What to look for in a GPU...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I've been doing some searching because i'm thinking of building and the closest i got to a card which suits me is the Sapphire Radeon 5770. I need one that can combines decent enough graphics and keep the power comsumption low so this one seems to fit the bill. Although i know little about these things this is what i gathered from reading forums like this one.

There are newer cards better in performance than this one i guess but when i look at their power usage on idle and full they seems high.

Cheapest i've seen the Sapphire Radeon 5770 is around £92.

What is your budget and what type of build are you looking at?? It might be worth starting another thread on it.

I would also look at this guide:

http://forums.hexus.net/pc-hardware/...er-2011-a.html

[simon66]

Thanks for the guide CAT-THE-FIFTH, i''ll take a real good look at that. I won't do anything untill after xmas so i've only got 4 things so far on my list. The graphics card i mentioned is one that is right up there. I tend to chop and change sometiimes after reading good and bad reports on parts. I should open a thread as you suggested, haven't figured out everything i want though.

I'm guessing under £500..if it's ok i'll just mention the processor on here..the i3 2100 because i'm not wanting to overclock.

[shaithis]

I won't do anything untill after xmas so i've only got 4 things so far on my list.

If your not thinking of buying for another 3 months+, you might as well start doing your research closer the time. A huge amount can happen in a quarter in this industry!

[simon66]

You're right shaithis, things do move fast. In regards to graphics cards, i hope one day they'll combine better performance with power efficency.

For me, that particular graphics card is a miracle to what i've got now and what i had. It's like watching a colour telly for the first time.

[kalniel]

You're right shaithis, things do move fast. In regards to graphics cards, i hope one day they'll combine better performance with power efficency.

That day arrived some time ago, if you want it

[simon66]

Hehe, do you mean the most recent ones kalniel?

I'm still in circa 2002 when it comes to cards at the moment

The thing is there are some slightly older games i never got to play, i'm talking 3 or 4 years. with this card i think i may be able to, at a reasonable level graphically.

[kalniel]

Hehe, do you mean the most recent ones kalniel?

I'm talking a few years back really. Manufacturers tend only to persue performance at all costs in the very upper end cards. Most the cards below them in the range factor in power efficiency to a greater extent. It's always happened at the very low end, but a while back AMD started to concentrate on efficiency very heavily for the higher ends as well, from about the 4000 series, and cards like the 4770, 5770, 6870 are all supremely fast performers while being very efficient. nVidia caught up as well and the 460/560 are likewise very efficient for the performance.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

AMD do tend to have the edge for load power consumption though. The HD6850 1GB even comes in a bus powered version:

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...-released.html

I have not seen it for sale in the UK.

[EvanJackPenn]

Yeah, there are many cheaper cases than the 600T. I am buying it primarily as a luxury in my build. What's the point of having £1k of compoents, just to house them in a generic black box. It's stylish, has a good airflow, and provides great e-peen. It's all I want. However, £135 is quite steep. Scan were listing it at £115 which was more tempting. I was otherwise looking at something like a Coolermaster CM 690 II Dominator, it's quite generic though.

PSU wise, I thought Corsair did use Seasonic too? Is there any particular reason you'd reccomend the Antec, or even the 650W variant, over the Corsair? I'm not planning to SLI/Crossfire, or have a ton of drives. I'm looking at a 6950/560ti - ish card, a 2500k-ish overclocked, 1 optical drive, an SSD, a HDD, and a few fans. 650W should be suffice, I presume? And modular - I like tidy I'm not planning on getting new PSUs often - I am wanting it to last.

Thanks for all of the help.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Corsair use CWT now for most of their units. AFAIK,the AX range is made by Seasonic. Both good OEMs though.

BTW,the Antec is around £81 for the 750W with a blue LED:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...ps-12v-quiet-f

OTH,the 650W version is more than enough for around £69:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...-quiet-fan-atx

My mate has the 550W version of the PSU in his 600T:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...-quiet-fan-atx

The HX650W is not worth £26 more than the Antec Truepower New 650W IMHO. The only main advantage is that it has a fewer hard wired cables,however, since you are getting a 600T this is a moot point.

Edit!!

You did miss out on this PSU:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nzxt...9-scan-1014318

AFAIK,it was on clearance and the range the PSU is part off is meant to be quite decent. On top of it the PSU was also the right colour!!

[Pob255]

Generally I agree with Zak 33 here Graphics card is going to be the most changed item in most gaming pc's.
Build for now with what around now, you just cannot build for games which are not out on hardware which hasn't left the drawing board stage.

but I do have to pull him up on a couple of points.

to explain this..

