[iCobalt]

Ok im trying to build the Best Gaming PC possible for around $3000 from http://www.originpc.com/genesis-ga [...] atures.asp

Can You Guys Please Help Me Verify The Best Components To Add? Please


-Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV EXTREME B3 stepping (USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, 3X SLI capable)

Processor: Overclocked Intel Core i7 2600K 4.0GHz - 4.7GHz LGA 1155 Quad-Core Processor

?System-Cooling?: Asetek 570LC Liquid Cooling ($100) or High-Performance- Air Cooling Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler (Noiseblocker Fan Included) ($104)

- I believe The Air Cooling would be the better option, because i dont want to risk a water leak, algae build up Ect. Please Help Me decide

Fan Controller: Lamptron Fan Controller FC-3A Limited Edition

?Power Supply?: 850 Watt Corsair TX850 PSU -- More OR Less?

?Graphics Card? Single 1280MB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 570 ($282) or Single 1GB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 560 Ti ($174)

- I dont know anything about video cards should i get 1 or 2? Or what?

?Memory? Should I get Memory With more GBs or more Mhz? Example 8gbs at 2000Mhz OR 16GBs at 1600Mhz?

?HardDrives? Should I have 1 240GB SSD For Programs/ Games, and One HDD For Photos/Music/Videos/Documents? ( I think this is pretty smart )

TOTAL= $3051

Please Try to at least answer one of my questions or all of them! And building my own is NOT an Option.

[LiveBrianD]

When talking about high-end stuff like that, you can save quite a bit of money by building it yourself, but since that's an option I'll stick with that site you mentioned.

CPU and mobo: nice. Leaks are pretty uncommon, though I don't any experience with that.
GPU: Obviously the 570 is a bit faster. 1 fast gpu is better than 2 slower ones, most of the time.
RAM: I have 8GB, and unless I run VMs, I don't use all of it. Even with Windows caching stuff, I typically don't use more than about 4-6GB. Get 8GB 2000MHz rather than 16GB 1600MHz.
Storage: That's pretty much the setup most people with a desktop and SSD have. SSD for the OS, programs and games, and a HDD for your docs and such.

This really puts my PC to shame. Just a "mere" i5, 8GB 1600MHz, a WD Caviar Black, and a suckish Geforce 210 (actually, it is crappy in most games, I'll upgrade it sometime).

[waldojim]

iCobalt, on 25 September 2011 - 11:48 AM, said:

Ok im trying to build the Best Gaming PC possible for around $3000 from http://www.originpc.com/genesis-ga [...] atures.asp

Can You Guys Please Help Me Verify The Best Components To Add? Please


-Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV EXTREME B3 stepping (USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, 3X SLI capable)

Processor: Overclocked Intel Core i7 2600K 4.0GHz - 4.7GHz LGA 1155 Quad-Core Processor

?System-Cooling?: Asetek 570LC Liquid Cooling ($100) or High-Performance- Air Cooling Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler (Noiseblocker Fan Included) ($104)

- I believe The Air Cooling would be the better option, because i dont want to risk a water leak, algae build up Ect. Please Help Me decide

Fan Controller: Lamptron Fan Controller FC-3A Limited Edition

?Power Supply?: 850 Watt Corsair TX850 PSU -- More OR Less?

?Graphics Card? Single 1280MB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 570 ($282) or Single 1GB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 560 Ti ($174)

- I dont know anything about video cards should i get 1 or 2? Or what?

?Memory? Should I get Memory With more GBs or more Mhz? Example 8gbs at 2000Mhz OR 16GBs at 1600Mhz?

?HardDrives? Should I have 1 240GB SSD For Programs/ Games, and One HDD For Photos/Music/Videos/Documents? ( I think this is pretty smart )

TOTAL= $3051

Please Try to at least answer one of my questions or all of them! And building my own is NOT an Option.

If you are going to build a $3000 machine, WAIT A COUPLE MONTHS.

