New build questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robin Bignall
  • Start date Start date
R

Robin Bignall

I'm about to build a new system with an ASUS P5E3 Deluxe board, an
Intel E6B503 Duo 3+3 Ghz, 4 gigs of RAM, running under XP SP3.

Power: I have a nice Arctic case with a 450 watt PSU. Is that going
to be enough to drive the above plus a couple of HDD, considering the
graphics?

Graphics: I'm not a gamer, but may become one eventually. I notice
that the power consumption of PCI-E graphics cards can be large: hence
the question above. I see that many of the highly-rated cards state
"designed for Vista". Without having to go to each potential website
to look, in general do they have drivers for XP? Any suggestions?
 
In general, yes.



The big questions are if the 12V rail has enough power for PCIe gfx power if
needed, and if it has the required PCIe plugs. You will be able to power a
moderate gfx card (ATI 3850/3870 or nVidia 8800) with a decent 450 watt PSU, and
maybe something bigger/better.

If you need a better gfx card later, buy a new PSU at that time.

All current ATI and nVidia based cards come with XP and Vista drivers.
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Useful info indeed, JR. A new PSU would mean a new case, because the
one I've got is riveted into its case, and I can't be bothered to deal
with that. The PCI-E card I've got is a cheapo -- the equivalent of
$50 -- and it doesn't have any other power connector needs. So, to go
upmarket with graphics a new case/PSU is needed, and while I'm doing
that I might as well get a couple of SATA Hdds and build a completely
new system, keeping this one (based on an ASUS P5GPL-X-SE, 3 Ghz P4
uniprocessor and a gig of RAM) as a spare.

Incidentally, here in GB, I've noticed that my preferred vendor
(Microdirect) is out of stock of many of the better (>$100) graphics
cards that are given a good rating by previous buyers, and many of the
highly-rated 1 Gig RAM cards. Is there a chip shortage?
 
Then you get the fun of choosing ALL the new components, and spending $2000 or
so! :-)
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Yep! It's cost £814 for case, PSU, cooler, 2x HDD, M/B, CPU, 4x RAM,
DVD writer, graphics (ASUS 8800 GT 512 MB). About $1600.
Yes, you CAN spend a lot less than that, but every "I think I'll go a bit better
with this component" decision carves another chink out of the budget. My last
"upgrade" (saved the case and boot HDs) cost $1200 less $300 I got for the old
components...



No chip shortage that I am aware of... There is a new crop of cards on the
market, though, so different vendors may be trading old for new...
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They don't have any 10,000 rpm HDDs either.
 
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