Corsair.. great people.. don't make PSU's

they buy someones elses...

Antec make their own.

Umm Antec don't make there own psu's the ture power one you mentioned is made by Seasonic

And I do believe that the HX650w is still made by seasonic too

Silverstone Tech. Kublai KL02-B as a £60 case suggestion?
It was a nice case for it's time however the hard drive cage system is going to be in the way if you try to put a long graphics card in there
At £64 the Lian-li made LanCool K60 is a very nice option http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lian-...g-case-w-o-psu
and at £70 the coolermaster Storm enforcer is a nice option http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...usb-30-w-o-psu

[EvanJackPenn]

Corsair use CWT now for most of their units. AFAIK,the AX range is made by Seasonic. Both good OEMs though.

BTW,the Antec is around £81 for the 750W with a blue LED:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...ps-12v-quiet-f

OTH,the 650W version is more than enough for around £69:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...-quiet-fan-atx

The HX650W is not worth £26 more than the Antec Truepower New 650W IMHO. The only main advantage is that it has a fewer hard wired cables,however, since you are getting a 600T this is a moot point.

What hard wired cables would there be? I'm assuming this is semi-modular then? I don't particuarly want the blue LEDs - I'm not awfully fond of lots of lighting in my case.

The £26 saved can go towards the 600T. I daresay my heart it set on it - which is never a good thing when it comes to shopping!

[Zak33]

OK, lets sort the Antec thing out first.

Antec are scrupulous on how Seasonic make their PSU's. Seasonic make for other people. It does not mean they use Antec's design or component list/supply.

But it doesn't make all Seasonic better or worse.

Antec are also made by Channel Well (CWT) and Delta too.

For Jo Blow from Idaho or Jo Public from England.. Antec are to be trusted. Period.

I shall hold to my advice

[Zak33]

And for powr use... modern stuff is amazing. right now I'm using a Phenom II at 3gig (which does a great job of undeclocking itself in low power use stuff like surfing) and a 6950 with 2gig, an SSD, a Hitachi Deathstar 1tb drive, a CD/DVD drive, 3 fans andnear silent it is using.....108watts

2 years ago a Quad Core 6700 with a 4870 at tickover was using nearly 180w

[Pob255]

Sorry I didn't mean that antec psu's are bad far from it just pulling you up on the "Antec make their own." comment.
Yes they have some input on the final product, most reptuable rebrands do.

Looking at the TruePowerNew it seems to be a Seasonic M12D rebrand.
The M12D, is a M12 where they replaced the +3v and +5v secondary with a VRM daughterboard and made it semi modular.
Seasonic has done a bit of tinkering, probably at antec's request, making the main PCB a bit shorter As the original M12D PCB was slightly bigger to allow for the extra components required in the 850w model, to do it they've moved the protection IC onto a separate daughterboard and a single primary capacitor rather than dual slightly lower rated primary capacitors.

The Corsair HX650w is a rebrand of the slightly older M12ii Bronze, which is still a very good PSU.

Ether would be very nice options and leave plenty of head room and life.

The hard wired cables on the M12D/TruePowerNew are
20+4pin motherboard cable
4pin ATX motherboard cable
8pin EPS motherboard cable (yes they have two separate cables instead of a 4+4pin ATX/EPS cable, one thing I don't like about this design)
Two 6+2pin pci-e cables
One cable with 3 sata plugs
The TruePowerNew varies from the M12D 750w in that it also has one additional cable with 3 molex and 1 floppy plugs on it.

The one thing I do like about this semi-modular design is that both units come with a whole load of additional cables, more than you can actually plug in, why is this good? because it gives you more flexability as to what you want in terms of molex/sata mix without having to buy additional cables.
And the base set of hardwired cables are pretty much what the majority of people will use (exception of the separate ATX/EPS cables as very few people would use both.)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What hard wired cables would there be? I'm assuming this is semi-modular then? I don't particuarly want the blue LEDs - I'm not awfully fond of lots of lighting in my case.

The £26 saved can go towards the 600T. I daresay my heart it set on it - which is never a good thing when it comes to shopping!

My mate felt the same and was debating whether to get a cheaper one. I did show him quite a few cheaper white cases but he still preferred the 600T. Have a good look round at other cases first and also at reviews too. If the 600T is what you want after this then get it.

BTW,the Antec Truepower New 550W seemed to be fine with the 600T. It should be fine with an HD6950 or GTX560TI and overclocked Core i5 2500K AFAIK.