There are several new things coming out VERY SOON that are worth the wait. IVY Bridge will be here, as will the new SOCKET 2011 SB. BOTH will have clear performance gains over the 2600k.

Second, I would never mess around with a sealed liquid cooling system these days. AIR COOLING does just as good a job when you use the right coolers. I personally recommend the Zalman CNPS 10x flex.

New motherboards do all the wok on case fans, there is no need for a fan controller when using a high end board.

That 850 watt PSU is overkill. For a single card, 500watts is plenty, for dual, it all depends on the cards being used. For the 560TI's, a 750 would suffice, for SLI 580's you may finally have a need for 850.

Get a system with a single high end video card. Multiple cards create their own issues to deal with.

For memory, I highly doubt you will see a use for more than 4GB for a couple years yet. 8GB is overkill, no need for more. Higher speed memory with lower latency is usually preferred.

I won't comment on hard drives, since I don't own a SSD. I cannot tell you how much difference it will make.

[iCobalt]

waldojim, on 25 September 2011 - 03:29 PM, said:

iCobalt, on 25 September 2011 - 11:48 AM, said:

Ok im trying to build the Best Gaming PC possible for around $3000 from http://www.originpc.com/genesis-ga [...] atures.asp

Can You Guys Please Help Me Verify The Best Components To Add? Please


-Motherboard: ASUS Maximus IV EXTREME B3 stepping (USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, 3X SLI capable)

Processor: Overclocked Intel Core i7 2600K 4.0GHz - 4.7GHz LGA 1155 Quad-Core Processor

?System-Cooling?: Asetek 570LC Liquid Cooling ($100) or High-Performance- Air Cooling Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler (Noiseblocker Fan Included) ($104)

- I believe The Air Cooling would be the better option, because i dont want to risk a water leak, algae build up Ect. Please Help Me decide

Fan Controller: Lamptron Fan Controller FC-3A Limited Edition

?Power Supply?: 850 Watt Corsair TX850 PSU -- More OR Less?

?Graphics Card? Single 1280MB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 570 ($282) or Single 1GB GDDR5 Nvidia GTX 560 Ti ($174)

- I dont know anything about video cards should i get 1 or 2? Or what?

?Memory? Should I get Memory With more GBs or more Mhz? Example 8gbs at 2000Mhz OR 16GBs at 1600Mhz?

?HardDrives? Should I have 1 240GB SSD For Programs/ Games, and One HDD For Photos/Music/Videos/Documents? ( I think this is pretty smart )

TOTAL= $3051

Please Try to at least answer one of my questions or all of them! And building my own is NOT an Option.

If you are going to build a $3000 machine, WAIT A COUPLE MONTHS.

There are several new things coming out VERY SOON that are worth the wait. IVY Bridge will be here, as will the new SOCKET 2011 SB. BOTH will have clear performance gains over the 2600k.

Second, I would never mess around with a sealed liquid cooling system these days. AIR COOLING does just as good a job when you use the right coolers. I personally recommend the Zalman CNPS 10x flex.

New motherboards do all the wok on case fans, there is no need for a fan controller when using a high end board.

That 850 watt PSU is overkill. For a single card, 500watts is plenty, for dual, it all depends on the cards being used. For the 560TI's, a 750 would suffice, for SLI 580's you may finally have a need for 850.

Get a system with a single high end video card. Multiple cards create their own issues to deal with.

For memory, I highly doubt you will see a use for more than 4GB for a couple years yet. 8GB is overkill, no need for more. Higher speed memory with lower latency is usually preferred.

I won't comment on hard drives, since I don't own a SSD. I cannot tell you how much difference it will make.

Well first of all ill probably get it for christmas "Im only 16" So ill be waiting a couple of months anyway... but i read in a news update that ivy bridge wont come out untill next march because it was delayed. And about the Powersupply I decided to get The Nvidia GTX 570...any new comments on power supply? and for memory 8gbs is the smallest they have on their selections...

