Barebone boot question

[Decchi]

Alright, so i'm building a new computer, crosshair V formula with the fx-8320, coolermaster V8, corsair vengeance 16GB, and a GTX 550 ti, and i wanna boot just the motherboard to make sure nothing came in DOA. All i've got, because i don't yet have funding to get my power supply, is a dynex 400W psu, which has enough connectors to boot only that, and i could just boot with 1 stick of memory (4GB), but i was wondering if that would be enough power to do a quick barebone boot test or not? No case fans or hard drives or cd drives. The calculator says it will, but i'd prefer to have a more educated answer then that. Thanks for your help!

 

[tiny voices]

It should be ok for a breadboard boot.

Just out of curiosity, what is the main use of the PC going to be?

 

[Decchi]

Uh, for one, fulfilling my desire to build a high-end computer, and two, i'm looking to replace my tivo and probably find a new life in gaming. basically an overpowered entertainment device. i've still got a lot to put into it before it's done though.

 

[smorizio]

the 550ti i have it on a cheap 500w ps and it fine. (gaming). the 550ti is going to pull min power from the ps at post. your going to be running the bios screen that vga mode not windows aero or 3d mode. what you want to look at is the 12v line the wattage and amp rating. you need the amps for the video card and the cpu. (take the wattage and /12v to get the amps.
so if the cpu is 125w...or 12amps. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2011/03/15/nvidia-geforce-gtx-550-ti-1gb-review/10
says 140w in windows. looking at another 12 amps or so. so check your ps to make sure there 24 amps or more on the 12v rail.

 

[Decchi]

All i did was boot to BIOS and make nothing was DOA, and i'm very happy to note that it booted right up. My real PSU is gonna be the corsair AX860i, which i think should be enough to push the overclock, SLI, tuner, and everything else. If not, then i'll cry over an RMA and shelling out more for the next one up.

 

[tiny voices]

That PSU will be plenty. You could SLI gtx670s on it if you wanted to.

 

[Decchi]

I've already got the 550, but i'm wondering if i should move up to those later on, or just sell the 550 and move to them now, but they're pricey.

 

[tiny voices]

The 550 will only get you like medium settings in modern games at best. I would sell it and get a 7870 for this build.

 

[Decchi]

Yeah, i hadn't looked much into ati cuz i've always been an nvidia fan. But i suppose they've probably come a long way from the AGP days. I'll look into that. Any recommended brands?

 

[tiny voices]

Gigabyte for sure. Also, MSI and XFX.

 

[Decchi]

If you don't mind me asking, just for the sake of my understanding, why ATI over nVidia? Trying to learn a little out of this build while i'm at it.

 

[tiny voices]

At most price points AMD has better offerings than nVidia. What would your GPU budget be?

 

[Decchi]

I could probably do 200/230$ a card. I kinda jumped the gun on the card I have without thinking it through like I should have.

 

[tiny voices]

For that budget you could have a gtx660 or a 7870. The 7870 is decently more powerful and definitely the better buy.