Upgrading system... Some Questions

[shorty12]

Hi Guys,
I will soon upgrade my pc with the following parts:
Abit IP35-E
E8400
Elitegroup 8800GT 512MX+ HS
2 gb ddr2 ram

So can anyone of you recommend me a decent power supply for 50€ or less?
Futhermore, is there any way to make sure that there is enough place in my case?
And the last question: Does every board have an onboard sound chip or do I have to buy a standalone sound card (if I don't need to I won't)?

Thanks in advance for your replies

[runawayprisoner]

For your rig, I'd think a power supply with 500W max output will be barely enough.
As for the case... sure. Measure your case and see if it's higher than 14 inches. If it's not, you may not be able to fit the Abit IP35-E board.
And last question... yes. Pretty much every modern board has a sound chip built-in.

P.S.: A word of advice: if you want to overclock that E8400, maybe an aftermarket cooler would be greatly beneficial.

[skoreanime]

I don't know, 500W supply actually sounds plenty for that system, especially if he's not overclocking. And yes, you're board comes with a decent sound chip.

[runawayprisoner]

For my setup, 450W is barely enough. The 8800GT can really take up to 250W to actually 300W depending on the system (or if the GPU was factory overclocked, it could take up a bit more). Then you have the CPU which... provided it isn't overclock, would use up 50W (or 65W as Intel's specs pointed out). That's like about 350W for both the CPU and GPU without overclocking. When you overclock the CPU, it should go up by 50W to 150W more depending on the way you set the voltage setting and such. And then you need to take into account the efficiency of the power supply unit, which could be 80% for average PSUs... which means a 500W PSU can turn into a 400W PSU in reality. So yeah... 450W is barely enough for my rig. I would expect his to use up even more than that because of the GPU.

[shorty12]

Thank you very much for these fast replies. This forum and its members surely are great.

[Spyhop]

People usually hugely overestimate their power requirements. For that setup, 500W would be overkill. Can't hurt though.

[skoreanime]

Yeah, having some head room isn't a bad idea, but 500W should be plenty. I ran a 600W with my E6600, 4 hard drives and my x2900XT overclocked. It was fine. And we should all know how much wattage my x2900XT eats .

[PCXL-Fan]

It doesn't hurt to run the psu at lower loads though. Who wants to constantly be running at 70-80% load all the time?

Getting a good psu never hurts as a poor or overworked one could someday crap out and fry the $1500 worth of components inside.

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[Phil]

any 550w to 600w psu should be fine fore your system.

if I were you though, I wouldn't get stingy with a power supply.....

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[shorty12]

OK guys, thank you very much.

It's me again. After hearing your comments I have decided to get this one.
Sharkoon Silentstorm 550W Sharkoon Silentstorm 550W Netzteil Preisvergleich - Preise bei idealo.de
The price is good and it got the first place in a review of a german magazine so I think it is quite decent.

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Last edited by shorty12; March 4th, 2008 at 11:22.. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

[Mr. Killjoy]

I'll add that you should buy a QUALITY one, I bought my 650w for 100€. 650w might seem overkill but I wanted something future-proof, and that doesn't always work at max load. 100€ sure isn't cheap, but I killed 35€ 350w one along with my 1st GF6800 because I wanted to save money. BIG mistake really.
Also, you should check how many amps they deliver on the +12V rails. Many cards now require at least 30A.

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[fivefeet8]

Skimping on the PSU can cause loads of problems. There's also a huge difference between the Rated Wattage and the efficiency of the PSU. I usually stick to the well known and dependable lines of PSU's.

Anything from Antec, Enermax, and OCZ would be fine. Their 500w PSU's often times are far better than higher Wattage Generic PSU's.

I'm actually doing a small upgrade myself, but my PSU has been ready for that for quite a while. *looks in sig*

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Last edited by fivefeet8; March 6th, 2008 at 17:51..

[PCXL-Fan]

If there is a single persons hardware advice you should trust on this forum it would be fivefeet8's.

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Try @ES the ultimate emulator frontend and all in one media player

Originally Posted by Exodus

Yes, I like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music and download video game music. Yes, I know... I've changed.

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[shorty12]

Originally Posted by PCXL-Fan

If there is a single persons hardware advice you should trust on this forum it would be fivefeet8's.

OK, I get it. Thanks again for your advice.

What about these two:
Antec EarthWatts 500W Netzteil Preisvergleich - Preise bei idealo.de
OCZ StealthXStream 500W Netzteil Preisvergleich - Preise bei idealo.de

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Last edited by shorty12; March 6th, 2008 at 11:28..

[fivefeet8]

Those look pretty good. OCZ and Antec are two of the best known PSU makers. I've used their products for quite some time now. Out of those 2, I'd get the OCZ model. It has a slightly higher 12v rating than the Antec, but either one would be fine.

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[shorty12]

Originally Posted by fivefeet8

Those look pretty good. OCZ and Antec are two of the best known PSU makers. I've used their products for quite some time now. Out of those 2, I'd get the OCZ model. It has a slightly higher 12v rating than the Antec, but either one would be fine.

Then I will get the one from OCZ.
I want to thank you all for posting very useful replies. I really appreciate your opinions.

[james.miller]

Originally Posted by runawayprisoner

For my setup, 450W is barely enough. The 8800GT can really take up to 250W to actually 300W depending on the system (or if the GPU was factory overclocked, it could take up a bit more). Then you have the CPU which... provided it isn't overclock, would use up 50W (or 65W as Intel's specs pointed out). That's like about 350W for both the CPU and GPU without overclocking. When you overclock the CPU, it should go up by 50W to 150W more depending on the way you set the voltage setting and such. And then you need to take into account the efficiency of the power supply unit, which could be 80% for average PSUs... which means a 500W PSU can turn into a 400W PSU in reality. So yeah... 450W is barely enough for my rig. I would expect his to use up even more than that because of the GPU.

ok first of all....no. i measured *my* setup with a meter and it drew 297w at full load. there are a lot of people out there blindly recommending stupidly powerful psu's purely on the basis of what they've heard on the grapevine, and its all false.

an 8800gtx, not gt, uses around 13.5amp at stock. thats about 162w under load. do you really thing your overclocked gt doubles that power draw? LOL. the absolute maximum a card with 2x 6 pin pic-e connectors can draw is (2x 6.25amp) + (5.5a) = 18amps @ 12v = 216watts. so you are well and truely out on your numbers. this isnt something you can argue over either, those numbers are the maximum a card is allowed to safely draw from the 6 pin pcie's (6.25amps each) and the motherboard (5.5amps).

i would BET that your pc would be absolutely fine on a decent 400watt psu from he likes of seasonic or pc&C. considering people have and are running quad core and gtx sli on a 620w, would you be willing to prove otherwise?

Also, you should check how many amps they deliver on the +12V rails. Many cards now require at least 30A.

It's this sort of statement that causes confusion. they dont require 30a at all, that number (be it 25amp or 30amp) is the recommenced minimum the psu should have on the 12v rail to power the entire pc.

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the best psu's < £100 for a long time now have been the corsair hx series. built by seasonic, based on a seasonic design but using superior components and with a 5 year warrenty. they have a 5 year warrenty for a reason - they are that good. the 620w was test and confirmed to output >700w in a 48c air temperature.

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Last edited by james.miller; March 7th, 2008 at 09:55..