[LiveBrianD]

Waldojim, remember that some gpus require at least a 500W PSU - for instance, the 560ti (according to nvidia). I would go for a little more, at least 600W, there to have some upgrade room. Nvidia recommends at least 550W for a GTX 570. I'd get at least 600W then. Maybe 650W. Just for upgrade headroom. Also, I'm not sure how much ram games use, but with 8GB in here, I have 2GB used and 2GB cached - so optimally, with most usage, 4GB. I imagine games use quite a bit, so for those you'll want even more. I just opened Need for speed world (at 1280x1024 res btw), and found it using about 600MB. Oh wait, I drove around a little and just noticed it's at 650MB. I have 2.8GB used, 2.3GB cached, and about 3GB free. Basically, 4GB might be a bit of a cap at times, and with ram prices hitting rock bottom, why not get more? More ram never hurts. And now it's up to 700MB for the game, 2.8GB completely free. So just go with 8GB.

Wait, now the game is using about 800MB... (I was just driving around in the game, knocking over road signs and construction stuff, knocking over bus stops, going at 80MPH in a 35 zone...)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 25 September 2011 - 04:16 PM

[waldojim]

iCobalt, on 25 September 2011 - 03:43 PM, said:

Well first of all ill probably get it for christmas "Im only 16" So ill be waiting a couple of months anyway... but i read in a news update that ivy bridge wont come out untill next march because it was delayed. And about the Powersupply I decided to get The Nvidia GTX 570...any new comments on power supply? and for memory 8gbs is the smallest they have on their selections...

If they offer a Seasonic, Corsair, SilverStone, Antec or PC Power and cooling between 500 and 600 watts, it will do fine. I wouldn't bother with more than 650 in there though, from a reputable manufacturer. IVY bridge release has been all over the place. As I recall, the chips should be here shortly using current motherboards, and the new chipsets are going to be delayed.

That said, again socket 2011 is due out shortly as well. Quad channel ram will have a huge impact on an extreme performance machine.

Now, if you are open to an honest opinion, and I hope you are:

Buying a prebuilt machine of this caliber is a waste of money. Not trying to be rude, but that machine you are looking at (save the SSD) can be built for about $1800-$2200 tops. A SSD in the 256GB mark can be found for another $250-300. Easily making the machine about $500 cheaper.

I am bringing this up, because $500 can go a VERY long way into a custom water cooling setup that would be amazing in a machine like that. A waterblock for your CPU is about $80, another $100 each for the pump, video block, and radiator, and about $50 more in a reservoir. After that, all you need are a couple low speed fans... Just my $.02

In either event, I won't say that you aren't looking at a nice machine. You are. And with the right parts, it will be extremely well balanced and last a good long time.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 25 September 2011 - 04:07 PM, said:

Waldojim, remember that some gpus require at least a 500W PSU - for instance, the 560ti (according to nvidia). I would go for a little more, at least 600W, there to have some upgrade room. Nvidia recommends at least 550W for a GTX 570. I'd get at least 600W then. Maybe 650W. Just for upgrade headroom.

Nvidia has to say 500watts or more because of the manufacturers that CANNOT output thier rated power. They would rather aim for considerable overkill.

Pretty chart of realistic numbers
Note two things from that. One, even the PC with the power hungry 480 never hits 450 watts. The PC with the 570 never breaks 350 watts. Truth is, my little Antec 380 Earthwatts unit could keep that i7 2600k with the 570 happy.

Quote

Also, I'm not sure how much ram games use, but with 8GB in here, I have 2GB used and 2GB cached - so optimally, with most usage, 4GB. I imagine games use quite a bit, so for those you'll want even more. I just opened Need for speed world (at 1280x1024 res btw), and found it using about 600MB. Oh wait, I drove around a little and just noticed it's at 650MB. I have 2.8GB used, 2.3GB cached, and about 3GB free. Basically, 4GB might be a bit of a cap at times, and with ram prices hitting rock bottom, why not get more? More ram never hurts. And now it's up to 700MB for the game, 2.8GB completely free. So just go with 8GB.

