Desktop Computers

Are Platinum rated PSUs overrated? I have solar panels and foam roof for maximum efficiency with LED bulbs. So, I'm trying to save power because the electric bill is hella expensive (tenant downstairs works from home on the computer). And another question: when video cards say "recommended PSU watt", do you only go based on that? For instance, the 7990 has a rating of 700 (iirc), do I only need a 850 watt for other stuff?

That 700 recommended watts has to be for a full system + a 7990. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I don't think any of the high-end AMD cards pull more than 300-350 watts at max load. I'd still probably leave yourself a lot of breathing room and go with an 850 is the price isn't significantly more, but I wouldn't be surprised if you system as a whole only pulls maybe 450-500 watts at max load with a 7990 in it(unless you go crazy with overclocking everything)

Wow, sweet. Thanks. Beats having to buy a 1000+ watt PSU.

Yeah, no one needs a 1000+ watt PSU unless you have 2 or 3 high-end video cards in your machine. A 750-850 will easily power any system with a single video card with plenty of room to spare.

I have a backup UPS with a digital display that always shows how many watts are being used at any given time, and even with both of my 28" LCD monitors plugged into it too, I don't even quite get to 500W at max load with a overclocked 660Ti. And those LCDs(which obviously aren't being powered by the computer) are a good 50-60W apiece of that total. So even a high end card, you're going to be really pressed to even get to 500W of usage.

Heres a good link for power consumption numbers of newer video cards. Look at the "Peak" chart for a good idea on what to plan for.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/N..._Titan/25.html

What's funny is from that article the Titan isn't even all that bad, especially for the massive performance beast it is. But dear God... the GTX 590....

Hey guys. Alright, so I took everyone's advice and decided to slash quite a bit to get the price more in line with what I wanted to spend without sacrificing too much.

Here is the new build


I cut down on the power supply to the SFX bronze. It is nearly as good and apparently more quiet. If in the meantime (next month or two) something better shows up I might consider redoing this part, but for now it saves a few bucks.

I took everyone's advice and went with the 256GB SSD, you guys are right it really wasn't worth the price. However, I didn't add a platter Hard Disk, at least not now. I am going to give using a folder on the NAS as a mapped network drive for a while and see how that goes. It is trivial to add one later if I think I need it anyway.

I dropped the 770 and went with the 760. The 760s just came out and they look pretty good for the price range, at ~$150 less it is probably much more economical to replace the 760 in 2 or 3 years with another mid-range 900 series (or whatever) card than to spend the $400 up front right now on the 770. I chose the MSI due to it being the most quiet of the bunch... it should JUST barely fit in the case. If not I will return it and get the ASUS version.

The only place I am left slightly hung up is the motherboard. Since I have no plans on overclocking anything, this should be a no-brainer... BUT I would very much like on-board WiFi. I narrowed it down to essentially 3 choices:
GIGABYTE GA-H87N-WIFI: 890 kr
MSI Z87I Z87: 1149 kr
MSI H87I H87: 1099 kr

It is really a price vs. features/reliability issue. Essentially are Gigabyte boards reliable? Are the MSI boards worth the ~200 - 250 kronor ($33-$41) premium? If so what does teh extra $8 get me for the better MSI board?

Thoughts? I had planned on waiting longer but it looks like everything I was holding out for is out now, as soon as I get back from vacation (4 weeks) I am going to order everything and do the build.

Mist_sl said:

Is this your first PC build? Good fucking luck with that mini ITX shit.

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Thank you. Not my first, but I don't do it very often anymore (every 5-6 years). I'm not too worried about the build to be honest, the case is small but I picked the parts pretty carefully. Case and Power Supply are designed to go together, as is the CPU Cooler, the RAM is low profile, and there is no 3.5" or DVD drive. The only questionable part is the Video Card, but I think it should just barely fit from the look of things.

