1200€ Rig, all the parts should be top in price/performance?

[Gouca]

How can you say stuff like this? It's simple electronics, lol... Electronic components function better the lower the temperature.
It's obvious a PSU will run better and by better I mean producing less heat wich leads to better efficiency and better output and less decay, between a certain % interval of it's Load. Not too much not too few, say 50 to 75%...

His Antec HCG 520W will only be able to power up the system because of the immense build quality but seeing it's 12V Rail can only deliver 40'ish Amps it will be running close to it's full potential powering the OP's system wich makes it give up alot faster and as a long term solution it will be a bad investment since you'll definitely have to buy a new PSU sooner or later.

About the system itself,

Bad Ram, terrible Storage and a non-fitting PSU.
Cut down on the Case and get a better PSU (XFX Core Edition 650W for example) and a better Ram. 17€ for 8Gigs? Goodluck overclocking with that Ram.

Sure, the lower the temperature is the longer life time there is, but are we talking about 10 to 15 years? With 70-80% power drain, the efficiency of PSU X with Bronze marking will be the highest.

RAMs cost 17€ / 4 Gb (try to read). Nobody has said this build was to be overclocked, I just used the OC to speak about peak power consumptions.

I'll be picking Samsung F3 1 TB as the main HDD from a Finnish shop - forgot to mention, using it as storage for media. 64 Gb should be large enough SSD to hold 64-bit OS + 1-2 games?

Anyhow, I'll probably take either HCG 620 / XFX 550.

[Deleted]

Nobody has said this build was to be overclocked

i5-2500k and a aftermarket cooler on a Z68 board, I would say that pretty much says "Overclock me please" but you're right you didn't specifically say you were going to. Either way it seems we agree you probably want to bump up the PSU

[ocping]

I see all this talk about 520W not being sufficient and no one has actual figures to back it up?

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

^

[Nightbliss]

Sure, the lower the temperature is the longer life time there is, but are we talking about 10 to 15 years? With 70% power drain, the efficiency of PSU X with Bronze marking will be the highest.

RAMs cost 17€ / 4 Gb (try to read). Nobody has said this build was to be overclocked, I just used the OC to speak about peak power consumptions.

Sure, I'll probably take either HCG 620 / XFX 550.

Even Worse.

I bought 8GB (2x2x2) Corsair XMS3 12800 DDR3 Ram for 48€ the other day. Not only they come from one of the best Ram brands but are also heatsinked Rams which will improve longevity.

And about the temperatures and working loads, the HCG520 is a very good PSU but that doesn't change the fact that, powering that system, it will be running at very close to it's maximum capabilities which isn't good. Driving a ferrari at 300km/h isn't better than driving a Fiat punto at 150km/h just because the Ferrari is better built. Both cars will be running at their full capacity and therefor it will be bad.

[Deleted]

I see all this talk about 520W not being sufficient and no one has actual figures to back it up?

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

^

Actually it's simple math and your link is "broken" as in not showing any settings. And if you scroll up you will see the numbers and link I posted.

[Nightbliss]

Even Worse.

I bought 8GB (2x2x2) Corsair XMS3 12800 DDR3 Ram for 48€ the other day. Not only they come from one of the best Ram brands but are also heatsinked Rams which will improve longevity.

And about the temperatures and working loads, the HCG520 is a very good PSU but that doesn't change the fact that, powering that system, it will be running at very close to it's maximum capabilities which isn't good. Driving a ferrari at 300km/h isn't better than driving a Fiat punto at 150km/h just because the Ferrari is better built. Both cars will be running at their full capacity and therefor it will be bad.

I see all this talk about 520W not being sufficient and no one has actual figures to back it up?

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

^

Been on the hardware scene for decent enough time to know how estimate stff like this.
You can use TDP's as an indicator and it will quickly tell you that a 520W PSU that effectively delivers 514W of continuous output will be running on the very short side to power up a GTX580.