Wait, now the game is using about 800MB... (I was just driving around in the game, knocking over road signs and construction stuff, knocking over bus stops, going at 80MPH in a 35 zone...)

You have 8GB, so Windows uses your ram differently. My machine with 4GB only has a 768MB cache give or take. I have NEVER found a game that made me wish I had more ram. As I told him, get 8GB for future growth. 16 is wholly unnecessary.

Remember this though on ram usage: WINDOWS STOLE A LOT FROM LINUX. Sorry, but that needs to be in caps. In particular because the entire caching system was derived from what Linux does, and modified slightly... Linux leave about 100-500MB of ram free for executable. The rest of the ram is used for disk caching. Now, so you understand what is going on, think about this. EVERY TIME you boot into Windows, it takes the time to load Internet Explorer, Office, and a few other "essential" programs into that CACHE space. Do you honestly care how long it takes to launch IE WHILE playing NFS? I don't.

As you play your game, and it consumes more memory (Fallout BTW is KNOWN for hitting its 2GB cap), Windows dumps the cache. Just like Linux. It dumps the programs you have NOT been using first, so you never even notice it happened. So if you are running a 2GB cache, don't think about it as anything other than another 2GB of 'free' memory. Linux won't limit itself to 2GB though. If you have 8GB, it will use 7GB for cache, if you have 7GB worth of crap to cache. Though Linux does it after the fact, if you will. Meaning that when you pull up a text document, it is cached then. This way it isn't wasting time caching programs it thinks you are going to use.

[LiveBrianD]

My netbook, with 3.6GB usable (thanks to the integrated graphics) often has 1.7GB used on what I'm doing and another 1.5GB cached. Granted, I suppose that's why a lot of things launch quite quickly here (IE9 appears instantly, I haven't used powerpoint 2010 in a while yet it launched in 2 seconds, Publisher hasn't been used in a LONG time yet took about 3 seconds...), though I guess it doesn't always matter. If I were building a machine for office tasks, I'd get 4GB of ram.

With an i7 2600K and geforce 570 GTX (and HDD, SSD, and DVD drive), http://extreme.outer...n.com/PSUEngine recommends 420w. So basically, nvidia is saying that a GTX 570 will run on your KaboomMAX psu if it's "rated" for 550w, even if 400w actual output is all that it really needs, right? Nvidia says you need 500W for a 560ti and 400W for a 550ti, yet an i5 750 with a 560ti only needs ~380W according to that psu calc. So I guess that psu calc is assuming you have a quality unit then...

As for building a PC, see this: http://www.youtube.c...cR8Fl8cwZk&hd=1 Do you think you can do this? Really, it's not all that hard if you know what you're doing. I built this machine when I was 13 and it hasn't blown up yet (~1.5 years old).


Say, OP, could you check that link? I just get the origin homepage when I click that.


fyi, most of the mobos are EVGA and ASUS (1 intel), and they have Corsair, Silverstone, and an Antec PSU. (500W Corsair all the way to a 1.5kW silverstone) I just built a $10.5K config there.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 25 September 2011 - 05:13 PM

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 25 September 2011 - 05:07 PM, said:

My netbook, with 3.6GB usable (thanks to the integrated graphics) often has 1.7GB used on what I'm doing and another 1.5GB cached. Granted, I suppose that's why a lot of things launch quite quickly here (IE9 appears instantly, I haven't used powerpoint 2010 in a while yet it launched in 2 seconds, Publisher hasn't been used in a LONG time yet took about 3 seconds...), though I guess it doesn't always matter. If I were building a machine for office tasks, I'd get 4GB of ram.

Again, you are seeing caching at work. 2 seconds to load PowerPoint is unheard of off a spinner drive like you have. Especially considering its massive size. Again, you are seeing basic Linux functionality get twisted. And again, you can see the few places that caching is worth something. To be blunt though, do you honestly care if PP is cached and will load in 2 seconds while playing a game?

