92 replies to this topic

[Giverous]

Teralitha, on 19 June 2012 - 01:03 AM, said:

Yes you can, ive seen it happen. Unless youve seen it happen, you wont think its possible. but I know.... It was a case of an older motherboard and that couldnt handle it. Motherboards nowadays can probably handle anything but they still get hot, and wont last as long without proper cooling.

holy crap, you are dumb. This is a complete myth. You obviously know absolutely NOTHING about power supplies. The motherboard determines the output of the PSU. It pulls extra power as required. If you get a 1000w power supply, it's not pumping out 1000w all the time. It's supplying exactly what each component requests. If you plug a 1200w power supply into a bottom of the line i3 processor then guess what? it'll be fine.

[Monoc]

Never seen a motherboard melt because of a power supply or fan failures.

I have seen power supplies and other electronic gadgets emit a mysterious blue smoke though.
When that happens it usually means someone's wallet is getting lighter.

[CCC Dober]

Tungsten Phoenix, on 19 June 2012 - 06:30 AM, said:

Never seen a motherboard melt because of a power supply or fan failures.

I have seen power supplies and other electronic gadgets emit a mysterious blue smoke though.
When that happens it usually means someone's wallet is getting lighter.

It's the smell that you should be afraid of, very much like a premonition. By the time you hit the PSU switch (precaution) you can be sure that 'something' is gonna give very soon. Next power-up might be the last. So you spend some time to 'sniff' out whats what LOL

[BFalcon]

CCC Dober, on 19 June 2012 - 06:15 AM, said:

Yeah, I get the black arts reference and prices can be very volatile indeed. Tbh I'm not really looking for a holy grail, more like a tool/method that allows to cut time when working with on a budget and several conditions. It'd be incredible to have several rigs and their relative performance next to the price listed at the push of a button. Real time access to prices wouldn't be all that critical if there are enough alternative rigs to choose from. Chances are that one of them still is reasonably priced at the end of the day.

Wishful thinking =)

Sadly so - I've done a quote for a customer in the morning and had to revise it by the end of the day, before now.

Fans failing: Yes, if a fan fails, the gfx card, CPU or Northbridge *can* overheat (most commonly the CPU), but rarely anything else. The main thing to look for on a board or PSU is the bulging capacitors - if they're bulging, they're either failed or about to.

[Fynn]

A bit of advice given to me a while ago from someone who builds PC's for living was, when working out what PSU you need, if its dual or quad core with a single med to high range card, with a few HDD's and a DVD drive, then you want an average of about 500-650 watt good quality PSU, and for a SLI/crossfire rig, maybe 750 watt or higher.
Again if your building a rig with a single card, but with a view to go dual cards at some point, then theres no harm in getting a bigger PSU while doing the build, in order to save time (and money) later when you go dual graphics cards.
Again a lot is dependent on the wattage of the CPU, and graphics cards, for instance, my current card, a HD5750 1gb card recamends a min of 450watt PSU, but is working just fine for the past 2 years with a corsair TX400 psu.

[mechnut450]

I build a lot of pcs for people, and the power supply will not fry the system if it too strong ( it just runs at the lower wattage) I run and build pcs with a 600-700 watt psu all the time, and there never been a issue unless the psu came in doa. I do agree that if your buying your graphic card to install check the power requirements most graphic cards require a 350watt minium psu, as well as either a 6 plug or even dual 6 plug power plug seen some even with a 8 plug for power. I runn a 750 psu and my system not even drawing 500watts most th time and i been running the say set up moreless for 2 years .

[BFalcon]

Fynn, on 19 June 2012 - 06:58 AM, said:

A bit of advice given to me a while ago from someone who builds PC's for living was, when working out what PSU you need, if its dual or quad core with a single med to high range card, with a few HDD's and a DVD drive, then you want an average of about 500-650 watt good quality PSU, and for a SLI/crossfire rig, maybe 750 watt or higher.
Again if your building a rig with a single card, but with a view to go dual cards at some point, then theres no harm in getting a bigger PSU while doing the build, in order to save time (and money) later when you go dual graphics cards.
Again a lot is dependent on the wattage of the CPU, and graphics cards, for instance, my current card, a HD5750 1gb card recamends a min of 450watt PSU, but is working just fine for the past 2 years with a corsair TX400 psu.

Not bad advice - would also add: expect around 5% drop per year in efficiency as components wear out.

