Posts by Sarah Turner98

Don't bother buying anything new for $50. It's a waste of money... you're just gonna end up with junk no matter what. If you buy something new for less than $117, the power supply is basically garbage.

I actually have a used one, but someone already claimed it. If they flake out by tomorrow or the next day, I can sell it to you (but it's pretty much spoken for)... plus, I might be able to hook you up with a $67FSP BlueStorm 2 400W
. If that doesn't work out, grab this http://www.ebay.com/itm/pc-case-power-supply-listing
.
The reason they list such high wattage for that GPU is just corporate legal cover—they want to protect themselves from lawsuits, so they overpromise on the numbers.
In reality, that card pulls about 113W at full load. Add a 65W processor and maybe 10W for some hard drives, and you're looking at 200W total. Yet they tell you that you need 450W. You don't need that much raw power; you just need a quality unit that can actually deliver at least 250W whenever the system demands it. That's usually what the decent power supplies do. The cheap ones? They just pull a stunt like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTVEtr14FEA

Forget the "minimum 450W" rule... what actually matters is getting a high-quality unit, even if it's only 350W. Since I have no clue which power supply you’re currently running, I can't really tell you if you should buy a new one or not...

And you'll need a 6-pin connector, unless you use one of those adapters—the ones usually included with the card—that converts 1 or 2 Molex plugs into a 6-pin...

The CL ATX500W
is some Coolmax model, and honestly? I wouldn't touch it. Just don't buy it...

So, what's the budget? How much are you willing to drop on a PSU?
This one is totally fine http://www.amazon.com/example-link

If you want, I can hook you up with a Fortron BlueStorm 2 400W here in Chicago for $67

Maybe someone here will grab it and ship it out... 🙂

First round of testing shows the GeForce GTS 450 takes it..
http://www.google.com/images?q=hd+577...=2048&bih=1027

🙂
So go ahead and think what you want... you won't be too far off. I was always pulling for the Radeon HD 5770, sure, but it's not bringing anything new to the table anymore. The GeForce GTS 450 might be slightly slower on paper, but once you overclock it? Add CUDA and PhysX into the mix? Suddenly, the GeForce GTS 450 is the winner over the Radeon HD 5770..

It’s physics, not psychic 😬

I think you’ve got a point there...

I kept telling myself the GeForce GTS 450 was supposed to sit just below the Radeon HD 5770 in the hierarchy—you know, clearly the weaker card—but looking at most of the benchmarks I just scrolled through? It’s either neck-and-neck or the GeForce GTS 450 actually pulls ahead slightly..

Just because it’s blue and sports sleeved cables doesn't mean it's actually any good..

Radeon HD 5770..

Because it’s newer, better, and faster. Simple as that.
http://www.google.com/images?q=gts+45...=2048&bih=1027

With GDDR5, you usually see a 128-bit bus because they don't even need more. Only the high-end cards bother with 256-bit these days...
Back when we were dealing with GDDR3, you had to compensate with a wider bus, but with GDDR5? Not necessary anymore.

p.s. You've been on this forum for four years now—maybe learn how to use the edit button on the right?🙂

Selling this for $167..
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX SSC http://img163.imageshack.us/i/img4873j.jpg/

500w for $67? No way
+ plus it's just an Office series

Jonathan Reed50 said:I've got a quote here in St. Louis for 71 miles or roughly $143 for this PSU.
Can I find anything cheaper in the States, or is this a decent deal?

Prices are the same around here..
meaning at Micro Center it's $150...

Drew Sanchez82 said:I don't see what's wrong with that EVGA unit, and honestly, neither with the Microsoft power supplies, since $67 550W isn't much for a PSU.
I have something similar at 450W (it was actually more expensive) and I haven't had any issues with it for years.

If my suggestions don't sit right with you, then maybe just mind your own business.👍

Kyle Sanchez4 explained one part of this...

and I'll explain the other...
Just because you aren't having problems doesn't mean it's high quality...
What does that even mean? How do you measure quality? Let me give you a few examples...
-A PC needs steady DC voltage, but AC fluctuates—especially if you live in a neighborhood where some local shop is running a massive industrial machine that makes the grid voltage swing from 190V to 220V. High-quality power supplies smooth out those oscillations to give the PC a constant stream, whereas cheap junk (meaning PSUs under $117 400W) will fluctuate, hitting your components with wild surges (which can fry them)... (a Microsoft unit like that once fried three of my GPUs, two HDDs, and some RAM)..
-The fact that a PC runs for a few years doesn't prove it's good. Maybe you just don't have a demanding rig, so it hasn't struggled yet. But if we hook up components pulling about 300W of full load to a 400W power supply (like a 150W GPU, 125W CPU, an HDD, and some fans)... well, check out this video by Casey Long2 to see what happens to a unit like that... CLICK regardless of the fact that it's rated for 400-500W..
With a quality power supply, that won't happen under full load...
-High-quality units aren't priced randomly. Why would they charge $150 430W, and why is Microsoft smart enough to sell a 550W unit for $67.. ???

I'm done typing this out.🙂

And yeah, your suggestions don't work for me because I don't want people buying a PSU, plugging it in, having it die, and taking everything else down with it just because you recommended Microsoft... 👍
If you want to offer everyone you recommend a Microsoft unit your personal guarantee to replace every single component it fries, hey, that's your choice.. 🙂
If I were looking for a solid PSU recommendation, took your advice, plugged it in at home, and it blew up, I wonder what you'd actually be willing to do to make things right after all that "help" and "advice"...

Drew Sanchez82 said:What a joke... they put the warranty seal right on the edge of the case opening 🤣

btw. Downtown Manhattan. They have decent power supplies there - LINK.

Wow, you clearly know everything there is to know about high-end power supplies, don't you? 🙏
If you're just guessing, please stop giving people bad advice. 👍

It’s nothing to write home about, honestly... but hey, it’ll get the job done for you.

Alright, spill it. Which one of these is actually gonna pull 550w?

ps.. probably some Cooler Master power supply..

It should show exactly what you bought on your receipt...
Unless, of course, you grabbed one of those pre-built gaming rigs. In that case, you probably ended up with a total junk power supply.

auto tune 🙂

If you've got fingerprints all over the screen, just calibrate it until it looks right to you..
But honestly, every new monitor comes with its own auto-tune feature that handles the alignment anyway (at least for left-to-right or up-and-down stuff)..

Yeah, just pop the case open and see what it says on there 😁

Yeah, those Intel Core i7 and 6850 chips are definitely going to be working overtime 😁