Review components for new build

[ham]

Hey Gang,

1st build
Case- large unknown brand hand-me-down
PS - 430w Themaltake TR2-430W
Proc- AMD 64 X2 3800 AM2
Ram- 2 512mb Corsair XMS2 DDR2-675mhz
GPU- Radeon X1600 512mb DDR2
MoBo- MSI K9NU Neo (NVIDIA M1697 chipset)

Main concerns: Power supply large enough? Conflicts between components?

newbuilder 14 why "dual 12v rails"? Is this for SLI?

[glc]

Which exact Thermaltake PSU?

[Dr Dmoney]

Well, It is good for sarters. I wonder how much is your buget becasue I would get a 550w power supply so it would be easyer to upgrade. Good for going Am2 for your price range althugh if you have some more money. I would get a e6300 and a good 150 intel borad that supports c2d it is much better than amd builds. Also you really need atleast 1gb of ram. You will notic a difference and get 2gb if you have the money.
All over a good build, what are you going to use it for though.

[newbuilder14]

You should get a PSU that has dual 12v rails. The Thermaltake your thinking about does not I believe. Here is a much better alternative: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

[blue60007]

You really need to have DDR2-800 for AM2 - otherwise it hurts performance compared to a comparable Socket 939/DDR build.

[ham]

Originally Posted by glc Which exact Thermaltake PSU?

TR2-430W is what's on the box

[ham]

Originally Posted by newbuilder14 You should get a PSU that has dual 12v rails. The Thermaltake your thinking about does not I believe. Here is a much better alternative: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

Why dual 12v rails? What's a "rail"? Is this for upgrade to SLI?

[ham]

Originally Posted by blue60007 You really need to have DDR2-800 for AM2 - otherwise it hurts performance compared to a comparable Socket 939/DDR build.

I would like the 800 mhz ram but it's another 120$ How much slower are we talking? 20%?

[newbuilder14]

You may be fine with that Thermaltake Power Supply, and infact forget what I said. I only suggested that because some video cards may require the extra 12v rails for full performance. I have a power supply similar to the Thermaltake you have and have no problems.

[blue60007]

newbuilder, you were right in the first place. That power supply doesn't have dual 12V rails, and you really need that for a PCI-E build (even if you used a low end video card). It draws off the 12V rail more than AGP did. It's got 18 amps on the 12V rail... A proper power supply would be about double that (ie, 2 12V rails @ 18a for a total of 36a). Also it should be ATX 2.0 spec and that one isn't a true ATX 2.0 spec. It's asking for trouble.

Generally, you'll need around 25A (I've seen this number on a few requirement lists for some video cards), total, on the 12V rail(s)...that one only has 18.

For example, here's a good PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817104954

36 amps on the 12V rail.

Power supplies put out several different voltage "rails" - 3.3V, 5V, 12V are the main ones. Different components use different voltages...for PCI-E you really need to look at the 12V rail. One of the reasons we don't recommend that Thermaltake for PCI-E is it's weak on the 12V rail.

[ham]

Thanks Blue,
I'll send this one back then.
I appreciate the explaination

[glc]

Ham, please don't make multiple posts, use the EDIT button. Thank you.