[CCC Dober]

BFalcon, on 19 June 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

Sadly so - I've done a quote for a customer in the morning and had to revise it by the end of the day, before now.

Fans failing: Yes, if a fan fails, the gfx card, CPU or Northbridge *can* overheat (most commonly the CPU), but rarely anything else. The main thing to look for on a board or PSU is the bulging capacitors - if they're bulging, they're either failed or about to.

Do you have a bit wiggle room by chance, like say 10% ?
That's one off the conditions I mean. If the customer or your for instance are dead set on a fixed price, then you prolly have to deduct the mentioned percentage from the budget to be safe. Man, I swear all that black magic is so last century. I'm truly feeling like a cave man when it comes to the available tools. No kidding LOL

As for signs, heh if it was always so easy. Last time both my mainboard and PSU gave and I couldn't find the source. The mainboard was acting up when I plugged in the new PSU (because the old one wouldn't work at all). Had to replace both and there were no obvious signs. I was blaming a power spike and my PSU in the end *sigh*

[Giverous]

CCC Dober, on 19 June 2012 - 06:41 AM, said:

It's the smell that you should be afraid of, very much like a premonition. By the time you hit the PSU switch (precaution) you can be sure that 'something' is gonna give very soon. Next power-up might be the last. So you spend some time to 'sniff' out whats what LOL

yeah, the smell of a fried capacitor especially is VERY distinct

[Lomack]

If your "Upgrading" your old computer, you probably still don't need to know what a GHz is. If your "Replacing" your old computer then maybe ok. It is unlikely you will upgrade your old comptuer and change out the processor. It is just too expensive. If your looking to buy a new computer then by all means read.

If you don't know what a GHz is and you don't know much about computers except where the power button is and that they are good for games and surfing the internet then I have a handy link for you.

http://www.dell.com/...n&s=soho&~ck=mn

I am in no way affiliated with Dell. Why a Dell?
Because its easy to get something pretty good at a decent price. If your not into building your own, or learning about all the parts and having someone else build you a computer, going with a prefab computer like a Dell or an HP is an easy option. I urge you to go to the various computer vendor websites and check them all out. Just google for Dell, HP, Samsung, Sony, Acer, Lenovo, I am sure there are some big ones I am missing.

I would recommend getting a desktop if your going to be gaming with it. You just get so much more computer for your money, but often that is not an option. If your set on getting a laptop I urge you to go with a higher end system that has an i7 CPU. If your getting a desktop you can go with the i5 or i7 systems.

I would also urge you to go with 8gb of RAM. 12 and 16 are better, but 8 will last you a long time and your probably not going to notice much performance difference.

If its in your budget you should probably consider a video card upgrade option with all these systems. Just look at their customize options and check for the video card to have better versions you can upgrade to before your computer is sent to you.

If you get a prefab computer like a Dell you don't really need to worry about any of the other components. Unless you have specific needs getting the CPU, RAM, and Video options right will give you a good computer reguardless of any of the other components you pick.

Now if you do know or want to know what a GHz is and you want to buy a truely custom computer. Getting something like a Dell is still an option. You just have the tools to be able to cutomize it more. But you can certainly go down to your local computer place and pick somethign out based on the original post points. I enjoy building my own desktop computers, but I personally happy buy a dell when I need a laptop.

Edited by Lomack, 19 June 2012 - 07:29 AM.

[Ulric Kell]

Take a grain of salt when reading the OP's list of suggestions. If you're building a computer to play games check out gaming (Many of them but Tom's/Ars/HardOCP are decent sites) sites for their rigs and build something similar to that.

[Teralitha]

BenEEeees VAT GROWN BACON, on 19 June 2012 - 01:52 AM, said:

Dude, as I've said take this as a learning experience, just accept that while your intentions were good you still made several mistakes. Accept that and learn from it. If you keep on fighting it will just be more painful for yourself and it will fan the flames.

You are just talking out of your rear. Thats what I learned from you. Simply telling me Im wrong, doesnt make me wrong, just makes you look like a troll.

[Mick Mars]

Teralitha, on 19 June 2012 - 12:36 AM, said:

I guess you didnt read the whole section on power supplies. Read it again before trying to 'call me out' on something. If a newbie to computers, followed my advice in this post to the letter, they would get a nice gaming computer with no chance of making an error. If they followed your advice on power supplies... they could easily screw up and fry their motherboard. Yes they can fry a motherboard, if they are bad PSU's. Its happened. Tell me sir... how hot does your PC run with a 1200 watt PSU? And how many heat sinks or fans did you have to add to make sure your board didnt melt? Read my section on PSU's again before saying something stupid.

