Is a 430w PSU enough?

I am building a PC for someone today, but I am a little concerned about the PSU he chose. It is only 430 watts and I'm not sure if that is enough. I tried using various calculators online to determine if it would be enough, but his GPU isn't listed anywhere on those sites. I don't know how to add this stuff up manually, so I am looking for a little help.

Motherboard; MSI A88XM-E45

RAM; Kingston Black 8 GB 1600

CPU; AMD 760k

GPU; Gtx 750 ti SC

PSU; Corsair builder 430W

From what I'm reading the 750 ti sc doesn't require a PSU connection and runs solely off the PCI-E slot. The card has a 60w TDP. I'd also imagine he will be using 3 USB ports and one of the fans in his case. What do you guys think? Is 430W enough? Personally, I am disappointed because I suggested a build for him that was better than this. It included a FX 6300, r7 265, and a 550w PSU. I've always used 550w or more on my builds just to be safe, but I'm worried this is cutting it extremely close.

Tell him to grow a pair and increase his budget. Better to be safe than sorry, no point being a tight ass on the most important part of your PC, the very thing that powers it all. Besides if he wants to upgrade the GPU and other parts in the future, he'll need to buy a new PSU anyways, so do it right from the start and avoid the hassle later.

@BattleSpectre: I agree and overall I don't agree with his build at all. The mobo is ok, but lacks room for a upgrade atm. I may see if I can get him to return a few things...if not...then its his own risk lol.

@intotheminx: He should have listened to you from the very start if you could have built him a better PC and still stay within budget. If he hasn't opened the parts yet tell him to return them, don't forget you're the one doing him the favour by building it so tell him you're in control now.

I think i got a 750w Evga gold rated powersuppply on sale for 120 dollars or so just a few weeks ago. Even regular price i doubt it'd be over 150 dollars... so its not a big price jump from 450-750watts. Also get at least a bronze rated supply or higher, saves money in hydro.

Really though 450 watts is enough power, i have a 4770k overclocked to 4.5ghz, 680gtx overclocked, and about 10 hard drives and under max load 100% cpu and gpu my power usuage is under 400watts for the most part. Just to be safe though you kinda do want more incase the pc does draw spurts of extra power and keep the stability up... and the cost of a bit more power supply is nothing.

Yes 430Watts are enough, you can pick up R7 265 and the 430Watts would still be enough.

Apparently people are using a 300w psu with this card and not having any problems. I guess I'm gonna throw it together and let it rock at his own risk since he is being stubborn.

There's no risk, only if he wishes to put a modern medium high grade GPU he'll need to upgrade it to at least 500Watts in the future

It is not just about wattage...

A stock GTX 750ti uses a whole 65w, a 430w psu is more then enough for that gpu. The whole Pc would be lucky to use 250w at peak.

Ouch, too low.

Being a tight ass over the PSU is a bad idea.

People like to go crazy with power supplies. I see people recommending 750w + psu's all the time for single gpu builds. Just a tad overkill in most cases. If he has no plans on upgrading and gets a quality 400w-500w psu he'll be fine.

It's not always the case, for single high end GPU with 4670K or 4770K OC you'll want a 650Watts PSU. (AMD CPUs also take much more than intels')

True, but he has a 100w cpu and a gpu with a 60w-70w power draw .

That's why lets say Corsair CX430 for 20$ is far more than enough for his build.

Once again....max wattage is not the end all be all of power supplies. You can get a high max wattage PSU with shit 12V rail amperage and you're screwed, just the same as in the post above you can get a lower wattage PSU with +12V@32A and run a high end card no problem.

Things to Look For When Choosing Your Power Supply

Many of us typically begin and end our search by looking at one index of a power supply's performance: its maximum output. We then judge different power supplies using only this figure. This is definitely not the recommended approach as choosing a power supply that suits your system's power requirements is more complex than just comparing output figures. In this section we'll take a look and gain a basic understanding of the most important power supply specs/features and what they do.

Maximum Power

Power supplies are basically differentiated by output wattage, which is quoted according to the "Maximum Power" output. Maximum power is not just a number, it also gives a basic idea of how many devices (and what type of devices, in terms of power consumption) the power supply will be able to feed.

However, the maximum power figure alone is not enough to determine whether a PSU is able to drive your computer. Each voltage rail requires attention, but the most attention needs to go to the +12V rail(s), since the processor and PCIe video cards receive their power from them. The power supply must output at least 18A (amps) on the +12V rail(s) for a mainstream up-to-date computer; more than 24A for a system with a single enthusiast-class graphics card; and no less than 34A when it comes to a high end SLI/CrossFire system. The output amperage figure we're talking about here is the combined figure for PSUs offering more than one +12V rail. Of course, it is the combined total output number you should look for, and you can't always add up the+12V rails to calculate the combined output. For instance, a PSU labeled with rails labeled +12V1@18A and +12V2@16A may only have a 30A combined power output instead of 34A. Look for this information in the detailed item specifications or on the PSU information label.

If you are going to run an SLI/Crossfire configuration, please make sure the +12V rail(s) provide no less than 34A combined. Different power supplies are labeled differently – some show the maximum amperage provided by each rail, and some will provide the maximum combined maximum wattage, e.g. 396W, which is equals to 396W/12V = 33A.

Continuous and Peak Power

Please note that continuous power and peak power are different. Generally, the "Maximum Power" figure of a power supply refers to the continuous (stable) power the PSU will deliver consistently, while the peak power refers to the elevated maximum (surge) power the PSU can deliver, albeit for very short amount of time (e.g. 15 seconds).

More than enough if it's a real 430watt psu.

dude wtf? he's going to use 750 Ti. he doesn't need to worry about 12V rail.

The amperage would be higher with today's cards, but otherwise this is somehting to follow.

Anyway if he is happy with a 750Ti then 430Watts is enough.

@intotheminx: Heat should be one of your main concerns. The larger the PSU the cooler it will run. The idea is never to use more than 80% of it's power at any given time. And if you think about it. When the computer is pushed to it's max including overclocked and everything. There are some games that really cause the computer to consume power. not to mention the RAM consumes power as does the HDD and all of the fans etc. Power determines performance. I had people tell me that 1200 watts was too much for one GPU yet they also weren't able to achieve 175fps and run as cool as I. If you starve the components than they wont perform to their max potential. Since it's a single GPU video card I would say 600 watts minimum. I would use a gold rated PSU to be safe.

The 430w power supply ended up being more than enough. He is barely drawing any wattage at all lol. I'm really impressed by that GPU. He was playing BF4 on Ultra @1080p with over 50 fps. If you're looking into a budget card or already have a computer and want to add a discrete gpu I'd look into it. The 750ti connects to the PCIe slot and that's it lol.

dude wtf? Are you confused as to what 12V rails are? You do know even cards that do not require 6pin connectors still have amperage requirements from the 12V rail to the PCIe 24 pin slot right? The 750 ti still needs 20A to the 24 pin slot, and you could use a 300W power supply as long as the combined 12V rail(s) had 20A.

And as Reaper stated....this was a general guide referring to wattage not being the most important thing in a PSU.

@vfibsux: You are correct, good sir. Luckily his PSU was sufficient.