OT: New PC! - Page 11

Will · #**101** January 11th, 2006, 02:58 PM

With the components you have listed, you don't need anywhere near 600 or 680W of power. AMD lists your processor as 110W, your video card is probably in the 60-110W range, hard drive peak power is usually <50W, and I would imagine it's the same for optical disc drives. With what you have, 500W would be more than enough to power it, while allowing you to expand to more drives in the future. But, unless you're powering something like a RAID-5 array of 20 drives, you don't need anywhere near the 680W.

AgentZero · #**102** January 11th, 2006, 03:07 PM

Agreed, but considering the 680W is priced about the same as a 500, why not? After all, an extra �10 for an extra 180W seems pretty good to me, considering I'm paying an extra �15 for my DVD drive because the cheaper site doesn't have it in a nice colour. Beige?! Sooo 1990s.

Will · #**103** January 11th, 2006, 03:24 PM

Well, that's a good enough reason... besides, you never know when you want to build a cappuccino machine into your case...

Something that I didn't see on your list, though, is a UPS. Since you're investing a lot in this already, it would be a good idea to invest a little bit more so it doesn't go up in a poof of magic smoke if you're hit with a power surge. I got one connected to my monitor and computer, and so far (in 6 months) it's protected from noise 4 times, brown outs twice, and black outs 5 times (they were working on the power around my building a lot a few months back).

Also, for performance, you might want to get a second, smaller/faster hard drive for your system partition. Windows likes to send stuff to the swap file even if you have loads of free RAM still, so having a different drive than the one where all your apps are stored speeds things up a bit more.

Fyron · #**104** January 11th, 2006, 03:44 PM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
Creative SB X-Fi Platinum PCI, Retail

I still don't think you should buy a Creative card... M-Audio Revolution 7.1 and Revolution 5.1 are better quality cards.

AgentZero · #**105** January 11th, 2006, 04:57 PM

Yeah, but I like Creative. They've always been good to me, though I know I might be in a minority there.
Well, that & the fact that the only site I've found that'll deliver to ROI that stocks M-Audio cards wants about �30 more for em clinches the deal in my mind.

Edit: Will, thanks for the UPS reminder. Anyone have any suggestions, since I've got pretty much no knowledge in this department, but give the state of the Irish electricity grid, I probably should. I've been poking around and UPSs seem to fall into two broad categories: Online & Offline. Anyone know what the difference is?

Baron Munchausen · #**106** January 11th, 2006, 07:22 PM

My 'thought' is not about any particular part you have selected but about a new wrinkle in the whole concept of 'build it yourself' PCs. Counterfeiting is not just for software anymore:

PCWorld article on fakes

More and more hardware is also being counterfeited. Batteries are one of the worst products for this. Consumer electronics and computer parts are also 'growth areas' for this problem. Maybe you won't find fake CPUs or video cards (yet) since these are very complex and difficult to make, but fake memory sticks, fake hard drives, and other relatively simple parts are getting fairly common. You'd best be very careful in your choice of suppliers for your parts.

Baron Munchausen · #**107** January 11th, 2006, 07:24 PM

Quote:

AgentZero said:
Agreed, but considering the 680W is priced about the same as a 500, why not? After all, an extra �10 for an extra 180W seems pretty good to me, considering I'm paying an extra �15 for my DVD drive because the cheaper site doesn't have it in a nice colour. Beige?! Sooo 1990s.

Extra wattage is a good idea since a power supply is not intended to be used at max capacity most of the time. At less than full power it runs cooler and lasts longer, and the more capacity you have the more 'safety margin' you have for adding things to your machine later.

Baron Munchausen · #**108** January 11th, 2006, 07:28 PM

Yes, a UPS is a very, very good thing to have! A hard crash caused by power failure can make an awful mess of a hard drive. The big names in UPSes for personal systems are APC and Tripp Lite last I recall. Just go to a site like New Egg and go to the UPS section and browse. I am using a Tripp Lite unit that I bought fully 10 years ago. It has saved me from many glitches and I only just had to replace the batteries a few months ago. But since my current unit is good enough, I'm not up on what's available right now.

AgentZero · #**109** January 11th, 2006, 08:43 PM

Thanks! Them UPS's aren't the cheapest of things, but I suppose if I'm dropping eur3000+ for the new system, an extra 100 or so won't make that much of a difference. And I won't have to worry about my lovely new system being fried by an unpleasant power spike, either. I'm looking at this one: APC UPS, because it seems to be nice and basic. I don't want to spend a load of money on fancy features I'll never use.

Baron Munchausen · #**110** January 11th, 2006, 10:14 PM

420 VA looks kinda scrawny for the machine you are building. The VA (volt amps) rating is supposed to be greater than the power draw of your system. If not, it will simply overload and shut down when the power fails. You'll get a slightly noisier crash than if you had no UPS.

If you are using an LCD instead of a CRT monitor that helps, but a 680 watt power supply demands a similar VA rating. 'Volt amps' are basically equivalent to watts, so you want at least a 680 VA UPS. A 750 is probably a good idea.

Hey, I'm using an 850 VA UPS to run a computer with an 'average' 250 watt power supply and a 19" CRT monitor (it draws a maximum of about 240 watts). Yes, it's much more than 'absolutely necessary'. That just means it lasts longer when the power goes out.

Yes, it's more expensive than the cheapest solution, but you definitely get what you pay for in backup battery power. You might want to go for a 1000 VA UPS -- 1 kw!