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hi guys,
i was hoping that you can help me with something.

here is what i have...
Motherboard - Intel extreme DZ77GA-70K
CPU - Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50Ghz
Memory Ram - 16GB DDR3
Cooler Master V8
GeForce 1060 6GB

my question is in regards to a case and power supply.
i think i am ok on the case...


but i want to be sure that the P/S will fit and work...
would you mind checking?


thanks!

I don't think you should buy that old card. Try a Nvidia 1050, they're in the $150 range

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=380&sort=price&page=1

AMD? Gross.

I don't know how well the 1050 performs. I'm more than satisfied with my 1060, though it looks like one of those would likely be outside of your price range. I'd go with the 1050 before I went with anything else for that range.

Wait, you have an i7 but want to save on the GPU? I think that's the wrong move, but you already have it so... I would suggest an GT 1060 with 6GB. Manufacturer doesn't really matter that much.

unfortunately hans, you hit the nail on the head.
i didnt realize the I7 was older technology when i bought it so now i have an I7 but no video card.

i have a hard time playing anything at all with my existing computer so hopefully the I7 with a decent card can get me in to some of the newer games playing at a decent level.

thanks all.

Nah, i7 is fine, newer models of i7 are only slightly faster. Main difference is power usage.

But an i7 offers too little an upgrade over an i5 (unless you want a high end system) for too much money, money you're better off investing in a good GPU. But too late for you :/

Like I said, get a GTX 1060 with 6GB RAM. I think it's a solid card for the money (starts at 220 €).
1050 with 4GB is too weak imo, as is the 1060 with 3GB.

Yeah if you can afford it, a 1060 will be much better than a 1050 and you should be fine with that for any games these days in HD.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
unfortunately hans, you hit the nail on the head.
i didnt realize the I7 was older technology when i bought it so now i have an I7 but no video card.

i have a hard time playing anything at all with my existing computer so hopefully the I7 with a decent card can get me in to some of the newer games playing at a decent level.

thanks all.

Your i7 is great, the problem is that you spend more cash than you need on a processor, not less. I game on an old i3 with a modern video card and never run into resource issues.

I have an i7 sitting in the corner that I run 3-4 vms on at time because it's overkill for gaming, lol.

I have two i7s and I think they were both worth the money, but I also do video rendering and 3D modelling, so YMMV.

A GTX980 might actually be a better card... I just bought one second hand for ~£200

As I understand it, the last two digits are the ones that are more relevant for performance; I'm no expert though (feel free to destroy my logic if it's wrong, guys...)

Generally speaking that's the case, though the 10xx series was leaps and bounds better than previous editions.

Looking at the first benchmark comparison site I found (http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-6GB-vs-Nvidia-GTX-980/3639vs2576) The 980 is still better somewhat overall, but that's also comparing the second lowest end card in the 10xx generation to what's basically the fastest card of the previous generation, and the 1060 STILL wins out in some places.

I think if I had to buy one over again, I'd still go with the 1060, assuming similar price.

change of topic - bump.

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't fit. ATX is a common standard.

Never heard of Tonstep before though.

is the power supply ok for the video card and mother board?

Just about any ATX power supply should fit in a ATX case. But for the power supply I think you should go with a name brand, rather than generic. Try Corsair, Silverstone, or just sort based on customer ratings. It should be big enough.

Check out this site
https://pcpartpicker.com

You can select all of the components you have and want to add, and it will tell you how many watts you need and also has links to the online stores with the lowest prices.

When looking at power supplies it's good to look at efficiency and current draw on the different rails. I don't know what you need, I could check later on today but I'm busy ATM. That PSU you linked only has a combined 42A on the 12V, so even though it's rated at 700W it can actually only supply 12*42 = 504W on the 12V lines combined. That means it's probably going to be worse than a high quality 500 to 600W supply. The other concern is that it looks to have a relatively low efficiency, it often just means cheap components were used in the first place so I wouldn't trust that PSU to last a long time.

I haven't built a computer for a few years now, but in the past it was almost always better to go with a lower rated but higher quality PSU than a low quality one with a high total power rating.

If you want good advice I recommend you sign up to something like [H]ardforum. Admittedly I haven't posted there for years but when I used to frequent [H] there was a lot of people who spend most of their free time looking at computer parts, benchmarks, etc. who are happy to give a bit of help to someone building a PC. While Dakka has lots of knowledgeable people as well most people here spend their free time looking at miniatures.

