Suspect PCpartpicker pitched a much bigger PCU than I need

A

Aarondv1

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Oct 13, 2014
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Will be building out a new system.
What I had in mind is a system that is stable & efficient

After selecting the board and the GPU, pcpartpicker suggested a 430W PSU.
I haven't built out a computer in a while, so maybe my familiarity is dated. but the one that I'm using is only 312 Watts. So, 430 seems a little large.

This Graphics card is better than the old one (and five years newer)
Is there a rule of thumb or way to guess the approx wattage needed for a system?

Below is the system
Everyday light-media use computer. (twin-monitor GPU because I have the space and always wanted to try hooking up another monitor for the work that I do)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zpj2NG
XBNKi
 
Thing is, 430 watts is about as low as you go for quality power supplies. Any lower wattage, and they're generally crap (there are a few good 350 watt ones, but they are generally more expensive and higher quality than the CX430).

Don't bother with that abomination GT640. Pick an A8 or an A10 APU, they have iGPUs that are at least on par with the GT640, at lower cost and power consumption. Yes, the A8 and A10 iGPUs are more than capable of driving two displays for media usage.

Before moving forward with this build, you should really consider asking for advice in the general hardware subforum. You will get much better guidance on what parts to get.
 
Aarondv1 said:
Thanks, will do.
is that this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113280

This CPU can replace the GT640 Video Card?
The reason I choose that GT640 is that I can get Dual monitors, I really want dual monitor setup on this system.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can run two monitors on the A10 series (They support 3 directly + 1 using Displayport chaining). I'd get an A10 with the "kavari" core if i were you because that is current. They're a good buy if you're going to use the iGPU. Current low-end GPUs really aren't worth buying. As for the power supply, remember that the wattage number is a maximum. It's not actually going to draw more power than your components are using.

Note: The A-series CPUs are socket FM2 so you'll need a different board.
 
If you can fit it in the case I'd spend the extra $10-15 for the hyper 212 cooler, just for the 120mm fan. The smaller fans drive me nuts :p
 
86 5.0L said:
If you can fit it in the case I'd spend the extra $10-15 for the hyper 212 cooler, just for the 120mm fan. The smaller fans drive me nuts :p
Click to expand...

If the specs are to be believed, the case is 8.3" deep, which is enough to accommodate a 212+/Evo.

Though the TX3 isn't really that loud, even under load. I prefer a Zalman CNPS5X myself, it looks nicer and it's easier to install in my opinion.
 
Right On,

Switched The GSkill Ram to 2133, strangley was a dollar cheaper for faster RAM.
(That was GSKILL Ripjaw X series; there is also PRO and Sniper Series that have the same specs but are priced differently)

Also Switched to Zalman Fan, Looks Like a more complicated peice of equipment but also cheaper and will follow your endorsement =)

Cheers

This is it, Ready to pull the trigger
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Xz7yTW
TEteO
 
Wait, are you reusing a GT 640 or buying a new GT 640? If the latter, how much are you spending on that GT 640?

Personally, I would not go with that Zalman fan due to its price: At $25 shipped (OutletPC's shipping prices don't show up on PCPartPicker), it's a bad value IMO. Speaking of bad values, that SSD is stupidly overpriced. You can get better quality and larger SSDs for less:
$95 - Samsung 850 Evo Series 250GB SSD

Do NOT pull the trigger. I think I might have a better setup for you depending on your answer to the above questions.
 
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I would look at a different board. For about the same price, you can have an ASRock Extreme6 or a Gigabyte UP4. I would take both of those over the MSI board.
 
Hi Dangman, thanks for all of your advice.

Yes, the Samsung SSD is a better buy, will go with that.
I already have a 3T hard-drive, I am just going to use the Solid State to install the OS and programfiles.

About the EVGA Video card,
I simply need a 2GB video card with a Dual-monitor setup. I need Double Monitors for work, no gaming.
My current six-year-old computer has a 1GB video card. I figured buying a new card with Dual monitor slots and 2GB (for two monitors) seemed reasonable
Current Video Card on old system looks like this, Has been doing fine for me for years
nbva5



What do you recommend for a Video Card? I'm totally open for whatever is good/cheap/new/two monitors.
Which CPU cooler would you go with?
 
Unless your current HD 5670 card is dead, just go ahead and reuse it with the new PC. Since you're not gaming at all, the extra VRAM doesn't matter. So you'll still be fine with a 1GB card. THat 5670 supports dual monitors as long as your monitors have the right ports. IIRC, the HD 5670 had a DVI port, DisplayPort and HDMI port. So your monitor just needs one of those those ports and you're fine.

