Novice Question

[Sebastian]

First time building a computer and such. Have upgraded and have done lot's of things software wise ie Programming. But I haven't built a computer from scratch which is what I doing now. I was wondering how can I determine how big of a power supply I need? And if possible If I get a very large power supply and my computer doesn't need that much power what will happen?

[Avarice]

corsair have a handy little calculator here which can help you determine how many watts you will need, not 100% accurate of coarse but will give you a fair idea of what you will need. But if you get a 600W psu and you only need ~400W the remaining power will just sit there till you find a use for ie:more hard drives a second video card etc....

[Sebastian]

corsair have a handy little calculator here which can help you determine how many watts you will need, not 100% accurate of coarse but will give you a fair idea of what you will need. But if you get a 600W psu and you only need ~400W the remaining power will just sit there till you find a use for ie:more hard drives a second video card etc....

Oh good. Thanks for that, I was just thinking that If I had to large of a PSU then it would fry some components and such. And I'll check out the calculator.

[kamacarzi]

i just built an i5 rig for 1020 built software (windows 7 ) from Tekhead i can get you in touch with them if you want... my sig had the rig specs

[Sebastian]

Current System Specs.

2 x 19" Monitors
1 x 21" Monitor
2.8ghz Pentium D
ATi Raedon HD4670
3 x 256mb DDR Ram
1 x 512mb DDR Ram
400w Power Supply
1tb SATA HDD
Some crappy $15 wireless card
DVD/CD/R-RW Drive/Burner

That's all the current parts I have brought. I'm still waiting for some SATA Cables to come so I can use my HDD. But would this sytem be able to play MW2 on High? On 1 of the monitors either the 21" or 19"? When not gaming I'm using all 3. Oh and don't ask why I just didn't get 1 big monitor as 1 was given to me by my dad and the other 2 I got for free from school.

[kamacarzi]

MW2 min specs

System Requirements                 

• OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor or better supported
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT or better
• DirectX®: Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive space
• Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
• Internet: Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet Connection required for activation.
• Co-op/Multiplayer Hosting: To host Co-op or MP matches, a 2Ghz dual-core or better processor is recommended.                     
  

your cpu may be the only let down but you wont  get it on HIGH at all
       

[Sebastian]

MW2 min specs

System Requirements                 

• OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista (Windows 95/98/ME/2000 are unsupported)
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor or better supported
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT or better or ATI Radeon 1600XT or better
• DirectX®: Microsoft DirectX(R) 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 12GB of free hard drive space
• Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
• Internet: Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet Connection required for activation.
• Co-op/Multiplayer Hosting: To host Co-op or MP matches, a 2Ghz dual-core or better processor is recommended.                     
  

your cpu may be the only let down but you wont  get it on HIGH at all
     

At my current specs what would I be able to run it on? It's better then running it 680x460 on low everything on my craptop.

And a dirative of my previous question. If I upgrade my CPU to 3.2ghz or higher would I be able to run it on high? I'm fairly sure, that the $85 graphics card I've got can run it on high as I've seen youtube videos of it.

Oh and look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpRz2Vzm5uQ
A guy running the same graphics card but even more horrible specs then mine on high and is getting 15-60 fps. Which on my craptop I get about a max of 10.

[kamacarzi]

got to
http://store.steampowered.com/
it has min specs for all the games it list just find a game  scroll down and there will be min specs listed

[Luke]

Ok where do i start

Yes your system is capable of playing MW2 but you really really need some more/better ram
a HD4670 would be capable of playing it
TBH i had troubled maxing out the settings on MW2 @ 1650x1080 and i have have a 3ghz Quad and 2x9800GT's in SLI (i think that game hates SLI)
2.8 Pentium D Well atleast it is dual core but still nothing in performance to the Core2 to range
1.6Ghz Core2 would walk over it
1 core form my Core2Quad would be faster then a PD(Pentium D)

