Building a gaming PC

[plthijinx]

So a guy I know on a forum in f/b wants to build a gaming computer. THIS is what he came up with. His budget is roughly $1000 bucks. I looked it over and thought that it would be a nice set up. I did recommend going with the best Video card he could buy as that's the big punch nowadays with gamers....

thoughts? comments? switch component "A" with component "B"?

[Undertoad]

That'll do just fine. I split the drive space between a smaller SSD (128GB) and a standard 1TB hard drive. That way I boot fast and have all the huge game content on the big drive.

[glatt]

You're an electrical engineer type guy, right? Do you need a power supply that massive? How do you calculate what sized PS you need? Seems like a $90, 650 watt PS might be overkill.


But to be honest, I have no information to back that up. It's just a gut feeling.

[plthijinx]

true, BUT you have to pay attention to the power requirements of the mother board too. you can over size it and at the same time under size it. best to go with what the manufacturer recommends. to be honest i didn't look that closely at. But also it's powering everything else too under the hood. a 650 should do fine.

[Undertoad]

It's the video card that consumes all the power. They are mighty beasts these days, requiring their own power connector. 650W is appropriate.

[plthijinx]

Cool, Thanks Toad!

[glatt]

Heh.

I went to the Asus site and looked up that video card. 225w

Somebody ought to invent some ductwork that goes from inside the case to your cold winter mouse hand to keep it warm. You could probably bake a cupcake inside that case. My sister's childhood Easy Bake oven used a 100 watt bulb for a heat source, I think.

[plthijinx]

lol, yeah Glatt, i hear ya!

225w is a nice chunk of change for that. hell i've put in industrial plant LED floodlighting that runs on less than half that each fixture

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

I went to the Asus site and looked up that video card. 225w

If his computer and motherboard are consuming 600 watts, then also install a slot to toast bread.

Computer assemblers typically have no hardware knowledge. So we simplify things to keep them off technical help lines. Most all computers consume at maximum 200 watts. And often average around 100. So we tell them it consumes 300 watts. Since a power supply must be selected by amps for each DC voltage, well, that is too complicated for computer assemblers. So we make sure each DC voltage can provide enough current by doubling what the computer really needs. Now we have told them they need a 600 watt supply.

Then penis size makes a more manly system when they get a 650 or 1000 watt supply. Many computer assemblers even believe the 1000 watt supply is more reliable - because its number is bigger. They believe because they feel.

All for a computer that mostly consumes 100 watts and rarely more than 200 watts.

To keep these computer assemblers off the help lines, we tell them they need 225 watts for a video card that really only consumes typically 80 watts with short bursts that might be as much as 120 watts.

How large are power supplies in responsibly designed system by engineers? View numbers for Dell and HP. Typically around 225 watts for a system that has more than enough power for everything you might add to it. But the important number was never a supply's watts. The important number was always amps for each DC voltage (ie 3.3, 5, 12V).

When did Lite-On start making DVD drives? This was an LED manufacturer.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by tw

To keep these computer assemblers off the help lines, we tell them ...

You make it sound like keeping customers from having to call a help line is a bad thing. Seems to me you should add up the peak values for all the components, and get something that is equal to that number. Since it's unlikely that you will find a power supply with exactly that number, you should buy the next size up. And when you are looking at the price tag of the next size up, maybe there is a sale or something on a PS a little bit bigger that makes it a little more attractive.

You don't design for the average, you design for the peak. Imagine if dams were built for average river flow instead of for hundred year floods.

[lumberjim]

PS could mean power supply OR penis size, you know. I used an 800. I must be compensating for my small Asian penis.

[Undertoad]

This thread is called Building a gaming PC. The HP/Dell engineered machines are absolutely meaningless on this thread.

The overall wattage number is just the added total of wattages on all rails. On gaming rigs the +12V rail is the most important, but power supply wattage doesn't break that down, so a higher wattage supply may still not provide enough power on that rail. Power supplies of 8 years ago aren't enough to run modern video cards. They draw huge amperage!

Power supplies are less efficient at 100%, do you care?

Now about upgrades. Going to overclock? Many gamers do! But never the HP/Dell engineered systems.

Going to RAID? Many gamers do! But never the HP/Dell engineered systems.

Going to have 8 sticks of memory? Many gamers do! But never the HP/Dell engineered systems.

Add memory, overclock, add a second high-end GPU and run in tandem with CLI, now you need twice the wattage on that +12V line and the 650W won't handle it.

Not only that but! As power supplies are used, they lose capacity due to electrolytic capacitor aging. What was an appropriate supply this year will likely have 20% less capacity next year.

Finally, the power supply companies lie about their numbers.

Hell, go with the 750W. You're not going to draw more wall power; actually probably less, as the unit will run more efficiently. And it may even be able to power next year's model GPUs.

[lumberjim]

And think of how big your penis will look!

[glatt]

And with all that extra heat pumping out, it won't be playing hiding turtle from the cold.

[plthijinx]

Originally Posted by glatt

*snip*......You don't design for the average, you design for the peak. Imagine if dams were built for average river flow instead of for hundred year floods.

in what i do, you size transformers and cable sizes for peak, if not more (aka. oversizing). say you have a 480v to 240/120v single phase 50kVA transformer. is that good enough? well you have to look at your loads to find out. yeah, i started out assbackwards on purpose because i've had clients say that's what they want without knowing their power consumption for that feed. same here. you have the power.....only how much power gets used is up to all the components and with all the components consumption added up wattwise is the ps then big enough?

unless of course you're LJ. then the component is big enough. the only person i know that can trump the dos XX most interesting man in the world is him.