Are these parts good?

[arcadeplayer987]

Originally Posted by hobbes_fan

All the nvidia 8xxxx series has that, same deal with the ATI x19xxx series. Nvidia calls its PureVideo and ATI calls it AVIVO. (see my thread about an x1950pro and AVIVO).

The 8800GTS is probably the best card going around but its $$$. With the new cards you will need a monster PSU. Something like 30 amps on the 12v rails.

Monster PSU!!was that a joke??
The minimum requirement is 400W PSU with 26A on 12V rail
So he need something like: Fortron Blue Storm II 400W or Seasonic S-12 430W or Antec EarthWatts 430W or ...
all this are enough for 8800GTS

[Claies]

Originally Posted by arcadeplayer987

Monster PSU!!was that a joke??
The minimum requirement is 400W PSU with 26A on 12V rail
So he need something like: Fortron Blue Storm II 400W or Seasonic S-12 430W or Antec EarthWatts 430W or ...
all this are enough for 8800GTS

No it is not. I run a 450W, I have a 6600GT, and recently I tried to put in a new hard drive and the power load went over when all I have are 3 HDDs, one 80mm fan, and not a single decorative light. A 400W is fine if that 8800GTS and your motherboard is all you're connecting to it.

He means something like 500-600W, not the 1000W that you put on servers. It's not that expensive. It can also last you a few years so you don't have to get a new PSU every time you try and add new components.

[problemedchild]

Ever tried upgrading a computer with PC133 RAM? A stick of 512 MB will cost you as much as getting 2 GB of high end PC6400. RAM is one of the few things in the computer world where older is more expensive.

As for a PSU, don't be fooled by marketing. Most cheap "600W" PSUs don't come close to a 430W brand name PSU.

[raideralan]

Wow thanks for the input. It helps. Haven;t even tried to build a computer with these parts before. (was using very cheap parts) Just curious on the MB I picked there isn't a slot for a floppy drive is there? If not installing a SATA drive as my master drive would be a problem.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by problemedchild

Ever tried upgrading a computer with PC133 RAM? A stick of 512 MB will cost you as much as getting 2 GB of high end PC6400. RAM is one of the few things in the computer world where older is more expensive.

As for a PSU, don't be fooled by marketing. Most cheap "600W" PSUs don't come close to a 430W brand name PSU.

Efficiency-wise, you're right. Cheap PSUs come at around 50%, and a 600W 50% Eff. PSU definitely cannot compare with a 450W >70% Eff. at the same price. However, for what he's getting, I still recommend that he get something big enough (for no more than $100) to accommodate for any future upgrades.

[Furuno]

Originally Posted by raideralan

Wow thanks for the input. It helps. Haven;t even tried to build a computer with these parts before. (was using very cheap parts) Just curious on the MB I picked there isn't a slot for a floppy drive is there? If not installing a SATA drive as my master drive would be a problem.

Don't worry usually floppy disk drives have their own interface on the MB. But for another alternative, you could install that from a flash disk the same way as the floppy if your BIOS can support USB booting. Otherwise, there's always something called extrenal floppy disk drive via USB... I don't have FDD either, it just take up another space in my case...

[hobbes_fan]

DDR3 is still a while off from being standard from benchmarks I've read. At ths stage, with DDr3 costing $200 the performance/price ratio is absolutely miniscule

[raideralan]

I think I do have the FDD slot. I should check into that.

[hobbes_fan]

Originally Posted by arcadeplayer987

Monster PSU!!was that a joke??
The minimum requirement is 400W PSU with 26A on 12V rail
So he need something like: Fortron Blue Storm II 400W or Seasonic S-12 430W or Antec EarthWatts 430W or ...
all this are enough for 8800GTS

A cheapo 500w or 600w PSU costing the same price will more than likely not have 20-25 A on the 12v rail. Also understand that those PSU's are high efficiency as was pointed out. You are also pushing the PSU to its absolute limits, you have no leeway for any future upgrades. Also look at the first half dozen PSU's on this page
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE
500-550w but a lot of them are quoting Max ouput load not real output, half of them although rated at 500+w would struggle to power a high end gfx card

the antec listed is rated at 80% + efficiency, not familiar with the other one but looking at the 500w model that to is listed at 80% efficiency. they own all those 500w psu's on the first link despite lower wattage.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...u-roundup.html read this for various marketing scams by PSU manufacturers. Thermaltake is a fairly well known brand but they do use shady business practices to sucker people in. (bote the 400-430w reviews in particular). TT is like a swear word to me now I will never buy a product from them again. And their cpu HSF's suck.

Monster was probably a poor choice of words as 500W with an efficiency of 80% is now pretty standard. But bear in mind 2 years ago high end systems ran on 300-250W PSU's.

