I currently have a good quality (TAGAN) 550W PSU and thinking of building a new system

The old PSU was fine for a dual Xeon with some 10/15k SCSI discs and a PATA drive, but will it still be enough for a system based on a Q6600 and X38?

Reason I ask is I'd like to not pay for a 1kW supply if it isn't needed at over £100 for a decent one.

Ta in advance

It should be fine... i was using a 500 watt hyper psu on mine with Q6600, 2GB ram and 8800GTX and that was fine... only blew because a fan broke and it over-heated! (thought it got quieter!)

But if you want to be on the safe side im currently using a Thermaltake Toughpower 700W Toughpower clicky

And its great... incredibly quiet... never audible no matter what im doing on the pc... gaming etc!

But the 550 tagan should be fine... imagine it will be capable of supplying its full wattage constantly!

It claims to be.

System I am thinking of is:

- Q6600

- 4GB DDR2

- 2 * 500GB HDD's 7k2 HDDs.

- 8800 GS or 8600 GTS

- DVD ROM & DVD +/-R

- Usual bits and pieces.

If I budget 150W for GFX, 150W for CPU and 25W each for HDD (Spin up) that gives me about 350W so about 200w for all the other bits.

Hopefully that should all be good.

Should have a lot of parts to sell soon too from an old system or a complete server.

The main thing is the quality. A cheap 500W often isn't as able to supply lots of clean power as a quality 300W.

Well the Tagans are good supplies and I think the one i have can sustain 480W supply and will peak at 500W for 60 seconds.

It worked for a Dual Xeon with SCSI rig as said above.

Will have to check when i get home but looks like it might not be a 550w from a quick search. Grrr etc

I'm running a 650W Silverstone on an ASUS Striker N680 with 2 8800GTX cars in SLI and an Aegia Physx card as well as 4 disks, 2 WD Raptor's in RAID 0 and 2 Seagate Barracuda's in RAID 1 and not had any issues with it at all.

I was going to go for a 1KW, ut changed at the 11th hour to the silverstone, and passed the 1KW PSU over to my brother in law (along with the bill )

Personally, I think PSU's are were quality rather than quantity reigns supreme

Ok that's good, nobody can see me overly stressing a 500W supply for now then.

Bonus.

I got

6600 quad

asus maximus formula

7950gx2 gtx

320 hdd

160hdd

2 opticals

floppy

x fi sound card

5/6 fans

o/c'ed to 3.6ghz

2 gig ram

All running off a 500 fsp blue storm and never misses a beat

HTH

Just make sure you go for the G0 steeping Q6600... lower power consumptio and less heat outpu... generally cheaper too!

If the supply can handle 2 xeons then it can handle a Q6600!!!

My thinking exactly. That's a bonus that is £100 that can be saved for later then.

I'm going for a G0 stepping, but anybody any thoughts on the Fan to go with it? I'm thinking of the following bits

Antec P182 Case

Asus Maximum Formular (DDR2) X38 mobo

OEM G0 stepping *6600

2 or 4 * 1GB 1066MHZ DDR2

Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

8800 GS 384MB or 8600 GTS 256/512MB GFX

Any comments against or for these.

My contratins on the mobo are must be intel chipset that supports PCIe 2.0 and the caps must not be the electrolytic type.

I just want something fairly quiet and good enough for every day plus an occasional game. Hence not being too fussed about graphics.

Artic cooling 7 pro is what I use 3.6 @50c average, can' go wrong for £14

It creeps up a little when gaming but still well within the limits. And it's quiet

thats pretty much what I am running what you have specced. I am currently sniffing around the antec p182 as well, but will wait for my Bday me thinks

About the cooler... depends how fussy you are about noise....

Im using an Antec P180 case as the moment and its ace!

Personally i would go for something that can accomodate/has included a 120mm fan.

Im using the standard tri-cool fans that came with the case with this cooler :

Evo 120

And is perfect for the p180/p182 case as i have it so that it draws cool air direct from the top hole... with a dust filter squeezed in between too.

See pic:

Another one that is pretty good and can accomodate a 120mm fan is the scythe ninja and gets good reviews.

Scythe Ninja

Mobo seems good... either of those gfx cards should do the trick if you're going to be playing games from time to time... another one to consider though is an 8800gt.

