Another Building a Computer Thread

[sixteenth]

A friend of mine needs help with putting a tower together, so he requested my assistance today. I had him email a list of the parts he wanted so that I could do a little research and see if any potential problems could arise. Here's what he wants:

Spoiler

He's basically going all in with AMD. Good choice? I've always been an Intel/Nvidia guy, so I haven't really followed Radeon and AMD stuff in years. I'm guessing it doesn't really matter. I'd like to add I haven't build a tower in about three years, but I doubt much has changed at all.

Also, I'm not sure if 750W is enough for that beast of a display card.

So what do you guys think?

 

[Vegeta897]

http://imgur.com/Hsvgt.jpg

750w is more than enough for a single video card.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

He has also gone with a Corsair HX PSU, which are highly recommended and reliable. Yeah that card will run easily on 750w, only thing I would change is having a modular corsair PSU, mostly because I detest the spaghetti mess other PSUs.

 

[sixteenth]

Thanks for the responses. I'll give him the go-ahead tonight.

The only other thing I could possibly ask is if whether he should get more than 4GB. If it's unnecessary, then I'll tell him not to. After all, it's a rather simple upgrade that he can do by himself in the future if he wants/need it.

 

[Vegeta897]

For gaming, it's not really necessary.

 

[Escaep]

If he does a lot of rendering then it might be useful.

 

[Shakermaker]

only thing I would change is having a modular corsair PSU, mostly because I detest the spaghetti mess other PSUs.

I highly recommend this as well.

 

[VirusType2]

I'm not sure if 750W is enough for that beast of a display card.

I think that video card is more efficient than the GTX 460, so that means you should get something like 650w.

There are power calculators that would probably suggest 480w or something for your set up (look it up, I don't know), but PSUs do lose some power over the years.

Maybe you can save $50-$100 for a 650w PSU vs. the one you picked out. If he is getting a second video card at any point, then yeah, maybe go with the 750w, otherwise, I think it's overkill.

I have a similarly capable computer (albeit more efficient) with 9 hard drives that only uses about 249watts, according to the online power calculator and according to my PSU, which has a fan that cuts on at about 300 watts (Fan has never cut on).

It amazes me how much power people think computers need (800 and 1200watts). You could move stuff around your room with that much power. I'm looking forward to the future of high efficiency computing.

 

[Dinnesch]

Having 8GB of RAM can be great if you want to leave a lot of programs open(which shouldn't be too much of an issue with Win7's program management).
Get rid of that SSD, who needs insane application loading performance if you don't have to close most programs? (unless he's into rendering or wants to play multiple games at the same time )

I'd go with an P55 motherboard/i5-750 instead of that AMD combo, just gives you a bit more future proofing for the money(although AMD CPU's perform similarly in games at the moment because they aren't fully used by today's games)
For cooling, get a Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. b

 

[Quixoticism]

I like G.Skill Ram, 4GB of the Ribjaw series is likely to be cheaper.

I would 100% get him to change to a Core i-750/60 setup. Better than AMD when it comes to games in every way.

750w would be enough if you SLI'd those cards. The 6870 is quite energy efficient.