Building a gaming rig for a friend - please critique

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: animeba

your wrong. nvidia recommends at least a 480W psu for the 6800 ultra and higher. the gt is made to run with a 300W quality psu. 380 is very sufficient for the computer. the reason y they had to make the gt work with a 300W psu is because 75% of consumers dont have anything higher then a generic 350W psu, and that wouldnt be very marketly intelligent for nvidia to make a video card that wont work for most comps. having to replace a psu requires knowing how to build a computer, and that is something most people dont know how to do.

You aren't making much sense. Why would a nvidia 6800 card work with a 300W psu???? If nvidia says it requires 450-480w power supply, it probably needs a power supply near that level. Sure, there will be a "fudge factor", but you aren't going to get away with a 300w quality supply

They suggest a 480watt PSU because there are so many sh!tty $20 550 watt PSUs in comps out there that barely push half of their rated specs. A quality 300 watts power supply will blow away those gazillion watt junkers. Just saw someone in the video forum a few days ago who had a 2.2GHz AXP/1gig RAM/AN35N ultra and a 6800GT chugging along with a 3 year old 300watt Antec. Nvidia is just covering their butts for all the generics out there.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Sonic587

Originally posted by: animeba

your wrong. nvidia recommends at least a 480W psu for the 6800 ultra and higher. the gt is made to run with a 300W quality psu. 380 is very sufficient for the computer. the reason y they had to make the gt work with a 300W psu is because 75% of consumers dont have anything higher then a generic 350W psu, and that wouldnt be very marketly intelligent for nvidia to make a video card that wont work for most comps. having to replace a psu requires knowing how to build a computer, and that is something most people dont know how to do.

You aren't making much sense. Why would a nvidia 6800 card work with a 300W psu???? If nvidia says it requires 450-480w power supply, it probably needs a power supply near that level. Sure, there will be a "fudge factor", but you aren't going to get away with a 300w quality supply

They suggest a 480watt PSU because there are so many sh!tty $20 550 watt PSUs in comps out there that barely push half of their rated specs. A quality 300 watts power supply will blow away those gazillion watt junkers. Just saw someone in the video forum a few days ago who had a 2.2GHz AXP/1gig RAM/AN35N ultra and a 6800GT chugging along with a 3 year old 300watt Antec. Nvidia is just covering their butts for all the generics out there.

if you go ask in the video forum, they'll tell you that 300W is sufficient. also, i've read somewhere how they will put the 6800's and the gt in future sff comps, most of which only hold up to 300W. why would the 6800 not work with a strong 300W psu? they use up just as much power as the 9800 pro and that's been proven to be good enuff for sff's.

 

[Cerb]

There needs to be a better standard for measuring the output of the PSUs.
Sure, the $20 550w PSU might be able to pull 550w for a minute, and the Enermax 300w not (most reviews have the Enermaxes shutting off with more than 20% or so rated power being sustained, IIRC).
But the Enermax (or Antec, or Enhance, Delta, etc.) will draw good 300w all day, where the $20 one will probably flake out (at least starting to have shoddy quality output) around 200w (maybe less), which a modern PC doing gaming should be able to pull with a 6800 and P4C.

 

[jacktesterson]

Originally posted by: animeba
I believe Nvidia recommends atleast a 450w power supply for its 6800 cards. Your current 420w might be too low.

nope...350

 

[lucrioual]

nice man nice
should be a fun build

 

[spatrizi]

Oh man, I hope this isn't a really dumb question...

But if I built a similar rig, I wouldn't have a problem using my existing 9800 pro even though this mobo has an nVidia chipset, right?

 

[schdaddy]

Originally posted by: spatrizi
Oh man, I hope this isn't a really dumb question...

But if I built a similar rig, I wouldn't have a problem using my existing 9800 pro even though this mobo has an nVidia chipset, right?

Yeah, it will work fine.

 

[iman00b]

Im also thinking of building a similar rig minus a few things i already have.

