Power Supply Question

[CaldaRaric]

How do you tell how many watts you need in a computer?
Is a 400W good enough to run:

ASUS P5N-D LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131232

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115017

Maybe two of these
XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
http://http://www.newegg.com/product...82E16814150229

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://http://www.newegg.com/product...82E16820231098

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3160815AS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://http://www.newegg.com/product...82E16822148230

And other stuff like the DVD-rom and multimedia card reader.

[Dave21]

No, for that you need at least 500 W. I suggest either the corsair 550 W or 620 W PSU.

You can test it out here:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/p...ulatorlite.jsp

Also, I don't recommend going SLI with the 2 8600. Just get a 8800GT which will provide better performance than those two combined.

[Drunner611]

Do not waste your time with 8600gt sli. Just get a 9600gt or 8800gt as they will both beat the 8600sli.
Get the psu dave recommended.
If you want Seagate, checkout the 7200.11 = newer, faster.

Also, by not going sli, you can save some money on the mobo and pick up a p35.

[Katreat]

I agree with the others, would forget SLI and go for a P35 board. But in answer to your question if you stick with SLI then go to this site and determine what size PSU you will need. I think the minimum for any SLI system is 650 - 700w.

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

Kat

[CaldaRaric]

Thanks for the input guys. Do you know of a P35 board that you can recommend? And what 8800GT would you guys recommend that is an affordable price?

[Dave21]

Asus P5K-E

Any evga 8800gt will work wonders.

[shadowpr]

Agree with Dave.

[alex530]

Another good P35 board would be the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L. It is cheaper than the Asus, but also has less features such as RAID support. As far as GPU, any reputable brand of an 8800GT will be fine. Some brands to consider are EVGA, XFX, MSI, etc. EVGA has a lifetime warranty and a step-up program, but XFX has a double-lifetime warranty, meaning its transferable should you decide to sell it. So really, brand is up to you.