So I'm trying to run my system on an Antec Earthwatts 380W . . . I'm a bit worried about power.
I've got a Phenom II x2 565, 6770, 8 gig RAM, and a 90GB SSD in an NZXT h2. I put this together over the weekend and everything is running great right now.
I'd like to add a 1TB drive in the future, hoping for hd prices to come down first. Also like to try to unlock some cores on the Phenom and maybe eventually overclock if I have to. Also probably a PCIe TV tuner card.
Light gaming—for now mostly Civ/4/5Anno 2070. Probably will play some FPS in the future as I used to TF2. I might try to push it if the right game comes along...
Am I safe? Everyone is going huge on psu but I'm running fine for now, and have read about how these 380W are quality and other 600W are crap, etc. If I try successfully unlock 2 cores, add the HDD and the TV tuner card, will I enter the danger zone?
If you try to overclock with 4 cores and the additional hard drive, and the TV tuner card, you might be pushing your luck. If you want to do all that, you probably should get something with a higher wattage to give yourself more headroom. Something in the 450 Watt range would be fine, though you can go higher if you want to add a more powerful GPU or a second 6770 down the road. Obviously go for a good brand, as a crap 600 watt is not going to be any better than what you have now. Antec, Seasonic, Corsair, Enermax, PC Power and Cooling, XFX, and some OCZ are all quite good.
------------------------------CPU: Core i5 760 @2.8GHz. Mobo: Asus P7P55 LX. RAM: 2x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz, Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB. PSU: Corsair TX750M. SSD: Crucial M4 128GB HDDs: 1 Seagate Barracuda 500GB, 1 Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB Case: NZXT Gamma Reply to Supernova1138
You should be ok, that unit is known for powering system specs like yours = 6770.
An o'c could tax it a bit though.
I'd try it out first and if you experience stability problems and/or alot of fan noise then look to replace it.
Welcome, "newcomer". Here is a site I've used over the past that you can use, as a "basic" guide, to input your hardware to see if your power supply is enough for the specs you have. Check it out, which I inputted most of your current specs and it came out with Total operating power of 387watts. But you know your system better that I. Take care. Here's the link.