Quote

With an i7 2600K and geforce 570 GTX (and HDD, SSD, and DVD drive), http://extreme.outer...n.com/PSUEngine recommends 420w. So basically, nvidia is saying that a GTX 570 will run on your KaboomMAX psu if it's "rated" for 550w, even if 400w actual output is all that it really needs, right? Nvidia says you need 500W for a 560ti and 400W for a 550ti, yet an i5 750 with a 560ti only needs ~380W according to that psu calc. So I guess that psu calc is assuming you have a quality unit then...

Those power calculators will still err on the side of caution. Use Toms Hardware, or similar sites to determine ACTUAL usage. You will be surprised how little power these things REALLY consume.

[waldojim]

Just verified, without dealing with an SSD (more on that in a sec). That machine can be built for $1943... and that is with the attempt at wasting money.

PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750
EVGA Z68 FTW board
Intel 2600k
Zalmazn Flex CPU cooler + Scythe fan
Lain-Li case
EVGA 570 superclocked ed
8GB Corsair XMS3 2000Mhz
WD Black 1TB
Plextor BR burner (about $70 more than LG!) - as I said... attempt at waste.
SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?!)
Windows 7 pro (again, attempt at waste here).

That last $1,000 can be spent many ways (depending on what you want).
OCZ Revo 360GB SSD good for an amazing 740MB/sec read and 720MB/sec write! - That is one hell of an SSD btw.

Corsair Force 3 240GB drives Grab two of them (and still have money left)... At 540MB/sec read speed EACH, that should be STUPID FAST in a stripped raid array!

Or maybe a nice surround sound system to go with it?

Well... you guys get the idea.

edit: You know... after looking that list over... I like it. I am starting up on my OT again for the next few months... might just have to set some money asside. Not for SB mind you, but for whatever is in store for either socket 2011 or IVY.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 25 September 2011 - 06:13 PM

[iCobalt]

waldojim, on 25 September 2011 - 06:11 PM, said:

Just verified, without dealing with an SSD (more on that in a sec). That machine can be built for $1943... and that is with the attempt at wasting money.

PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750
EVGA Z68 FTW board
Intel 2600k
Zalmazn Flex CPU cooler + Scythe fan
Lain-Li case
EVGA 570 superclocked ed
8GB Corsair XMS3 2000Mhz
WD Black 1TB
Plextor BR burner (about $70 more than LG!) - as I said... attempt at waste.
SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?!)
Windows 7 pro (again, attempt at waste here).

That last $1,000 can be spent many ways (depending on what you want).
OCZ Revo 360GB SSD good for an amazing 740MB/sec read and 720MB/sec write! - That is one hell of an SSD btw.

Corsair Force 3 240GB drives Grab two of them (and still have money left)... At 540MB/sec read speed EACH, that should be STUPID FAST in a stripped raid array!

Or maybe a nice surround sound system to go with it?

Well... you guys get the idea.

edit: You know... after looking that list over... I like it. I am starting up on my OT again for the next few months... might just have to set some money asside. Not for SB mind you, but for whatever is in store for either socket 2011 or IVY.

Thanx man, and I would want to wait for Ivy bridge but i read in a post that it doesnt come out for another 6 months...I can always upgrade my processor...

[LiveBrianD]

Powerpoint took 4 seconds to launch on the laptop. Right now I have 1.6GB used, 0.9GB cached, and 1.2GB free. For some reason Publisher only took 2, though I don't think I've EVER used it on this machine (certainly not with this windows install). It's so much easier to use my desktop's dualscreen setup when I'm doing a publication.

How does the minimum recommended compare to the actual usage? I remember having a dell with a 1.8GHz Costa Rica P4, 768MB RDRAM, 1 HDD, Geforce 2 MX400, and a 250w psu. Guess what? That psu calc recommended 250w. I guess dell didn't go at all overkill there. But then again, I commonly hear of hps and such with 300W units. Though why is it that everything still goes overkill when calculating? And is this right? I said i5 760, OC 1.4V 4000MHz 100% TDP, 2 sticks of DDR3, 2 ati 5770s, and a HDD and DVD burner and it recommended 400W. Really, for all that? Somehow I think that's too little. And yet I said i5 750 (90% tdp, stock speed), 4 sticks DDR3, 2 HDDs, DVD Burner and DVD ROM, 2 80mm fans, and it recommended 390W... huh?



