Building my first computer myself

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

The free calculator is very simple to use, and gives you a data driven way to size your power supply. I don't see what is wrong with that. It shows how little power is needed for "peripherals". Your power consumers are the cpu and the video card(s). Everything else might be 50W. Video card makers routinely list far bigger power supply requirements on their packaging because they don't want buyers cutting it close.

As I said it won't hurt.

But even the latest i7 processor only requires 95W.
That's nothing.
Make the video card happy and everything else will be too.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

As I said it won't hurt.

But even the latest i7 processor only requires 95W.
That's nothing.
Make the video card happy and everything else will be too.

A number of processors commonly used today consume over 100W. The i7 Sandy Bridge processors top out at 140W. Many AMD processors use more.

Power Consumption And Efficiency : Intel Core i7-3770K Review: A Small Step Up For Ivy Bridge

[Peregrine]

Seriously?
140W is STILL nothing. With onboard video you could probably get by with a 400W power supply. Done.

Could we stop the Power Supply discussion???

Hey, Original Poster... any more questions??

[eric3781]

To throw in my $0.02, I would strongly recommend an SSD for OS/apps. Sell a kidney if you have to. I use plextor SSDs and they are rock solid. Get 256gb if you can pop for $250, or get their 128gb at a minimum.

As for RAM, get as much as your motherboard can handle and set up a ram cache or ram disk using something from Superspeed ($80), or ImDisk (free).

/$0.02