Widescreen Gaming Forum

my cpu is a phenom II x6 1055t overclocked
My ram is 4 sticks of 2 gigs ddr3 1333mhz
a ati HD6970 with the voltage up %20
1 one terebyte 7200 rpm harddrive
1 cd drive
a active display port adapter that uses power via the usb
and alot of fans

right now im using a 581 watt and sometimes my games freeze then resume normal or my textures flicker in left 4 dead
this psu is about 5 years old

No, I'd say it's not powerful enough. PSUs do degrade over time, so that 580w isn't 580w any more after 5 years.

Minimum PSU wattage without ANY overclocking (you didn't provide details) is 470W, with recommenced 520W, overclocking can have a huge hit on power, and with your current PSU being 5 years old it'll be no where near enough.

Advise, get a new PSU to between 650-700W, higher will allow for upgrading later as well extend its useful life (assuming you get a good make). You could get away with a 600W but I would recommend against it.

URL from the PSU sticky -> http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I just ordered one from new egg 1000watts It looked like a pretty good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702021

I just ordered one from new egg 1000watts It looked like a pretty good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702021

Its overkill, but it'll give you enough head room to add a second card and crossfire them if you wanted to, while I have no knowledge of BFG PSUs they are a respectable company so you should be alright with one of them.

Thanks and yeah im planning on crossfire in the future anyways so might as well just spend the money now

People are still selling BFG equipment? They closed their doors a few months back!

As much as this will be a pain for you, I recommend returning that unopened and getting a different manufacturer, as their warranties are not being honoured any more.

ok what other brands do u recommend?

Antec, Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic... there are likely more I've forgotten. ;)

You forgot gerbils on wheels...

Beyond brand, one thing i can suggest is getting a modular PSU. Even if you have a huge case, having all those unneeded cables gone is fantastic.

Be st PSU under the sun right now in the Corsair AX Gold series.

I personally own the AX850.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/10/07/corsair_ax850_850w_power_supply_review/

When it comes to PSUs no one runs them harder then OCP.

The older Thermaltake Toughpowers were great, but I had heard that their quality has dropped in the past couple of years (they've even gone to single +12V rails...). I love the modularity of these units, though. Around 800w is good for a multi-GPU system. Always look at the power requirements of your components, though. There are configurators around that will calculate power requirements based on the components you input and suggest a PSU rating based on that. A good baseline is to get a PSU with a maximum wattage of twice your required power. Also, always look for units with at least an 80% efficiency rating. You can find such units through the 80 Plus Program.