Off Topic: The Flood
This topic has moved here: Subject: Want to build a PC? PC Building Guide and FAQ of The Flood
  • Subject: Want to build a PC? PC Building Guide and FAQ of The Flood
Subject: Want to build a PC? PC Building Guide and FAQ of The Flood

I'm on a strict budget but so far I have GIGABYTE GA-H77-DS3H Motherboard - ATX, Intel H77 Express Chipset, DDR3, USB 3.0, RJ-45, HDMI, DVI-D, mSATA, SATA 6Gb/s, AMD CrossFireX, RAID
, and Intel Core i3-2100 BX80623I32100 Processor - Dual Core, 3MB L3 Smart Cache, 512KB L2 Cache, 3.10 GHz, Socket H2 (LGA1155), 65W, Fan, Retail


Currently looking for a 100 dollar GPU. Any recommendations?

  • 08.17.2012 12:20 PM PDT

Posted by: Primum Agmen
508W for the recommended wattage, or minimum wattage? Also, did you include capacitor ageing in that calculation?

Edit: I ran it through with the details of your build (and threw in 4x140mm fans for good measure) 20% capacity ageing (basically a year or so of heavy use) and got 592W. With 30% you're looking at 637W.

Newegg's PSU calculator is useless, but you do need to factor in the capacitor ageing to use the eXtreme calculator properly.

The 508 Watts was the recommended number, but I added in the aging factor and got a number similar to yours. Still, that's a very conservative estimate given I'd like to account for the worst that both GPUs use their maximum output (170 Watts), along with headroom for just about everything I can throw at it.

(Given my luck with electronics breaking on me through normal usage I'd rather have the headroom. On my previous tower I ran 650 Watts and I couldn't plug anything into the front USB ports without shorting the tower out. After upgrading to 750 Watts on that system I never had that issue. Call me stupid/insane all you want for what may/may not be coincidence/other factors.)

Though I'm still failing to see why you're calling Newegg's calculator useless. It simply generalizes things more while giving a more generous number. (Which I think is better than short selling)

  • 08.17.2012 12:20 PM PDT

I got these cheeseburgers man....


Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Also, I'm thinking about getting this and this.

What do you guys think?
Sound card looks good, and I hear that those headphones are great for gaming but are very lacking on bass if that bothers you. I have the ATH-M50s, and I absolutely love them, and mine are the pair that has more bass, if that matters at all.

  • 08.17.2012 12:23 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?


Posted by: SuicidalSplatter

Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Also, I'm thinking about getting this and this.

What do you guys think?
Sound card looks good, and I hear that those headphones are great for gaming but are very lacking on bass if that bothers you. I have the ATH-M50s, and I absolutely love them, and mine are the pair that has more bass, if that matters at all.
Oh, haha. I hate the bass. I turned it all the way down on my G35s.

But I'm not sure whether I should get another VH242 or those two things. Both are really nice upgrades but super expensive...

  • 08.17.2012 12:24 PM PDT

"I hope nothing, I fear nothing, I am free"
"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free." - Nikos Kazantzakis
"The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs" - Hasan al-Basri
Black Chapter, for all religious and political debate that doesn't fit in the Flood.

Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Posted by: Primum Agmen
The OS will need reinstalling, but you can probably just copy the serial number off your old computer.
Right, I forgot about that. Some of the data from the OS is stored on your motherboard so you will need to reinstall it. But you shouldn't have to buy it again.
Not quite. Doesn't store anything on the motherboard as far as I'm aware, but the motherboard settings affect the install. There are ways to get around this, but the usual strategy is basically to back up your drive and reformat. This is one of those times when partitioning your hard drive into 'boot' and 'data' is quite handy. Anyone who regularly reinstalls windows does it because, well, sod transferring several hundred gig of data. 100GB on an HDD is more than enough, or, better yet, have an SSD boot drive and a HDD data drive. That way you've always got space to back up your SSD to in the event of a major hardware change.

Just a point though, it's entirely possible windows won't like you changing motherboard. OEM computer Windows installs are often tied to the motherboard, so you'll probably have to pick up a fresh Windows 7 install. Personally I just use one of the several copies of Windows 7 I bought years ago when they were £30/$30 a copy, but hey. There are ways to convince Windows that it's still what the serial number was originally installed on but they're not technically legal.

  • 08.17.2012 12:25 PM PDT

I got these cheeseburgers man....


Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP

Posted by: SuicidalSplatter

Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Also, I'm thinking about getting this and this.

What do you guys think?
Sound card looks good, and I hear that those headphones are great for gaming but are very lacking on bass if that bothers you. I have the ATH-M50s, and I absolutely love them, and mine are the pair that has more bass, if that matters at all.
Oh, haha. I hate the bass. I turned it all the way down on my G35s.

But I'm not sure whether I should get another VH242 or those two things. Both are really nice upgrades but super expensive...
I'd get the sound stuff just because you already have a nice screen, now you need the sound to match it!

also, wanna get on Xbox? We've already got 2 people.

[Edited on 08.17.2012 12:33 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2012 12:29 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?


Posted by: SuicidalSplatter

Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP

Posted by: SuicidalSplatter

Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Also, I'm thinking about getting this and this.

What do you guys think?
Sound card looks good, and I hear that those headphones are great for gaming but are very lacking on bass if that bothers you. I have the ATH-M50s, and I absolutely love them, and mine are the pair that has more bass, if that matters at all.
Oh, haha. I hate the bass. I turned it all the way down on my G35s.

But I'm not sure whether I should get another VH242 or those two things. Both are really nice upgrades but super expensive...
I'd get the sound stuff just because you already have a nice screen, now you need the sound to match it!

also, wanna get on Xbox?
True. I could always just get the screen for Christmas, considering the headphones are on sale only for a short time.

And yeah, I'll get on in a few minutes.

  • 08.17.2012 12:34 PM PDT

Here's the build I set up, does it look any good? Is it all compatible?

Also, I went 40 dollars over, not sure how to lower it, its a very strict budget and I have to drop 40 bucks.

[Edited on 08.17.2012 12:45 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2012 12:44 PM PDT

"I hope nothing, I fear nothing, I am free"
"A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free." - Nikos Kazantzakis
"The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs" - Hasan al-Basri
Black Chapter, for all religious and political debate that doesn't fit in the Flood.

Posted by: CostlyAxis
The 508 Watts was the recommended number, but I added in the aging factor and got a number similar to yours. Still, that's a very conservative estimate given I'd like to account for the worst that both GPUs use their maximum output (170 Watts), along with headroom for just about everything I can throw at it.

(Given my luck with electronics breaking on me through normal usage I'd rather have the headroom. On my previous tower I ran 650 Watts and I couldn't plug anything into the front USB ports without shorting the tower out. After upgrading to 750 Watts on that system I never had that issue. Call me stupid/insane all you want for what may/may not be coincidence/other factors.)

Though I'm still failing to see why you're calling Newegg's calculator useless. It simply generalizes things more while giving a more generous number. (Which I think is better than short selling)
It's not a conservative estimate, it's probably pretty dead on. IVB chips aren't exactly power hungry (though pushing them up to 1.30V at 4.7GHz will give you a power draw of around 185W), though at stock voltage you're talking more like ~130W at max load.

Even taking maximum voltages (and bearing in mind your storage system probably uses less than 15W of power combined), you've still got a comfortable overhead. The GPUs will almost never use 170W. Ever. They run out of system cooling before they run out of voltage. They're rated to take 170W, but they'll never hit that figure.

The reason I dislike the Newegg one is because it encourages overly powerful PSUs. You ideally want the right PSU for the build, and if you're under utilising the PSU you don't use it efficiently. So, your build having a 1050W PSU is probably overkill and a half, and 750W would probably have been a better bet. A nice AX-750, say. People buy more power than they need rather than trying to buy a good PSU worth keeping for several years.

Nvidia recommend 500W because they don't want to under recommend. If you don't know the specifics of a build, you generalise in the right direction. Their figure is arguably too high, but it's probably a fair generalisation.

As far as the front panel USBs go, unless something similar happened when you plugged things into the rear panel, it's probably poor build quality leading to a sudden spike in power draw. The actual USBs only draw 5W of power max, and if it could crash your computer at idle, it's probably not you being too close to the power requirement.

Oh, actually. Depending on the PSU, it may have simply been overloading a single rail. Modern PSUs of quality are single rail, older PSUs were quite often multi-rail (and so are really, really high wattage PSUs, ~1250W), and so while it may have been a 650W PSU, it would have had, say, 6 rails of 108W each or something. In this instance, the front panel would have been powered off a molex connector, quite possibly one used for the system fans and other bits?

