PSU Wattage Recommendations...

[Sun Tzu]

Ahoy...

I'm building a half-way decent rig in the next month or so, but still trying to keep the cost relatively low. Right now I'm looking at the following components.

AMD Phenom II X2 3.1GHz
Saphire Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 x16
4 GB A-Data Gaming Series (Dual Channel 2x 2GB)
ASUS M4A78LT Board
WD 320 GB HDD
Win 7/Win XP (haven't decided yet)

I'll be playing PC games on occasion, as well as streaming HD from a Slingbox 2,500 miles away so I can watch the Giants/49ers play out here in Hawai'i :). I read that the Radeon requires a 450W PSU or better. I don't know if I should look for 450's, 500's, 550's, or what. It's been a couple years since I've built a rig for anyone, and I don't know if the Phenom will require a little extra juice too. I'd like to cap the cost of the PSU at $40-50. It's my intention that this badboy last for several years without the need for an upgrade.

Advice or recommendations?

[Mustang]

1.21 Gigawatts

[the_meanstrosity]

Ahoy...

I'm building a half-way decent rig in the next month or so, but still trying to keep the cost relatively low. Right now I'm looking at the following components.

AMD Phenom II X2 3.1GHz
Saphire Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 x16
4 GB A-Data Gaming Series (Dual Channel 2x 2GB)
ASUS M4A78LT Board
WD 320 GB HDD
Win 7/Win XP (haven't decided yet)

I'll be playing PC games on occasion, as well as streaming HD from a Slingbox 2,500 miles away so I can watch the Giants/49ers play out here in Hawai'i :). I read that the Radeon requires a 450W PSU or better. I don't know if I should look for 450's, 500's, 550's, or what. It's been a couple years since I've built a rig for anyone, and I don't know if the Phenom will require a little extra juice too. I'd like to cap the cost of the PSU at $40-50. It's my intention that this badboy last for several years without the need for an upgrade.

Advice or recommendations?

Anything above the 450 Watt should be fine. If you ever plan on running multiple video cards then I'd start looking in the 700-1000 range. The key is to get a quality power supply since it's definitely true that not all PSU's are equal. Corsair makes quality units. There are others, but I don't know all of them. You could check out hardware sites like anandtech, jonnyguru, hardforum, techreport, etc for more information.

[Sun Tzu]

Thanks for the input. Any idea if there are any major WinXP x64 issues out there?

[k0ruptr]

Honestly , I wouldn't even look at the 450's, I'd go for 550 and above. who knows what you will be adding in the future, and its just going to be better for it at 550 and above.

[k0ruptr]

Dola I just built a rig similar for a friend and we went with a 570.

[Sun Tzu]

Noted. Shipping out here is ridiculous on Newegg...are there any half-way decent places to use locally on the island/s?

[k0ruptr]

nope... Amazon if you get lucky, thats about it.

[the_meanstrosity]

Thanks for the input. Any idea if there are any major WinXP x64 issues out there?

I've never actually used WinXP 64 bit, but I had always heard that if you were going to go 64 bit then Win7 64 bit is the better choice. If you stayed with 32 bit then XP would be a good option. That's just what people on other tech forums suggested when I was looking into a 64 bit OS.

[DaddyTorgo]

only a 320gb HD? You can get terabyte drives for like... right around $100 these days from what i've seen

[gstelmack]

I've never actually used WinXP 64 bit, but I had always heard that if you were going to go 64 bit then Win7 64 bit is the better choice. If you stayed with 32 bit then XP would be a good option. That's just what people on other tech forums suggested when I was looking into a 64 bit OS.

Yes, if you want 64-bit, go with Win7 where most of the driver issues are ironed out. WinXP 64-bit is not a very good consumer OS option.

[Thomkal]

Just so happens I've been looking to buy a computer myself and was looking for that same info on the 5770. TomsHardware.com is a great place to look for help/advice on things like that-thanks to whomever gave me that link in my thread a while back. 450 or greater recommended for that card, so I would just go for more than that as much as your budget will allow.

And more hard drive space too. Windows7 is the current and the future Operating System for Microsoft, so might as well go with that for future usage.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Noted. Shipping out here is ridiculous on Newegg...are there any half-way decent places to use locally on the island/s?
WELL, THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR LIVING IN HAWAII

[Sun Tzu]

WELL, THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR LIVING IN HAWAII

My Wife says hi...so does my Mother-in-Law...whatever that means.

[Sun Tzu]

Ok ok, I'll grab a copy of Win7 Pro. I have some games that don't want to play on the Win7 platform (I have Win7 regular on my laptop). I've looked into "Windows XP Mode" which is available on Win7 pro as an alternative for playing my games on here. Anybody here have any experience with that? From what I hear it's just an advanced version of Windows Virtual PC.

[the_meanstrosity]

Ok ok, I'll grab a copy of Win7 Pro. I have some games that don't want to play on the Win7 platform (I have Win7 regular on my laptop). I've looked into "Windows XP Mode" which is available on Win7 pro as an alternative for playing my games on here. Anybody here have any experience with that? From what I hear it's just an advanced version of Windows Virtual PC.

I'd do a google search to make sure your game will work with XP mode. I've heard that there's been more than a few games that haven't worked on it as some suspected. I had the same idea as you and thus was disappointed to find out it had some struggles.

You could always dual boot WinXP 32 and Win7 64. That would be the option I'd suggest if you have the storage.

[Pumpy Tudors]

My Wife says hi...so does my Mother-in-Law...whatever that means.
guess i'm done here