(Yet Another) Power Supply Recommendation

[mercury529]

Hello Everyone,

I am in the process of building a new machine. I intend to overclock the CPU, but not press it too hard (3.2-3.4 at absolute highest). I intend for it to serve my purposes for programming/gaming for about 2 years when I will rebuild and try to keep as many components as possible (which probably won't be a ton with the switch to Nehalem and DDR 3).

Here is what I envision I will end up buying when all is said and done:

Case: Antec P180
Processor: Q6600
Video Card: 4850, 4870, or GTX 260 with no intent of running any X-Fire or SLI in the future
Mobo: P45-based most likely (RAID support, probably no X-Fire/SLI)
Hard Drives: 2xRaptor 74 gig in RAID 1
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
Other Drives: 1xDVD Writer

Given the current setup (let me know if you need any more info), I had two questions.

1.) What would be a good choice for a PSU at or under $80 for this rig?
2.) What would be a good choice for a PSU at or under $160 for this rig?
3.) Would advantages would the PSU in 2 have over 1?
4.) If I intended to keep the PSU for use in a new computer 2 years down the line, what would be a good choice for a PSU?
5.) What do you think would be cheaper in the long run: Buying a PSU from question 1 now and another PSU 2 years down the road to support a new, sweet-spot budget build OR buying a PSU from question 4 and using it when I rebuild in 2 years?

Thanks a lot for any help you can provide.

 

[Dangman]

1) Just $5 more than $80: Corsair 550VX 550W PSU - $85

2) BFGTech BFGR800WESPSU ES-800 800W PSU - $170

3) More power.

4) Either the Corsair 450VX or ES-800 would be a good choice

5) Neither options since it's hard to compute future power requirements that far in advance. There's a chance that there might be a $80 PSU in 2010 that performs just as well as or better than ES800. Or there won't be enough advancement to allow for a 2010 $80 PSU to compete with the $170 ES800. In addition, your new rig two years from now might not need a new PSU.