Ack!

Guys remember it's not always total wattage, you have to check to see which 12v lines have how much amperage, to be able to handle whatever you're plugging them into.

If your PSU has 4x 12v lines, and you use only 1 to rig up all your hard drives and the dedicated graphics power line is also on the same rail, then you will have problems.

Double check how its spread out among the rails if you have multiple rails.

If your PSU has 1 rail, then whatever, doesn't matter.

550watts is PLENTY to run many of your systems, if it's a quality unit.

My Seasonic is a single rail unit with 104 amps or something like that.

Quality PSU's are definately a good investment.

Also, I tried to boot my PC with this new PSU and turns out its something else thats fried. Either the Motherboard or CPU.

I have to stop making money pits my hobby.

550w is actually the bare minimum for a lot of computers with power hungry video cards and a little bit of overclocking, even then you don't want to run a power supply at 100% constantly, or else you will have to replace it a lot more often from what I understand.

There was this website I saw on an overclockers forum where you picked from a list and type in a bunch of stuff, like amount of case fans, the size of the fans, cpu, overclock speed etc. And it would tell you the minimum PSU you required. I think mine was around 480.

I went with the 850w Corsair, from my research, Corsair is one of the better psu companies, not as good as Seasonic, but up there.

HardOCP does good reviews usually.

http://hardocp.com/reviews/psu_power_supplies/

You really have to read up on the specific model of PSU you want to buy.

You can't really stack it up to the brand name anymore, because depending on the model they may have used a different manufacturer. There are many joint venture products. All of those big names have used Seasonic to build their PSUs before, good units, and a couple of other reliable names.

Then again, each of those big names have built really bad PSUs.

So just read before you buy. I hate that there's always a bunch of different revisions, etc., for products these days. Sometimes a different revision could mean a completely different product with the same damn name/model.

Those PSU calculators calculate peak draw on the PSUs. No computer hits and sustains peak draw for long, unless you're using it for FOLDING or some intense calculations that you do for the hell of it.

Even playing video games your computer won't be at peak very often.

BUT of course it's good to give yourself some headroom and go with a higher rated PSU.

If you overclock that also adds to the power draw, but if you don't you're fine. Hard drives do not draw much power, so even with up to 4 or even 5 in one case, you're fine with a solid 550watt power supply.

Depends on all of the components.

Anyways, we could go on for days about this. Haha.

Just buy sh!t on sale!

IMO, the first thing you need to read when it comes to PSU reviews are from www.jonnyguru.com . He's a lot more thorough when it comes to PSU compared to other "reviewers".

When it comes to draw, my HTPC (my old gaming PC) draws 523+ watts from the wall (according to my watt-o-meter).

My current gaming pc (3930x, (2) 6950's, (2) SSD's, (4) HD, etc) draws 527+ watts (using the same watt-o-meter). Both playing BF3.

It draws higher with prime 95/MSI afterburner.

Those power draws uses the same components except the CPU + Mobo.

But i do agree with all of Michael's points.

Picked up that 6990.

Thing is relatively large. Also, that 6950 has been reflashed with a 6970 BIOS.

Awesome you can still do that sorta thing with AMD cards eh?

Haha!

Joe> you're right, that guy's a guru for sure, he ACTUALLY tests the units, instead of the typical "it felt solid, great PSU, with blinky lights, and good fan." "reviews".

Remember when you could flash a vanilla ATI 9500 card to a 9700, that was BANG for your buck for sure!

Nowadays everything is so "fast" and good out of the box, there isn't much tinkering or fun you can have with 'em.

Even the CPUs, motherboards, and RAM. They all just kinda work, and overclock, no fuss, no muss. BORING.

It really is. All of the 6950's with 2gb are actually 6970.

Everything is very fast these days, and new hardware is designed to use predictions. So when gaming, the computer thinks ahead to make everything smoother.

Only problem for me is I've got an eyeinfinity setup, which gives me a resolution a bit over (due to bezel compensation) 5760*1080 which is a major strain graphics wise.

Saying that everything now is "fast enough" is like saying a DSM is fast enough stock We all know there's room to push these systems.

Here's a question, does running a dual monitor setup off the same card cause frame loss issues? And also, can I run one monitor off my main video card and one off my onboard one?

Would like to add to the first question with, "even if you are only using one of them for the game"

The parts at stock clocks are fast enough for the average user using one screen. Most people are too computer illiterate to even adjust their graphics settings high enough to cause lag.

If only two screens for productivity, you won't notice a difference. Unless you have something like an Intel GMA 9xx series onboard card, then you might sometimes notice your computer is slowing down.