I don't bother with CPU upgrades. Nowadays, most CPUs are powerful enough to handle most things just fine (and this is coming from a guy with a last-gen i5). However, the graphics will be taxed heavily while gaming. (of course, they're all PCI-E, so just about any GPU will work as long as you have a reasonable wattage PSU - unlike CPUs with different sockets, chipsets, and motherboards)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 25 September 2011 - 07:26 PM

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 25 September 2011 - 07:21 PM, said:

Powerpoint took 4 seconds to launch on the laptop. Right now I have 1.6GB used, 0.9GB cached, and 1.2GB free. For some reason Publisher only took 2, though I don't think I've EVER used it on this machine (certainly not with this windows install). It's so much easier to use my desktop's dualscreen setup when I'm doing a publication.

How does the minimum recommended compare to the actual usage? I remember having a dell with a 1.8GHz Costa Rica P4, 768MB RDRAM, 1 HDD, Geforce 2 MX400, and a 250w psu. Guess what? That psu calc recommended 250w. I guess dell didn't go at all overkill there. But then again, I commonly hear of hps and such with 300W units. Though why is it that everything still goes overkill when calculating? And is this right? I said i5 760, OC 1.4V 4000MHz 100% TDP, 2 sticks of DDR3, 2 ati 5770s, and a HDD and DVD burner and it recommended 400W. Really, for all that? Somehow I think that's too little. And yet I said i5 750 (90% tdp, stock speed), 4 sticks DDR3, 2 HDDs, DVD Burner and DVD ROM, 2 80mm fans, and it recommended 390W... huh?



I don't bother with CPU upgrades. Nowadays, most CPUs are powerful enough to handle most things just fine (and this is coming from a guy with a last-gen i5). However, the graphics will be taxed heavily while gaming. (of course, they're all PCI-E, so just about any GPU will work as long as you have a reasonable wattage PSU - unlike CPUs with different sockets, chipsets, and motherboards)

Again, that is how MS caches. They use disk caching based on what THEY think you will use. It is also done to make THIER products look better. Why use OPEN OFFICE when MS OFFICE is faster?

check this out: Toms review 5770 That test was done with an i5 750 @ 3.8Ghz. At full load it only consumes 324 watts. Trust me on this one, you have nothing to worry about if you are using a decent power supply.

Now, as for CPU upgrades VS video... sorry, I cannot agree. Yes the first gen i5 is OK, but without hardware acceleration for just about everything, AMD Phenoms serve only to aggravate me. There are also very big differences in CPUs as you scale up. A 5-10% difference is hardly noticeable. BUT the difference between an i3 and i5 is HUGE. I never could have guessed just how prfound the difference between an Quad core and Dual core chip really was. When I got my first Quad core (the Intel 9450), that was moving from an Athlon 64 X2 @ 2.4Ghz. That was like seeing daylight for the first time. The difference between the C2Q 9450 and the i5.... notsomuch. Will I upgrade again in the not-too-distant future? Probably. When the new 2011 chips get SLI PCI-E 3 going on with full bandwidth. That whole platform sounds like a lot of fun to me.

[LiveBrianD]

So just 260W to the actual components? (assuming 80% efficiency) And they say a single 5770 is just 207W under load? (assuming the same cpu) That's 165W to the components then! So what, does this mean I can run an sli or crossfire setup on my 520W PSU? Also, how is the rail usage there? I believe mine can put out 130W on the 5V and 3.3V lines combined, and 480W on the 12V one (single line), combined 520W. I wonder what's actually used. I guess Seasonic wasn't too crazy saying that this PSU can run dual graphics cards and including 2 CPU power connectors (a 4+4 and 8-pin) for a server board then.

