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Geck0_k
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Oh sorry, that part was directed at someone else who said "all it does is make your power bill higher".

 

I'm not sure I want to reveal the brand/specs though, for fear people will find out something my research didn't reveal and then make fun of me. :(

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And just cause it's 750W doesn't mean it's outputting that much all the time. :P It just means it's capable of outputting that much when necessary.

I'm talking about power draw from your wall socket. It varies with each unit but generally speaking high wattage PSUs will draw more power than low wattage PSUs. See how the low wattage units under load draw slightly more power than the high wattage units at idle?

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when you're talking PSU's you're talking transformers. Transformers are more efficient when they're closer to full load so if you buy a way over sized PSU it's not going to be as efficient. If you want a good idea what size PSU to get here is a good calculator.

 

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

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wee Hardware dicussion! I recently built my own PC for the first time ever and its just so awesome. Sometimes....I get a little teary eyed looking at.....I'm going to take pictures and your all gonna be so jealous :tophat:

 

Got a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 890GX motherboard, Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 Overclock - 1 GB graphics card, Cooler Master HAF 932 PC Tower Case, aaaand Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz Black Edition 125W is mah processor!

 

Speaking of Power Supply's mines a Cooler Master GX 650W! Got a Samsung Spinpoint 1tb hard drive and still waiting on my 8GB OCZ RAM, which has yet to be delivered, using 2GB RAM I borrowed off a friend for now.

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when you're talking PSU's you're talking transformers. Transformers are more efficient when they're closer to full load so if you buy a way over sized PSU it's not going to be as efficient. If you want a good idea what size PSU to get here is a good calculator.

 

http://extreme.outer. ..culatorlite.jsp

 

And what does it matter if it's efficient or not?

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Because if it's inefficient it uses more power than necessary and so ups your power bill.

 

Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 Overclock - 1 GB graphics card

At first I read this as a GeForce 6800 and I was like "why the fuck did you buy such an old card?"

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Because if it's inefficient it uses more power than necessary and so ups your power bill.

 

Gigabyte Radeon HD 6850 Overclock - 1 GB graphics card

At first I read this as a GeForce 6800 and I was like "why the fuck did you buy such an old card?"

 

Funnily enough that's actually the graphics card the family PC back at the parents place has :P

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wee Hardware dicussion! I recently built my own PC for the first time ever and its just so awesome. Sometimes....I get a little teary eyed looking at.....I'm going to take pictures and your all gonna be so jealous :tophat:

Not to rain on your parade but I stole your computer and changed out the guts. :sherlock:

2011-01-23170447.jpg

 

As a side note, I'm happy that chances are, I won't have to buy a new tower again whenever I decide to build a new computer to replace this one, 4-5 years down the line.

Edited by MaliciousH
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So I was gonna launch into a discussion about temperature ratings on transformers but didn't because I didn't know if you could get those specs on a PSU or not. Well it appears on some of the good ones you can so it may be worth noting what your peak demand usage on the PSU is and for how long you can reach that peak against what the PSU is rated to run indefinitely. If you only game for an hour or two you may be able to use a smaller PSU since transformers can typically perform over their rating for a short period of time (a couple of hours). If you're an MMO guy you're going to want to make sure your PSU is rated for your system at a continuous load.

Edited by Yantelope
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So you're saying it becomes an overheating issue? Interesting.

 

Yeah, transformer ratings are almost always directly related to heat. When you're converting voltages you're not 100% efficient and if you've got too much heat being given off during the process you're gonna burn up your equipment. The heat buildup isn't instantaneous though so some transformers will let you run above the rating for a short period. Usually a continuous load is defined as greater than 2 hours.

Edited by Yantelope
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You know, do any of you guys keep your old parts just for memories?

 

I'm planning on keeping all my CPUs once their respective computers are done.

 

I still have my old PC downstairs, I can't bring myself to trash it. I probably should though since it's a P4 with a Radeon 9800. Not good for much but for some reason I keep thinking I'm gonna use it for something.

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I was sort of in a rush when I posted that post. What I meant was the lifespan of the ATX form factor. The size is really not an issue but the screw placements and such is. For example, say if ATX gets replace by XYZ five years from now and then I want to upgrade. I would be pretty screwed if ATX boards don't exist or a certain parts I want won't work on an ATX.

 

Sure, I could buy a new tower but the tower is one part that you can reuse as many times you want like mice and keyboard, and monitor and speakers to certain extent. It helps keep my costs down when I decide to do something as major as replacing everything. It would be nice to not having to replace full tower. Those are kind of pricey.

 

So yeah, hopefully Dean is right. Even if ATX has a successor, it should take a while before ATX fully dies.

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  • 6 months later...

A bit of a thread revival but, thought maybe other forumers could help

 

Well... I've been meaning to upgrade my graphics card for a while now but, having very little experience with computer hardware(I've added/replaced ram... once... added/removed pci cards a few times) itself I thought I'd ask here first before spending any money.

Currently this would be my current rig, none of the internal stuff has been modified.

HP Pavilion Elite m9515f

 

Currently looking at

XFX Radeon HD 6870

  • Its within my "under 200$" price range
  • Reasonably favourable reviews at Newegg, quiet and the ability to run games on high at 1920x1080
  • Not the greatest reasoning but, It comes with 4 free games... Stalker, Shogun 2, Deus Ex, and Dirt 3

 

My biggest hurdles besides the high price (and annoying rebate) are my lack of experience and the need to upgrade my PSU to accommodate the new card which is some what worse with problem 1 being around.

 

I've only looked at this one so far

Antec EarthWatts EA-650 GREEN 650W ATX12V v2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

which seems to satisfy the wattage need though I have no clue about the other specs, how I'd upgrade my PSU and if this PSU would work.

 

Besides the benefit of the upgrade itself... the experience would probably be good.. hopefully give me more incentive to eventually build one from scratch.

 

So yeah TLDR; Buying new GFX Card, thoughts? compat problems? same questions for PSU.

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