New Build - Did I do okay?

[DebtManWalking]

I just finished building my first new rig after 4 years of being stuck with my other rig.

It really is amazing how much money my son and his school can suck out of my bank account...

Specs are;
- Antec NSK4400 w/ 380Watt P/S (PSU should be upgraded shortly)
- AMD 64 3700+ (San Diego 1MB L2 Cache)
- Gigabyte K8N-SLI
- 2GB OCZ Performance RAM (CL3-3-3-7)
- 2 x eVGA CO Superclocked 7600GT PCI-e (SLI)
- 200GB Seagate SATA Hard Drive
- LG DVD-R/W Optical
- Samsung 940B w/ DVI
- Creative Labs Itrigue 3300 Speakers

Benched @ the following as I never OC my machines for longevity purposes;

Stock (As Built, No O/C)
3dMark03 = 13800 (Single GPU)
3dMark05 = 6438 (Single GPU)

3dMark03 = 22978 (Dual GPU SLI)
3dMark05 = 10106 (Dual GPU SLI)

Thanks for looking!

DebtManWalking
www.financeforums.ca

 

[shortylickens]

You seriously need more power.
I dont think 380 watts is enough.
Other than that not bad.

Though on the issue of power and money and upgrade potential: It probably would have been wiser to get a single 7800 instead of two 7600's.

 

[Ultralight]

Very nice cpu. But like shortylickens said, get a much better power supply.

 

[JMoore]

Yeah you def need more power, and I prob would've done one gfx card and then went dual later to save an upgrade.

But yeah, you did pretty good.

 

[biff 24 2000]

amazed that the psu cant power both cards 🙂, but besides that nice looking rig.

 

[pkme2]

If you notice that a few of recommendations are for lower powered PSUs, but the individuals have 500W+ PSUs on their present rigs. I, myself have PSUs over 500W+ on my three rigs too.
The video card manufacturer recommends a minimum of 450W on your 2 cards. Why wouldn't you want more than minimum, I would if it was my rig. The investment in your computer is substantial. You're going to entrust them to a cheap PSU? I would go for something like a Seasonic S-12 600W, but its your call. You came to AT for advice, well this is the best I can give.

 

[n7]

I can't help but wonder if this is a spam post, a carefully crafted one...

But i'll assume not, so welcome to the forums 🙂

Decent rig overall, though SLI 7600GTs simply makes no sense from a budget point of view.

If your PSU runs that, excellent.
But it's far too low to be safe IMO...

 

[Operandi]

380 watts is fine. The 7600 is a relatively low power part so two of them is probably roughly equivalent to a single top end card.

Everything else is fairly typical, certainly nothing that calls for a 600 watts.

 

[Varun]

Originally posted by: Operandi
380 watts is fine. The 7600 is a relatively low power part so two of them is probably roughly equivalent to a single top end card.

Everything else is fairly typical, certainly nothing that calls for a 600 watts.

I agree 100%. I am actually getting pretty tired of the people on these boards and their rediculous ideas about power supplies. The 7600GT is a really good card for power too - it doesn't even need the extra power connector.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Varun

Originally posted by: Operandi
380 watts is fine. The 7600 is a relatively low power part so two of them is probably roughly equivalent to a single top end card.

Everything else is fairly typical, certainly nothing that calls for a 600 watts.

I agree 100%. I am actually getting pretty tired of the people on these boards and their rediculous ideas about power supplies. The 7600GT is a really good card for power too - it doesn't even need the extra power connector.

Me too.

Also, I really liked that Antec case. I've built a few with it. Very simple, and very easy to work with. Those were very quick builds.

 

[pkme2]

🙂
I see so many PSU recommendations everyday and most recommendations are for lower wattages. I make recommendations from what I have on my systems. They are based on what I see recommended on AT and http://www.psuinquisitor.com/

One opposition is the costs of the better PSUs being too high for some. But what if you can get a deal on a higher priced PSU. A new Seasonic S-12 600W for $130+$19 shipped to Hawaii. One can get the same if one has patience and common sense.

All my rigs are 500W+. ENERMAX or SEASONIC are my choices. Whenever I plan upgrades, I don't have to worry about replacing my PSU for quite sometime.

I believe in higher PSU wattage, never the minimum. It doesn't hurt the system, so why the limitation.

Those who recommend should've based it on what's on their systems, or maybe not.
What works, not Dreamworks.

