Dual Core vs Quad Core? Wood vs Coal? Petrol vs Diesel?

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #4436582
Looks pretty good to me
Are you going to run Vista x64?

I don't know yet, will see what turns up
(I will be a legal copy, just not sourced from a retailer )

Any dis-advantages to runnin x64? e.g. driver issues etc?

Moppie, I'm looking at doing something very similar in the new year and going 64 bit. The 64bit is mainly for Panorama Factory which runs much much better with larger numbers of photos than the 32bit and takes full advantage of multiple cores. A lot of system reviews use this in benchmark testing.

How much did your budget blow out to?

I haven't had any driver issues with Vista x64 - it works great. You -need- 64-bit drivers, but if you're building a PC from all new hardware, I doubt it would be an issue (wasn't for me).

In fact apart from a few oldish utilities I used to use occasionally (and now don't even miss), I haven't found anything that hasn't worked perfectly on it.

Mark Vuleta wrote in post #4436631
How much did your budget blow out to?

You don't want to know

Fortunalty a catalouge shoot is paying for a good chunk of it.

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #4436699
In fact apart from a few oldish utilities I used to use occasionally (and now don't even miss), I haven't found anything that hasn't worked perfectly on it.

Yeah, starting from scratch I'm not to worried about drivers, and I'm not a big utilitie user.
I'm going to try dual booting XP as well, so I can always use that for anything that won't play nice with Vista.
I'll have a look into installing 64bit

An 800w power supply seems like overkill.

tim wrote in post #4436914
An 800w power supply seems like overkill.

For 5 internal drives, m/b, graphics card, CPU, 2 case fans, plus fans on CPU and graphics card, plus USB card reader, wireless mouse and k/b, plus who knows what else?

I asked around, and 650W seemed to be the minimum to go with, and they didn't have any 1GW in stock.

It probably is overkill, but the additional cost is bugger all, and you're always better having a PSU that's too big than "just enough". A PSU can never really be too big.

Just make sure you get a good one - I don't know what the Gigabyte is like.

FWIW, I'm using a 650W PSU (a Seasonic S12+ 650W) in my system - Q6600 @ 3GHz, 7 HDDs, 8800GTX (until last weekend), fans, etc, etc

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #4436951
It probably is overkill, but the additional cost is bugger all, and you're always better having a PSU that's too big than "just enough". A PSU can never really be too big.

I had planned to use my old PSU, but its only 400W, and its a cheap Heyna.
I figured if I'm going to get a good one, I might as well get a really good one
The Gigabyte has custom cables etc, has a silent ball bearing fan etc.

I just hope the graphics card arriaves on Thursday, I don't fancy trapsing around the city trying to find one if it doesn't.

I guess no real harm getting a big one. Mine's 380W, and runs a dual core chip, 3 drives, graphics card, etc.

It would be interesting to try and work out just how much power is needed to run a PC, and each of its components.

Well I did some digging.

It would appear there is not a lot of consistant info out there on power requirments.
But, I did find the following:

http://www.cheap-computers-guide.com …-supply-requirements.html

http://www.pcpowercool​ing.com/technology/pow​er_usage/

http://www.utcache.com​/power.asp


Apprently I would need somewhere between 500W on the low side, and 700W on the high side.
So its quite possible that a 650W would be enough, but with 800W I know, and can be confident I'm safe

And, I can always power a small chinese steel mill with any excess.

I did just that, it was at work so I don't have the spreadsheet here. I worked out the power consumption of all the components - Athlon X2 4800+, 3 drives, nVidia 6600GT (upgraded now), CD-ROM, etc, at 200W usually, 250W peak. Most of the information's on Wikipedia.

I found another good read here: http://www.bestpcrevie​ws.com …07/10/power_sup​plies.html


Worked out at 500W needed, based on the above, which is starting to show an average of around 500W from all the sites visited, so say 650W to be safe.
Yeah, 800W might be over kill


Tim, I don't trust anything I read on Wikipedia, infact I avoid it when ever possible.
Its whole format is simply open to spreading false information, and passing rumours off as fact.

I've got one of these, but I haven't actually plugged it in yet. I'll do it next time the PC is shut down and report back

http://www.todae.com.a​u …ewItem.asp?idPr​oduct=1660

I want to chime in with a different advice: defragment your disks regularly, uninstall programs you don't use, keep a fixed swap file and run a registry cleaner utility, preferably also keep your photoshop paging file on another drive, and let your system drive be as fast as you can afford. If you don't do that regularly, you'd be surprised at how much speed you gain.