Just about finished building my rig. Review it for me!

[kzx87]

The only thing I haven't picked is a 24" LCD and a Case. I have a G5 mouse and G15 keyboard, so aside from the that, everything below should be all I need. Ultimately I would like to add another 9800gx2 for SLI and another 2x2gb RAM for 8gb total, but that won't happen for awhile, but you'll notice the PSU should be able to accomodate those upgrades. Please let me know if there is anything I am missing below and how you think it will all mesh together. Thanks for reading and replying.

Intel Xeon X3350 (Q9450)
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme w/Scythe S-Flex 49CFM
EVGA NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI DDR3 ATX Intel
EVGA GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W Power Supply
OCZ Platinum 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (2-PC-SET
2x 18" SATA II Cable Model GC18ARM12 - Retail

Total $2513

 

[guanyu210379]

WOW 1200W PSU? How high do you wanna OC it?
Have you take a look at this?
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] calculator
If you try to calculate it using http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php
You'll not find Q9450 or X3350, nForce 790i Ultra, Seagate 7200.11, and GeForce 9800GX2.
If you wanna get the closets value of the power you'll probaly need, then try inputing these : QX6700, nForce780i, Seagate 7200.10, and GeForce 9600GT, and perhaps adding 2 more Seagate 7200.10 HDD, SLI the 9600GT , OC it to 3GHz, 4xDDR2 1000, and perhaps adding other stuff just to make sure.
It will end up geting a result around 500W. For your safety choose the 650W or 750W PSU.
1200W is way too high dude!
Don't use more power than you need!

 

[thebluedawg]

^agreed...

 

[akhilles]

Have you bought the parts yet?

 

[kzx87]

I haven't bought anything yet. Why?

Edit- I read that Nvidia requires at least a 860w PSU for 9800gx2 in SLI.... perhaps I could scale the PSU back to 1000w? Isn't a little higher than necessary better so its not running at full load all the time?

 

[guanyu210379]

Too much power means that you will pay the electrical bill more than you need.
Stronger PSU also means that you will pay more for it.
1200W PSU for around 650W consumption is not a little higher, that is way too high. 750W should be enough, that's what I think.
If you read my thread : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/249724-13-tell-guys-this
I have said that my friend use SLI configuration 2x 8800GTX only with a 400W Tagan PSU (altough this is a bit too tight, I would go 500W for this one).
So 9800gx2 + OC'ed Q9350 will require, in my opinion, not more than 750W.

 

[goldragon_70]

Go for what Nvidia Recommended an no Higher. 860W is enough for OCing, adding drives, and running SLI, especially, if you get a PSU with low leak, stable flow, and good rails.

 

[akhilles]

Just for clarification: a psu will draw only as much power as needed.

 

[goldragon_70]

A PSU will leak power (and vamp when off) because of the AC to DC conversion, so it will at least pull marginally more then needed, and the higher the watts the larger the leak tends to be, even when just powering a few components.

 

[kzx87]

I think i'll scale it back to the 1000w Thermaltake. You have to remember that I am eventually going to add another 9800gx2 and another 1-2 hard drives.

Also, I've decided on the Lian Li PC-P80 as the case and the Samsung-305T as my monitor and I should be ordering it all later when I get home from work. So if you have any comments please let me know!! Thanks again.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Lenovo L220x 22" S-PVA 1920 x 1200 is may fav monitor ATM. It's the only non TN monitor below $500 that I am aware of ATM. Text is a hair smaller than it is on 24" but closer spacing of pixels gives higher quality images. See this thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249375-33-does

Cases depend as much on taste as anything else but most things from Thermaltake, Antec, Silverstone are easy to work in and have good air flow.

 

[guanyu210379]

A PSU will leak power (and vamp when off) because of the AC to DC conversion, so it will at least pull marginally more then needed, and the higher the watts the larger the leak tends to be, even when just powering a few components.

In Theory, it is exactly like you said, but it doesn't. I depends on how much the difference between the actual consumed power and the maximum available power is. If the actual consumed power is about less than 50% from the maximum available power, than an anomaly will appear, the efficiency, and power factor of the PSU will drop from the sky, and your PSU will consume much more power than it usually needs.
Just don't buy a much too high PSU than you need!
If I am not wrong, you'll consume about 550W so a 650W-750W PSU should do the trick and if you are a really-really heavy OC'er and use 5 or more HDD, and many-many other things than you may go for a 860W, but don't buy a 1200W PSU!
Look at the difference between 550W and 1200W ! That is less than 50% from maximum.
Trust me on this one!