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Yet another build check

Y

Yoy0YO

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 20, 2009
Messages
312
Building a PC for uni and research. She needs to have a bit of oomph but I don't want to break the bank. I've followed this forum for a while to ensure the parts of choice aren't going to fail me.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Uni word processing/research, Gaming, Web browsing, Downloading
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Difficult to say, NZ prices are higher than US, on top of that, retarded currency exchange
3) Where do you live?
New Zealand
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case/PSU, RAM, CPU, GPU, HDD,
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
All fresh n' new. Got a monitor and mouse
6) Will you be overclocking?
No, I'd like to keep it cool - due to the poor CPU placement, I'm going to stick with the stock cooler.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
23" 1080p monitor
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
in 3 weeks-1month's time
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Nothing special. Gigabyte's mini ITX w/ USB 3.0 is all I'm looking at
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
No, will be purchasing this as well


Parts in mind:
SG05 w/ 300w
Gigabyte H55N Mini ITX
Intel i5 750
4GB RAM - This is where I'm a bit unsure. I'm thinking of 2x2gb Kingston ValueRam - Do you know if these are any good?
Sapphire Vapor-x 5850
Velociraptor 600GB (boot+research+games)
WD Green 2TB

Its gotta be small so that I can move it between Home and Uni flat. I have a brilliant 15" CRT at home
 
Kingston RAM should be OK as long as the max voltage for that RAM is 1.65V.

I would not feel comfortable with that CPU and GPU all running off that 300W PSU. It only has 22A on the +12V rail. That's only 265W. Considering that the CPU + mobo + single HDD would use up around 140W at full load and the HD 5850 uses up to 165W at full load, that's a total of 305W for the the PC at full load. That'll definitely push the PSU to its limit.

Yes some people have done so on this forum but it can't be good for the longevity of the PSU or the PC itself.
 
I agree on the PSU. To keep size down & have room for the video card & a bigger PSU I would look into a Lian Li PC-Q08 case & a Corsair hx650 (only saying 650 there because corsair doesn't currently make a smaller modular PSU).

Cost is alot more then the sg05 alone, but so is what it can hold & the extra power from the PSU.
 
I was going to import the ST45SF as soon as I saw it available. Until then, I was planning to underclock/volt the CPU
 
Yoy0YO said:
I was going to import the ST45SF as soon as I saw it available. Until then, I was planning to underclock/volt the CPU
Click to expand...

Underclocking and undervolting the CPU still won't decrease power consumption by the 40W that you need.
 
It will help a lot actually.

Of course my measurements were taken from a kill-a-watt. Lowering the voltage on my overclocked i5 750 from 1.20v to 1.1v lowered power consumption by around 30w

When I started full load read 343w (prime + furmark on extreme burn mode)
At 1.15w it settled at 312w, haven't taken any numbers after going down to 1.10v.

Take in consideration that this stress test is far more demanding than typical gaming scenario.
 
If you want that build I suggest to hurry up.

DFI is killing the lanparty line and the rest of 1156 boards can't fit that heatsink. If you uses a corsair H50 and no 3.5" drives you could use any 1156 board out there. But you can't use the 2TB drive that you want that way.

If you get the 5850 i'd say stick to stock speeds and lower the CPU voltage as much as you can to ensure the PSU lives a long and happy life. Maybe later you can upgrade to the 450w PSU.
 
Yoy0YO said:
Thanks for your feedback. I was hoping to imitate this build that Strikeout did:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035435152&postcount=567

Danny, this is my first PC so your advice is really appreciated.
I don't really like the Lian Li case look. Its really not what I'm after.
Click to expand...

Well you have all the facts. People have used that PSU just fine with that PSU. Underclocking supposedly does save some amount of power. However there's a very good chance that PSU might not last too long despite the underclocking. The ST45F might hit your country in the future.
 
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