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[teh_pwn]

EEK, What happened to all the H67 boards on Newegg/Mwave? When should they be available again?

I'm waiting for P67. I wouldn't expect sandy bridge mobos to be available for a couple of weeks. They may show up briefly, but I anticipate they'll sell out quickly. They've only had the fixed chipsets from intel for a bout a week. Manufacturing and supplier shipping takes time.

 

[Somnid]

So I'm getting a nice bonus in a few weeks and I've been considering using it for a new build. I've been out of the hardware loop for a while now so I'm trying to get up to speed and get a few suggestions:

The first thing I really want is an SSD. I've done some research but I can't find a good consensus on one. Does anyone have recommendation? 60-120GBs should be enough I think.

I'm completely out of the GPU loop. I really don't know what a standard GPU should look like spec-wise, the last one I bought was a 8800GT. I'm also tossing around moving to a 30in monitor, so is it even possible to get good 2560 x 1600 performance without SLI/Crossfire? I'd rather not spend obscene amounts and I don't expect to be running games 2 years from now at that res, but if it's possible for less than $500 I might do it.

I guess I'm going with a sandybridge build. What are some mobos I should be looking at?

 

[teh_pwn]

So I'm getting a nice bonus in a few weeks and I've been considering using it for a new build. I've been out of the hardware loop for a while now so I'm trying to get up to speed and get a few suggestions:

The first thing I really want is an SSD. I've done some research but I can't find a good consensus on one. Does anyone have recommendation? 60-120GBs should be enough I think.

I'm completely out of the GPU loop. I really don't know what a standard GPU should look like spec-wise, the last one I bought was a 8800GT. I'm also tossing around moving to a 30in monitor, so is it even possible to get good 2560 x 1600 performance without SLI/Crossfire? I'd rather not spend obscene amounts and I don't expect to be running games 2 years from now at that res, but if it's possible for less than $500 I might do it.

I guess I'm going with a sandybridge build. What are some mobos I should be looking at?

GPU:
-Nvidia is in the performance lead, but their cards are expensive and consume insane amounts of power
-AMD's 6000 series are slightly faster than the 5000 series and consume less power. What was going to be 6000 was delayed to 7000. Probably will be released May-August.

One card isn't going to cut it for 2560x1600, unless you're okay with 20 fps or medium settings.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/196

For $500, the best GPU you can get is (2) 6950 CF.


Sandybridge motherboards were recalled, don't expect them to be readily available for another 3 weeks. Right now they are insanely rare.

You probably want the P67 chipset. There aren't many options for motherboards. Get the one that has the layout that you need. For me CF support/layout is most important.

 

[antonz]

I'm waiting for P67. I wouldn't expect sandy bridge mobos to be available for a couple of weeks. They may show up briefly, but I anticipate they'll sell out quickly. They've only had the fixed chipsets from intel for a bout a week. Manufacturing and supplier shipping takes time.

Worth Waiting on the P67 Boards too because they will be comptaible with the Ivy Bridge chips for future upgrading.

 

[Somnid]

GPU:
-Nvidia is in the performance lead, but their cards are expensive and consume insane amounts of power
-AMD's 6000 series are slightly faster than the 5000 series and consume less power. What was going to be 6000 was delayed to 7000. Probably will be released May-August.

One card isn't going to cut it for 2560x1600, unless you're okay with 20 fps or medium settings.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/196

For $500, the best GPU you can get is (2) 6950 CF.


Sandybridge motherboards were recalled, don't expect them to be readily available for another 3 weeks. Right now they are insanely rare.

You probably want the P67 chipset. There aren't many options for motherboards. Get the one that has the layout that you need. For me CF support/layout is most important.

Thanks for the info. So as far as running 2560x1600 do you think this is realistic with $500 budgeted for the graphics portion or what would it take?

 

[teh_pwn]

Thanks for the info. So as far as running 2560x1600 do you think this is realistic with $500 budgeted for the graphics portion or what would it take?

