The Seasonic Platinum-1000 is reportedly very good.

If its for gaming you might have been better off with an i5, scrap the hard drive and put the money you save by getting the i5 on an SSD.

this

Can vouch for this.

i5 does the work just fine for a much lower price than i7

I doubt that price is a factor for one, who's builiding a GTX 680 SLI (e-penis only) config.

doesn't SLI add input lag / microstuttering? if it was me I'd just get one and opt for a SSD with a BenQ XL2411T for 120hz + lightboost.

anyway why can't you sort PSUs by rating on newegg like everyone else?

It looks like the new GTX 6XX cards mostly got rid of it. Also I have SLI GTX 660's, and I have no problem at all, playing Far Cry 3 at like 100fps.

seasonic platinum 1000? on what fucking earth are you living?
new hardware is designed to consume LESS power.
big gaming systems dont need fucking 1000watt.

here is what you do, summarizing some previous posts.

first of, get an Enermax Platimax 600W ATX 2.3 (EPM600AWT).
more than enough power.....
get an i5.
get a Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970, 3GB GDDR5.
get a samsung 840 or crucial m4 256GB SSD.

then you are good to go.

The only reason I recommended the Platinum-1000 is because he *clearly specified 1kW+*. I completely agree that it's hardly necessary. But maybe he has his reasons? The fuck do we know.

Also, if he can afford 2x680, he can afford the 3770k over i5. Even though the difference isn't huge, it's there, and it's his money to spend. And considering how similar the 7970 and 680 are in performance, I'd say the lightboost feature tips the scale in favor of the nVidia cards for fps gamers, especially when money is not an issue. (And when he buys two of them, it clearly isn't.)

Definitely agree regarding the SSD. That's a must-have, and the Samsung 840 is a good pick.

"That's a must-have, and the Samsung 840 is a good pick."

http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/12365870/...or-fun.jpg

Yeah cos if he has a 1000w PSU its using a 1000w all da time!
Nub mistake.

Yeah, but why go for 1000W PSU if your system will consume 400W in the most extreme case?

exactly...

Only 2x680 will consume ~400W, count also ~100W for MB/CPU/RAM, ~50W for the rest components -- and you will get ~600W for "worst case" -- which you should multiply by 1.5 if you don't want do buy new system next year because of simple capacitors aging -> increased voltage pulsations -> quick death of your hdd, mb, etc.

400w is way too low for that system, an overclocked i7 is around 200-250watts alone under load, add in those graphics card(s), liquid coolling with two big fans or possibly rads, hard drive, mobo and he's gotta be pushing at least 700 watts in game.

When you factor in overheads peace of mind, future use potential, its probably not that bad.

Plus I doubt he has much else in life, those 1000w PSU look bad ass on invison power board signatures.

I recommend the Seasonic brand.

What can you guys say about Zalman PSU's? I'm also looking to change my old one and still considering what to get. It should be 1) reliable; 2) quiet (my current one sometimes drives me crazy with all the noise it produces).

Also, what about GPU - I'm not really a gamer, but sometimes when some big game (last one was Skyrim for me) comes out I wanna play it with good graphic settings - so I won't spend 500$ on it. So would anyone be so kind to advise me something decent up 200+$ range?

ps. on topic - try this to calculate your wattage - http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

After some googling I'm looking into 600W Zalman PSU and GeForce GTX650 Ti 1Gb (ASUS) <GTX650TI-DC2T-1GD5> ~175$ - which is factory overclocked to 1033 MHz and has some good reviews (low noise, low temp, overall great performance for such a price).

posting in monkey_business thread

I'm beginning to like him

:@

Overkill for gaming.

