Is my PSU good enough, need some guidance with cooling.

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by maquaii, Nov 21, 2009.

  1. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    Well i decided i should upgrade my pc a bit...

    I'm planning on getting a ASUS M4N82 Deluxe mother board for AM3 and sli. As well as a phenom ii x4 965.
    I currently have a Geforce 8800gtx and want to use sli, using simple 3gb total ddr2 666, but will my Hiper m580 support all of this?

    And i believe after this i'm in need of some cooling. I'm not good with this hardware stuff, but as far as i know there were some problems with the placement of things when it came to cooling on that motherboard especially if i used big cards like 8800 gt++.
     
  2. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Don't get an Asus board, or an SLI chipsrt, both are bad ideas for reliability. For the cost of buying the SLI board, replacing the SLI board routinely when it keeps failing, finding the second 8800GTX, you would be much better off just buying one fast graphics card instead. (In addition, a 580W Hiper is not going to handle two 8800s in SLI).
    One HD4890 will be faster than both 8800GTXs, allow you to use a cheap, simple, reliable, motherboard, save you lots of power, and run your existing PSU.
    If you haven't bought your system yet and are going for high-end gaming performance I'd recommend you buy an Intel Core i5, not an AMD Phenom II setup, as they are substantially better performers.
     
  3. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    Well i've only owned asus boards and never had a problem with them, The card i mentioned has gotten good review too.
    I guess i should look into other graphic card options since that one demands a lot. Though I've had no problem finding another one.

    But in the end i want to run two, crossfire or sli, so i guess if i get the HD4890 I'll still need a better psu.



    But ok then If I'll go Intel then if i go this way

    Intel Core i7 Quad 920 (Didn't cost too much, but use a lot of Watt, and i can get some discounts from a store that got one.)
    Gigabyte EX58-UD3R (discounts on this and the asus card)
    or
    Asus P6T (I know you said no to Asus, but i do prefer the layout on that one.)

    And a Radeon HD4890 (But if running two one day, what psu would you recommend?)

    I guess I'll need new ram. Don't need more then 3gb since I'm running 32 bit OS.
    Though i was wondering when you have 3 pci express x16, if i use two as x16 does it matter which ones i use? because with the asus board you get x16, x16, x1 or x16, x8, x8 because i figured if running in "crossfire" now at least i should use a Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo in between them.
     
  4. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Asus boards for the last few years have been nothing but grief to a large proportion of their owners, and nvidia chipsets suffer the exact same issues. Compound the two and you will be lucky to get that board to last more than 6 months.
    Most people who still own nvidia Asus boards like the Striker series have had 6 or 7 of them so far just to keep their PC operating.
    The 8800GTX isn't at all difficult to find, they were really popular, but it's a massive power hungry card that the lightweight HD4850 and HD4770 are faster than, let alone today's high-end cards.
    I'd recommend a more powerful PSU as Hiper units can be very variable in how much power they'll handle, some will manage 500W or so, others 200-250W at the most before they go pop.
    As a rough guide, an AMD quad core and one 8800GTX will mean a full load of about 275-300W, with two 8800GTXs it's about 450-475W.
    A Core i5 with an HD5870 will see you at around 250W.

    Why do you want to use two cards, just for the sake of having two cards? it's not as reliable, uses far more power, puts out more heat and noise, and costs more.
    if you want more power than the HD4890 has to offer, then buy an HD5970 card. That's as fast as two HD5850s, or three HD4890s, or five 8800GTXs, and fits in one slot.
    I'm also downplaying dual graphics because I recommend you buy a Core i5, not a Core i7, they're much more efficient, cost much less, and actually run games slightly better than Core i7s. Their only downside is they're lacking in PCI express bandwidth to run dual graphics cards.

    Recommend components:
    Core i5 750
    Gigabyte P55-UD3R motherboard
    3x2GB Corsair XMS3 1600mhz (if you want high-end gaming performance, I recommend changing to a 64-bit OS)
    Corsair TX650 650W PSU
    Radeon HD5970 (There are waiting lists for these at the moment, but get in on the pre-orders and you'll get one eventually)

    of course, this assumes your case is cut out for a high-end gaming PC, cooling wise.
     
  5. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    Alright, I'll take your word for it. =)
    I'll wait for the moment with new os, i want Windows 7 but I'll get the hardware first i figure.
    As for two cards i'm just thinking that eventually they'll get cheaper i would want an upgrade in graphics department, and just an extra card would be cheaper by that point i figure.

    Core i5 750
    Gigabyte P55-UD3R motherboard
    1 Radeon HD4890 heh.
    I'm guessing with your consumption estimates that will work fine with my psu (I don't want to go bankrupt here heh. Very expensive here then well most other countries.)
    And eventually get windows 7 64-bit. Through buying that amount of memory now doesn't hurt, and usually ain't expensive.
     
  6. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    Oh and no my case is not, thats why i'm looking for cooling options, and figured i should buy some Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo.
     
  7. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Sadly, you can't really make up for a bad case with other cooling products. They help, but if your case isn't up to scratch, you should really consider replacing it. Most important is the CPU cooler, since the stock GPU cooler on a Radeon HD4890 has a very powerful fan that you can turn up beyond normal levels to drop its temperature if necessary.
    The P55 does not have a vulnerable northbridge chip like most motherboard designs, so you only need to worry about cooling the CPU. For that, I'd recommend trying to find a Thermalright MUX-120.
     
  8. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    I couldn't find that cooler, i did find ThermalRight Ultra-120, could i demount the fan on the cooler that comes with the processor and mount it on the ThermalRight?
     
  9. maquaii

    maquaii Member

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    Oh but that one doesn't seem to fit the socket?
     
  10. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    The MUX-120 is just the retail package of the Ultra-120 with the LGA1156 bolt-through adapter.
     
  11. Xplorer4

    Xplorer4 Active member

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    For a Core i5 wouldnt it be 2x2 or 4x2?


    To the op I just got a 4890 upgrading from a 9800GTX+ and trust me, its a great card! I notice in particular, like Sam said, the fan is VERY powerful. I can drop my GPU temps nearly 10* if I crank the fan up to 100%. Personally 100% is a bit loud for my taste so I prefer about 70% which gives about a 7* drop.
     
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2009
  12. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Yes it would, typo sorry :S
     

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