I game at 1080p, so I'm not the best person to ask. But is running at that resolution really worth it? Do games have textures that take advantage of that resolution?

But really you've got to go crossfire or SLI to get a decent framerate at that resolution. I know that much form looking at benchmarks. Even just two 6870s 2GB CF at $380 would outperform the fastest single GPU, the Nvidia GTX 580 at $550.

If your dream is silky smooth fps at 2560x1600 at $500, you may be able to do that with Radeon 7000 series or GTX600 later this year. I'm speculating, but it seems like the next AMD cards will have a significant boost in performance without a huge increase in power. This is because they're going from 40 nm fab to 28 nm fab.

I chose to just go ahead and get 2 6950s and crossfire them because at earliest the next GPUs will be out in May. It's likely they'll be in high demand and sold higher than their suggested price. 6950 CF probably will perform 20-30% faster than a single 7850, and 7850 will probably start out at $300-350 until supply meets demand.

I'm running at 1080p on a Pioneer GT25, and 6950 CF should run Crysis 2, Shogun Total War 2, Dragon age 2 (lol), Witcher 2, Skyrim, and others at 60+ fps at max settings or near max settings. That's primarily what I want this machine for.

In your case it's a trickier decision because of the resolution. You might be better off waiting a few months.

 

[Deus Ex Machina]

I would skip the 6000 series. Go with two 5870 or wait for 7000 series

 

[Curufinwe]

I finally overclocked my E6420 which had been running at 2.13 GHz for almost four years. All I did was go into the BIOS and change the FSB - Memory Clock Mode to Unlinked, and then set the FSB (QDR), MHz to 1400, and left the MEM DDR, MHz at 800.

I think it's running a little hot so I might drop back down to 2.13 GHz until I get around to improving on the stock cooler.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Rendering double the amount of pixels doesn't affect performance all that much? Intuitively, that doesn't sound right at all. Maybe I'm overestimating the impact, but I'd expect more than a negligible hit... Especially if you run AA on top of that.

I would only be rendering the game on a single screen. The same 1920x1080 resolution I use today. The second screen would be for extending the desktop.

 

[Curufinwe]

I ran the RE 5 benchmark and got 11 extra frames, but the CPU was as hot as 67 C under load and I think that's too high.

Guess I need to buy an aftermarket cooler if I want to overclock.

 

[Stahsky]

Got an issue with my PC. Been using this guy for about a year (built it) without any problems. I opened it up and reapplied some thermal the other day and now it's having boot issues. It gets to the windows screen then shuts off. I have to unplug the power and wait for some odd seconds before plugging it back in for it to work.

I tossed in a repair disk and it boots up just fine when I do that. So I'm not quite sure what is causing it. My CPU temps are normal. Any ideas?

 

[Zzoram]

I ran the RE 5 benchmark and got 11 extra frames, but the CPU was as hot as 67 C under load and I think that's too high.

Guess I need to buy an aftermarket cooler if I want to overclock.

67C under load isn't bad. Just make sure that it doesn't go too high under load for >2Hours. Tests that only last a few minutes aren't the best for indicating actual use.

 

[cartman414]

Worth Waiting on the P67 Boards too because they will be comptaible with the Ivy Bridge chips for future upgrading.

Or you could also wait just a little for the Z68. Best of both worlds. You get the overclocking and SLI/Crossfire of the P67, and H67's usability of the onboard graphics chip for QuickSync. And of course there's that solid state loading feature.

 

[Hazaro]

You should be ok. My machine is pulling around 630W out of the wall when going full-tilt. I doubt a 6970 pulls more power than a Fermi v.1 GTX 470.

Damn you just reminded me I had a Kill-A-Watt.

Gonna measure how much headroom I have with my 2500K + GTX295 setup on my 520W.

 

[Somnid]

I game at 1080p, so I'm not the best person to ask. But is running at that resolution really worth it? Do games have textures that take advantage of that resolution?

