Advice on PSU and RAM selections...

[BoysNightOut]

I will be building the following for the New Year and Vista release finally. I want to know what amount of power should I run and what kind of PSU to be exact...also, the RAM, PC5300 or PC8000 or which is best suited for me. This PC will not run any high end games probably. I do need it however for Vista max capability, video storage/editing/burning.

Case: Antec Nine-Hundred Mid-Tower
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
PSU: OCZ GameXstream 700W SLI Ready
HDD: 36.7GB Raptor, 2x 500GB WD Caviar SE16's (SATA)
Video: eVGA 8800GTS 640MB RAM
RAM: 2x 1GB Crucial Tracer Sticks
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe
Cooler: Zalman 9700 HSF

So...what kind of RAM, PC4000/PC5300/PC8000, many diff pricetags......lol. Also I figure 700W may be too much...should I run an Antec/Enermax PSU instead at 500-600W? Or is 700 a good buffer for expansion later on. Eventually, she'll probably get some extra RAM to 4GB or 6GB even at some point. I'll also be running dual Plextor DVD-RW drives as well which need some power. I may teach myself OC'ing on this tower too, but unsure as of yet.

I heard OCZ was high quality though. I've always used thermaltake for stuff like that to date. Thanks all!

 

[darkop16]

there is a 600w version which should be plenty. The gameXstream is an awesome psu.

 

[BoysNightOut]

I just saw that thanks. 600W sounds like it should be more than enough to expand upon too.

 

[darkop16]

Im not fimilar with the crucial tracer series. I only thought they made ballistix. But the corsair xms series are good memory, and they have a rebate that lasts to jan 5.

I wouldn't get any more ram until vista comes out. Xp can only handle 2gb until you start to lose performance with more ram. Vista will only be able to handle 4 gb since it will be a 64-bit os.

32-bit=2gb
64-bit=4gb

But the xp 64-bit edition doesn't seem to handle more then 2gb either so hopefully vista will be a true 64-bit os so we can start using more ram.

 

[BoysNightOut]

Roger that! Thanks for the heads up. I know XP only takes 2GB and Vista will run 4GB hopefully with some stability. The Ballistix is there tracer yeah.

I keep hearing of Corsair, but never used them before, always used Crucial. I'll check them out.

 

[Nitestick]

This PC will not run any high end games probably.

Video: eVGA 8800GTS 640MB RAM

i don't know why you need that. the windows startup logo doesn't take that much power

 

[lancec2c30]

Well as of right now, I think the 8800gts will play all but 2 games maxed out.

I would get 2gb of the xms series ram and maybe lose one of htose 500gig hdd for a c2d e6600.

 

[BoysNightOut]

True...good idea. Maybe I'll start with one 500GB HD and use the extra for an E6600 vice the E6300...that's a good plan. The 8800GTS I want because it's a DX10 card and will be supported in Vista since everything from then on will be DX10 based and stuff. Also, my gf may load her engineering software such as Inventor, CATIA ad autoCAD which ARE graphic and memory intensive as **** lol.

Plus Vista needs a good amount of graphical support and this way I'll have enough for anything, and if down the road I do want a somewhat newer game that comes out for once.