Why specifically do you need it to be small? I can understand quiet, but why small? Just to make it easy to move around or something. If you can go a bit larger, you might want to consider something like a Silverstone LC20:http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=85&area=

That way you can still use an ATX board, full sized video cards, and so on. I have a GTX670 in mine, although I did have to remove one of the drive cages.

I admit it the size is mostly for aesthetic reasons. In general my PC area is very minimalist. I use a wall mounted drop-leaf table as a desk (Ikea Norbo) along with a wireless mouse, keyboard, and headset. The monitor is also wall-mounted. I am still uncertain exactly what I am going to do with the case itself, but having it only ~10 liters greatly increases my options. Right now I have a good sized mid-tower just sitting on the floor with wires running around, and I want the ability to clean that up if I figure out exactly how I want it to look.

Wow you're going use mini itx on a gaming rig? Please keep us up to date on it. I am really interested in seeing if it works out down the line.

I'll post pictures and temp/noise levels when I get it built. I did a lot of research and gaming on mini-ITX works just fine, especially if you don't intend to OC anything and you pick your parts somewhat carefully, so I don't really anticipate big problems. I am also fortunate to have ridiculous consumer protections here in Norway. There is a minimum mandatory 3 year RMA on every part in the computer and some things (like TVs and Monitors) have a minimum 5 year manufacturer protection, so if something goes bad it can be replaced at no charge.

There's no way you'll have a silent computer in a m-itx case with stock cpu/gpu cooler. If you're spending 1200$ on it, throw another 100$ for custom gpu/cpu cooling that won't wake the neighbors when you're playing.

gogusrl_sl said:

There's no way you'll have a silent computer in a m-itx case with stock cpu/gpu cooler. If you're spending 1200$ on it, throw another 100$ for custom gpu/cpu cooling that won't wake the neighbors when you're playing.

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I am using the Silverstone NT06-E passively as the CPU Cooler, which is using the PS fan for exhaust (they are made to work together that way). I actually have no dedicated CPU fan at all.

I also chose the MSI Twin Frozr because it has a custom fan solution that is the most quiet of the 700 series, even more so than the Asus version (which was the quietest of the 600 series). According to reviews MSI has constructed it so that the fan controller will actually completely turn the fan off when it is idle and the temps are reasonably cool. It of course won't be completely silent when gaming, but it should be fairly quiet and silent from reasonable distance when idling or just running video.

I am curious just how quiet it will be though, maybe I will pick up a decibel meter and test it out.

Hey, little late on the party, but my rule of thumb is to verify at what load will the psu fan will kick on. Then I see what my maximum draw at the wall is. Then I find a psu that can provide that load (heh load) without needing to kick the fan on. Silent!

I've been living a lie this last year using the AMD-FX platform. I wanted to believe all I read on the web was hype and shill marketing.
I decided to give it the pepsi challenge. I sold a lot of useless shit on ebay and used the cash to get into the haswell.
My first good omen was, before I formatted, I wanted to see how far into windows it could get until it BSOD.
It loaded all the way to the damn login! Of course, no usb worked, so I had to dig up a ps/2 mouse and load the on screen keyboard to login and load the drivers. But I switched platforms and I didn't have to reinstall windows! That was huge for me.

The difference is subtle, but its there. The AMD is notorious for dropping frames during mouse look. Guild Wars 2 ran like hammered dog shit even when I put a GTX 770 in the machine. Now everything is buttery smooth. I hate to say it, but its not hype, AMD really dropped the ball on their platform.

There any difference to going 4 sticks of ram vs 2? Also what is a good non ips 24" monitor?

Scyfi_sl said:

There any difference to going 4 sticks of ram vs 2? Also what is a good non ips 24" monitor?

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Theres no perceivable performance difference. The only difference are price(4 will generally be cheaper, smaller GB per stick), but going 2 leaves room for expansion later without wasting sticks by having to replace them, so that's a tradeoff. I guess the only other issues would be using less overall voltage for just 2 sticks, and you'd probably have better luck overclocking with just 2 vs 4 if that is something you plan on doing.