*Core i5 3570K
*Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
*MSI Big Bang Mpower Z77 motherboard (very good)
*Two-way SLI MSI/ASUS GTX 670
*Western Digital 1TB 7200RPM HDD
*Corsair Vengeance C70 mid-tower case
*Corsair H100i liquid CPU cooling (unnecessary unless overclocking, but aesthetically pleasing)
*24x speed DVD ROM
+ Samsung 840 Pro 128-256 GB SSD

Edit: Corsair and SeaSonic power supplies are good, though you wouldn't need more than 800W.

1 KW is totally unnecessary. Get a decent 600 W model. Seasonic, Enermax, FSP for example.

I wouldn't buy an MSI board. Had so much trouble with the brand (motherbards and VGAs as well) before.

Also no SSD and Blu-ray? Only 1 TB of HDD? Decent soundcard (at least a Xonar DG)? Weird...

MSI has good boards and I've never had any problems with them. MPower is actually a very popular board for gaming right now, though it doesn't fit the costly schematic of his build since it's more of a budget board for the higher performance traits of the $250+ family. This build is all over the place.

I'm saying these MSI-things based on my experience. >I< would never buy this brand again, but if somebody wants to, well, it's his choice and money.


Intel DZ77BH-55K
Intel Core i5-3570 3400MHz, 6MB
2 x 8 GB Corsair Vegeance Blue DDR3 1600MHz Kit
Sapphire Radeon HD7970 VAPOR-X 6GB GDDR5*
LG BH16NS40BU BD-writer
240 GB Intel 335 series MLC SSDSC2CT240A4K5 SSD
2 x 2 TB Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632
Asus Xonar DX
560 W Seasonic SS-X560 modular

*~170 $ more, than "plain", non-OC HD7970 3 GB, but hey, we live only once. If performance is a factor, then he can buy another 240 GB Intel SSD (~170$) with the standard 3 GB HD7970 and make an SSD RAID for the operating system / installed softwares. Lightning speed overkill. Or he can just add a few more TBs of HDD space, etc...

It's around the same price (well, cheaper if he buys a total waste 1 KW power supply for the op-rig) but it's actually starts to make sense.

If i should build a rig for myself for roughly the same price, the base config would look like this:

Asus SABERTOOTH 990FX
AMD FX-6100 3,6GHz Black Edition + Thermalright True Spirit 90
4 x 8 GB Corsair Vegeance Blue DDR3 1600MHz Kit
Sapphire Radeon HD7770 1GB GDDR5 OC GHz Edition
LG BH16NS40BU BD-writer
Intel 120GB 330 series MLC SSDSC2CT120A3K5 SSD
4 x 2 TB Hitachi HDS5C3020ALA632
LSI Logic MegaRAID SAS9240-8i
SunnyTek Backplane SNT3141SAS 4xHot-swap bay
Asus Xonar DG
Hipro Adrenalin 850 W ATX2.3 modular*

* Almost 100$ cheaper than the 560 W Seasonic modular, but HIPRO is not bad at all. 850 W is unnecessary, but much cheaper while still being good.

Silentmaxx ST-11 Pro case and for the price of the CPU liquid cooling, additional 2 x 500 GB HDD space..

You should get an i5 and z77 motherboard instead.

Way more performance, less power and not much more money.

This rig (aside from the HDD capacity) would last 10+ years for me. It's mostly a semi-redundant file- / seed-server / video-editing and home-entertainment centre with decent gaming capabilities in a sound-dampened case.

For my gaming, this mb+CPU+VGA would be more than enough (it's not weak by any means) - Far Cry 3ish bloated noobness on 60 fps FullHD-ultra is not my cup of tea. : )

The board is really high quality and the FX is not too shabby either and while i5 might be faster and the original Intel boards are really tempting, the difference in price (including a same-level motherboard) is too big for me to just spend on this.
That 80-100$ could go elsewhere. With a plus few bucks, an APC uninterruptible power supply for example.

If I would add a little bit of extra besides APC, it would be a TerraTec Grabster AV 450 MX.
Hardware accelerated video capturing from analog devices. Really nice stuff.