[problemedchild]

A Monster PSU would be the ThermalTake 1200W PSU. It's damn amazing too, 82% efficiency at full load.

DDR 3 is out of the question for this build. The motherboard itself would eat half of his budget.

@hobbes fan

TT's product line are pretty decent.... Its low end PSUs suck, but ThoughPower line is one of the best PSU line out there right now. Let's not forget the Big Typhoon. It wouldn't be such a popular aftermarket cooler if it sucked.....

[Claies]

Originally Posted by raideralan

Wow thanks for the input. It helps. Haven;t even tried to build a computer with these parts before. (was using very cheap parts) Just curious on the MB I picked there isn't a slot for a floppy drive is there? If not installing a SATA drive as my master drive would be a problem.

Floppies are, in practical use, gone to history. Just keep a working floppy drive nearby in case you have to boot from it. Otherwise...USB rules.

[hobbes_fan]

Originally Posted by problemedchild

A Monster PSU would be the ThermalTake 1200W PSU. It's damn amazing too, 82% efficiency at full load.

DDR 3 is out of the question for this build. The motherboard itself would eat half of his budget.

@hobbes fan

TT's product line are pretty decent.... Its low end PSUs suck, but ThoughPower line is one of the best PSU line out there right now. Let's not forget the Big Typhoon. It wouldn't be such a popular aftermarket cooler if it sucked.....

I'm not going into a crapfight about TT but the big typhoon WAS good. It's now overpriced and there are far better options. Yeah it has 6 heatpipes but they into one of the most poorly designed aftermarket heatsink/fan assemblies wasting the 6 heatpipes. the Zalmans, thermalright, Tuniq and scythes at the same price point ($50-$60USD) are quieter and more effective across ever benchmark I've seen. Even the cooler master hyper tx at about 1/3rd the price offers just fractionally less cooling efficiency than the big typhoon.

See my problem with TT is that they ship these POS PSU's with their most expensive cases such as the soprano. Antec packs in decent PSU's made by seasonic. Coolermaster packs in decent 430w Psu's. They're not rebadging 300w PSU's as 430w. (I should know I have a TT Soprano and an Antec Nsk2400). Not to say their blatant "lack of originality" *ahem golden/blue orb* (Although it looks like the crappiness of these PSU's has finally caught up to them and they're not selling them with cases anymore at least on newegg)

Thermaltake toughpower 600w $130USD, OCZ 600w $120, Antec truepower 650w with 3x 12v rails $130USD, Coolermaster RS600 120USD. What's the best buy? it's definately not the thermaltake.

Maybe I do have a vendetta against TT but they've proven time and time again that they can't be relied on.

Originally Posted by Claies

Floppies are, in practical use, gone to history. Just keep a working floppy drive nearby in case you have to boot from it. Otherwise...USB rules.

I'm pretty sure on most modern bios you can set it to boot from USB keys.

[Sides]

Originally Posted by raideralan

Wow thanks for the input. It helps. Haven;t even tried to build a computer with these parts before. (was using very cheap parts) Just curious on the MB I picked there isn't a slot for a floppy drive is there? If not installing a SATA drive as my master drive would be a problem.

The TF7025-M2 ? (look under I/O section)
Always check the manufacture site, if you want the real specs.
Retailer sometimes put up incompleted or wrong information about products
on their pages.

[arcadeplayer987]

Originally Posted by hobbes_fan

A cheapo 500w or 600w PSU costing the same price will more than likely not have 20-25 A on the 12v rail. Also understand that those PSU's are high efficiency as was pointed out. You are also pushing the PSU to its absolute limits, you have no leeway for any future upgrades. Also look at the first half dozen PSU's on this page
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE
500-550w but a lot of them are quoting Max ouput load not real output, half of them although rated at 500+w would struggle to power a high end gfx card

the antec listed is rated at 80% + efficiency, not familiar with the other one but looking at the 500w model that to is listed at 80% efficiency. they own all those 500w psu's on the first link despite lower wattage.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/oth...u-roundup.html read this for various marketing scams by PSU manufacturers. Thermaltake is a fairly well known brand but they do use shady business practices to sucker people in. (bote the 400-430w reviews in particular). TT is like a swear word to me now I will never buy a product from them again. And their cpu HSF's suck.

Monster was probably a poor choice of words as 500W with an efficiency of 80% is now pretty standard. But bear in mind 2 years ago high end systems ran on 300-250W PSU's.

I saw a review with Fortron Blue Storm II 500W and they test it with 2x8800GTS 320mb in SLI and Q6700, the PSU done a great job with 80-85% efficiency.
I prefere a good brand name PSU like AntecEarthWatts 430W, 80% efficiency, 33A on +12V rails than a noname 600W PSU.