Having 250W PSU

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by LiuBang, Jan 16, 2023.

  1. LiuBang

    LiuBang MDL Member

    Oct 19, 2020
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    #1 LiuBang, Jan 16, 2023
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2023
    i have an HP Elite desk g4 Tower with 250W PSU
    what i'm running in it right now is the following
    Core i5 8500
    Ram 16GB crucial 3200 (2x8) (even though the max supported is 2666)

    480 SSD Crucial, 1TB HDD WD Laptop
    Zotac GTX 750 Ti 2GB 1 fan with 6 pin power connectors (no OC just a normal release)(not doing any OC)
    1 fan in the case

    so all that is running on 250W PSU which came by default in it
    i did afew stress tests and played games where GPU reached 100% and CPU around 60%
    no problems everything is fine , no hangs no shutdowns , everything is smooth

    what i'm asking would that heavy usage decrease my PSU life time , due to the fact this same PC could come with 500W PSU but it's not available here

    not planning to upgrade soon because of financial problems and prices going sky high in egypt (25% price increase in afew days , don't know what's gonna happen after some weeks)

    thanks , have a good day
     
  2. kaljukass

    kaljukass MDL Guru

    Nov 26, 2012
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    @LiuBang
    The only thing that will reduce the life of your power supply is if it regularly overheats or when to left it not turned on for long time. (Long time is several month at time).
    If there is no overheating (you can feel it best with your nose - if you overheat, you can smell the varnish burning in the room), the usage time will not change in any way due to the frequency of use.
    Another thing that is harmful to any kind of electronics is leaving it in the off position for a long time. The result can be a decrease in the volume of the electrolytic capacitors and even up to becoming completely unusable. The first important condition for any electronic device containing electrolytic capacitors is that they must be used regularly and not left for a long time (several months at a time, usually more than half year) without being turned on.
    So, if there is no desert smell and you can't fry an eggs on it, nothing bad will happen.
     
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  3. LiuBang

    LiuBang MDL Member

    Oct 19, 2020
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    i'm sure i got no heating problems and i use my PC daily , just wanted to check to make sure i'm not doing something wrong
    also thanks for that advice that when tech stuff not used for long time it reduces it's life and maybe not work again
    i believe we have some wrong beliefs here where people think not using something saves it's life and that it will last longer

    thanks for your answer was helpful and wish u best of luck
     
  4. TigTex

    TigTex MDL Senior Member

    Oct 5, 2009
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    250W is fine for that setup. But if you upgrade that graphics card to something more powerful, you might need an upgrade.
    Your CPU is designed for 65w and that is a 60W GPU.
    A laptop hdd and ssd are extremely low power and the rest of your system doesn't use more than 20w. You are fine
     
  5. LiuBang

    LiuBang MDL Member

    Oct 19, 2020
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    u r right about the need to change PSU if i was planning to get a more powerful GPU , i don't think i will be updating the GPU due to the fact i'm not much of a gamer like i used to be
    i used to play on the built in Intel GPU (which is intel UHD 620) for long time , buying a GPU was the upgrade -.-'

    thanks for the answer , have a good day
     
  6. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

    Dec 8, 2018
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    #6 acer-5100, Mar 27, 2023
    Last edited: Mar 27, 2023
    Given the efficiency of a PSU is maximum starting from 50/60% of its MAX rating, having a not over powered PSU is surely a great thing to reduce your electrical bill, not wasting electricity with PSUs used at 20/30% of their maximum rating. (like any moron does today).

    GOLD and PLATINUM top of the lien PSUs have a decent efficiency in the range 25-50% but still an average PC is idle most of the time which means it ask 5/10/15% of the maximum rating for most of the day.

    And in this scenario the mainboard ask for 20W% the PSU uses 100 W to provide it.

    So always use the smallest PSU that can power your PC reliably
     
  7. WindowsGeek

    WindowsGeek MDL Expert

    Jun 30, 2015
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    350W PSU should be fine if available.