How's this Sandy Bridge build look?

tobev

tobev

tobev

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26 May 2009
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It'll mostly be used for internet, movies and gaming. I guess the games will be the only thing to stress it. I'd like to try to make it fairly quiet, so I'm not sure this'll be the best case for that? I can spend slightly more than the Antec 300 costs if it's worth it.

Case ANTEC Three Hundred
CPU INTEL Core i5-2500K Quad-Core (Sandy Bridge)
Motherboard ASUS P8P67 PRO
PSU OCZ ModXStream PRO 700W
SSD OCZ Vertex 2 Series 120GB
HD WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Blue 1TB 32MB cache
Cooler NOCTUA NH-U9B SE2
MEM 4GB (KIT 2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz CL9-9-9-24 CORSAIR TWINX XMS3
GFX MSI N460GTX Hawk
 
My chief recommendation would be to switch the GTX460 with an AMD 6850 - it's a fair bit cheaper, (nearly) identical in gaming performance and is both quieter and less power-hungry.

Speaking of power, you could get away with dropping that PSU down to 500W.
 
Personally, I recommended a 460 for a friend because he wanted Physx (I know, but still, he's a console gamer so just wanted it for the heck of it) and the fact he's more used to NV.

His own 460 is very very quiet, and overclocks very well (from 700 to 850+MHZ without any issues). I've not had huge chance to play with it, but still.

I'd not recommend ever going towards a 500W PSU now. 600+ is pretty much the standard for a high end build now, especially if you ever want to upgrade. Say stick in the new NV / ATI cards in 12 months time, you can bet they're going to be more power hungry.
 
Logic, common sense and history all disagree with you.

Cards at the 6850/460 pricepoint have had a similar power consumption for years, 500W is plenty even for a card with two PCIe power plugs, and racking up the power requirement of a graphics card is pretty much a way to kill off any chance of people upgrading to it.

Also, I'm laughing at the idea of buying a new £150 graphics card every 12 months.
 
The difference in price is fairly small between a 500 and a 600. You never know which way you're going to upgrade.

My own history (as well of history of people I know) demonstrate that you're incorrect many a time. I've personally gone from a 8800 GTS -> 4850 -> GTX 480. I needed a new PSU for the 480. PSU's degrade over time, it's that simple. If you're building a new system, there is simply NO reason to not go for a PSU that is at least 550W.

Don't skimp on the PSU is the best advice I've ever been told when building a PC. Especially since you never can factor in:

If you'll ever get watercooling
Case Fans
More Hard Drives
PCI-E Devices
Overclocking (which requires more power)
General Degrade of the PSU
Upgrading the GPU

All of these factors demonstrate that 500W is not the best idea for now, I'll agree that the 6950 is a great card and between it and the GTX 460 is arguable, but I'll never agree on anything below a 550W PSU.

More in PSU is always the better option. The Sandy Bridge won't limit his GPU, it'll be the other way around, and we *NEVER* know what the future will hold. Imagine if he chooses to get cheap SLI, or his friend sells his old card
to him for cheap. Or OCUK do a great deal on something?

http://www.antec.outervision.com/PSUEngine Using that, I'm at 430watts, without really trying. This is assuming a few HDD's, a single 6950, a I5 760 (clocked to 4GHZ) and the usual other stuff. This doesn't take it to account things such as more PCI cards, USB devices, PSU / part degration, and if he simply wants to add in more power hungry parts in 12 months.

To save 20 pounds or so, it's not worth the risk in my opinion.
 
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Thanks for the advice, guys. Seems there's arguments for and against the 700W PSU, but I think I'll stick with it cause I might need it later (overclocking and/or SLI) and it's not too much more expensive.

I'm a little bit biased to Nvidia cause of CUDA for movies working nicely and the 6850 looked slower in some games and no quieter than a 460. The lower power usage is a plus with the 6850 though.

Any more suggestions for a different case? Unfortunately I can't get stuff from overclockers (I'm in Czech Republic now), and the Antec 100 isn't available and the 300 is out of stock. Pretty much I can chose from most of the CoolerMaster range (I can stretch to a HAF) or FRACTAL Design R3 Silver Arrow or SILVERSTONE SST-KL02B-W Kublai.

Thanks again!
 
Of course you needed to upgrade to a new PSU- it's a GTX 480! That's not the kind of ~£150 card we're talking about, of course it's going to take more power. The fact that a 6950 with an i5 760 clocked at 4GHz plus all the other bits and bobs only pulls 430W is proof that even 500W provides over-adequate headroom.

If you get a GTX 460 with a good 500W PSU, you'll have plenty of extra space if you want to upgrade your card for the next 2 years (which you won't need to as a 460 is plenty), and enough extra so that the degradation you talk about won't cause a problem for a good 3-4 years, by which point you'll likely be looking at a full system rethink anyway.
 
Personally I would go for a ~700W PSU, it gives you loads of headroom and with a CF/SLI capable board like the P8P67D PRO, a big PSU will support a second card if you want to install one in the future.

However, I would not go for the OCZ, this XFX is better quality, higher efficiency, higher power and only costs £5.50 more.
 
hybrid572 said:
Of course you needed to upgrade to a new PSU- it's a GTX 480! That's not the kind of ~£150 card we're talking about, of course it's going to take more power. The fact that a 6950 with an i5 760 clocked at 4GHz plus all the other bits and bobs only pulls 430W is proof that even 500W provides over-adequate headroom.

If you get a GTX 460 with a good 500W PSU, you'll have plenty of extra space if you want to upgrade your card for the next 2 years (which you won't need to as a 460 is plenty), and enough extra so that the degradation you talk about won't cause a problem for a good 3-4 years, by which point you'll likely be looking at a full system rethink anyway.
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Dude, you're the only one who thinks 500 is the right call. WHY take a chance on hardware you're going to pay several hundred pounds for? At WORST with my way, he's wasted 20 pounds or so.

With your way he could either:

1. Need to upgrade a new GPU in the fture, and then gets the "oh no wait, new PSU too"

2. Upgrading bit by bit, new HDD, firewire, high end overclocking, and then bang.

In fact, even in my motherboard manual, it recomends 500 w as MIN requirements, and recomends 600 Watts or higher.
 
Good choice but i wouldn't recommend the OCZ 700w modxstream, the cables aren't long enough and the fact that it is modular is pointless cos you will have tyo use nearly every cable anyway!

You are better off with a 700w StealthXstream for the cash
 
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