You are as wrong as two boys... well, pretty wrong. If you knew anything about power supplies, you would know that they deliver power on demand(as I said before, and has been repeated). Also, you would know that the larger better built PSU's(usually the two go hand in hand) offer more fans and also offer fans that help to scavenge heat from inside the case, so they actually help to keep things cooler as opposed to one that doesn't have those fans.

The only thing worse than someone who doesn't know anything is the ***** who doesnt know anything and thinks he does and will argue with those that do. You fall into the last category.

[Teralitha]

BFalcon, on 19 June 2012 - 04:08 AM, said:

Agreed on the first point. Actually, multiple cores would still be useful - you can tell programs to only run on certain cores, so you can tell games to keep core #1 clear for the system and teamspeak (for example) to only run on the last thread, allowing your game to access more capacity on whatever threads it CAN use... it's a little-known trick and you need to be very careful not to overload one core thread, but I used to use it all the time when playing EVE Online to help speed things up. As for PSUs, good grief, you could put a 2 kW PSU on a system that only needs 350W and you'd not harm it a bit - going UNDER is more likely to harm something, not least the PSU itself. With regards hard drives, everyone using Windows 7 and above should be considering a 120Gb SSD (£75 now) for their system drive (with library redirects to a secondary hard drive for user files). It makes a huge difference, especially where a game needs disc access. Ter, getting bored trying to troll about 360 torso twists, so you move to this?

I think your missing the point of the topic. All this technical stuff your saying just sounds like mumbo jumbo to the average tech savy person who doesnt know what they are buying. My post, is targeted, at them.

[KuruptU4Fun]

While I've got the hardware to support the higher end of the sytem requirements in all aspects but one. I am curious about 1 thing. I did a search for the sale prices of the higher end and required graphics cards needed. Is that a good way to find out if what I have is good enough? Are there better ways to make a comparison?

[Teralitha]

Giverous, on 19 June 2012 - 06:29 AM, said:

holy crap, you are dumb. This is a complete myth. You obviously know absolutely NOTHING about power supplies. The motherboard determines the output of the PSU. It pulls extra power as required. If you get a 1000w power supply, it's not pumping out 1000w all the time. It's supplying exactly what each component requests. If you plug a 1200w power supply into a bottom of the line i3 processor then guess what? it'll be fine.

You failed to read my post clearly. My recommendation was for those "who dont know what they are doing". Fried motherboards do happen, not from too much electricity, but from heat. If you know what your doing, then you dont need this advice and dont need to troll.

Tungsten Phoenix, on 19 June 2012 - 06:30 AM, said:

I have seen power supplies and other electronic gadgets emit a mysterious blue smoke though.
When that happens it usually means someone's wallet is getting lighter.

This is what my advice is intended to prevent, troll.

[BenEEeees VAT GROWN BACON]

Teralitha, on 19 June 2012 - 07:58 AM, said:

You are just talking out of your rear. Thats what I learned from you. Simply telling me Im wrong, doesnt make me wrong, just makes you look like a troll.

Well, I tried to be nice but there's no helping you.

[Mick Mars]

Teralitha, on 19 June 2012 - 08:07 AM, said:

You failed to read my post clearly. My recommendation was for those "who dont know what they are doing". Fried motherboards do happen, not from too much electricity, but from heat. If you know what your doing, then you dont need this advice and dont need to troll.



This is what my advice is intended to prevent, troll.

The only thing you have said in this whole thread that has any worth to it is that heat kills things. I agree, it does. The idiocy comes in when you somehow link that to having larger PSU's.

Any person not familiar with hardware needs to stay very far away from you and your posts, and you should refrain from giving advice on anything until you are educated in the subject. Every single post I have seen you make on this board progressively made you look worse than before. You really just need to stop posting and start lurking.

[Monoc]

Teralitha, on 19 June 2012 - 08:02 AM, said:

I think your missing the point of the topic. All this technical stuff your saying just sounds like mumbo jumbo to the average tech savy person who doesnt know what they are buying. My post, is targeted, at them.

If it's mumbo jumbo, you ain't "tech savy".

You're right simply telling you "you are wrong" doesn't make you wrong.

When multiple people are telling you "You are WRONG!" and providing references disproving you. Then, you sir, are wrong

[Mason Grimm]

Children; behave!

If you don't agree then don't post here or post it in a creative and helpful manner.