To buy or not to buy?

[Beefcake_89]

Hello

I want to buy a new PC for gaming, but I am unsure if I should buy now or wait for newer models. Please feel free to advise on this and also on the specs of the new build. Keep in mind that this build has maxed my budget.


My Current Specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66
MSI X58 Motherboard
MSI Geforce GTX 260 896 MB GDDR 3 (DX 10)
4x1 GB DDR 3 1333 RAM = 4
Thermaltake 750W PSU
Samsung 23" LCD Monitor


New Specs (going to buy):

Intel i5 2500K 3.30
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Motherboard
Gigabyte Geforce GTX 570 1280 MB GDDR 5 (DX 11)
4x4 GB DDR 3 1600 RAM = 16
Gigabyte Superb 620W PSU
Samsung 23" LED HDMI Monitor


Thanks in advance

 

[Hiranmoy]

Ur new pc config is great. But i think u shoul get a 650 watt psu as gtx 570 demands a lot of it.

 

[Beefcake_89]

Thanx for your input

I did some calculations here:
http://www.msi.com/service/power-supply-calculator/

It seems the 620 wil be enough

 

[Guest]

Ur new pc config is great. But i think u shoul get a 650 watt psu as gtx 570 demands a lot of it.

it will work out fine:

 

[Hiranmoy]

I think u r are right i did some miscalculations in asus power calculator i put two cpu s instead of one
http://support.asus.com/powersupply.aspx
But if u upgrade ur gpu later on u will need more power.

 

[swifty_morgan]

mind telling us your mother board and processor again. something doesn't add up. If you have an x58 mobo and processor I wouldn't build a new machine now. The gtx260 blows. got 3 of them.

 

[Harm Millaard]

Your current configuration is incorrect. A Core2Quad is not supported on a X58 platform. So what do you have? That will decide whether to wait or go ahead.

 

[Hiranmoy]

Yeah man i didnt see that too x58 and core2quad are of two different worlds how do they fit together?

 

[Hiranmoy]

Yeah man i didnt see that too x58 and core2quad are of two different worlds how do they fit together?

 

[Goldengoose]

No need to get 16gb's of ram, half it down to 8

 

[Harm Millaard]

Ur new pc config is great. But i think u shoul get a 650 watt psu as gtx 570 demands a lot of it.

The problem with those nice graphs is that it only tells part of the story. It does not say how much power is required for fans, USB or IEEE devices, extra PCIe cards, how many memory sticks are installed, what CPU is installed or what overclocking is applied, how many BR burners are installed, or other devices, etc.

I just used the Asus caclulator on a new system I plan and it came up with 1500W minimum. On another site it came up with 1513W, so I consider both calculators as somewhat reliable, but:

Asus did not allow me to use more than 10 HDD's, nor does it allow for capacitor aging and extra devices. So I have to calculate extra for more disks.

I really wonder why people here often advise to use such small PSU's. The price difference is marginal, there is no additional cost on your electricity bill and the higher capacity units run quieter than their smaller brothers and give you additional stability and piece of mind..

 

[Beefcake_89]

Thank you for your input guys.

Sorry for the mistake, my current motherboard is: MSI X48C Platinum

I think I will stick with my New build, just upgrade the PSU and take the RAM down a notch to 12GB

Thanks again guys

 

[Beefcake_89]

Thank you for your input guys.

Sorry for the mistake, my current motherboard is: MSI X48C Platinum

I think I will stick with my New build, just upgrade the PSU and take the RAM down a notch to 12GB

Thanks again guys

 

[cdiscoll2012]

only get 8 gbs of ram 12gbs is massive overkill just go with 8gbs and you will save alot of money

 

[Harm Millaard]

Thank you for your input guys.

Sorry for the mistake, my current motherboard is: MSI X48C Platinum

I think I will stick with my New build, just upgrade the PSU and take the RAM down a notch to 12GB

Thanks again guys

Taking down the RAM a notch would be a very bad idea. You would destroy the dual channel architecture of your memory controller and force it to run in single channel mode. Keep it at 16 GB. It was a bad suggestion anyway to reduce memory.

 

[aqe040466]

All you need to upgrade is your CPU and MB, everything in your Spec's can be re-used.

