, I mean it - thanks for the cool tip)

You are correct and not at the same time is hard to explain it, you can read this articles that are very well explained :)

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Everything-You-Need-to-Know-About-Power-Supplies/181/12
http://www.overclock.net/t/761202/single-rail-vs-multi-rail-explained

Here you can see what I mean, like I said before the psu is fine for now but I will recommend to change it in the near future.

I run a 760 on a LEPA 500w PSU without any problems, so in regards to the 760, yes.