Spec me some graphical power, bitches.

[Stoat]

Courtesy of a daily deal at Scan, I've got me some bits with which to build a computer! I'm a bit stumped now though.
I'm in need of a graphics card. I'm interested to try out the onboard graphics on these new sandybridge boards but I can't imagine it's going to get me good frame rates in Hard Reset. I've no loyalty in the ATIMD/nVidia brand wars.
I'm also in need of a good power supply, but I'm not sure just how powerful they need to be these days. I was thinking ~700W, but there's some suggestion that's excessive and some that it's not enough. It'll eventually be powering an SSD and a standard HDD, on top of the usual gubbins.
Help me badger frotters, you're my only hope.

[Thompy]

AMD's 68xx/69xx are pretty solid across the board. Pick a card at your price point and you can't go too wrong. Personally I've been looking at a pre OC'd MSI 6850 for a middle of the road card. MSI are making good stuff these days.

Nvidia I think are some what less consistent. In the new range anything GTX 560 Ti and up will be good. The 550 slightly cheaper than a 6850 but is lacking in comparison. The old GTX 4xx range are still good and can be got for a good price but personally I wouldn't go for the old fermi architecture now.

PSU. Yes I'd say 700W is overkill. 500W as a minimum for a gaming system, 600W for some good head room. They're tricky things though so look for reviews with thorough testing. Some good ones will deliver above their rated wattage just fine, some might be unstable even below it. The quality of the power delivery is just as important as how much it gives. Corsair have some of the best at the moment if I remember right.

[Stoat]

Thanks, that's some solid info to go on. I'm trying to avoid brands I used last time, so a Corsair PSU is out. It's probably fine but I don't really have a way to test it. The card you linked looks nice enough, although it won't be in stock until next month.

[deject]

With regards to PSUs, I would stick to ones that have some level of 80 Plus certification. It's not a guarantee of quality but it does mean that they're going to be more efficient and that generally correlates to higher quality. My recommended brands of PSU are:

Antec
Cooler Master
Corsair
Enermax
PC Power & Cooling
SeaSonic
Sparkle Power

I'd stick to those for the most part, though I have heard of beQuet! who is supposed to be a good German PSU maker.

I'd definitely get something at least 650W so that you have some future headroom, as anything good you buy today should be good for 5-10 years, it's worth getting more than you need now. Plus PSUs are much more efficient at 30-40% load then at 70-80% load.

[buzzmong]

FWIW, I seem to remember the Corsair PSU's are made by Seasonic anyway.
But yes, I'd say aim for 600w+, at a cost of about £80-100.

Expensive, but worth it to get 'enthusiast level' power packs, not only for efficiency gains and failure protection, but they'll come shipped with better parts as well, ie, resistors with higher tolerances, and capacitors rated to 105c rather than the more common 80c etc...

[Dog Pants]

Does this mean you'll be playing games with us again? Do we get to see the Stoat Cannon again?

Wait, that sounds rude.

[deject]

FWIW, I seem to remember the Corsair PSU's are made by Seasonic anyway.

Yeah they are. Corsair branded stuff typically has more "features" on them.

Actually, most PSUs are made by the same 3-4 companies who account for the majority of PSU brands. The good brands come up with at least part of the designs, but a lot of the cheap PSUs are just commodity products. Corsair ones are basically bespoke for them by SeaSonic.

[Stoat]

Thanks for your help, bitches. Went with a Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 600W.
I think we have success- I'm writing this from USB-based Ubuntu!
I got a 'CPU not detected' message when I first turned it on, which was a bit worrying, but The Universal Fix worked.
I'll post my new specs in the thread when I get a graphics card. The on-cpu graphics are surprisingly snappy at 1080 for browsing.

[deject]

Thanks for your help, bitches. Went with a Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 600W.

phwoar!

[Stoat]

phwoar!

The box it comes in is fancier than my case. I'm not kidding.

[mrbobbins]

Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 600W

GOLD!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSq8ZBdSxNU[/media]