Need PSU advice for new homebuild

bluefantail

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Hi people,

Wondering if I could get some perspectives on this :)

I'm looking at building a PC soon with the following components:

Intel Core i5 760
GA-P55A-UD3R mother board
Ram Kingston 8gb (2x(2x2)) 1600mhz HyperX Blu DDR3 PC12800
1tb WD 32mb
EVGA Geforce GTx460 1gb

I already have a this case http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2829#sp and a corsair 520W power supply

My question is do you think the power supply will be big enough? Or is the a bit risky? I'm not really sure, any help or experience here would be appreciated :)

Cheers,
Matt
 

jonpaul37

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That 520w Corsair PSU is more than enough for what you listed, if you wish to add another 460 in the future for SLI then you will certainly want to upgrade the PSU to at least a 750w or greater with a high value on a single 12v rail...
 
Yes

Not possible on the Gigabyte GA P55-UD3R.

Not true, you can easily do two 460s on a good 650W PSU, such as the XFX 650W XXX Edition, Corsair HX 650, Antec Truepower New TP-650, NZXT Hale90 650W to name just four examples, and they all have the necessary number of PCI-E connector cables. And a single 12V rail is certaintly not any kind of requirement and it has no advantages over a good dual or quad rail PSU.
 

jonpaul37

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I was not trying to be specific, just making point in regards to SLI and suggestions for the PSU. Like a Corsair TX 750 which would be a little more future-proof as opposed to the 650's you listed (which are all great PSU's by the way).

As for the single 12v rail suggestion, almost 100% of the time, if a PSU has a single 12v rail with a high amp value, it is going to be a quality PSU, the same does not go for PSU's with multiple 12v rails... Just thought it would make it easier for the OP to shop for without the prospect of buying a low-quality PSU...
 

bluefantail

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Thanks guys

I think I'll give this a shot
gkay09 - that is my PSU :)

Just considering what people have said am I right in assuming that its more about amps and rails than it is total power rating?
Something I noticed about my PSU is that it was very stable and has triple rails

Matt
 

bluefantail

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Cheers :)

While on the subject, It recently occurred to me I don't have a very clear idea of the advantages/disadvantages of 64 bit OS's in terms of running 32 bit applications on them. I am aware that this will work but Ive found that most people dont have very good explanations when it comes to this topic.
Any thoughts?
 
^ A 32bit application can utilize only upto 4GB of RAM but not more.

Assume if using a 32bit OS, then it would only recognize say ~3.5GB or less of usable RAM even if 4GB is installed, so even though the 32-bit app can utilize 4GB but only ~3.5GB or less is available...
Whereas when using a 64-bit OS, it recognizes 4GB or more RAM, hence the full 4GB(so ~512MB of additional RAM) is available for the 32bit app...But how effective that additional RAM is utilized, would depend on the application...
 
^ It would totally depend on the application...
If it has implemented WOW64(This is the one that helps run 32bit apps on 64bit OS) properly, then it wouldn't have any issues...
So better to search in the net whether it is fully compatible with a 64bit OS...