Another one of those upgrade threads.

[Gorgon]

Concerning the strange PCI-e numbers: These are the connectors of the PSU. 2x3 is a 6pin, 2x4 is an 8pin connector. The table shows the number of connectors available for each type and how many cards of the type in the title of the table are supported by the PSU.

Some of the PSUs are listed as having no 8 pin connectors. How are they supposed to power HDDs ?

[Gorth]

Concerning the strange PCI-e numbers: These are the connectors of the PSU. 2x3 is a 6pin, 2x4 is an 8pin connector. The table shows the number of connectors available for each type and how many cards of the type in the title of the table are supported by the PSU.

Some of the PSUs are listed as having no 8 pin connectors. How are they supposed to power HDDs ?

PCI connectors, not HDD connectors. Powerhungry Gfx cards (i.e.) requires a direct feed from the powersupply, so they get the cables with the PCI-e connectors. For drives, you would have SATA (can't remember their exact name) power connectors.

[samm]

Gorth's right. To illustrate, some pics of different power connectors:

Molex connectors for IDE-Drives (for older HDs, CD-ROM etc.): [o o o o]

SATA connector (for newer HDs, DVD burners etc.): ======

Edited July 23, 2008 by samm

[CoM_Solaufein]

Some of the later editions of that board support 1600 FSB.

 

Thought I would throw that in.

 

Good choice on board and processor.

[Gorgon]

So here is a stab at a budget power supply http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=07665

 

Its little brother, the 550 watt version, is on the Crossfire certified list for HD4850s, this one is not. Both are SLI Certified. It would be nice to save a little money, but there is a real danger of getting it wrong and ending up with stability issues. I mean who knows, there could be some detail with the amps & watts that make the difference.

 

Is 550 watts pushing my luck. Sounds like you need a degree in electrical engineering to figure this out. No wonder most buyers go a little overboard just to be sure.

Edited July 23, 2008 by Gorgon

[Gorgon]

Argh, screw it, I'm going with the Sherman tank PSU+Case from Antech. Not worth the hassle for so little money in difference.

[taks]

Is 550 watts pushing my luck. Sounds like you need a degree in electrical engineering to figure this out. No wonder most buyers go a little overboard just to be sure.

trust me, the degree doesn't help.

 

overboard is never bad when choosing a PSU, btw. it is also my opinion that a server case, or at lest a mid to full-size case is the best bet. i have not ever found the "quiet" cases to be anything close to quiet, nor can i deal with cramped and compact cases. i guess i'm biased, however, since i've always had a rather larger area in which my rig resides, so compact is not really necessary. i'm also used to noisy rigs, so quiet isn't an issue either. heck, you ought to hear the dell server cranking in my office right now. 1.5 TB of HDDs (5 each at 300 GB) screaming away plus two core2 xenons and associated monster fans pumping out the decibels*. jet engine is an understatement.

 

taks

 

* as a funny note that only an engineer would likely be amused by, the plural for decibel is decibels, but the plural for the abbreviation of decibel, dB, is dB, i.e., there's no s on the end of it. i was watching some movie the other day and a chick playing a scientist/engineer of some type referred to some measurement in terms of "dBs," which elicited an immediate comment from me (my wife hates it when i do that).

Edited July 24, 2008 by taks

[samm]

overboard is never bad when choosing a PSU, btw.

Imo it is but it's getting better with the first 80+silver psus showing up... I hate the server at work, why does it have to be in that stupid rack? If it was in a normal tower, it could be cooled so much quieter, instead it now has these jet engines of 50mm fans or something.

 

Gorgon: What sherman tank case? Antec's a quality brand, so I'd guess it'll be alright.

[Gorgon]

http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=09190

 

It's a 20 kg dual ps and case setup with a total of 1200 watt capacity. It costs about 15-20% more than what you would pay for a name brand 850 watt ps and case. The the case then is good value, and is reviewed positively on a few OC/ enthusiast sites, but the PS is definitely overkill for my needs. Although overkill = upgrade.

 

Antec doesn't make a 850 watt variant with the truepower quatro PS, or I would probably have gotten that.

 

The other Antec server case I'm looking at

http://www.antec.com/ec/productDetails.php?ProdID=01565 -

 

is 650 watt, but the PS ; 650 truepower trio is not on the certified list. http://game.amd.com/us-en/crossfirex_components.aspx?p=3

 

I'm worried that there is some little difference in the specs that will render it a poor choice.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Gorgon

[Gorgon]

The fact that the big one is split in two, one 650 watt for the board and one 550 for the drives and accessories should mean it is power efficient at lower loads, no ?

 

But then again theres two of them, like having two comps turned on instead of one.