 

[jeffgedgaud]

The problem with those nice graphs is that it only tells part of the story. It does not say how much power is required for fans, USB or IEEE devices, extra PCIe cards, how many memory sticks are installed, what CPU is installed or what overclocking is applied, how many BR burners are installed, or other devices, etc.

I just used the Asus caclulator on a new system I plan and it came up with 1500W minimum. On another site it came up with 1513W, so I consider both calculators as somewhat reliable, but:

Asus did not allow me to use more than 10 HDD's, nor does it allow for capacitor aging and extra devices. So I have to calculate extra for more disks.

I really wonder why people here often advise to use such small PSU's. The price difference is marginal, there is no additional cost on your electricity bill and the higher capacity units run quieter than their smaller brothers and give you additional stability and piece of mind..

I totally agree, with upgrades in things so easy getting a good PSU that will have plenty of overhead for future expansion is so simple when you are starting a system build. Instead of getting just enough you should be getting something that will last with everything you are ever going to put int the same system, within reason of course.

 

[Harm Millaard]

All you need to upgrade is your CPU and MB, everything in your Spec's can be re-used.

X48 mobos use DDR2. That can not be used on a 1155 socket platform, so no dice. New memory as well.

 

[Guest]

The problem with those nice graphs is that it only tells part of the story. It does not say how much power is required for fans, USB or IEEE devices, extra PCIe cards, how many memory sticks are installed, what CPU is installed or what overclocking is applied, how many BR burners are installed, or other devices, etc.

I just used the Asus caclulator on a new system I plan and it came up with 1500W minimum. On another site it came up with 1513W, so I consider both calculators as somewhat reliable, but:

Asus did not allow me to use more than 10 HDD's, nor does it allow for capacitor aging and extra devices. So I have to calculate extra for more disks.

I really wonder why people here often advise to use such small PSU's. The price difference is marginal, there is no additional cost on your electricity bill and the higher capacity units run quieter than their smaller brothers and give you additional stability and piece of mind..

so your adding a 100 watts (10 HDs) to your configuration because?

i understand what your saying, if the builder uses a QUALITY psu; corsair, xfx, silverstone, antec( to mention a few) then issues like capacitor aging are not a problem. also, a capacitor ages no matter how much of a load is on it; it will age; so maybe that logic isn't entirely correct(?) it is the quality of the components that matter; caps, chokes and rectifiers, that affect the ripple and noise of the power and a high ripple and noise can damage a system not matter what load is on them.

and a reason people look at what psu will support a graphics cards is that it will be the largest load on the psu aside from a server build. so if the amperage of the 12 volt rail with a minimum of 10 amps left over for the cpu can support the card, it will support the whole system with the other 3 and 5 volt rails. unless it is a low qulity psu with a whacked rail configuration.

so there are reasons "why people here often advise to use such small PSU's." its about quality not quantity.

cheers.

 

[alexdh01]

Only a couple more months until new hardware comes out. I'm waiting!

 

[CaedenV]

Taking down the RAM a notch would be a very bad idea. You would destroy the dual channel architecture of your memory controller and force it to run in single channel mode. Keep it at 16 GB. It was a bad suggestion anyway to reduce memory.

you can do 12GB in a 4-2-4-2 configuration and still get duel ddr out of it just fine, what you cannot do is do 4-4-4-0, because depending on how your UEFI works then you could get duel channel out of the pair of 4, but then single channel out of the loner, or else you would get single channel all the way across. Wiki has an excelent article about it.

Also, there is only a ~20% increase going from single to duel, and then an extra 10% moving from duel to quad for systems that will do it like SB-E and Xeon (in practical application, not synthetic benches), so even if you were to break your duel channel is it still going to be pretty quick... just not as quick.

At any rate, the average person only uses windows+browser+drivers which only takes ~2GB, adding a game and a little more multitasking for a 'power user' only gets you to ~4-6GB of usage. To go beyond 6GB of ram needed is really quite exceptional, and will only happen if you are doing some high end production work like HD video editing, or 3D rendering applications, and even then 8GB will get you by... but 16GB would help a little at that point.

 

[aRodr1guez]

You can still use your PSU and save money instead of buying another. I'd wait till about Monday and switch the GTX 570 for a Radeon 7850/7870. I agree with the other guys that you should drop to 8GB (2x4GB).

 

[Hiranmoy]

Get the gskill ripjaw 8gb dual channel ram @ 9-9-9-24, 1.35 volts alittle overclock will boost ur performance.