I'm piecing together a whole computer through tigerdirect and haven't come across a lot of the solid PSU's I've read about here. What I plan to run is:

Q6600 (no OC)
2 gig ram
8800 320mb GTS (no OC)
1 raptor HD ~ 100 gb
1 7200 HD ~ 250 gb

Most of the better brands that tiger carries are like $140+ which is not something I was hoping to spend for a PSU. Can anyone point me to anything in particular or suggest how much wattage I want?

Corsair 520W or 620W
OCZ 700/850WAT

What Maziar said. Skimping on your PSU is a bad, bad idea.

Antec Trupower 550wat 36amp PSU. I got mine locally for 60$. Look for sales for manufacturers that you know are trustworthy.

They don't carry Corshair PSU's. They don't have any Antec PSU's either.
They have an OCZ 700-watt:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] &CatId=106

but that's $140. Do I really need something that expensive with no OCing to be done nor SLI run?

Its not the OCing that is going to kill you. Its the fact that no matter what components you are running, you need a quality power supply. In your case, you are trying to put together a decent setup, which requires a decent number of watts. Several people have told you that you shouldn't skimp on power supplys and you seem to want to keep asking until someone says "Nah buy whatever it'll be fine."

Do what you want, but don't come back here complaining when your mobo is fried from crappy power.

Lighten up, 2/3 suggestions weren't even options in the first place. I have never built a computer before, and the suggestions varied from 520W to 850W. Am I not allowed to inquire more?

I never realized that they were so expensive. I hardly know the difference. THAT'S WHY I'M ASKING. Expensive doesn't always equate to quality. I don't want to buy some $150 psu that ends up being awful because I didn't know which brand to stay away from.
The angst is hardly neccesary. I'm just looking for a little guidance.

Can you buy the power supply locally? look for good deals at home.

Guide-line is: Stick with well known and recognized brands, such as Antec, Corshair, OZC, and make sure you have enough 12volt rails to add up to 30amps or more. You will be fine.

The more you spend, the higher efficiency you get, more wattage, and reliability.

Choose one from Tier-3 or better from this list:
http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiere [...] ngs?t=anon

The ones Maziar cited are tier-2, and would be excellent choices.

If you absolutely won't buy from any other source than Tigerdirect:
600W StealthXStream $70 Review
The minimum requirement for your system would be a high quality 450W PSU.

What it boils down to is this: I want tigerdirect to physically build my computer for me, and they have a warehouse nearby. I think I could put everything together (albeit scared of the cpu part), but I really don't want the pains of troubleshooting when I have no experience with this stuff and limited free time as is. I'll pay the extra $100 in a heartbeat to avoid a weekend long headache from things not working.

I'm not sure where they will draw the line between products you bring in and products you buy from them, but I'd rather not fight them on any of it if it's avoidable.

Call me lazy, call me dumb, but I just don't see me w/ little experience over installing a gfx card enjoying myself when the things go wrong and I can't identify a faulty part vs me not doing something right.

I'll have to look into what they'll allow, but I do appreciate everyones advice. Thank you.

100gb raptor *yea i believe you*

I have the OCZ 850 and it works great. I've heard good things about the Corsair's too.

That Tier list is interesting. And here I thought CompUSA made very good PSUs for super cheap.


/sarcasm.

Very constructive! So they don't make 100gb.... I'm assuming that's the purpose of your post. ~ = approximately. Meaning I could go higher or lower. I wanted to get a raptor for my games/os and I haven't decided how big of a hard drive I'll need for just those. Maybe I can't feasibly get one that big... I don't know.

I fail to see why you bothered posting.

Wow, tigerdirect has 51 PSUs in the 500W and 600W ranges, and only 2 I liked:

OCZ / StealthXStream / 600-Watt, $70
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=1483

PC Power & Cooling / Silencer / 610-Watt , $135
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] CatId=1483

I would get the second one myself, but if money is a problem then the first one will do.

Raptors are over priced and over rated for general purpose and gaming PCs. 2~3 years ago the performance differences were big enough to justify the extra cost. Not so much today. Get yourself one good hard drive (Samsung Spinpoint T166 500GB $130 for example) and use the ~$125 savings to upgrade another part of your new system.

Thanks!

Very good to know. Thanks for the info.

OCZ and ANtec have their problems and may onely last a year or so. Get one on the Tier 1-2 list as shown in a post above, Seasonic is great.

You could get away with a Thermaltake 500 Watt NO PROBLEM.

And the build quality is GREAT, the PSU is rock solid. I am running the 470 Watt version with an 8800GTS, and it is quiet. You'll love all the shielded cables too.

For the quality, the price is amazing. 74$!! You can't find anything better for the price. 50$ PSU days are over, and don't risk your rig for 25$ that you "saved".

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicat [...] &CatId=106