I've never understood the appeal of buying nice PC components and then plugging them all into a cheap no-name power supply with the power to kill them all. I personally would accept nothing less than a Corsair, EVGA, Thermaltake, or Seasonic but you do you.

Tom's Hardware has a forum literally just for power supplies. The computer repair and support advice here is consistently well-meaning but incorrect. Mostly we have experts on removing scale from bathtubs, how to handle pooping blood, the correct way to educate your special needs children, and also (as I understand it) tabletop wargames.

Lol ouze...
Believe me, i take everything with a grain of salt.
Which incidentally is a cure for bloody poop. =P

Personally I wouldn't get that PSU - you get what you pay for.

I would also advise against that tower. The carbide series has superior cases for roughly the same amount of money - main point being that the one you liked lacks a front fan space clear of obstruction. Sure there are vents on the sides but having a wall of plastic in front impedes airflow.

I lately bought the Corsair CC-9011056-WW Carbide Series SPEC-01 Windowed Mid-Tower ATX Gaming Case (Pictured). The medium to large towers produced by Corsair will fit most PSUs, but you're better off getting a good quality PSU such as the RM650 (Pictured). It's efficient and able to deal with huge demand without breaking a sweat.

In addition to this the kit comes with more component cables and converters than you can shake your screwdriver at - which has made modding and switching-up components very simple.

(And no that little card isn't my graphics card - that's above and not pictured. It's actually a TV card that does magical things)

So, the thing about power supplies... you've got all this fragile gear, and then you min-max the cheapest power supply for the highest wattage the internet pc ricers told you that you needed.

Thing is, the power supply delivers the power to the rest of your rig, but it's the last line of defense between any sort of spikes and your expensive new components. And, yeah, the resiliency does scale with the name brand of the component. I think I have a 600W (either0 cooler master or corsair in my computer. It's connected to an ordinary power strip. I've never had any issues and I have a Nvidia 1060. Internet ricer wisdom scoffs at this, suggesting that I need at least 200 more watts and a blue led in my fan for cooling purposes, but it's a more than reasonable gaming machine in my low ventilation mini-atx case.

Having that been said, the importance of a good power supply over a high wattage power supply will stick with me for quite a while. I used to work in what was basically the mom and pop version of the geek squad, which is basically low rent retail quality rent-a-tech-support. We would take broken computers and estimate repair quotes for putting them back together. The highest failure rate we saw at that time was eMachines, and we saw them hardest after major storms or other power issues. Every single time one came in, the prognosis came to "bad power supply, bad motherboard, dead ram". There's a lot of causes, but I could smell and visually spot the dead capacitors on the motherboard, and predictably it was waaaaay more to repair than it was just to replace. The company made some money of those boxes, but ultimately, I've never had a computer with quality parts that cost a bit extra go out on me.

Coolermaster actually has a power calculator. I just had a look at it and it doesn't seem excessively conservative.

http://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

They give you a load wattage and also a recommended wattage, you usually get a bit more than you need partly for safety, partly if you want to upgrade and partly because as power supplies age their output and efficiency decreases, so if you plan on using it for say 5 years, you need 5 years worth of overhead.

But remember, most high power components in a PC draw from the 12V lines, so you want a PSU that can deliver that power to the 12V (which you determine by looking at the amperage on the 12V line and power = voltage*current, thus power = 12*current because you're looking at the 12V line).

 Ouze wrote:
Tom's Hardware has a forum literally just for power supplies. The computer repair and support advice here is consistently well-meaning but incorrect. Mostly we have experts on removing scale from bathtubs, how to handle pooping blood, the correct way to educate your special needs children, and also (as I understand it) tabletop wargames.

Yeah, as nice as Dakka is, when it comes to computer advice it is rather lacking.

I've never signed up to Tom's because I've seen way too many people giving bad or incorrect advice. [H]ardforum is my preference because the knowledge level over there seems to be higher (at least historically speaking, haven't been there recently), though it probably has less users overall.

 Ouze wrote:
The computer repair and support advice here is consistently well-meaning but incorrect.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Yeah, as nice as Dakka is, when it comes to computer advice it is rather lacking.

