Need advice on gaming SFF build

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hybry

Weaksauce
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Oct 8, 2010
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What I am currently looking at is:

Silverstone SG06
ASUS M4A88T-I Deluxe mobo (I need WiFi, and this is one of the few boards that deliver that)
Phenom II X2 555 (or Athlon II X2 245e)
2 or 4 GB RAM
500 GB 2.5" HDD, I might upgrade that later.

I plan to put GTX460 or something from ATI 6xxx series in there around Christmas time. Until then the build will be a media PC build so I am hoping it will be quiet as well :)

My big worry is the 300W power supply! Will it be enough for that kind of setup?
Is it dangerous running the PSU at near 100% load for extended periods of time?

I looked at some Phenom 555 reviews and power draw ranges from below 200W to over 300W, same goes for GTX 460 reviews (250W to over 300W). In both cases the CPU or the GPU is different and they take the measurements at the wall so considering around 85% PSU efficiency everything below 330-350W should be fine.

If going with 555 is a close call would it be safe to go with 245e? Seems to shave 20 or so W.
 
Well, the GTX460 by itself draws under 150W at stock, and especially undervolted an X2 shouldn't be taking excessive amounts. So it should be doable. However, you'd need a molex-to-PCI-e converter cable for a GTX460, since it has two power connectors, while the PSU only has one. Also, the stock PSU isn't all that quiet, although as always, noise levels and their interpretation are subjective at best.
 
tvih said:
Well, the GTX460 by itself draws under 150W at stock, and especially undervolted an X2 shouldn't be taking excessive amounts. So it should be doable. However, you'd need a molex-to-PCI-e converter cable for a GTX460, since it has two power connectors, while the PSU only has one. Also, the stock PSU isn't all that quiet, although as always, noise levels and their interpretation are subjective at best.
Click to expand...

the adapter should not be a problem and thanks for the heads up.

And form what I understood on a low load, like when the system is idling, the PSU is quiet, is that true?
It only gets noticeable under load, and I do not care about noise then. It only needs to be quiet when idling.
 
Well, at idle it can be reasonably quiet, yeah. Unless you purposely silence every other component (like I do these days), you might not notice it over the rest of the system noise at idle. Suffice to say when I had my SG06 with a passive GPU and a passive GeminII CPU cooler (with PSU sucking air from it), the PSU was by far noisier than the 120mm front fan, and also noisier than the 2.5" HDD I was using.
 
You would cutting it very close with the X2 555:
123W - Phenom II X2 555 + mobo + single HDD @ full CPU load
135W - GTX 460 1GB @ full GPU load
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Total: 258W total.

A majority of PC parts draw power from the +12V rail. The Silverstone 300W PSU only has 22A or 264W on the +12V rail. So basically you're right at the limit of that PSU. And yes it is bad to stress a PSU @ 100% load for long periods of time.

Have you thought about going the Core i3 530 route? Granted you'll probably have to use a USB wireless adapter but the Core i3 setup would use a full 37W while providing higher performance. Sample build:
$200 - Intel Core i3 530 CPU + Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 Intel H55 mITX Motherboard
 
I thought it is a cost thing. But did some calculations and turns out Intel route will be only slightly more expensive.

And despite that is slightly worse for gaming I think that power saving will be a better thing though. And will be safer with regard to PSU. PSU noise is the only thing still worrying me.
On other hand, if I undervolt Phemom 555 by 10% that should also give me decent power savings on same performance.

I really liked the ASUS mobo though, Wifi, Bluetooth, and that. But it is good that both boards have USB3 :) HD4250 is better graphics as well, which should serve me better until I get proper graphics card.

How will the i3 530 cope with 1080p content? From what I understand Intel HD graphics should handle that alright.
 
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Supposedly Intel HD can't render properly 24p. The problem is that it can't render the exact 23.9xxx Hz frequency so there is a bit of stutter IIRC.

Apart from that 1080p no problem. And H55+ 530/540 is a good proposition IMO.

Also don't focus too much on Wifi. Buy a D-Link DWA-140 dongle (which comes with a 'dock') so you can place it wherever you want for optimal reception...
 
NichoTL said:
Supposedly Intel HD can't render properly 24p. The problem is that it can't render the exact 23.9xxx Hz frequency so there is a bit of stutter IIRC.

Apart from that 1080p no problem. And H55+ 530/540 is a good proposition IMO.

Also don't focus too much on Wifi. Buy a D-Link DWA-140 dongle (which comes with a 'dock') so you can place it wherever you want for optimal reception...
Click to expand...

It is just nice to have everything in one package. And I suppose I mostly I liked the AMD route because of the ATI vs Intel graphics choice. But looking at some reviews, it seems that i3 530 will be a better choice overall.
 
I hope that I will be able to get more money for the build in which case, I want to upgrade the case to Lian Li Q08. Which PSU would recomend purely from noise standpoint (less is better of course :) )
*Enermax Pro 82+ II 425W, price 61LVL
*Corsair VX series 450-550W Pirce just below 60LVL (450 and 550 cost around the same)
*Seasonic S12II 430W price 49LVL
any other suggestions in the price point are welcome
 
For a sff I like the silverstone strider series since the short cable kit is readily available (pp05 on newegg)
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