spec + fermi = win?

nWovance · 24 Mar 2010 at 17:54

Will these bits and bobs work together with a new fermi card, because this is all i can afford if im going for a fermi.

I will want a decent overclock too, so i need all your expertise

stulid · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:03

Looks like win to me.

Fermi reviews will be out in about 48hrs so all will become clear.

RJC · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:03

All the items will work with the card, but I would check the case can handle a long card - just in case

PCM2 · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:04

Don't see a nuclear reactor in your parts list I'm afraid!

...Just joking. That PSU is very good and should work fine

stulid · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:11

RJC said:
All the items will work with the card, but I would check the case can handle a long card - just in case

Do you think its longer or the same as a 5870, the recent photos make it look shorter.

RJC · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:16

stulid said:
Do you think its longer or the same as a 5870, the recent photos make it look shorter.

Don't know, I would think it may be similar size to the 5870 (the 480), but until proper reviews are out it's hard to say.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:23

Wait until Fermi reaches retail and then it would be better to buy the parts then IMHO.

cmndr_andi · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:23

If you are buying from OCUK, the cooler doesn't have a s1156 mount - so it won't fit on that board. This is a good alternative (though slightly more expensive).

I would also suggest going for this HDD instead.

As for the PSU, I hear fermi needs 42A on the 12V rail. I'm no PSU expert, but I believe the 700W Stealthxtreme has 4 x 18A 12V rails, not one big single rail. Will this be a problem?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:25

Once the reviews of Fermi start appearing we can get a better idea of its actual power consumption. The OP only has to wait a few days more AFAIK.

Vision · 24 Mar 2010 at 18:38

Spec looks fine! Might want a diff cooler like andi said.

coupe69 · 24 Mar 2010 at 19:49

Ditch the Gigabyte board, unless you need old legacy connections?

datalol-jack · 24 Mar 2010 at 20:12

As for the PSU, I hear fermi needs 42A on the 12V rail. I'm no PSU expert, but I believe the 700W Stealthxtreme has 4 x 18A 12V rails, not one big single rail. Will this be a problem?

It does indeed. Speaking of the PSU choice though, unlike in a single rail design, you must add up the total current supplied over the 12v rails to the component (at least in theory). So, in the case of the StealthXtreme 700w, we get 4x18A = 72a maximum - which is a reasonable amount and should handle the card fine. Various sources recommend to add a 5-10% error margin on that, however. There is also an engineering argument on the topic of single vs. multiple rails, which is quite heated and I would like to steer clear of it, if I can.

To be on the safe side of things, I would recommend a PSU around the 750W mark with 20a on individual rails, if you want to go for the 480 model. It will just give you some breathing room down the line, given overclocks and whatnot.

See below for alternatives.

Antec TruePower New Modular 750W - has four 12v rails, 25A each.

Corsair TX 750W ATX - single 12v rail design, packing about 50A.

Edit:
Coolermaster Silent Pro Modular 700W - 700W, 12v rail is rated at 50A, quiet, modular and has higher efficiency than the Antec model. Could be worth a look, if noise and cable tidying is a concern.

Both go over the OCZ model on price, but I would not skimp out on the PSU myself. In any case, hope this helps.

nWovance · 25 Mar 2010 at 03:30

cheers guys, i will decide once the fermi info is available, but i do not mind changing the PSU to one of the ones you have picked. Aslo thanks for the cpu socket info, i actually didn't spot that so thanks very muchs guys

.

JonJ678 · 25 Mar 2010 at 04:20

Bang per buck is exceedingly likely to be on the ati side of the fence this time around.

The 700W stealthxstream offers at the absolute most 14A across four 12V rails, or 18A across one or two of them while the others are idle. Since in practice it's very likely that it actually has one 56A rail with artificial limits to comply with the atx spec this is fairly irrelevant though. ATX spec says no more than 20A per 12V rail, out of some safety ideas.

The maximum current rating of an 8 pin pci-e cable is 12.5A, so if the 480 uses two of these it'll use at most 25A through the pci-e cables. Each cable will be attached to a different "rail", with the 24 pin cable on a different rail again. I'm rambling terribly because it's 4am, the point I'm driving at is that the 700W ocz will be absolutely fine.

Single vs multiple rails, is indeed quite a heated argument. Occasionally very heated. A reasonable summary is that you can't have independent rails for the cost of an atx power supply, so any supply claiming to offer multiple 12V rails means it's a single rail supply with current limiting circuitry implemented for safety reasons. Genuinely independent 12V rails would be brilliant, so you get people saying multiple rail psus are better. Just a shame that no sub 200 quid psu actually has independent 12V rails.

nmungur · 25 Mar 2010 at 05:58

It is good to see someone else waiting for the Fermi

The release is the 26th but the info I have is that it is the paper release as there are no actual cards ready to be sold on Fri - from the info I have been given. I hope to be proved wrong tho