New PC

So I've decided to spoil myself and build a new PC, the current setup I'm looking at is:

Antec 902 Case
ASUS P6X58D-E Motherboard
Intel i7 950 CPU
12GB 1600Mhz Corsair SDRAM
x2 1GB EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (Super Clocked Edition)

What sort of power supply would I need to power this thing? The nVidia forums aren't much help with people claiming that something as low as a 600W PSU is enough (I disagree) and others saying 800W - 1000W is needed (most threads on this topic just desend into a bitchfest over whether a 900W or 1000W is needed for dual SLI)

Secondly, I'm worried about the cooling this case would get, I chose that case as it appears to have a decent cooling system but would this be enough do you think? or would it be worth investing in either a better cooling system (eg: CPU Cooler etc) or even moving to water based cooling? (I won't be overclocking btw).

I would get a single more powerful GPU now and then you have the option of upgrading your system down the road with a second GPU. I'd also stick with just 6 GB of RAM and upgrading that down the road as well.... nothing wrong wit 12gb but it's a waste of money for you right now.

With no Overclocking a good quality 600watt PSU would probably be fine, but it's never a good idea to stress your PSU and one must factor in capacitor aging etc as well. If you get the setup that you are currently planning on I would recommend a name brand 700-800 watt PSU with 50+ amps on the 12V rail(s).

The 902 case should be fine for you cooling needs, just make sure you have enough fans in there moving air around.... general rule of thumb is cold air drawn in at the front, bottom, and side - with hot air exiting the back and top of your case.

I am going to back up Elder on this one. A quality brand name 700-800 PSU should do the trick, if you are using the video cards specified. If you are looking to spend less than $150.00 on a PSU, have any doubts as to the quality of the PSU, or move up the video card food chain go to a 1KW PSU. You may want to take a look at HardOCP's or even Tom's PSU reviews before you buy, some brands that you think would be quality are not.
As for the RAM, stick with the 12GB, Win7 will perform much better than with just 6GB. Going beyound 12GB is a waste of money (according to Tom's and a few other reviews I have read).

I agree with the others, a good 600w would probably be enough, but I'd get a bit higher because they do deteriorate over the years.

I'd probably get this one http://www.scan.co.uk/products/850w-...-year-warranty

and if you're buying from the UK, take a look here http://www.scan.co.uk

you could save over £100 buying exactly the same as you linked to

Thanks for the replies! I was a little concerned about getting a 600W even if it could do the trick because as Elder said, it wouldn't be a good idea to stress it and with the current setup I'm looking at I can't see it lasting that long. I'll definitely look into the one Armageddon posted (cheers!).

As for the RAM, I chose 12GB over 6 because I do a lot a work with Maya, 3D Studio and Visual Studio which love to eat RAM (the recommended amount for 3DS/Maya is 8GB). I also tend to do a lot of work inside multiple virtual machines, sometimes with 3/4 running at the same time.

I've chosen the GTX 460 as opposed to something more powerful like a 470 or a 480 simply because of the reviews they've have in regards to heat being generated, noise etc. The new 580/570 is a little out of my price range at the moment so I will probably stick with the 460 until their prices come down and then upgrade to one of the 5xx range.

My main goal with this setup is to not need to upgrade to much and currently the only thing I can see that would need upgrading at a latter date is the graphics card but as I won't be playing high-end games 24/7 this won't be a major issue (although I will be playing games the cards will mainly be used for rendering/animating Maya/3DS Models and for [email protected]). I will probably hold off a little longer before buying it though, I'm hoping that with the GTX 5xx range being released and the imminent release of Intel's new "Sandy Bridge" processors the prices should come down a little.

Gone crazy there...

- Decent, quiet CPU cooler. [Gelid Tranquillo].
- Good 750W+ power supply. [Corsair HX750].
- 80-120GB SSD Drive for applications and OS. [OCZ Vertex 2E 120GB].
- CUDA enabled Single GPU. [GTX460].
- 1920 x 1200 monitor [Dell U2410]. or dual monitor setup [x2 Dell 2209WA].
- 12 gigs sounds good if you're gonna be running VMs and big applications.

money money money...

Instead of 2 GTX 460's, I'd get a GTX 570. Won't be as quick but it'll be quieter and less heat and there won't be any SLI/Microstuttering Issues.

Ah that's a good point, although they are quite a bit more than the 460 I may have to stretch my budget a little further... I've also just noticed that amazon have slashed the prices of 580 so it's only £20 more than the dual 460's (if only my apprenticeship paid more than £400 a month >.<). My plan was to get one 460 and then a month or two later get the second but I may just have to save up and get a single 570. To keep the cost down I'll probably start of with 6GB's of RAM and see how everything performs (mainly Maya/3DS), and then if I think it's needed, buy the second lot of 6GB another month or two later.

As for the SSD's and Dual Monitors Iron Monkey posted; SSD's are a little too expensive at the moment for the sizes they provide, I will probably hold off on one of them for a little while until their prices come down. For a screen I currently have a 19" but I've got a 32" HD TV in my room which I will probably hook the HDMI output of the graphics card to (Not sure how it would look but I can't see any reason why it shouldn't work/look good).

If the TV is Full HD you should be fine. HD Ready TVs are OK at a stretch, but can be pixely at times. I would not advise playing FPS games on the TV though as they mostly have slightly longer reaction times compared to high end PC Monitors.

However, make sure you set the TV up far enough away from you, else you will quickly get a head/neckache from looking around the screen.

The TV is full HD. As for gaming, I would be playing games on it but not any which would require a high response time or at least playing them to a degree where I would require a high response time from them.

There are no micro-stutter issues with 4xx and 5xx series GPUs in SLi. nVidia basically has their SLi methods perfected with Fermi. They might be able to get scaling to be consistently 95% or better with the 6xx series (if my sources are correct), but that remains to be seen.

Minimum frame rates with SLi are also extremely impressive. Crossfire still has micro-stutter and minimum frame rate issues; although, the 6000 series are better in regards to both (still worse than SLi however)