Now because you already have a HD 5670 card, that literally kills the main reason to go with an APU: Decent integrated graphics. Consideirng that your planned usage is probably more single-threaded than multi-threaded, IMO, you're better off with this Intel setup:
$120 - Intel Core i3-4130 CPU
$82 - ASRock H97M Pro4 Intel H97 mATX Motherboard
---
Total: $202 shipped.

The Intel setup offers better single threaded performance which is more suitable for your planned use. Plus lower power use and slightly better upgrade path. IN addition, the stock HSF is decent enough that you really don't have to buy a 3rd party HSF. However, if you live in a hot area, then I recommend going with this HSF:
$35 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo HSF
 
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Dangman said:
However, if you live in a hot area, then I recommend going with this HSF:
$35 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo HSF
Click to expand...

There's absolutely no need for such an unwieldy and expensive heatsink even if you live in a hot climate. There are much smaller and cheaper coolers that will do the job just as good.
 
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GiGaBiTe said:
There's absolutely no need for such an unwieldy and expensive heatsink even if you live in a hot climate. There are much smaller and cheaper coolers that will do the job just as good.
Click to expand...
Unwieldy and expensive? Dude, $35 is cheap for a HSF that performs better than some $50 to $60 HSF out there. Not to mention that it's only unwieldy if you've never worked with anything but a stock HSF.

I have not seen any HSF, smaller and/or cheaper, that provides the same cooling performance as the Hyper 212 Evo.
 
Dangman said:
Unless your current HD 5670 card is dead
Click to expand...
Setup isn't dead, but I'm moving. From China back to Nashville. Selling this setup as is.

Plus, I'm looking forward to the fresh new system.
Are there any decent video cards that will fully utilize the Motherboard and Multi-Thread CPU (APU)?
Don't any of the multi-monitor video cards have two of the same DVI sockets？
They all seem to have different sockets on one card..
 
Aarondv1 said:
Setup isn't dead, but I'm moving. From China back to Nashville. Selling this setup as is.

Plus, I'm looking forward to the fresh new system.
Are there any decent video cards that will fully utilize the Motherboard and Multi-Thread CPU (APU)?
Don't any of the multi-monitor video cards have two of the same DVI sockets？
They all seem to have different sockets on one card..
Click to expand...

Unless you are gaming, there is no real reason for you to get a discrete GPU. There is no discrete GPU that can use a CPU/motherboard better than another. It all comes down to the software.
 
Dangman, Thanks for the great advice.
I needed to get up to date with AMD vs Intel setups. Also going to stick with the CPU cooler you recommended.

I choose this Video Card, just because there are so many to choose from but this one has two HDMI slots that I hope will work perfectly with the two LG monitors. The 2GB is a little frivoulos for my typical needs but I can always handle Video editing in the future if need be.

This is it, Can I pull the trigger now?
 
Aarondv1 said:
Don't any of the multi-monitor video cards have two of the same DVI sockets？
They all seem to have different sockets on one card..
Click to expand...
Yes they do. However nowadays, DVI is slowly being phased out for smaller and/or more advanced display connectors like HDMI and Displayport.
Aarondv1 said:
Dangman, Thanks for the great advice.
I needed to get up to date with AMD vs Intel setups. Also going to stick with the CPU cooler you recommended.

I choose this Video Card, just because there are so many to choose from but this one has two HDMI slots that I hope will work perfectly with the two LG monitors. The 2GB is a little frivoulos for my typical needs but I can always handle Video editing in the future if need be.

This is it, Can I pull the trigger now?
Click to expand...

No. Just try the onboard video first and then see for yourself if you need a 3rd party video card. As Tsumi said, you don't need to get anything better than onboard video since you're not gaming. In addition, if you're willing to spend extra money for something frivilous, that means you can afford to actually get something worthwhile. So I recommend upgrading the CPU to this:
$190 - Intel Core i5-4590 CPU

Get this PSU as well:
$62 - XFX TS Series 550W PSU

Again, do not get that 3rd party video until you've tried out the onboard. Yes the onboard is capable of handling three monitors. With the above CPU and PSU changes, go buy.
 
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Right on! Makes Sense, Will cancel the Video Card and get one later if I even need one at all. I was a little skeptical because in the past when I've built a system and when OS loads for the first time without Video Card Drivers (i.e., without Video Card function), it's super slow to even move the mouse.
I guess mother boards have come a long way.

