Be Excellent To Each Other

How many W for 3 hdds, blu ray, dvd writer, 2gb ddr2, quad core cpu geforce8600? No gaming use but a fair bit of video conversion.

and PSUs run more effectient when loaded above 50%

The spinning magnets on the hard drives mean you don't need to power them from the PSU.

Was this something that Mr. Kissyfur told you?

Can we keep it on topic until the question has been answered please
(unless pupil's link answered it. In which case, carry on)

The calculator thing from Pupil suggests 273W. Which isn't very much is it?

Nope, but then you don't want it to do very much really.

I was more expressing relief that I didn't need a 1000W PSU or something. I'm considering spending more on a PSU this time as my latest PC build has died 18 months after the fact.

I'm not convinced that Gigabyte board you suggested was a good idea. I had problems from the outset but was that a lack of power? I have a cheap 500W PSU you see.

Problems started recently when one of the two identical maxtor drives I got started wheezing then died and seemingly took the other one out with it as when I tried booting up again it was complaining hal.dll was missing. And now I don't get any life out of it whatsoever, much as happened the first time I put this kit together. No bios screen.

PSUs have nearly always been the faliure point in my old PCs in the past, mainly because I paid about £20 - £30 for them.

The current problem certainly sounds like a PSU one (but could be the MB - do you have a spare PSU you can check it with? No need to screw it in, just rest it nearby and plug it in), but that wouldn't have caused the hard drives to die, and neither would the motherboard.

What motherboard did I recommend?

Gigabyte are one of the better makes of motherboard out there, but even the best are going to produce a faulty one every now and then... that's if the motherboard was the cause of the problems.

It's always a good idea to go for a decent quality PSU and one which can produce slightly higher wattage than you need, so if this was my system I'd probably go for a 400W - 450W ish PSU made by someone like Corsair, Antec, Coolermaster or a decent brand name like that. It will be more expensive than going for a no-brand cheap and cheerful one obviously, but potentially safer for your PC.

How about this one?

This was what Grim... recommended according to my budget 18 months ago.

Item: OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 1000MHz/PC2-8000 Platimum Memory CL5 LIFETIME WARRANTY
Qty: 1Cost: 30.94

Item: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor
Qty: 1Cost: 119.14

Item: MSI 8600GTS Heatpipe Edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E Graphics Card
Qty: 1Cost: 42.77

Item: Maxtor STM3250310AS 250GB SATAII 8MB Cache - OEM
Qty: 2Cost: 25.52

Item: Beige Mid Tower Case with 450W PSU - 20+4pin
Qty: 1Cost: 11.90

Item: Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
Qty: 1Cost: 62.90

I've had two of those gigabyte boards and both have gone the same way. The first one went in only a month or so. That took the GFX card with it that time and I'm not sure what still works this time. I bought another motherboard and tried connecting the stuff up to that but it's still no output. I need to try some kind of process of elimination to work out what works. Which is pretty difficult when you don't have much in the way of spare bits.

As per PM.. Those PSU calculators use idle power draw from your components. Meaning the hard drive isn't searching, the ram is empty and the GPU is sitting at a desktop. That's why they seem woefully low.

All they have done is code in what Nvidia/ATI/AMD/Intel hand out as tech stats for idle consumption.

Once you get your rough score from the calculator I suggest at least doubling it, then looking for a PSU that meets the requirements

I look through that list and I see some really rather lovely stuff. The Q6600 is a legend and not cheap, the motherboard is a good well specced and sized board and the ram is fantastic. The graphics card won't set the world alight but back then it would have been more than respectable... And then I get to the case and PSU.

When you pmed me earlier I was expecting you to have a really cheap and crap PC. On the contrary when you purchased that it must have cost a pretty penny.. Yet you put it all in a case that would be suitable for a £30 micro ATX board running an AMD sempron and 1gb ram, that would cost less than £120 for the entire rig.

I honestly am flabbergasted

Get it out of there and into a case that can breathe and cool your components properly.

So we're really looking about 500-600W.

Note the PSU I was using still works. Or at least the fans spin and the motherboard lights up.

I don't have a spare PSU though, no.

I recommended that case? Christ, sorry.
Still, eighteen months isn't bad for £11

What? Why?


Oh right. £11 case and PSU FTMFW then

I shouldn't but that made me

Advice. Go to PC world and get a PSU. Don't worry that it costs double... Take it home and use it to test your PC. If it's the PSU return it, if not return it any way.

If you buy one online off the bat and it's not that you'll have more trouble returning it.

After that as I said via PM I would switch the GPU, then I would suspect the motherboard.

Dead ram does not usually cause system deadness (Itll still boot but do some odd shit) and I have never seen a CPU completely flatline, just fucked up beyond belief (failed stress tests, odd happenings, BSODS etc) but never totally flatlined. However, I have never used cheap PSUs... Try things in that order though.

Half decent Micro board now is £40 (Asus) so that's no biggy, replacement GPU? Well £60 gets you a 3870x2 and what a powerful card ! very impressed with mine, in DX9 games it keeps pace with my crossfired 5770s.

But fundamentally you need a half decent case with good cooling (£40) and a good solid PSU with good fets.. I know you said you replaced the one in there but I dont know what sort of quality we were talking. So many people do not see the importance of a good case with good cooling and a good PSU.

One perfectly acceptable motherboard.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-P5K ... ro-ATX-VGA

£35. Good brand, has everything you need (dual ram slots, PCIE and SATA. Same chipset you are running now).

Case? Well you have a few options. There is the Zalman that is now my strong contender for bargain of the year

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... =CA-033-ZA

With great cooling (120mm front side and rear) plus lots of meshness.

The PSU is a tricky one. I recced you a nice 550w for about £27 however I personally would not trust it. Again I recc a brand name with good output, so this would be a good one to consider

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500W-Sil ... -120mm-Fan

Note I didn't put those components in that case. I used the case for an old PC with another PSU. I had a spare coolermaster case at home with a much better PSU.

Ah OK. Any idea on the model of CM?

Not really. It's about 3 years old and I changed to a £20 500W PSU from the 300W that was in there. Didn't fit in the old location though so I had to strap it up near the top of the case. The old PSU sat at the front of the case as I recall.

Okay so I took the graphics card to work. Didn't work in that PC. Took work GFX card home to test in old setup and still no output. Tried processor and memory etc with work gfx in new motherboard and still no output.

Don't know yet whether work gfx still works.

Ideas on what could be the problem?

I tried the other graphics card back in the original pc and it still works fortunately. Still not getting anywhere with the components that have gone wrong. I just wish that I could work out which bit has gone wrong.

Thus far results are:

Work graphics Geforce 7300 card works.

The quad core processor, OCZ ram 2gb. show no signs of workiing in the gigagbyte board or the asrock board with the 7300 card or with the 8400 that was in there originally. The 8400 card does not work anymore.

Both motherboards light up where appropriate and all fans work but no bios screen will display.