How would the MSI K8N Neo Platinum compare to the ASUS K8N-E Deluxe? I dont know much about the asus board atm. I was thinking of going with the Chaintech VNF3-250 but i heard theres alot of problems with the board. Also i got in on some 2xKingston 512 pc4000 ram from BB a while back. (panicked when ram prices went up a while back) Since im going to have to OC to get tighter timings, how much shorter will the lifespan of the computer be? I need the new comp to last long as possible since i rarely upgrade (PIII 1ghz 256ram voodoo5LOL). Main reason i picked the MSI is because of the easy/auto OC option for newbs since ive never OCed yet.

sorry schdaddy not trying to take over ur thread, but it seems like alot of helpful people are attracted to your thread.

 

[spatrizi]

well, since so many people on this forum seemed to think that schdaddy had spec'd the nirvana of gaming rigs for the listed budget, i went ahead and bought pretty much the same thing, minus the monitor and card (i already have a 21" and a 9800 PRO). can't wait! thanks schdaddy, and thanks everyone else!

 

[schdaddy]

Originally posted by: iman00b
Im also thinking of building a similar rig minus a few things i already have.

How would the MSI K8N Neo Platinum compare to the ASUS K8N-E Deluxe?

After comparing specs & reading reviews from buyers, I believe either board you go w/ will be a satisfying purchase. Although one reviewer had strong comments comparing the two:

It doesn't have the problems that plague the MSI K8N Neo Platinum (i.e. cold boot issue, keyboard errors). It's very stable. You can trust ASUS Quality Control. At least they have the sense to not release a board when it barely works. This is a great mobo. The best one for Socket 754 in my opinion. Definetely better than the MSI Neo Platinum.

Out of the 79 people that reviewed the board there are a few comments of PS/2 port & cold boot issues. Maybe this will be resolved with a later BIOS.

I dont know much about the asus board atm. I was thinking of going with the Chaintech VNF3-250 but i heard theres alot of problems with the board. Also i got in on some 2xKingston 512 pc4000 ram from BB a while back. (panicked when ram prices went up a while back) Since im going to have to OC to get tighter timings, how much shorter will the lifespan of the computer be?

I've ran systems OC'ed 24/7 for years now without any problems. For me it seems like once you find how far you can push the system while at the same time it remaining stable, you can leave it like that indefinitely.

I need the new comp to last long as possible since i rarely upgrade (PIII 1ghz 256ram voodoo5LOL). Main reason i picked the MSI is because of the easy/auto OC option for newbs since ive never OCed yet.

sorry schdaddy not trying to take over ur thread, but it seems like alot of helpful people are attracted to your thread.

I'm not familiar with MSI's easy/auto OC options but if you think the MSI will be easier then go with that board.

 

[spatrizi]

A friend of mind told me that he didn't think the nVidia chipset would allow you to OC the processor or the vid card - that true? He also seemed to think that the 380W wasn't enough for the 64, though it seems that the PSU wattage is more of an issue for vid cards, right?

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: spatrizi
A friend of mind told me that he didn't think the nVidia chipset would allow you to OC the processor or the vid card - that true? He also seemed to think that the 380W wasn't enough for the 64, though it seems that the PSU wattage is more of an issue for vid cards, right?

NF2 allows OCing just fine, I've got one and am OCing the he11 outta my rig as far as air cooling allows! I agree I think the PSU wattage is much more for the vid than the cpu.

 

[spatrizi]

schdaddy, do you plan to use the onboard sound for this rig?

 

[trexpesto]

bump for peace

 

[schdaddy]

Originally posted by: spatrizi
schdaddy, do you plan to use the onboard sound for this rig?

Yep.


Also, I plan on posting benchmarks soon. Wednesday the system should be built; would have been sooner but we had a hard time getting a 6800GT.

Any particular benchmark anyone want to see?
I have 3DMark & Aquamark.

 

[spatrizi]

Hey Schdaddy - how'd it all go? Is the rig up and running and blazing as expected?

I'll be putting mine together this weekend (though I'll be using my 9800 pro instead).