For browsing and such, I'd use a seperate Raspberry PI Model B-rig.

Now, I just have to win the lottery..

More or less what I would make for gaming right now.

*Core i5 3570k CPU
*Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Cooler
*MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA 1155 Motherboard
*Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB GPU
*SeaSonic 750W Gold PSU
*Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM HDD
*Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD
*Corsair Vengeance 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
*Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
*Corsair 500R Case

1000W PSU doesn't mean it will consume 1000W, but it can deliver up to 1000W. You have to check the PSU grade : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

Quote from shitypedia : Technical overview

The efficiency of a computer power supply is its output power divided by its input power. The remaining power is converted into heat. For instance, a 600-watt power supply with 60% efficiency running at full load would draw 1000 W from the mains and would therefore waste 400 W as heat. On the other hand a 600-watt power supply with 80% efficiency running at full load would draw 750 W from the mains and would therefore waste only 150 W as heat.

For a given power supply, efficiency varies depending on how much power is being delivered. Supplies are typically most efficient at between half and three quarters load, much less efficient at low load, and somewhat less efficient at maximum load. Older ATX power supplies were typically 60% to 75% efficient. To qualify for 80 Plus, a power supply must achieve at least 80% efficiency at three specified loads (20%, 50% and 100% of maximum rated power). However, 80 Plus supplies may still be less than 80% efficient at lower loads. For instance, an 80 Plus, 520 watt supply could still be 70% or less efficient at 60 watts (a typical idle power for a desktop computer).[8] Thus it is still important to select a supply with capacity appropriate to the device being powered.

It is easier to achieve the higher efficiency levels for higher wattage supplies, so gold and platinum supplies may be less available in consumer level supplies of reasonable capacity for typical desktop machines.

Typical computer power supplies may have power factors as low as 0.5 to 0.6.[9] The higher power factor reduces the peak current draw, reducing load on the circuit or on an uninterruptible power supply.

Reducing the heat output of the computer helps reduce noise, since fans do not have to spin as fast to cool the computer. Reduced heat and resulting lower cooling demands may increase computer reliability.[9]

The testing conditions may give an unrealistic expectation of efficiency for heavily loaded, high power (rated much larger than 300 W) supplies. A heavily loaded power supply and the computer it is powering generate significant amounts of heat, which may raise the power supply temperature, which is likely to decrease its efficiency. Since power supplies are certified at room temperature, this effect is not taken into account.[4]

80 Plus does not set efficiency targets for very low load. For instance, generation of standby power may still be relatively inefficient, and may not meet requirements of the One Watt Initiative. Testing of 80 Plus power supplies shows that they vary considerably in standby efficiency. Some consume half a watt[10] or less in standby with no load, where others consume several times as much at standby,[11] even though they may meet higher 80 Plus certification requirement levels. Inefficiencies in generating standby power are magnified by the amount of time that computers spend turned off.

TL:DR version
http://esreality.com/post/2394132/re-please-r...pid2394132

I have alsmost the same rig. Difference is I have a GTX670 and a SSD. Im using a 550W Bequiet PCGH PSU which equals the darkpower series.
And btw, my Watt-Meter tells me that the complete system leeches MAX. 350W out off the wall while on load :-D
And I rounded it up the correct value is 310W while playing BF3.
And PSUs will work most efficient if the overall consumption level is at 90+%.
so using a 1000W PSU on a max 350W system is userless crap if you want to safe money.

I have an i5-2500 and SLI GTX660's. I was just about to order a new PSU, but I was impatient and decided to use my old one, which is a (fairly good) 520 watt. Turns out the system runs fine, even at load. I did a bit more research and it turns out the absolute max the system can use is like 460w. Since this is the case I probably won't ever need another PSU over that, since graphics cards and CPUs are continually using less power.

with a rig like OP's, 700-750 watts is a safe bet! go with a bit more if you intend on hooking up more devices in the future tbh.