But really you've got to go crossfire or SLI to get a decent framerate at that resolution. I know that much form looking at benchmarks. Even just two 6870s 2GB CF at $380 would outperform the fastest single GPU, the Nvidia GTX 580 at $550.

If your dream is silky smooth fps at 2560x1600 at $500, you may be able to do that with Radeon 7000 series or GTX600 later this year. I'm speculating, but it seems like the next AMD cards will have a significant boost in performance without a huge increase in power. This is because they're going from 40 nm fab to 28 nm fab.

I chose to just go ahead and get 2 6950s and crossfire them because at earliest the next GPUs will be out in May. It's likely they'll be in high demand and sold higher than their suggested price. 6950 CF probably will perform 20-30% faster than a single 7850, and 7850 will probably start out at $300-350 until supply meets demand.

I'm running at 1080p on a Pioneer GT25, and 6950 CF should run Crysis 2, Shogun Total War 2, Dragon age 2 (lol), Witcher 2, Skyrim, and others at 60+ fps at max settings or near max settings. That's primarily what I want this machine for.

In your case it's a trickier decision because of the resolution. You might be better off waiting a few months.

Well thanks for your input. I'm upgrading my monitor because my current 24" is nearing 6 years and I really need to upgrade to something more modern in terms of inputs and display technologies and I figured if I have the money I should go bigger and naturally if I can leverage that for games it'd be fantastic. Actually I think 1080p for most high-end games is more than enough and I didn't expect to run Crysis 2 at 60FPS at that resolution, but maybe DNF or something.

I think this gives me some of the info I'm looking for.

 

[Curufinwe]

67C under load isn't bad. Just make sure that it doesn't go too high under load for >2Hours. Tests that only last a few minutes aren't the best for indicating actual use.

If I play a game like RE 5 or Crysis for a few hours then it'll probably be running in the high 60s for most of that time, though.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Is ACHI better for SATA devices? I went and redid my Windows install instead of the IDE manor in which I did the first (via the bios settings). It seems to take me a little longer to get to the desktop, I thought it was supposed to be faster?

 

[knitoe]

Is ACHI better for SATA devices? I went and redid my Windows install instead of the IDE manor in which I did the first (via the bios settings). It seems to take me a little longer to get to the desktop, I thought it was supposed to be faster?

ACHI enables native command queuing (faster access), hot swapping and trim support for SSD.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

ACHI enables native command queuing (faster access), hot swapping and trim support for SSD.

I don't know if it's that or whatever but is it overall better even for SATA HDD's?

 

[knitoe]

I don't know if it's that or whatever but is it overall better even for SATA HDD's?

Yes. If HDD supports it, native command queuing makes the drive faster.

 

[RedSwirl]

Guys, this was the best analysis I could do to get an idea of what my current power draw is and what it would be upon adding the 6850. I ran CPU-Z and tried to input that information into the calculator at eXtreme Power Supply. The Newegg one didn't even have all my components available and gave me higher estimates than what my current system probably draws.

Again, my current rig to make sure I didn't miss any information with the power calculator:
Dell XPS 420
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
8800GT 512MB
3GB RAM
425w PSU

This is the estimate the calculator gave me AFTER replacing the 8800 with the 6850. I need to know if there is any important info I forgot to input.

Anybody else wanna chime in? I'm not gonna throw another $80 on a new PSU unless I know it's necessary.

 

[rc213]

I'm waiting for P67. I wouldn't expect sandy bridge mobos to be available for a couple of weeks. They may show up briefly, but I anticipate they'll sell out quickly. They've only had the fixed chipsets from intel for a bout a week. Manufacturing and supplier shipping takes time.

Thanks, I'm waiting for the H67 boards to pair with a 2500K and use the onboard gpu.

 

[antonz]

Thanks, I'm waiting for the H67 boards to pair with a 2500K and use the onboard gpu.

No point in buying the K with an H67 as you cant use the unlocked capability

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Yes. If HDD supports it, native command queuing makes the drive faster.

I got the SAMSUNG in the OP. Sounds great but when and how will I notice a difference?

And again, for some reason after this install I get this black screen for like 3 seconds before the windows 7 splash screen.

 

[cartman414]

No point in buying the K with an H67 as you cant use the unlocked capability

The Ks have the HD3000. Which is, yes, contradictory.

The answer would be to wait for the Z68.

 

[Hazaro]

Damn you just reminded me I had a Kill-A-Watt.

Gonna measure how much headroom I have with my 2500K + GTX295 setup on my 520W.

Anybody else wanna chime in? I'm not gonna throw another $80 on a new PSU unless I know it's necessary.

So I ran some tests.

Stock 2500K 3.3Ghz
2x4GB DDR3 RAM
Stock GTX 295 (2x GTX 260)
Misc: 2 HDD, 3 Fans, Audio Card

Wattages are PEAK / AVERAGE in wall draw (505W * 0.81 efficiency = 404W DC for Computer)

160W/160W : Idle desktop
235W/235W : P95 Blend
300W/280W : TF2 32 man fast spawn peak
350W/320W : Crysis, Relic, custom config
365W/365W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 1 GPU
505W/450W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 2 GPU

So for my rig at stock under maximum potential load a WELL BUILT 420W PSU (That somehow has perfect amps on the rails) could do it. Good thing the Corsair(Seasonic)520W can deliver 480W of its max rated 520W on the 12V

Overclocking to 4.2Ghz will add about 35W so that's 430W in some bizarro scenario with 100% load on everything, and there's still a touch of space left to mildly OC the GTX 295 with headroom.

 

[antonz]

The Ks have the HD3000. Which is, yes, contradictory.

The answer would be to wait for the Z68.

Yeah your right forgot about the improved IGP. In that case the Z68 is without a doubt the one to wait for if IGP is to be used

 

[antonz]

Any opnions on HIS Video Cards? Im seeing they have a decent rebate on their 6900 Series cards right now making it tempting.

 

[Mr Nightman]

Well got my haf 912 case a few days ago, and swapped all my components over. God damn this is a nice case for 60 bucks, and shit runs soo much cooler, much better than the old cooler master elite 332 case I was using.

And holy shit at how much room is inside, got all my cables managed behind the mobo tray, except for the 24 pin power cable, that is currently stretched completely out, and snugs up against my video card, lol, but it works fine. I highly recommend this case to any one looking for a full feature mid tower case. Really enjoy the fan controller too, and yes it says 0 celsius since I didn't bother hooking up the temp sensors, wanted as few cables as possible haha

 

[L0st Id3ntity]

Should I add another 480 GTX to my current one, or replace it with a 580 GTX?

It's doing me great but I want to 60fps Crysis 2 on maxed 1080p, not just 40-50 fps.

 

[mrklaw]

If I play a game like RE 5 or Crysis for a few hours then it'll probably be running in the high 60s for most of that time, though.

high 60s is fine, don't sweat it

 

[Jubbly]

Should I add another 480 GTX to my current one, or replace it with a 580 GTX?

It's doing me great but I want to 60fps Crysis 2 on maxed 1080p, not just 40-50 fps.

Two 480s are better than one 580.

 

[evil solrac v3.0]

Two 480s are better than one 580.

but two 580s beat all

 

[iNvid02]

whats safe for cpu temp, mine hit 65degrees when running prime95 (4.8ghz overclock). its 35 degrees when idle.

 

[mrklaw]

whats safe for cpu temp, mine hit 65degrees when running prime95 (4.8ghz overclock). its 35 degrees when idle.

Tcase for the i5 2500k is 72.6c. You shouldn't be much more than that for extended periods of time. Tj max is the 'ooh danger' temp and is around 95-100c.

bear in mind that with normal heavy gaming you won't be near those prime temps, thats designed to heavily stress your CPU more than normal.

