A few stupid questions about building my first PC...

[darbius]

When looking online, how can I tell whether a PSU is 20-pin or 24-pin? Thanks.

 

[Promethply]

Usually when they specify either under "feature", or "specification" that the psu is ATX12V 2.01 compliant, you know that the psu is 24-pin.

 

[ribbon13]

The XCLio is 24-pin. I highly reccomend it. That or spend $99 for a Seasonic S12-430

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Usually it will say ATX or ATX 2.0

ATX 2.0 = 24 pin.

I finally got my rig to boot to BIOS 7 it's working fine now. I am using a PC Power & Cooling 410w PSU for a very similar system to yours & my rails are steayd & everything looks good. If you want to spend alot of money you can get a beast PSU for $150-200+. If not you can get that X-Clio ribbon mentioned or just get the PCP&C I have for now.

 

[darbius]

*Sigh* I wasn't counting on my PSU being a problem, but I think I might have to go ahead and get the XClio. Made by the same people who make Fortron, so you know it's good. I was gonna build it tonight or tomorrow, but can I assume this PSU is better than what I would find at Compusa? Even if I overnight it, it'll still be cheaper than if I bought what looks to be a comparable Antec PSU at Compusa.

Two concerns:
1. Shouldn't it have a -5 rail to run the built in sound card on the MSI K8N Neo4 Plat SLI mobo? or is that just included in the 24-pin part?
2. What's the noise like? I assume pretty good because fortron's tend to be quiet from what I've read...

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: darbius
2. What's the noise like? I assume pretty good because fortron's tend to be quiet from what I've read...

If quietness is important to you, read the Silent PC Review's list of recommended quiet quality PSUs HERE.

(Note that Seasonics are at the top of the list).

 

[Ausm]

I use a Static guard wrist strap and also have anit static flooring in my shop.

Ausm

 

[rivethead]

"Things I know:
1. A typical motherboard these days, comes with a 24 pin bank for the power supply.
2. For some reason the average power supply these days comes with only 20 pins.
3. I can hook a 20-pin into a 24-pin board in most cases and be fine. Exceptions to this are:
a) Using a PCI-e vid card because it draws it's power from the remaining four pins
b) Using a board like mine that has a built in sound blaster card, which also draws power from these 4 pins
c) Using SLI "


I wouldn't say #1 is true. There are far more mobos for sale with 20 pin banks than 24 pin. 24 pin (ATX 2.0) is relatively new. Now if you're just looking at NForce4 boards, then yes, #1 is true.

For #2, see my comment above.

#3a is not necessarily true. I just built a system this weekend using an Antec 350W PSU (20 pin), a Chaintech VNF4 Ultra (24 pin bank) and a Leadtek Geforce 6600 VC (PCI-E). I'm also running a 160 GB Seagate SATA and a Benq 1620 dvd. No power problems, whatsoever.

I'm not OCing yet, but I plan to do some slight OCing like you.

From what I've read, a good quality PSU can go a long way. However, I've also heard that running SLI can really suck the juice.

 

[darbius]

So my new baby is up and runnin! I'm posting from it right now! Woohoo! I so totally rule.

Oh yeah, and thanks for all the help again!

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Reading that makes me wish my hard drive wasn't fried. Now I gotta wait for a RMA to get my new baby up & running. Did you name her yet?

 

[darbius]

Yup, named her Beatrix, but we call her Kiddo for short.

 

[cornholio2]

Originally posted by: compusaguy
You shouldn't work on a computer with anything plugged in, even if the switch is turned off.

electricity + you = early funeral

:laugh:

That's better than this....

electricity + you = cremation :shocked: