Should I build my new computer or buy it out of the box?

[Adunaphel]

No, your 32 bit XP will just not recognise be able to address any more than 3GB

 

[Buba]

Well, 3,25, but hey...

 

[Adunaphel]

yea yea, it's about 3GB and i was too lame to look it up exactly

 

[Paddy]

So no point unless I'm preparing to go Vista ?

 

[Adunaphel]

Or 64 bit XP

 

[CyberMonkey]

If you'd really need four giga of ram I'd recommend you a workstation or something like that Or maybe if you continuously leave a couple of hd-movies open in premiere just for good measure.

 

[jeffy777]

4GB is a bit overkill right now, but it won't always be that way.

 

[CyberMonkey]

Better buy it when you need it, it'll be cheaper and faster.

 

[jeffy777]

Yeah, the most I would get right now is 2GB, and personally, the least too actually

 

[Matt2000]

i thought the same, 2GB is just right at the moment.

 

[Paddy]

Let's just say, hypothetically, I got a Core2Duo 6600, 4GB RAM, 512MB 7950GT, whatever HD's and a 64 bit copy of XP, this would be quite quick, yes ?

 

[jeffy777]

yes it would, but save some money and just get 2GB of RAM for now. Invest some of it in a really good ASUS motherboard, as well as a Zalman cooler for your CPU.....oh yeah, and a beefy power supply as well

 

[CyberMonkey]

Though you won't need anything over 400 Watt (if it's some quality off course, cheapass psu's of 500 watt aren't to be trusted) if you don't plan heavy overclocking, SLI or 10 hard disks in your system. A good PSU is important but don't overspend on it since it will be useless anyway.

 

[Adunaphel]

Let's just say, hypothetically, I got a Core2Duo 6600, 4GB RAM, 512MB 7950GT, whatever HD's and a 64 bit copy of XP, this would be quite quick, yes ?

If you made that 1GB of RAM you would have my machine, and i can tell you it's quick now all i need is that second gig of cl4 ddr2-800

 

[jeffy777]

Though you won't need anything over 400 Watt (if it's some quality off course, cheapass psu's of 500 watt aren't to be trusted) if you don't plan heavy overclocking, SLI or 10 hard disks in your system. A good PSU is important but don't overspend on it since it will be useless anyway.

For the computer I'm presently building, I went ahead and got a PSU with SLI support, that way I can always move up to SLI (and I likely will eventually), and then I won't have to get a replacement PSU.

 

[CyberMonkey]

Yeah the separate power rails can be something to look after indeed. But I see lots of people hearing "a good psu is important!" and spending 130 euro on some top-of-the-bill 550 watt monster with hardware that tops 200 watt or less.

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
Could be interesting, gives you an idea how much power it would slurp through your wall socket.

 

[jeffy777]

Yeah the separate power rails can be something to look after indeed. But I see lots of people hearing "a good psu is important!" and spending 130 euro on some top-of-the-bill 550 watt monster with hardware that tops 200 watt or less.

I know what you mean. It's not merely the wattage that's important, but the dependability of the PSU. Know one wants there PSU to puke and take out there other hardware with it.

 

[TechZ]

Yeah the separate power rails can be something to look after indeed. But I see lots of people hearing "a good psu is important!" and spending 130 euro on some top-of-the-bill 550 watt monster with hardware that tops 200 watt or less.

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine
Could be interesting, gives you an idea how much power it would slurp through your wall socket.

I tried to get a really good PSU, http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/402 was available and after reading some reviews it seems it was a good choice, they put some real thought into it.

 

[Matt2000]

i was recommended a Tagan 480 watt PSU for my PC when i built it. i was going to go for a 400 watt, but they said my spec might be pushing it, so i upgraded to that. for the ?20 extra i don't really mind
linky
supports all my plug in crap (UV light 8)) with ease and is really quiet.

[edit] calculator tells me i need 391watts, so they were right.

 

[Adunaphel]

It is always good to leave a bit of headroom when you buy a PSU. Firstly, that leaves you enough room in the future to upgrade your vidcard or add a few extra harddrives. Secondly, most PSUs are most efficient at 50-70% load, at loads above 70% they get really inefficient. Therefore it is a good thing to make sure your PSU is never stressed beyond 70-80% even at full load.