 

[RedSwirl]

So I ran some tests.

Stock 2500K 3.3Ghz
2x4GB DDR3 RAM
Stock GTX 295 (2x GTX 260)
Misc: 2 HDD, 3 Fans, Audio Card

Wattages are PEAK / AVERAGE in wall draw (505W * 0.81 efficiency = 404W DC for Computer)

160W/160W : Idle desktop
235W/235W : P95 Blend
300W/280W : TF2 32 man fast spawn peak
350W/320W : Crysis, Relic, custom config
365W/365W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 1 GPU
505W/450W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 2 GPU

So for my rig at stock under maximum potential load a WELL BUILT 420W PSU (That somehow has perfect amps on the rails) could do it. Good thing the Corsair(Seasonic)520W can deliver 480W of its max rated 520W on the 12V

Overclocking to 4.2Ghz will add about 35W so that's 430W in some bizarro scenario with 100% load on everything, and there's still a touch of space left to mildly OC the GTX 295 with headroom.

So basically I'm cool? I'm running a lot less than you are in the CPU and memory department but the card I'm upgrading to (one card) will be a couple steps above yours.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So I ran some tests.

Stock 2500K 3.3Ghz
2x4GB DDR3 RAM
Stock GTX 295 (2x GTX 260)
Misc: 2 HDD, 3 Fans, Audio Card

Wattages are PEAK / AVERAGE in wall draw (505W * 0.81 efficiency = 404W DC for Computer)

160W/160W : Idle desktop
235W/235W : P95 Blend
300W/280W : TF2 32 man fast spawn peak
350W/320W : Crysis, Relic, custom config
365W/365W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 1 GPU
505W/450W : P95 Blend + FURMARK 2 GPU

So for my rig at stock under maximum potential load a WELL BUILT 420W PSU (That somehow has perfect amps on the rails) could do it. Good thing the Corsair(Seasonic)520W can deliver 480W of its max rated 520W on the 12V

Overclocking to 4.2Ghz will add about 35W so that's 430W in some bizarro scenario with 100% load on everything, and there's still a touch of space left to mildly OC the GTX 295 with headroom.

Theorycrafting about how good your PSU is one thing, but real-world performance is always below what is theoretically perfect. In your case, something in the 650W range would you give you headroom for more overclocking and also give you an upgrade path in the future.

It's generally regarded as very bad to run a PSU near it's rated capacity for any length of time, you ideally want to stay well below 90% of rated capacity to be sure. Most PSUs have efficiency curves which are classic bell shapes lowest at the minimum and maximum load, if you are loading the PSU at an average of 50-60% you are typically where the PSU is most efficient. 80 PLUS certification is actually done at 20%, 50%, and 80% loads, if you are exceeding 80% or below 20% of rated capacity you are not at the point of the load curve where the PSU is running most efficiently.

Assuming you are running at maximum capacity, the chances of sudden catastrophic failure of a PSU increase dramatically. The PSU is generating a lot of heat which makes the fan run harder. The components in the PSU will be at or even beyond rated capability. Most decent PSUs will gracefully experience sudden failure by just magic-smoking themselves, but if you are unlucky it will destroy your motherboard, CPU, and random components connected to it when it fries. If you don't like the risk of sudden system meltdown, it is not advisable to run any PSU at maximum capacity for any length of time.

Like all things made by man, PSUs tend to degrade over their lifetimes. After a year of average use, a PSU is around 80% of it's original rated capacity just from normal degradation of components. This is not unlike how the Lithium-Ion battery in your cell phone, laptop computer, or whatever degrades over time. If you've owned a cell phone for more than a year or so you know that the battery eventually cannot hold a charge any more after gradual degradation of battery life. If you build a box which is marginally within the PSU's ability to feed, in a year you might be running the PSU beyond what it can handle. You don't really want that to happen.