So if you want to do a upgrade you should look at i5 4Gb (Maybe 8GB) ram and something like a HD5750 or HD5770

And then you should be able to play all current games maxed out

I think that should cover enough for this post

[Sebastian]

Ok where do i start

Yes your system is capable of playing MW2 but you really really need some more/better ram
a HD4670 would be capable of playing it
TBH i had troubled maxing out the settings on MW2 @ 1650x1080 and i have have a 3ghz Quad and 2x9800GT's in SLI (i think that game hates SLI)
2.8 Pentium D Well atleast it is dual core but still nothing in performance to the Core2 to range
1.6Ghz Core2 would walk over it
1 core form my Core2Quad would be faster then a PD(Pentium D)

So if you want to do a upgrade you should look at i5 4Gb (Maybe 8GB) ram and something like a HD5750 or HD5770

And then you should be able to play all current games maxed out

I think that should cover enough for this post

Well I am going to focus on making my computer more powerful in the near future. Considering I got everything for about $300 I'm not going to complain.

Thanks so much for everyone's help.

[kamacarzi]

so my rig plays MW2 on highest and NFSS on highest and CRYSIS on highest ummm.... all games to date on highest

rig specs

Product/Service
 Intel core i5 750 @ 2.66 ghz (o.c. to 3.20ghz on stock cooling )
Gigabyte GA‐P55‐UD3 Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws F3‐10666CL7D‐4GBRH (2x2GB)
DDR3
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB WD5001AA
Gainward GeForce GTS 250 512MB Green Editio
Vantec ION2+ N Series 600W
LG GH22NS50 SATA DVDRW OEM
CoolerMaster Elite 330

$1020 built with windows 7 ultimate delivered to my front door all installed and with software that you may need

Plug for TekHead (where i ordered from) if you want there email just ask   

[Crusader]

Assuming Ava's still selling his CPU, I was going to get it for $100'ish. Pair that with my spare motherboard, and you've got a decent system. The mobo has basic level Crossfire as well so you could easily add another HD4670 for when you need more power. Would be at least $200 for both though. This setup would completely destroy any Pentium setup.

Wouldn't be the biggest of upgrades, but would be far cheaper than going to an i5. You could even get some DDR2 800MHz RAM for cheap from most sites, 4GB would do you for now. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_218&products_id=12904

Done and done.

[Luke]

I have some spare DDR 2 800 as well

[Sebastian]

I have some spare DDR 2 800 as well

How big? And are you willing to spare a few? I'll pay.

Assuming Ava's still selling his CPU, I was going to get it for $100'ish. Pair that with my spare motherboard, and you've got a decent system. The mobo has basic level Crossfire as well so you could easily add another HD4670 for when you need more power. Would be at least $200 for both though. This setup would completely destroy any Pentium setup.

Wouldn't be the biggest of upgrades, but would be far cheaper than going to an i5. You could even get some DDR2 800MHz RAM for cheap from most sites, 4GB would do you for now. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_218&products_id=12904

Done and done.

So Ava has a CPU that will fit a motherboard you have?

[Crusader]

I have some spare DDR 2 800 as well

How big? And are you willing to spare a few? I'll pay.

Assuming Ava's still selling his CPU, I was going to get it for $100'ish. Pair that with my spare motherboard, and you've got a decent system. The mobo has basic level Crossfire as well so you could easily add another HD4670 for when you need more power. Would be at least $200 for both though. This setup would completely destroy any Pentium setup.

Wouldn't be the biggest of upgrades, but would be far cheaper than going to an i5. You could even get some DDR2 800MHz RAM for cheap from most sites, 4GB would do you for now. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_218&products_id=12904

Done and done.

So Ava has a CPU that will fit a motherboard you have?

Yes. He's got an E6750 Core2Duo. I've got an ASUS P5K-E Wifi mobo, even got 2x1GB DDR2 1066MHz RAM spare. I'll ask Ava if he's still going to sell his CPU.