Usually, I'd pile into these threads. But, my PC-building days are limited to a PC a year now. The hundreds I used to build were more than a CPU-generation ago, and hardware changes so fast.
The only thing I'll leave here is to agree with the 'Don't Skimp' from above. Keep your parts of a similar quality throughout, including the power supply.

 Skinnereal wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
The computer repair and support advice here is consistently well-meaning but incorrect.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Yeah, as nice as Dakka is, when it comes to computer advice it is rather lacking.

Usually, I'd pile into these threads. But, my PC-building days are limited to a PC a year now. The hundreds I used to build were more than a CPU-generation ago, and hardware changes so fast.

Part of the reason I haven't built a computer for so long is that hardware has really slowed down. The quality of the current gen i7's and i5's is surprisingly not a hell of a lot faster than the early gen i5's and i7's.

I just found my original thread on [H] from buying the computer I'm currently using, it's 6 years old now Granted I've upgraded the GPU and gotten bigger SSD's for it, but everything else is still the same. A computer enthusiast would say it's sad how much hardware increases have slowed down, to be honest I'm glad I'm not spending money upgrading all the time

The only thing I'll leave here is to agree with the 'Don't Skimp' from above. Keep your parts of a similar quality throughout, including the power supply.

I think the lessons I've learned is that you can skimp on power because most people will tell you absurdly how powers, just don't skimp on quality. That is, better to buy a low power rating supply that is good quality than a high rating one that's low quality.

thanks guys.
part of the problem of being inexperienced is not being familiar with anything so something as simple as sticking to a name brand isn't always easy

i try to stick with buyer ratings when making a decision and read reviews but i was surprised to find very little ratings wise on newegg and even when i did find some most of them didn't break the 2.5 or 3 star mark.

i think ill try to open up my search parameters a little, ie... open myself up to spending a little more.

as far as cases go the reason that i was looking at the one i posted was because this PC is actually for my 14yr old son who completely unlike me likes plain jane no frills cases. i'd have a disco tech flashing case if i could but not him... he doesn't even like the open window on the side.

i'll look for something with a bit more ventilation.

i'm completely open to suggestions too.
thanks again guys.

on a side note... i liken dakka to hanging out talking in the backyard over the barbecue with friends.
no one really knows anything but every once in a while you get that golden gem of information that makes it all worthwhile.

Just use that Coolermaster calculator I posted earlier, add a few watts and then look at the next biggest PSU up from that. If you want to make sure you have overhead for upgrading, ask it how much extra power you'll need if you want a 2nd GPU or a higher end GPU.

From there you narrow your search to a handful of PSU's in that power range from reputable companies and start looking at reviews.

Or if you're lazy just ask on Hardforum and someone will more than likely be able to suggest one for you. If noise is important to you make sure you ask what's good and quiet.

thanks Skink.
i ran that calculator and think i'm going to go with a coolermaster 550.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I5VSWAQ/?tag=cmcalc-20&th=1

Yeah I've been reading Tom's Hardware a lot lately and it's been a big help. You can post questions there and get responses from lots of knowledgeable folks really quick. Sometimes they'll even put together whole build lists for you just because they're bored. Overall a nice bunch of folks from what I've seen.

I'm planning a new build soon, I want to have a dedicated not-console gaming PC just for the TV, reusing some of the old parts from my current PC to keep the costs down. I was planning to get this case from Phanteks, supposed to be released later this month. But this is for a smaller ITX sized motherboard.

http://phanteks.com/Enthoo-Evolv-Shift.html

that's pretty sweet.
you can find some really cool cases for micro mb's.

Small cases are nice if you need to fit them somewhere like a HTPC, but I always go with big cases for expandability. Big coolers take up space, extra hard drives, some high end video cards are very long and a bigger motherboard for the extra PCI slots.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Small cases are nice if you need to fit them somewhere like a HTPC, but I always go with big cases for expandability. Big coolers take up space, extra hard drives, some high end video cards are very long and a bigger motherboard for the extra PCI slots.

So, I get wanting (some) space for cooling and video card clearance, but serious question on "expandability": Why? Your motherboard has built-in audio, network, hard drive controllers, usb controllers, maybe some firewire and possibly even wifi. What do you have to expand upon? This isn't the 90s anymore where you needed to buy separate peripheral cards. And hard drive have enough capacity that you really don't need more than maybe two unless you're doing some kind of custom RAID setup, and I can fit three hard drives into my micro-atx case. Four if all of them are SSD.