I took advice on waiting for the I7930 and already have Antec 1200 case and GTX260 graphics card. Motherboard no decision yet, that will be decided on release of cpu. With the vast amount of different psu models out there, I'm a little lost on what psu to get, what I do know is that I want it to be modular with enough cables to get all fans running, and to be efficient. I looked at the list top of posts, it just went WooSH. I have one boot up drive, a spare to store music, an optical cd/dvd writer, and I like room to add more at a later date. Any unbiased advice on what i'm looking for would be gratefully appreciated. Memory is another minefield for me as i'm not clued up on all the different memory modules available. (running xp pro) . P.S I'm using machine for gaming. Thank you in Advance.
what is your budget if you can afford it the seasonic 650w is the best and extremly quiet http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W...Gold-90-Effic-4x-PCI-e-8xSata-Cables-The-Best! but if you want a cheaper option there is the antec 650w which is good http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/650W-Antec-Truepower-New-PSU-Modular-120mm-PWM-Fan-80plus-Bronze
Corsair HX series is my recommendation for quality and ultra quiet PSU (also comes with 7 year warranty for the Professional HX series)
+1, and Antec Signature Series (made by Delta) is next best. Given you aren't going SLI at some later date, a 650w PSU would be just fine.
i would even say a 650w psu is (quite heavy) overkill. i don't think you need more than 500W if you're staying away from crossfire. and +1 for corsair. but right now i've an antec and it does the job quite good also.
Just 1 minor point, an overhead is usually a good idea as most PSU's have a sweet spot when it comes to efficiency right around the 50% mark, and if their fans are heat regulated it will be quieter with a bigger overhead to a point. all while adding around 10 pounds to the total cost. Also +1 for Corsair, you can't go wrong there, their PSU's are the most reliable I've used and quieter then my cpu fan.
The first thing I must say is that you have bought an average graphics card and want to pair it with a serious heavyweight CPU. If anything, for a gaming system, I would do it the other way around and have a more powerful GPU than CPU. Anyway back on topic. I assume your GTX260 is a 55nm GPU. The CPU you plan to get will probably have a TDP of 130W, the GTX260 draws around 110W when gaming. If we allow 60W for the other stuff then the system power consumption under load will be in the order of 300W. If you are overclocking I would allow for another 50W. I would expect a 500W PSU would be able to do the job. The PSUs that I would recommend taking a look at are the 525W Enermax Modu82+ or the 500W Seasonic M12II. If you wanted to spend a bit more the 625W Enermax Modu82+, Corsair 650HX or the Seasonic X-650 are worth a look.
First thank you to all the advice from you guys, was a great help. Tonpal, My current cpu chokes the gtx260, so if i'm to upgrade my p4 dual core then the GPU can be ugraded later, and according Palit the gpu requires a min 500w psu. I got the GTX260 a few weeks after release (march 2009) so at the time it wasnt considered a lightweight by any means, and i'm not financially well off to keep up with every release of new hardware so i'm going for a new build based on the i7930 chip when its released next month. And if I'm able to afford it and feel its viable then the gpu will go in my missus machine and i'll get an updated one.
I was judging the GTX260 by todays standards. In March last year it would have been considered a good performing GPU. In part the reason for opening my post the way I did was to tease out if you really needed a Core i7 930. A Core i5 750 and a GTX260 would be the basis of a solid mid-range gaming machine. On the other hand a Core i7 930 paired with a 5870 or a top of the range Fermi (whatever they intend to call it) would be the core of a high end gaming machine. If you do intend to upgrade your graphics card at a later date it would be sensible to think about what you may upgrade to now as your new PSU should be rated to accomadate the new graphics card. Is a modular PSU a must have? You can save a bit by also considering non-modular.
My main reason for going modular is that I dont have to have redundant cables in the case. I was going to go for the 920 but after a great deal of thought and advise from these forums I decided to wait until the 930, my other thoughts are if i'm going to upgrade I might aswel get latest technology that I can afford, I maybe misguiding myself, I dont know. I have had the case still boxed sitting next to my pc desk for 6 months now (due to other financial commitments). I'm looking at spending about £600 on new MB, CPU, memory, and HS, although I maybe able to stretch a little bit, I'm going to keep it at stock speed, overclocking isnt important to me plus the fact I dont want to shorten the life out of the cpu. I'm a simpleton, number crunching, and all these nm's and other strange numbers other than gb, mb, are straight over my head, as long as the components are compatable and give me good performane for my main interest - gaming then i'll be a happy bunny. There are so many different products that its not easy for non enthusiasts to always figure out what we really need. Thank You for your input Tonpal.
If you are happy with the i7 930 then 'nuff said. Since you intend to upgrade your graphics card at some point after the CPU upgrade any PSU you purchase should have enough capacity to cope with the upgraded graphics card. To my mind you would be looking at either a HD5870 (once prices drop to a realistic level) or a Nvidia Fermi to match the Core i7. As Fermi is yet to be released there isn't any reliable information on power consumption however it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect it to be higher than the corresponding AMD card. Bearing that in mind I have looked at my previous estimate based on a HD5870. Based on measurements taken by xbitlabs the HD5870 requires 107W when gaming and 162W when stress tested. That actually not much more than the GTX260 but under stress test can be up to 50W more than we previously estimated. Although a 500W PSU would still probably be adequate I would suggest adding another 50W to the capacity to keep your options open. Unfortunately there are very few 550W modular PSUs. I realise you didn't want to have redundant cables in the case however I would suggest you consider the Corsair 550VX. It has the following cables: 1 x 24-pin ATX power connector cable. 1 x 8-pin EPS12V connector cable. 2 x 6-pin PCI-E connector cable. 2 x SATA connector cable with three SATA connector heads. 2 x 4-pin peripheral power connector cable with three connector heads The 24 pin ATX, EPS12V, both PCIe, one of the SATA and probably one of the 4 pin peripheral cables (molex) will be used. That leaves one SATA cable and one molex cable to coil and store in the case. The Antec 1200 has 3 HDD cages, the bottom one of which could easily be removed to provide a space to store these cables. The main advantage of the 550VX is that it sells for around £65 where a similar quality 650W modular will cost over £90.
Thank you for your feedback tonpal, i'll consider the options, though that will be decided on what price the cpu and motherboard will cost when released.
if you have a decent enough case then you dont need a modular PSU - hide any leads you dont need behind the motherboard.