There are many reasons to buy more PSU than you think you will need, and considering how cheap your average decent quality PSU is these days, it would be quite frankly stupid not to invest in a slightly more expensive, slightly more powerful PSU than you think you will need. The PSU is what makes the whole rest of the computer work, after all.

 

[54-46!]

Would a Noctua NH-D14 fit in my Antec 300 case w/ Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard?

I've got a Phenom II X4 955 that's running 40 C in idle and around 60 C in load (ie. playing games), on a stock cooler.

 

[EatChildren]

Posting here to whine mostly.

I really dont have the money to do a full upgrade of my PC, which is annoying as I'd like to. I was thinking the other day that maybe I should upgrade my graphics card, which is currently a 512mb 8800GT, but then I figured I'd be unable to do so without severely bottlenecking it due to how old the rest of my hardware is. My CPU is an OC'd AMD64 X2 3800+, and I have only 2GB of the basic DDR (overclocked of course). I cant even upgrade to some faster DDR as my MBO doesn't support DDR2/3. Thus, if I wanted to do a full upgrade, I'd really have to overhaul everything. And that costs money.

Bah.

 

[iNvid02]

what causes frame rate dips/spikes?

im playing GTA IV and 50% of the time its at 30-40fps but sometimes it might jump 50-60fps.
it doesn't happen during busy sequences, just randomly as im driving along.

im playing at 2560x1600 max settings and using shared memory to help the 570

 

[MedIC86]

Posting here to whine mostly.

I really dont have the money to do a full upgrade of my PC, which is annoying as I'd like to. I was thinking the other day that maybe I should upgrade my graphics card, which is currently a 512mb 8800GT, but then I figured I'd be unable to do so without severely bottlenecking it due to how old the rest of my hardware is. My CPU is an OC'd AMD64 X2 3800+, and I have only 2GB of the basic DDR (overclocked of course). I cant even upgrade to some faster DDR as my MBO doesn't support DDR2/3. Thus, if I wanted to do a full upgrade, I'd really have to overhaul everything. And that costs money.

Bah.

Well, if you manage to find 2GB of DDR second hand they might not be so expensive.
also how much is your CPU overclocked because most games dont really bottleneck on that if its above 2.7ghz or smth.
And you can add a cheap gpu like 5750 or so (amazing performance imo for the price) and your good to go

for example, crysis already runs into GPU limitations at 1280x1024, so it depends on the games your playing. CPU is most of the time the least of your worries

 

[mantidor]

Posting here to whine mostly.

I really dont have the money to do a full upgrade of my PC, which is annoying as I'd like to. I was thinking the other day that maybe I should upgrade my graphics card, which is currently a 512mb 8800GT, but then I figured I'd be unable to do so without severely bottlenecking it due to how old the rest of my hardware is. My CPU is an OC'd AMD64 X2 3800+, and I have only 2GB of the basic DDR (overclocked of course). I cant even upgrade to some faster DDR as my MBO doesn't support DDR2/3. Thus, if I wanted to do a full upgrade, I'd really have to overhaul everything. And that costs money.

Bah.

I'm in the same situation (with almost the same hardware), except that I don't even know what should I upgrade, and what is worst is that the card is broken and makes it hard to even start the OS, it dies randomly, it sometimes randomly recovers itself, is impossible to even uninstall it.

I'm going to try to get the specs so I can get any help, but even doing that is hard. The video card can start acting weird at any time. I'm afraid I'm going to have to physically look the reference for the MBO and the ram by opening the case.

 

[desu]

Would a Noctua NH-D14 fit in my Antec 300 case w/ Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P motherboard?

Well google says yes http://img204.imageshack.us/i/p1020232z.jpg/ ? At least according to he thread that pic is from.

 

[54-46!]

Well google says yes http://img204.imageshack.us/i/p1020232z.jpg/ ? At least according to he thread that pic is from.

Hmm, I'm curious about clearance for my RAM.. guess I'll have to measure it.