Gaming with 2 screens is an awful idea because you are looking directly at the frames of the two screens and will feel crosseyed. Also, if using it for FPS games, your crosshairs will be lost in the middle.

For now, you must run all displays off of your primary card, but I'd hope they change it.

Running a game off only one screen and having a second plugged in only viewing the Internet or something will stress the CPU more than the video card. You shouldn't notice any frame rate issues doing this. (Used to do this in the Pentium II era)

No no, just one screen for the game, one screen for like watching a streaming movie or some crap

Not sure, but I think he meant dual monitors, but not in "eyefinity" mode.

Running dual screens, not merged together as a single screen, but multiple monitor mode, will slow frame rates in games, but very slightly.

You won't notice performance issues.

You might lose a few frames here and there, because your videocard has to paint the unused monitor's screen even though it's not displaying the 3D graphics on that one.

As for there being room to push these systems, yes, but that's if you're a benchmarker.

Who builds machines just to benchmark these days? I hope not too many, haha.

If a game is already running at 40+FPS and without having the frame count displayed on the screen, it feels smooth, then what's the point of pushing the system to run faster?

Kinda like running an First-person shooter game from 120fps to 160fps. Sure it runs faster, but will you feel it? No.

It's not like the old days where every bit of performance counts, and was needed.

Now you can run stuff stock, and it will run great, of course depending on the class of hardware.

You should be fine then.

I used to browse the web on one screen and play Unreal Tournament on another using a Pentium II laptop and it worked fine

Sick game.

UT and Return to Castle Wolfenstein are what got me into games back then. I'll still play those two for nostalgia and because they are still great.

Enemy Territory is where it's at

Lighting where my computer is, isn't the best, and I didn't feel like removing all the cables from the back to move it to a better location. So this is the beast. And I know you love how my one SSD is just sitting there

Nice! Get 'er off the floor!

It's not on the floor It's on the bottom wooden desk thing, and also this case has feet, so the case is always an inch off of the surface of what it's sitting on, it also has a little screen vent thing that is removable for cleaning so it doesn't clog up the air flow for my psu

Haha, I just don't like computer towers with many fans to be near the ground, because that's where all the dust kicks up.

I like mine on my desk or a raised platform beside my desk. Like one of those low side tables from Ikea, they work perfectly.

Dust covers for the bottom always work.

With my old build, I had black light cathodes underneath the case, so when someone with white socks stood near it, they would light up. Worked great on an HAF 932 case with the wheels, to raise it off the floor as much as possible.

I read that some people use dryer thingies as air filters on their fans. Anyone ever try that?

Bryan, I'd think that would block too much air.

Hold one up and try to blow through it. Even after using it in the dryer, it still blocks too much air.

The mesh filters are pretty restrictive too, but not as much as a dryer sheet.

I wouldn't.

What do you guys use, I only have one filter on my front fan that came with the case. So I wanted to filter my other fans.

Just use screen door stuff, cut a square, and either glue it to the fan and force the screws through

Bingo.
They might even sell filters at smaller specialty computer stores. Maybe even Canada Computers.

I miss BigFoot computers. They were overpriced, but had all the specialty stuff.

If you want to prevent most dirt from entering your case, you should probably try to get something with smaller holes than wire mesh, though that is a great idea if you're not too worried about it and plan on using compressed air once every month or two to keep things clean inside. I can snap a pic of what I have in my case (and show you my beast at the same time) later tonight to give you an idea of what I used. It's basically low density porous foam kinda like this. Works wonders and allows massive airflow, easy to trim to fit in all openings and can be rinsed in water when cleaning. It's technically OEM-or-better quality depending on what case you have kicking around.

Yeah that looks like the stuff that I have in my case.
Where exactly did you get it from?

Home Depot, near the furnace stuff. Filter foam for the win! Make sure you get the thin sheets.

Hrmm, K&N computer filters? HAHAHA!

Spoken like a true DSM'r

Yeah until there is oil all over everything and you need to replace it! HAHA

Those thin foam sheets sound awesome, I will definitely look into it!

Just added this bad boy. You never know how cluttered your desk is, until you try to add something else to it, haha.

Dang thats nice!

Just picked up a ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0 motherboard and a AMD FX-8350 CPU. Apparently people have hit 4.9-5.0Ghz on this 8-core CPU and motherboard combo.

Here's a better picture after I cleaned the desk up a bit haha.

Aren't AMDominating shipping chips with a factory 5.0 now?

Who cares? AMD naturally runs hotter and slower, lol. Their 8 core under performs in comparison to the i7. AMD doesn't hold a flame to Intel these days. The i7 and i5 are owning face. AMD is decent, but they just don't compare.