However, you threw me off with the PSU. I like the corsair because they are modular and will not need to plug in the extra wires that I'm not using.
Also, when I pluged-in everything (even with the video card) the Wattage is still way below 430w..
w226u
 
The XFX is a much superior PSU in every way. Also, the CX430 in your list is not the modular CX430M.
 
Aarondv1 said:
Right on! Makes Sense, Will cancel the Video Card and get one later if I even need one at all. I was a little skeptical because in the past when I've built a system and when OS loads for the first time without Video Card Drivers (i.e., without Video Card function), it's super slow to even move the mouse.
I guess mother boards have come a long way.

However, you threw me off with the PSU. I like the corsair because they are modular and will not need to plug in the extra wires that I'm not using.
Also, when I pluged-in everything (even with the video card) the Wattage is still way below 430w..
Click to expand...
As Tsumi noted, that XFX PSU is a far higher quality PSU than the Corsair. Again, you were willing to spend extra money on something you didn't actually need. At least a higher quality PSU is worth buying .

But yes, OSes have come a long way. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 aren't so sluggish without video card drivers.
 
Hmm, Might still go with the modular Corsair.
I've been using an offbrand Chinese PSU (312W) and it's still going strong...
Thanks for the input.


Have an off question,

Can a CPU heat-sink that is way too powerful cause damage to the computer?
Was reading about this in a craigslist ad, but I didn't think that a heat-sink can cause damage... To Hot is bad, but the colder the better right?
 
Aarondv1 said:
Have an off question,

Can a CPU heat-sink that is way too powerful cause damage to the computer?
Click to expand...

No, but a heatsink that's too heavy or puts too much pressure on the CPU can crack the die or warp the motherboard.
 
Aarondv1 said:
Hmm, Might still go with the modular Corsair.
I've been using an offbrand Chinese PSU (312W) and it's still going strong...
Click to expand...
Just because you've been lucky doesn't mean that you should keep tempting fate like that. There are people that eat nothing but fast food and seem healthy. Doesn't mean that other people should follow and/or that you should continue doing so. Again, higher quality trumps modular lower-ish quality.

You have a brand new PC. Might as well treat it right.
 
Again, do not get that 3rd party video until you've tried out the onboard. Yes the onboard is capable of handling three monitors. With the above CPU and PSU changes, go buy.
Click to expand...

Just from a learning standpoint how do you connect up to 3 displays to onboard video? that would mean he could even run without a video card at all correct?
 
primetime said:
Just from a learning standpoint how do you connect up to 3 displays to onboard video? that would mean he could even run without a video card at all correct?
Click to expand...

z97-chipset-diagram.png


3 independent display support. Just need a motherboard with the proper connectors.
 
Tsumi said:
z97-chipset-diagram.png


3 independent display support. Just need a motherboard with the proper connectors.
Click to expand...

That last part is key. We have some Dells here at work that technically could support 3 displays, but Dell made sure not to add the extra connector on the motherboard. The space is there for it, and there is even a knockout on the IO shield for it, but they never soldered on the additional connector...
 
I guess if i were him i would make sure to get a board that does just that. Did you guys already suggest a board with this ability? Just seems like a smart move to me;)
 
primetime said:
I guess if i were him i would make sure to get a board that does just that. Did you guys already suggest a board with this ability? Just seems like a smart move to me;)
Click to expand...

Of course I did: The Asrock H97M Pro4 mobo that I recommended earlier has HDMI, DVI, and VGA connectors on the motherboard.
 
Dangman said:
Of course I did: The Asrock H97M Pro4 mobo that I recommended earlier has HDMI, DVI, and VGA connectors on the motherboard.
Click to expand...

BTW, don't worry about DVI vs HDMI. All HDMI monitors support the DVI protocol and all HDMI graphics ports support the DVI protocol.

As long as the monitors you get have DVI or HDMI, you can get an adapter from fleabay for $1 shipped for the one that needs to adapt port types.
 
Aarondv1 said:
Also going to stick with the CPU cooler you recommended. This is it, Can I pull the trigger now?[/URL]
Click to expand...

Well, not to hijack your thread, but if you are serious about getting an Evo212+ AND saving a few bucks too, I will have one for sale next week for a good price.....

It has worked great for me for ~6 months, but I am going to O/C & stress test my cpu soon so I have purchased an AIO water cooler which will arrive on Saturday/Monday...

just a thought :D

And about the psu thing....I've been using the Corsair CX500w & 600w versions for quite a while now and have had ZERO issues with either of them while running machines with much higher specs than the one you are building......I know there are better ones out there but I got good prices on mine so I'm a happy camper !
 
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