Hope this helps...

phil

EDIT:

Forgot to say that with my cpu cooler... i average around the 34 c mark on the cpu idle and around 40 c load so its pretty cool... thats with the fan on lowest speed.

Would also recomend a silent/quiet version of one of those gfx cards or get a better cooler like me...

The 8600 would be a silent version, the 8800GS I'd do a cooler if it was an issue. The 8800GT is quite a lot more than the GS and quite hard to find in stock. What is the advantage of the 8800GT over the GS?

How quiet is that case as I currently have a hulking great full server chassis made out of what feels like nuke proof grade steel (2-3mm thick)

It's a great case but not the quietest, which is why I was looking at the P182

The 8800GT i believe has just got better performance while not being a huge amound more expensive.

TBH i would just go for the silent 8600GS or 8800GS with a cooler (the standard coolers can be pretty noisy and don't actually cool to good either!)... but if you plan to play games from time to time then you need to be going as high as possible otherwise its not worth it IMO.

In regards to the case it is a very quiet case ive found... and very well built....

The only issues i've found with it are:

- Cables from PSU have to be pretty long to reach CPU connector on MB (i had to buy an extension from pc world)

- The tri-cool fans are poo (not quiet by any means and don't actually move much air)

- No matter how you route the cables through the sliding slot thing its gonna look messy! (try and route all cables round the back as i have... PM me with any probs... i ve done a few mods to allow me to get all the cables round the back).

Other than that i would recomend this case as the quality is very good and with some decent fans in (im going to upgrade to some sharkoon silent eagles) it will be quiet as anything.

Hope this helps... and good luck with your build.

Phil

Quick Q, are the fans in there 80 or 120mm.

I've already got some very quiet 80's and 120mm fans so could be a saving for me

They are 120mm fans that come with the case.

Have just installed my Sharkoon 120mm "golf ball" fans...

They're quite a bit quieter but push loads more air through...

Forgot to add to post before... with this case.... CABLE TIES ARE YOUR FRIEND!!

Have got everything cable tied up at the back of the case... pic to follow!

Philje123

I know I'm hijacking but.........

Honest opinion on the P182 mate, how do you rate it

Well... mine is a p180... not sure of the differences at all but believe they're pretty much the same.

Its a solid case and the build quality is far superior to the cheapo cases i've had before... but it seems that no matter what fans are in the case i get a resonance throughout that goes when the fans are stopped.

I am getting a fan controller soon though as it goes when the fans are reduced in speed.

But in all honesty i love it... looks really smart in itself and its pretty quiet and as said above great built quality.

You may need to, as i have done, get a little hack saw out to the back part of the case in order to route the cables round there instead of through the hole between the two chambers.

If you can get it at a good price... get one.

Feel free to PM me regarding further info etc.

Phil

Its a solid case and the build quality is far superior to the cheapo cases i've had before... but it seems that no matter what fans are in the case i get a resonance throughout that goes when the fans are stopped.

Phil

Do you reckon a little dynamat type stuff may help i.e. damping the side panels

Yes it could help a little... but that stuff generally just getes rid of higher frequency noise from fans and not low frequency resonance unless you get some really thick stuff.

I have a small piece on the bottom of the top chamber to block the holes up.

Phil

EDIT: Ah! The sweet smell of a thread hijack!! tehehe

The p182 comes with damped side panels.

I've just kept the monster tower (as per the feeler thread) for my own PC. I put another one in a P182 and have to comment that while I love the easy access drive bays etc, how little room in there in it?

Especially for taking a big PSU.

I'll be selling some bits soon anyway, so keep your eyes peeled for some high performance PC bits and some odd bits too.

Yeh not the biggest case to work with... but i like it and with it being quite small inside you can get things looking pretty tidy in there.

I mean one thing that sums it up is that you can't use the upper hard drive cage if you have a GTX graphics card! lol

Will keep my eyes peeled!!!

Phil

You can't use either HDD tray without extremely flexible PSU connectors if your GFX card takes an additional power connector.

I'm using a Enermax 400+w Modular PSU for a QDS3, Q6600, 2GB RAM, 7900GTX and 2 HDs

I have the Enermax Chakra case.

You will need a beefier PSU though for an 8800GT which is one of the best cards out.

Custom PC have a buyers guide, worth having a flick through at your local supermarket/newsagents

All done now thanks