Where and when should I go from here?

[Malfunction]

My current specs are in my sig....anyway...


I've been wanting to upgrade my PSU, which is currently a stock piece of shit that came with my tower. For along while I had my eye on a Thermaltake Silent Purepower 420w, but after recently hearing that a recommended PSU of 450w to run a 7800 GTX has me thinking of going for a 500w. By a good friend of mine's recommendation, he's suggested this, which he recently used in one of his friend's PCs.

http://xoxide.com/ultra-x-connect-500-watt.html

A bit pricey, but he said it was very easy to work with.

Suggestions?

Ok, PSU is done. Now, in my case I currently have two exhaust fans in the back, and one intake on the side. My case a spot for another fan in the front under my HDD bays, so I'm thinking I'll stick an 80mm fan for intake in the slot.

http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-186-109&depa=0

Suggestions?

Now that fans are out of the away, here comes my CPU/heatsink.

I have an A-64 3000+ 754 socket. Now, it's an ok CPU, but for a 64 bit, it's out of its league. I know my CPU is holding back my 6800 GT, because I've seen benchmarks of systems with the same card, but much better CPUs, running at a native 1600x1200 (like me) with very smooth frame rates, where as I, in some cases, get a slight slow down.

So, right now on my 3000+ I've been using that shitty stock heatsink, so I'm going to replace this heatsink with something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106038

I'm thinking I won't be upgrading my CPU for a long time, or at least not until the better 64-bits come down in price a little bit. Also, maybe I'm blind, but is that heatsink universal with 754 and 939? It doesn't seem to specify, so I assume it's compatible with both sockets.


So, anything anyone has to say is pretty much appreciated.

 

[duffers20]

Everything looks fine, nice looking PSU too. Wouldn't mind one of those modular PSUs

 

[Malfunction]

Ok, screw that first PSU.

Between these two, which do you people think would work better?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008

They're both around the same price, and they both look great to me. Noise isn't really an issue, as long as it doesn't sound like a jet engine or something.

 

[Dumb Dude]

I dunno man, that X-Connect PSU is very nice considering that you dont have to have a mess of cables and you only use the ones you need. I have that PSU and I am very pleased with it, makes the case cleaner and allows for nice airflow. Also, those prices seem a bit low (for those 2 you mentioned), I myself wouldn't cheap out on a PSU conisdering its a quite important component as it is what powers the whole system.

 

[Asus]

I've heard both good and bad about X-Connect. They really havn't been out there long enough to show their reliability though. Good design but it's up to you.

I have a Fortron 500Watt PSU which has one of the best reliability and efficency ratings. Although if you want 'cheap' without the unit being cheap then I'd look to Thermaltake. It would be better than the other PSU's in it's price range.

 

[Malfunction]

What I'm trying to do is prepare myself for the future, so after hearing that the 7800GTX requires something like a 450w PSU, I want a 500w. 480 is pretty close, but I don't know. And I'm not really interested in that fan control thing it comes with.

Also, my friend who recently built a PC for his friend used that same Ultra-X PSU, and he loved working with it. So I may go with that.

 

[Dumb Dude]

Well not too sure where you heard that about the 7800gtx. Its supposed to be less power hungry than a 6800ultra. I'm not saying to go by the "Minimum" specs on the box, but I'm just saying that perhaps the PSU you currently have is sufficient enough for the 7800gtx.

The power supply requirement for a single GeForce 7800 GTX is 330W, while a GeForce 6800 Ultra requires a 350W PSU. When you compare the performance of the GeForce 6800 Ultra with its power requirements to the GeForce 7800 GTX’s performance with its power requirements, you will find the 7800 GTX delivers much more frames per second per watt of power.

From: http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Nzg0LDI= Either way, anything is an upgrade from a PSU that came with your case.

 

[Ennui]

Your next step would to be to send me your graphics card. I'll give you my 6600GT. The lower the number the better it is, so I'm getting ripped off, hint hint, wink wink.

 

[Asus]

Maybe it's recommending higher because it takes more of it's power through the Molex connector than the 6800U. Or maybe it's the otherway around, takes more power through the PCI Express slot (6800U was known to take most of it's power from the 4pin Molex power connector).

 

[holydeadpenguins]

do you even have pci-e?

 

[bosox188]

Ok, screw that first PSU.

Between these two, which do you people think would work better?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008

They're both around the same price, and they both look great to me. Noise isn't really an issue, as long as it doesn't sound like a jet engine or something.

Definitely the Thermaltake over the Aspire. In fact that Thermaltake is the one I was about to recommend over the X-Connect.