[Edited on 08.17.2012 12:49 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2012 12:48 PM PDT

I got these cheeseburgers man....

Salty, get on, we need you.

  • 08.17.2012 1:04 PM PDT


Posted by: darthrevan96
Here's the build I set up, does it look any good? Is it all compatible?

Also, I went 40 dollars over, not sure how to lower it, its a very strict budget and I have to drop 40 bucks.

  • 08.17.2012 1:19 PM PDT


Posted by: darthrevan96

Posted by: darthrevan96
Here's the build I set up, does it look any good? Is it all compatible?

Also, I went 40 dollars over, not sure how to lower it, its a very strict budget and I have to drop 40 bucks.



Operating system?

  • 08.17.2012 1:27 PM PDT

I got these cheeseburgers man....


Posted by: darthrevan96

Posted by: darthrevan96
Here's the build I set up, does it look any good? Is it all compatible?

Also, I went 40 dollars over, not sure how to lower it, its a very strict budget and I have to drop 40 bucks.

Personally, I'd go with more storage over a low end graphics card, but that's just me. Also, what about an OS?

[Edited on 08.17.2012 1:33 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2012 1:29 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?

Darthrevan, you could lower your price by about $80 (I think) if you just switched the CPU from that i5 to an i3. Like an i3 2100.

  • 08.17.2012 2:00 PM PDT


Posted by: SuicidalSplatter

Posted by: darthrevan96

Posted by: darthrevan96
Here's the build I set up, does it look any good? Is it all compatible?

Also, I went 40 dollars over, not sure how to lower it, its a very strict budget and I have to drop 40 bucks.

Personally, I'd go with more storage over a low end graphics card, but that's just me. Also, what about an OS?


Already bought

  • 08.17.2012 2:20 PM PDT

Quick Noob questions, everything I listed is all I need to run it right? (excluding OS)

Also, can I use just any Disc Drive?

  • 08.17.2012 2:23 PM PDT

I got these cheeseburgers man....


Posted by: THE SALTY CHIP
Darthrevan, you could lower your price by about $80 (I think) if you just switched the CPU from that i5 to an i3. Like an i3 2100.

  • 08.17.2012 2:37 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?


Posted by: darthrevan96
Quick Noob questions, everything I listed is all I need to run it right? (excluding OS)

Also, can I use just any Disc Drive?
Yes, any disc drive will do. Just make sure it reads and writes DVDs and CDs.

And did you read what I said about the CPU?

  • 08.17.2012 3:22 PM PDT

Dudes, if any of you still have to purchase a PSU and it's going to be a high-powered one, NCIX is having a 1000 Watt modular OCZ PSU on sale for $100 (with a $30 mail in rebate).

  • 08.17.2012 3:25 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?


Posted by: YahwehFreak4evr
Dudes, if any of you still have to purchase a PSU and it's going to be a high-powered one, NCIX is having a 1000 Watt modular OCZ PSU on sale for $100 (with a $30 mail in rebate).
What would you possibly need a 1000W PSU for anyway?

Unless you have 3 GPUs, 4 HDDs and a Hexa-core processor or something extravagant like that.

[Edited on 08.17.2012 3:39 PM PDT]

  • 08.17.2012 3:38 PM PDT

Mine is going to need around 800 Watts. Cross-firing two 7970s (going to OC them) with an OCed i5-3570. It's not too much power, but also a 2TB HDD and an SSD.

  • 08.17.2012 3:41 PM PDT

Who the hell do you think I am?

Just remember that Overclocking shortens the life-span of your components, so don't go extreme on it.

Speaking of overclocking, I just learned the other day that you can OC your monitor. Weird, huh?

  • 08.17.2012 3:45 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

t3hAvenger77 - XBL (BF3, ME3, Blops)
decla1mer104 - Origin (BF3)
Steam

Would a 620W PSU be sufficient for a Intel Core i5 3470, GTX 670, a 1TB 7200RPM HDD and a potential SSD?

  • 08.17.2012 3:47 PM PDT


Posted by: ThirstyAvenge


Relavent.

  • 08.17.2012 4:13 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

***Aberrant Designs***

Finished the fight on September 26,2007, 10:49pm EST
Remembered Reach on September 15th, 2010 9:30pm EST

What are your thoughts on the 660 ti and the low bandwidth memory? Is that a deal breaker?

Would you recommend another card at that price range?

  • 08.17.2012 4:17 PM PDT