What PSU?

[staffsMike]

8800 GTS 640MB ...around £225 if you get lucky or £250 anywhere you can think to buy one.

It will laugh at any game at 1680x1050 (20"-22" screen) or lower.

[StaffsKieran]

I say go with the 8800gts and a corsair 620w PSU steer clear of the Hiper type r PSU's their load voltages are all over the place. I had one go on me and it took my Motherboard with it.

[Thorsson]

My system (5 harddrives - 6300 - one poor gfx card) is powered by a Hiper 580W Type-R Modular, which seems to be very nice. Would recommend it.

No. No. No. Stay away from Hiper. Dodgy rails, frequently fails.

[Clunk]

No. No. No.

There's no liiiiiiiiimiiiiiits.

[DreadedBeastie]

is 640mb really necessary? i only have a 19"monitor. Correct me if im wrong but i thought the ram on a graphics card only mattered at really high resolutions

[staffsMike]

at 19" the 320mb will be fine.

and the GTX would be the biggest waste of money in your life lol

[bfbf]

at 19" the 320mb will be fine.

and the GTX would be the biggest waste of money in your life lol

More performance I think it is 30%+ more performance over the GTS. Be useful with games like cysis.

I would agree the 8800GTS would be the more sensible choice it was just the "biggest waste of money in your life" bit I did not agree with

[kalniel]

I'd go for the 320mb 8800GTS. Will get you better performance than 2x1950pro in crossfire, for quite a bit less money.

The corsair 520W is still enough power, but if you wanted to be 'future proof' then head up to the 620 unit.

[Blitzen]

thanks for that.

the main reason for the p5b is the wifi capabilities, and the number of pci-e's.

Clunk, i really want the best i can get for the cash so if the 8800gtx is better who am i to argue?

AW9D-MAX is Wifi and if you are adamant to go Crossfire, its a 975x aswell.

More performance I think it is 30%+ more performance over the GTS. Be useful with games like cysis.

I would agree the 8800GTS would be the more sensible choice it was just the "biggest waste of money in your life" bit I did not agree with

I dunno where you got that from but its incorrect!
On a 19" monitor there is no performance advantage to 640mb over 320mb (i wrestled with this one). On some benches the 320mb actually performs better than the bigger brother at these res's,

[DreadedBeastie]

i've had a look round and realisticaly now crossfire does look a bit pants, for the mo'. As for future proofing, if i went with a 8800gts 320mb is there a better sli capable mobo, just in case?

[aidanjt]

Any 650i or 680i based board will support SLi properly, however the chances of you needing it within the cards lifetime are slim.

[amjedm]

As your original question was about the psu - I recommend Corsair/Seasonic/Enermax.

Go for the 520 Corsair unless you can afford the 620.

[Blitzen]

SLI or Crossfire is a waste of cash imho.

You can buy a top of the range card for under £400 (cheaper than 2 SLI average cards) and the 1 top range card will outlive the motherboard. It will also outperform the SLI set up.

Unless you have money to burn on 2 top of the range cards why bother?

[StaffsKieran]

i've had a look round and realisticaly now crossfire does look a bit pants, for the mo'. As for future proofing, if i went with a 8800gts 320mb is there a better sli capable mobo, just in case?

Any 650i or 680i based board will support SLi properly, however the chances of you needing it within the cards lifetime are slim.

I don't think you can SLi 2 8800's on a 650i board as the 8800 need a full 16x pci-e slot each were as the 650i only has 2 8x slots when in sli.

[DreadedBeastie]

Fair enough, i was just unsure. Thanks for all the advice, A 8800gts 320mb and the p5b it is, oh and the 620 corsair psu. Problem solved

[aidanjt]

620W is overkill, but you could do worse. Personally I think Tagan PSUs are better quality, but that can (and is often) debated at great length.