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Help me and my sister build a computer!

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SpacemanSpiff:

--- Quote from: Se7en ---Oh now that is a ridiculous comparison. I'm sorry, but i know how these magazines do things, ive written for them!

Comparing two power supplies of different brands immediately invalidates the entire process! im suprised that wasnt obvious.

The efficiency of any given power supply depends primarily on the switching frequency used. The Vregs on a motherboard can be upwards of 1 mhz, which is why they can supply such massive wattages to the CPU, and only need passive cooling. Most PSUs will use a freqency in the region of 50 khz, cheaper ones will be lower, and more powerful, more expensive psus will use a higher frequency.
Unless you know this frequency, you cant make any judgement about the efficiency of any power supply.
Also, the current draw matters even less when you consider that the current draw of any given system will be up and down like a whores drawers, according to CPU load and throttling, ditto for the GPU.
--- End quote ---

I know all that, and I know the comparison wasn't supposed to be objective, it was simply an example of comparing a smaller PSU with a bigger PSU.
The point here is just that the efficiency is not constant and using a 550W PSU (Not that a 550W PSU delivers actual 550W, but still) for a system that never draws more than 200W is idiotic and not efficient. That was my entire point.
The part of the ATX12V v.2.2 specification regarding minimum efficiency should give you a hint at what I'm aiming at: They want at least 70% efficiency at full load, 72% at typical (~50% load) and 65% at light (~20% load). My point is simply: Get a PSU that fits your system, not one that's ridiculously overpowered.
Unless you have a dualcore CPU and/or SLi, using more than 420W is usually not necessary.

Of course, if you buy the Shuttle, it isn't necessary anyway, from what I know they come with a PSU anyway, right?

Se7en:
The shuttle does indeed come with a PSU. Its a mere 230watt one, but very high quality, so produces damn near what it should. It has proved adequate for some pretty powerfull systems. I built one a while back for a friend with a 3.8ghz p4 prescott, a radeon x800 XT PE, and an inert carbon compound liquid cooling system. It survived happily with the standard PSU at 3.4ghz, but needed an upgrade to a whopping 300 watts to handle the 3.8 clock.

Actually, i have seen plenty of 550 watt psus that are built to exactly the same specs as another rated at 300 watts. These ratings are so spurious, and the efficiencies so hard to find out, that the best way to buy a PSU is on price and quality alone. You cant trust the quoted wattage at all in many cases. For a system like this however, ANY power supply that isnt the cheapest generic brand going will do the trick. I would pay more attention to the dbA ratings!

jhocking:
I'm about to order a Shuttle PC.  It's a good machine (yeah, you could build something slightly better from scratch, but it's already a better deal than Dell,) plus it has at least one huge advantage over its competitors. Y'see, one major factor to consider is size; if you're going to buy the PC and then never move it for the life of the machine then I suppose maybe size isn't a huge issue for you, but even then it makes a big difference to have as small a machine as possible.  Space is always at a premium (desk space, space within your room, etc.) so minimizing the size of your computer is vital.  Frankly, the only part of your computer that you want to be big is the screen.

That brings me to my advice: order a Shuttle PC without a monitor, and then buy a 19" TFT on sale from Circuit City.

ThatGuy:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1825672,00.asp

Total comes to $1700 but thats with a 19inc LCD and personally I think LCD's are overrated(especially for gaming) so you can save a huge chunk of cash by buying a CRT or just keeping your current monitor.

Se7en:
Have you ever USED an LCD for gaming? trust me, they bloody well rock. Back in the day i had a 15" lcd with a huge response rate for gaming, and everyone slagged it off, but i was an unbeatable sniper thanks to the sharpness, and i never found the 25ms response time holding me back.

Now you can get 8ms LCDs easily. The one i suggested had an 8ms response time, which translates as an equivelent of 125 htz, which is higher than even graphics drivers support, let alone CRT monitors! Since its still being driven at 75 or 85 htz, response time is a non issue.

I use 19" LCDs exclusively now. I like the pixel density, and using a pair of them as i am now, utterly rocks.

I wouldnt recomend that extremetech spec, its a very slapdash effort, and doesnt focus well enough on the essentials, and its too expensive, both for this budget, and for what it is.

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