Thx.

 

[RedSwirl]

Theorycrafting about how good your PSU is one thing, but real-world performance is always below what is theoretically perfect. In your case, something in the 650W range would you give you headroom for more overclocking and also give you an upgrade path in the future.

It's generally regarded as very bad to run a PSU near it's rated capacity for any length of time, you ideally want to stay well below 90% of rated capacity to be sure. Most PSUs have efficiency curves which are classic bell shapes lowest at the minimum and maximum load, if you are loading the PSU at an average of 50-60% you are typically where the PSU is most efficient. 80 PLUS certification is actually done at 20%, 50%, and 80% loads, if you are exceeding 80% or below 20% of rated capacity you are not at the point of the load curve where the PSU is running most efficiently.

Assuming you are running at maximum capacity, the chances of sudden catastrophic failure of a PSU increase dramatically. The PSU is generating a lot of heat which makes the fan run harder. The components in the PSU will be at or even beyond rated capability. Most decent PSUs will gracefully experience sudden failure by just magic-smoking themselves, but if you are unlucky it will destroy your motherboard, CPU, and random components connected to it when it fries. If you don't like the risk of sudden system meltdown, it is not advisable to run any PSU at maximum capacity for any length of time.

Like all things made by man, PSUs tend to degrade over their lifetimes. After a year of average use, a PSU is around 80% of it's original rated capacity just from normal degradation of components. This is not unlike how the Lithium-Ion battery in your cell phone, laptop computer, or whatever degrades over time. If you've owned a cell phone for more than a year or so you know that the battery eventually cannot hold a charge any more after gradual degradation of battery life. If you build a box which is marginally within the PSU's ability to feed, in a year you might be running the PSU beyond what it can handle. You don't really want that to happen.

There are many reasons to buy more PSU than you think you will need, and considering how cheap your average decent quality PSU is these days, it would be quite frankly stupid not to invest in a slightly more expensive, slightly more powerful PSU than you think you will need. The PSU is what makes the whole rest of the computer work, after all.

My current PSU (along with the rest of my system) is just over three years old so where does that put me?

Calculators are giving me suggested wattages of around 350 (post-upgrade) and I already have 425w. Plus, this will likely be the last time I upgrade this computer aside from a new monitor (any more and the CPU would just be holding me back).

On actually finding one though, I'm told my current system will take any "standard ATX" PSU, but a quick search on Newegg is giving me 500-600w PSUs for less than $50. How do I know which ones are good (I'm trying to stay under $100 if I have to get a PSU)?

 

[Mad_Ban]

Got my newest rig about 6 months ago with the following specs:

CPU: i7-930
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D-E
RAM: 6GB CORSAIR XMS3 TRI-DDR3 1600MHz (3 X 2GB)
GPU's: 2x1GB GTX460
PSU: CORSAIR 750W PSU (TX750)

In the near future, what do I need to upgrade most? I'm thinking down the line to go AMD Crossfire (7 series) given how pricey Nvidias are becoming. But would a PSU upgrade be necessary for that? (sorry for the general lack of knowledge, I've only just started PC gaming again properly in the last few months)

 

[Curufinwe]

What resolution are you running at? That seems like a fairly powerful system that doesn't need to be upgraded anytime soon.

 

[Erebus]

what causes frame rate dips/spikes?

im playing GTA IV and 50% of the time its at 30-40fps but sometimes it might jump 50-60fps.
it doesn't happen during busy sequences, just randomly as im driving along.

im playing at 2560x1600 max settings and using shared memory to help the 570

Check if your PC is running anything in the background.

 

[54-46!]

what causes frame rate dips/spikes?

Overheating hardware maybe?

 

[Kenka]

I've just run OCCT for about 3 minutes and what I get is a bunch of graphs. Now, how do all these indications help me about overclocking (if any) ?

I am running a build sold by a local supermarkt chain. I heared it is unsafe to OC such a build ?