Sisters 7 year upgrade AMD build

[ajones]

Be careful though, a PSU that blows *can* take the motherboard and sometimes other components with it, and PSUs do become more unstable with age. I guarantee that 5 year old PSU won't be able to handle itself the same way it did when it was first made

You're rolling the dice...

I definitely agree that you shouldn't skimp on the PSU. I've been bitten myself in the past with a cheapo PSU that came with the case taking out pretty much the entire system. But on the other hand, the Tagan is a decent PSU, which whilst old, I would expect to die gracefully - and let's face it, that's what you pay for when buying a good PSU. I've only recently retired my Tagan 480, and that was only because I'd chopped the cabling to gobbits and wanted a modular one!

[stevie lee]

looks like my sister will need a new PSU then (maybe), its just a question of modular or non modular.


recap.

PSU either Antec HCG 520W or the Antec TruePower New 650W or sothehing else.
mobo Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3
graphics sapphire 6850 from wherevers cheaper and if she has to wake up at 7.30 am and hang about nearfront door all day for someone who may or may not come, so be it.
ram 2x4gb at some unknown voltage, i will have to check myself.


you can leave the thread here, and ill revist it once my sister decides on final budget. and./or bulldozer is revealed.

thanks for the help. you have been helpfull, even though we havent exactly reached a final spec yet.

[Behemoth]

To be fair mate, a decent 550/600 watt PSU will be fine.

An OCZ StleahtStream Powers my Unlocked Phenom X2 555, GTX 460 and 3 HDD's really well. The GTX 460 is quite a bit more power hungry than the 6850 too.

[Ultima2876]

If you go with someone who delivers by DPD like Scan, they will give you an hour timeslot when your delivery will arrive and it's almost always in the afternoon (1pm-4pm). Maybe someone can confirm whether Ebuyer's postage has a similar setup?

[Behemoth]

Be careful though, a PSU that blows *can* take the motherboard and sometimes other components with it, and PSUs do become more unstable with age. I guarantee that 5 year old PSU won't be able to handle itself the same way it did when it was first made

You're rolling the dice...

Not a case of rolling them but giving them a damn good shaking !

[Pob255]

RAM voltage will not matter, it's the intel cpu's that are picky, the AMD memory controller was built to the old spec and should be able to cope with up to 1.8v on ddr3 if I remember correctly

Most of the ram that runs at 1.65v is basically using slower chips but pushing the voltage up to keep the higher speed stable.
If it's 1600mhz 1.65v then you can bet it's actually 1333mhz 1.5v memory.

On the PSU, yes that Tagan PSU should be ok, when it was new, after 6 years of service it might not be able to still do those numbers.
I'd play safe get a new one and keep the tagan as a spare just incase.

[Kumagoro]

Even with a new PSU you are rolling the dice, in fact more so as it is an unknown.

I think you might as well try it out first, its not like its a q-tec.

I just saw in another thread MSIC saying the following.

My personal experience of an ASUS CU 6850 is that it is very quiet indeed - it replaced my passively cooled previous card, and i cant hear any difference (my PC is also in our family living room).
It cost me £140, and my 430W PSU is happy to power that plus my overclocked Q6600 with no stability issues.

You can check his system specs under his avatar. His PSU is a Tagan Easycon 430W according to that.

http://forums.hexus.net/graphics-car...ml#post2051846