 

[Gamer X]

Get a dual-core X2 3800+ instead. Also why 2 7600 GTs ? a 7900 Gt would be a better idea

Edit: Oops. I realized you already got it. I thought you did not order it yet.

 

[DebtManWalking]

Thanks for all the feedback!

I do appreciate the PSU might be gauged a little low, but until I had a chance to get to my favorite PC shop today, it had to work.

Plan is to pick up and Enermax 535W EG565P or Antec TruePower 480W. My PC shop has limited choice in terms of Fortron, Seasonic, PC Power, etc...

My brand choices are;
- Antec
- Enermax
- OCZ
- Silverstone

Any recommendations based on the manufacturers?

I have used a lot of Enermax Noisetaker 485W on some customers systems in the past and they are a very solid PSU with very stable power delivery...

Other than that, I do appreciate the feedback the dual 7600's, but around here they are absolutley the best bang for the dollar... A single 7900GT is only 50 dollars cheaper than a dual 7600GT setup and that is why I chose the dual 7600GT setup.

Thanks for looking!

DebtManWalking
www.financeforums.ca

 

[wwswimming]

last time i had to make this selection for a full sized system, i looked at what these websites use in test set-ups & recommend in their budget/dream/ etc. gamer systems -
http://sharkyextreme.com/
+ A'Tech + Tom's Hardware

... and it seemed like the Antec TruePower 480 was highly recommended, over and over, again and again, etc.

so, that's what i got.

These days, I guess the TruePower 550 is kind of main-stream.

a good topic for an article - the Antec TP 480 vs. the 550 for a moderately OC'ed system with 2 GB RAM and a midrange video card - do the extra 70 watts of capacity really help - for example if you stick a scope on the power lines to the memory, is there a difference in measurable ripple voltage ?

 

[Howard]

Why'd you get 2 7600GTs?

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: pkme2
🙂
I see so many PSU recommendations everyday and most recommendations are for lower wattages. I make recommendations from what I have on my systems. They are based on what I see recommended on AT and http://www.psuinquisitor.com/

One opposition is the costs of the better PSUs being too high for some. But what if you can get a deal on a higher priced PSU. A new Seasonic S-12 600W for $130+$19 shipped to Hawaii. One can get the same if one has patience and common sense.

All my rigs are 500W+. ENERMAX or SEASONIC are my choices. Whenever I plan upgrades, I don't have to worry about replacing my PSU for quite sometime.

I believe in higher PSU wattage, never the minimum. It doesn't hurt the system, so why the limitation.

Those who recommend should've based it on what's on their systems, or maybe not.
What works, not Dreamworks.

You make your recommendations based on what other people tell you what they think is good. Did you ever stop to wonder what their recommendations are based on?, I have and it rarely seems to be numbers or facts.

I make my recommendations on facts; actually knowing what real systems and components use in terms of power, and it's never the minimum. I've never owned or purchased a 500 watt PSU and probably never will. My current system runs on 360 watt PCP&C Silencer. My choice has nothing to do with being cheap; having headroom is good but having 2x the power you can use is pointless.

BTW, I looked at your rigs and I doubt any of them can break 250 watts DC. If you think I'm wrong and want to find out pick up a volt meter.

Originally posted by: DebtManWalking
Thanks for all the feedback!

I do appreciate the PSU might be gauged a little low, but until I had a chance to get to my favorite PC shop today, it had to work.

Plan is to pick up and Enermax 535W EG565P or Antec TruePower 480W. My PC shop has limited choice in terms of Fortron, Seasonic, PC Power, etc...

My brand choices are;
- Antec
- Enermax
- OCZ
- Silverstone

Any recommendations based on the manufacturers?

I have used a lot of Enermax Noisetaker 485W on some customers systems in the past and they are a very solid PSU with very stable power delivery...

Other than that, I do appreciate the feedback the dual 7600's, but around here they are absolutley the best bang for the dollar... A single 7900GT is only 50 dollars cheaper than a dual 7600GT setup and that is why I chose the dual 7600GT setup.

Thanks for looking!

DebtManWalking
www.financeforums.ca

Enermax is a pretty good brand, I like the Liberty line. I know some of the Silverstone?s are also very good (Enhance based). Antec ranges from mediocre (True Power), to pretty good (Neo HE). I don't recommend OCZ.

Is there something wrong with purchasing a Seasonic, Forton-Source, or Enhance from an online retailer? You'll not only get a better PSU but most likely a better deal as well.