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Upgrade or start from scratch *Update: Planning to build*

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FSP has a 400w unit at $50, Enermax a 430w at $40, Coolmax a 500w for $40, and Rosewill both a 500w and 450w at $60.

The <500W units are a little too tight for an R9 280X. The Coolmax is, well a Coolmax, and to be avoided. The Rosewill Valens is a possibility, but it's also $60, so I don't see the point in paying more for a lower quality unit with a potential marginal efficiency gain.
 
Go for the corsair cs550 or enermax 530w gold units. They are in fact the same psu, just a different exterior. Both drop down to around $50AR from time to time and are decent enough to be relied upon.
 
Thanks guys. One other (hopefully final!) question here. Any noticeable advantage in jumping from 8gb ram to 16 if all other items remain the same?
 
So I've purchased the following last night to get the ball rolling:

Sapphire 280x (dropped to $190 AC AR by the way)
ASRock Fatality H97 Killer

Kind of holding out on some other components for now as some pricing changes occurred. But I do have a question about something else.

I'm hoping to not have something that sounds like a jet engine taking off when I turn it on. Have any suggestions? Case fans that do a good job but do it silently for example?
 
Absolutely. Not all fans are created equal, but most fans will become effectively silent if you turn down their speed, even the junk usually included with cases. Fans generally have one of two connectors, either a 3 pin with +, - and RPM monitoring, or 4 pin, called PWM. All modern boards should be able to control either type via the fan headers.

All fans have different noise characteristics and one that sounds pleasant to my ears may not to yours, but we're probably going to mostly agree on what fans sound good and what don't. Not all fans will slow down equally though. Some will go as low as maybe 3.5v, while others may stop spinning at close to 7v. I've found that most stock case fans tend to either have audible humming from the hub, or will "click" when slowed down. If your fans do this, come back and ask about replacements, but I'd try just controlling the speed via bios first. Your noise threshold may be higher than mine.

The Intel stock cooler tends to run a bit on the warm side, but the noise characteristics are actually pretty great. I wouldn't bother replacing it for an i3.

To get a bit more in depth, there are two main bearing types in fans, sleeve, and ball. Sleeve bearing fans tend to be quieter (that is, less clicking and hum, you still hear the air moving equally), but don't last nearly as long, especially if not mounted vertically because of how lubricant is distributed. Yate Loons are a very popular case fan that are often regarded as having excellent noise characteristics, and are typically $3-6 each. I have a box full of them (maybe 20-30), but unfortunately after a few years most begin to degrade and get noisier. I recently replaced all of the fans in my case with Noctua fans, which run $15-20 each. There's debate on whether or not they're a good value, and you'll find little love for them in places like SPCR (mostly due to price), but my experience with them has been overwhelmingly positive, price aside. They have a 6 year warranty and come with a ton of connectors and rubber mounts for noise isolation. You could buy 3-6 Yate Loons for the same price as a single Noctua, of course.

If silence is worth a lot to you, you may want to read reviews on power supplies first and pick one that's quiet out of the box, as their fans are a bit more complicated to replace.
 
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So I've purchased the following last night to get the ball rolling:

Sapphire 280x (dropped to $190 AC AR by the way)
ASRock Fatality H97 Killer

Kind of holding out on some other components for now as some pricing changes occurred. But I do have a question about something else.

I'm hoping to not have something that sounds like a jet engine taking off when I turn it on. Have any suggestions? Case fans that do a good job but do it silently for example?

You don't have to go out of way to build a very quiet system these days. You do have to go out of your way to build a silent system. "Very quiet" is accomplishable with the fans that come with normal cases such as the Corsair 200R as long as you use the motherboard's speed control.
 
I think this should be the final question...

In looking for a psu I definitely want gold and think I want at least semi-modular. My question is, with this case, is modular vs standard really an issue? (Corsair 200R case).
 
I think this should be the final question...

In looking for a psu I definitely want gold and think I want at least semi-modular. My question is, with this case, is modular vs standard really an issue? (Corsair 200R case).

Modular is always better from a neatness and ease standpoint (but does nothing for performance other than slightly better airflow in the lower half of the case). And the 200R is fairly narrow, so there won't be a lot of room behind the motherboard to stash cables.

I'd look at the Seasonic SSR-550RM or its clones the XFX XTR 550 and CoolerMaster V550.

Be careful about Corsair's models in this price range. They aren't as good.
 
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I think this should be the final question...

In looking for a psu I definitely want gold and think I want at least semi-modular. My question is, with this case, is modular vs standard really an issue? (Corsair 200R case).

You don't want to pay a large premium for a Gold efficiency unit, especially not with Tennessee electricity prices. Obviously, if you can get a Gold efficiency unit for the same or less price than a Bronze, then go for it.

Modularity is a marginal "nice to have" during the assembly process, or if you want to have a "showroom quality" interior. Otherwise it's a non factor.

After looking at the available units and their prices, I would say to get the Rosewill Capstone 550W for $50 AR.
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that I really appreciate the help. Finally got around to assembling the unit today and everything fired up without a hitch. Honestly the hardest part was figuring out how in the heck to decipher the front panel jumpers on the mobo but once I got past that it was smooth sailing.
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that I really appreciate the help. Finally got around to assembling the unit today and everything fired up without a hitch. Honestly the hardest part was figuring out how in the heck to decipher the front panel jumpers on the mobo but once I got past that it was smooth sailing.

Great! Thanks for the update.
 
Just wanted to let you guys know that I really appreciate the help. Finally got around to assembling the unit today and everything fired up without a hitch. Honestly the hardest part was figuring out how in the heck to decipher the front panel jumpers on the mobo but once I got past that it was smooth sailing.

Glad it worked out!
 
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