Edited July 24, 2008 by Gorgon

[samm]

I have no idea how two PSUs are synchronized. Never tried, sorry...

 

The efficiency could also be lower if you split it. An example:

Let's say your computer uses 150W while surfing, 100W for board, CPU, graphics card, and 50 W for drives and whatever else needs power.

• Let's say a single PSU of 1100W has an effiency of 75% at 14% load (that's 150W). It will draw 150W/0.75 = 200 W out of its wall socket.
  
• Let's say the PSUs of 650W and 550 W have an efficiency of of 75% at 15% load (that's 100W for the 650W PSU) and 65% at 9% load (that's 50 W for the 550W PSU). They will draw 100W/0.75 + 50W/0.65 = 133W + 77W = 210W out of their wall socket.
  
• If you use only the 550W one alone, you'd be at 27% load already and thus in a better range for efficiency, nowadays over 80% for good PSUs. So at 80% efficiency it would draw 150/0.8 = 187.5W from its wall socket.
  

The efficiency percentages are fictional, of course, but it should just show that it isn't guaranteed that it'll save power to have two lower rated instead of one higher rated PSU. The good thing about the two is that you can run your PC with only one of them (possibly the 550W one, if it works as demonstrated in the example above) until you upgrade it sometime and you'll need the 650W one, or upgrade it even more until one isn't enough any more and you really need the 1.1kW

 

[edit]

Damn, 550W+650W is 1.2kW. But I'm too lazy to edit my na

Edited July 24, 2008 by samm

[CoM_Solaufein]

That case looks good and has some decent fans for air flow. That Maximus Formula motherboard will run hot and it needs all of the air flow it can get.

[Gorgon]

So **** hit the fan and my old box decided to die on me. Some builders working my building had been using heavy equipment and apparently used our grid. First the power was off in building, then it was on again, and then my old PSU started to trigger the auto shutoff everytime I turned the comp on. I guess the surge protector gave up or something. Anyway I can't get anything done without a comp, so I ordered everything on my list even though I prolly should have waited for the price shift with Nehalem.

 

Anywho, can I install a 32 bit windows version on 64 bit hardware ?, a friend said he could fix me up with a 64 bit win xp, but its dragging out.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Gorgon

[taks]

i wouldn't recommend a 64-bit OS yet since driver support is likely still pretty crappy. most processors have been 64-bit to some extent for quite a long time (floating point units, intel actually used an 80-bit or something), so in answer, yes, you can use 32-bit OS on 64-bit hardware.

 

taks

[samm]

I think drivers for 64bit OSs are not as big a problem anymore with new hardware.

[Gorth]

I haven't had any problems with 64bit so far

[Bokishi]

i wouldn't recommend a 64-bit OS yet since driver support is likely still pretty crappy.

 

Not true.

Edited August 7, 2008 by Bokishi

[taks]

last time i checked was when XP64 came out so my data is obviously outdated.

 

taks

[Bokishi]

These days, 64 is the way to go

[Gorgon]

Do you put thermal paste on the back of a core 2duo. The pamphlet is in a dozen languages and is exclusively legal mumbo jumbo, there are some drawings, and they don't show it, but who knows.

 

The back of the cooler, intel boxed, has a sort of striped pattern in gray goop that looks like it might be thermal conductor.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Gorgon

[samm]

If it is an adhesive thermal pad, which I strongly suspect, do not apply thermal paste!

[Gorgon]

It's more like a random smudge on the top of the fan+heatsink now after fidgeting with the plastic snap on assembly of the cpu fan.

 

Whoever thought that was a better idea than a set of screws ought to be shot in the heat.

[Gorgon]

Better keep a close eye on temps when I post and have a look at the bios

[taks]

It's more like a random smudge on the top of the fan+heatsink now after fidgeting with the plastic snap on assembly of the cpu fan.

 

Whoever thought that was a better idea than a set of screws ought to be shot in the heat.

agreed, intel has screwed the pooch on the CPU-to-mobo attachment. i am quite certain i broke my current mobo getting the darned thing in place. i NOW know how to do it without hearing all those noises, but only because i suffered the noises in the first place.

 

taks

[Gorgon]

Well everything posted, no sudden death moves from the hardware. The CPU registers as 62 degrees celcius while idle in the bios, the auto shutdown temp set by the mobo is 90 degrees celcius. Is this this an acceptable temp ?

 

Couldn't install though, the ancient CDRom was detected, but it couldn't spin up. It gave a few unsavory noises and just stopped, works just fine when I put it back in this box.

 

I thought about installing over a network, but I have no drivers installed on the new box, so that can't work. I guess a cheap CD/DVD drive is the next move.

Edited August 12, 2008 by Gorgon