[Mybuddyphil]

With the money you're dropping on the mobo and processor, and video card, the hard drive and PSU seem a little low-end, and somewhat "risky" to me. First, the SSD is just enough space for use as a boot drive and then some, but not really for games (for reduced load times of games). Second, the PSU is, as mentioned by many above, a little low for those hardware pieces. Your PSU (in USD on newegg.com) is ~$78, whereas Rosewill HIVE Series HIVE-650 650W is $85. There are a lot of great PSU's mentioned above, and I'd definitely look into them.

EDIT: I want to add you're asking for the best price/performance, in which the Antec 520 is close, depending on what you're wanting it for, but not quite.

[ocping]

Even Worse.

I bought 8GB (2x2x2) Corsair XMS3 12800 DDR3 Ram for 48€ the other day. Not only they come from one of the best Ram brands but are also heatsinked Rams which will improve longevity.

And about the temperatures and working loads, the HCG520 is a very good PSU but that doesn't change the fact that, powering that system, it will be running at very close to it's maximum capabilities which isn't good. Driving a ferrari at 300km/h isn't better than driving a Fiat punto at 150km/h just because the Ferrari is better built. Both cars will be running at their full capacity and therefor it will be bad.



Been on the hardware scene for decent enough time to know how estimate stff like this.
You can use TDP's as an indicator and it will quickly tell you that a 520W PSU that effectively delivers 514W of continuous output will be running on the very short side to power up a GTX580.

Actually yeah, I just crunched his build in and without overclocking it's over 520W at 20% aging. So yeah, 650W would be great since it keeps the option of overclocking open and you can pretty much use it for at least 2 years with moderate-high usage.

[Mybuddyphil]

I see all this talk about 520W not being sufficient and no one has actual figures to back it up?

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

^

520w will run it, but with the 580 pulling ~240w TDP alone, you'll really be pushing that 520w PSU.

[ocping]

Actually it's simple math and your link is "broken" as in not showing any settings. And if you scroll up you will see the numbers and link I posted.

Ah, missed out your post. And no the link isn't broken, you're meant to input the items yourself.

[Deleted]

Ah, missed out your post. And no the link isn't broken, you're meant to input the items yourself.

Ah yeah that's why I said "broken" I wasn't sure if you had plugged in any options and just linked to the basic.

[Gouca]

i5-2500k and a aftermarket cooler on a Z68 board, I would say that pretty much says "Overclock me please" but you're right you didn't specifically say you were going to. Either way it seems we agree you probably want to bump up the PSU

As far as I know, and the reason why I chose Z-board is because of the SSD caching.

[Deleted]

Spend a "little more" and bump it to a 120GB+ then you wont have to worry about that I'm not questioning your reasons just saying why most would read it as you're going to overclock.

[Deleted]

You could just drop the GPU down to say a 560ti/6950 or a 6970/570. Spend the money saved on either a larger SSD, better PSU (altho you dropped the 580 ofc) or some other stuff.

But then again i have no clue what your friend will be playing.

[Gouca]

You could just drop the GPU down to say a 560ti/6950 or a 6970/570. Spend the money saved on either a larger SSD, better PSU (altho you dropped the 580 ofc) or some other stuff.

But then again i have no clue what your friend will be playing.

I'll keep the 580, just because she can not wait for Kernels, and because she has to do with this for several years. She can afford the 120 Gb SSD, budget allows that

Thanks for your replies guys, I appreciate the links about the PSU's efficiency / lifetime.

[Deleted]

Dont you mean kepler then??? But what about the 7950 or 7970?? altho the 7970 is prob to expensive

[BicycleMafioso]

Do note, that the 50% PSU effectiveness could be subjective. If you land in the 70-80% range of the PSU, it may seem less effective, but the PSU will age better, thus being efficient for longer.

[Ghâzh]

Do note, that the 50% PSU effectiveness could be subjective. If you land in the 70-80% range of the PSU, it may seem less effective, but the PSU will age better, thus being efficient for longer.

And the fact that you are more likely spending less time at full load than idle. Those situations where everything is pushed to the maximum output are rare and mostly happen in benchmarks.

[Deleted]

As the OP has earned himself a vacation and won't be able to reply for some time I'm going to lock this.