Let's see:
550ti TDP 116W (assuming that's really it)
i5 CPU 95W
HDD: 15W
2nd HDD: 15W
ODD: 15W
Motherboard: 30W
RAM: 5W
Other random stuff (PCI ethernet card, firewire card, fans, etc): 10W
286W. Man, I guess that's really not that bad then. That's about 350W from the wall at 80% efficiency. This seasonic is 80plus bronze, something like 82-85%.

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 26 September 2011 - 02:55 PM

[coastie65]

I don't know, but this seems to be a waste: SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?! . I can do Surround Sound with the onboard audio I have on this MOBO.

[LiveBrianD]

coastie65, on 26 September 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

I don't know, but this seems to be a waste: SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?! . I can do Surround Sound with the onboard audio I have on this MOBO.

I believe that waldojim was saying that due to the licensing fees of Dolby Digital audio, the digital audio cables do NOT do surround sound. I guess that only allows 2.0 sound, and you need to use the analog jacks for surround sound. I'm NOT positive though.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 26 September 2011 - 02:54 PM, said:

So just 260W to the actual components? (assuming 80% efficiency) And they say a single 5770 is just 207W under load? (assuming the same cpu) That's 165W to the components then! So what, does this mean I can run an sli or crossfire setup on my 520W PSU? Also, how is the rail usage there? I believe mine can put out 130W on the 5V and 3.3V lines combined, and 480W on the 12V one (single line), combined 520W. I wonder what's actually used. I guess Seasonic wasn't too crazy saying that this PSU can run dual graphics cards and including 2 CPU power connectors (a 4+4 and 8-pin) for a server board then.

Let's see:
550ti TDP 116W (assuming that's really it)
i5 CPU 95W
HDD: 15W
2nd HDD: 15W
ODD: 15W
Motherboard: 30W
RAM: 5W
Other random stuff (PCI ethernet card, firewire card, fans, etc): 10W
286W. Man, I guess that's really not that bad then. That's about 350W from the wall at 80% efficiency. This seasonic is 80plus bronze, something like 82-85%.

several things to remember.
In practice, most 5770s don't hit 200 watts under load.
and firewire cards provide power to some devices. It can provide as much as 45 watts as I recall.
500 Watt psus have been known to carry the SLI certified tag for a reason.
If you are getting close to the edge of the PSU limits though, cut back on the overclocking. Overclocking creates unpredictable power consumption.

[waldojim]

LiveBrianD, on 26 September 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

coastie65, on 26 September 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

I don't know, but this seems to be a waste: SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?! . I can do Surround Sound with the onboard audio I have on this MOBO.

I believe that waldojim was saying that due to the licensing fees of Dolby Digital audio, the digital audio cables do NOT do surround sound. I guess that only allows 2.0 sound, and you need to use the analog jacks for surround sound. I'm NOT positive though.

You nailed it exactly!

[LiveBrianD]

waldojim, on 27 September 2011 - 11:25 AM, said:

500 Watt psus have been known to carry the SLI certified tag for a reason.
If you are getting close to the edge of the PSU limits though, cut back on the overclocking. Overclocking creates unpredictable power consumption.

"With one 6-pin and one 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors, the SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze allows you to build up a SLI or CrossFire gaming system." - from newegg. That makes sense then. btw, I'm assuming you don't have any firewire devices and such in that prediction, and just USB stuff like keyboard, mouse, thumb drive (all a max of 500mA@5V, 2.5W).

[coastie65]

LiveBrianD, on 26 September 2011 - 05:04 PM, said:

coastie65, on 26 September 2011 - 03:56 PM, said:

I don't know, but this seems to be a waste: SoundBlaster X-FI Fatality (who doesn't want Digital Surround Sound?! . I can do Surround Sound with the onboard audio I have on this MOBO.

I believe that waldojim was saying that due to the licensing fees of Dolby Digital audio, the digital audio cables do NOT do surround sound. I guess that only allows 2.0 sound, and you need to use the analog jacks for surround sound. I'm NOT positive though.

Maybe so. I am stil learning my way around this MOBO and there is a lot to learn.