Questions about my PC & upgrades

I have a lot of questions about my PC. But here is my first question. Expect to hear lots more from me. I hope I will be hearing a lot from many different people. I like more help.

I am planning on getting this Graphics card for my PC sometime in the future. This is the card I plan on getting. Newegg.com - HIS IceQ 5 H577QT1GD Radeon HD 5770 Turbo 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity. I have checked everything I can think to. I am pretty sure it will work just fine with my computer. What I am wondering is will this PSU was looking at work okay with my computer. I know I have to look for amps and other stuff like that. But I am not completely sure what to look for. So I am asking you all your advice on this. The only other thing I plan on adding to my computer other than the graphics card is RAM. I plan on maxing my RAM out at some point to 16 GB. Maybe another HDD at some time. But that will not be for some time. So will the graphics probably. Any way here is the PSU I am looking at. OCZ / StealthXStream / 600-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / PCI-e Ready / Active PFC / Power Supply at TigerDirect.com

Is anyone knows any other card or PSU. That is better please feel free. I can not spend any more on the graphics card. But I could probably go to about $80 or $90 on the PSU.

The 5770 is a power saver as it does not require large amounts of power to operate unlike the majority of its contemporaries. I myself have a 5770 and a 600w PSU and it's just perfect...hell maybe the 600w is even more than enough for the 5770 and you may even get by with just a 550w PSU.

Though if you're looking to maxing out your RAM and adding several other stuff in your PC, then I'd say go for the 600w and it should be enough (or more than enough) for all the upgrade plans that you have posted.

Hello chiumiento! Welcome to the Windows 7 Forums website.

For the video card you're planning on using, either the 550 watt or 600 watt PSU will work fine.

I run two hard drives, an SSD, a Radeon HD5770 video card, one Samsung DVD burner, four internal fans incl. CPU fan, 6 GB of RAM; that's 4 sticks total, and two PCI-E cards. My 550 watt power supply runs them with plenty of reserve capacity. You can always go to several websites which offer power supply calculators to verify what you need, and remember it's a good idea to give yourself about a 20% reserve capacity.

My main question is: Why do you need or want 16 GB of RAM? That is way too much really. Unless you're doing very intensive video rendering, intensive CAD or graphics rendering or running a server, the most you would really need would be 8 GB of RAM and even then that's somewhat of an overkill.

OCZ makes very good power supplies, they're a private label done for them by Seasonic which is one of the top PSU manufacturers in the industry.

The reason I want to get 16 GB of RAM. Is just because I figure if I am going to buy RAm. I want to just buy the biggest Ram I can. I probably will not buy it all at ounce. But I figure I have 4 slots I should use them. And I am not going to buy 2 GB sticks when 4Gb is not much more. I just want to make the most out of my computer. Though you are right I will never use it. I just am going to when I can. I like to think of it as if I am going to spend the money I mine as well just spend the few extra dollars getting the best it is not that much more. The graphics card is a different story though. That could possibly be a lot more.

chiumiento, welcome to the forum! Sounds like you're reaching for the stars.

Nothing wrong with that, in fact on Newegg, I saw a pair of 4GB DDR3 sticks for less than $100. I paid almost that for a pair of 2GB DDR2 sticks from Crucial. The ones that I saw on Newegg, I don't remember the brand, but they were red colored, and appeared to have mini red grips on the top of them. Mabye it keeps the user from physically having to touching the chip itself, reducing the chance of static transfer.

I plan a build myself in the coming years, and when I do, I'll probably do the same. If you can get twice the RAM for less than $20 a set, it's well worth it. If nothing else, you can reduce the number of sticks that you'll need, while allowing for future expansion.

Now, many associates needing high amounts of RAM with video editing, but there are other uses where you need just as much, if not more, RAM at your disposal. I run VM's, it would be nice to be able to run two at a time, rather than just one, on a separate monitor, at full power. This would take a good quad CPU, and the more RAM, the better. If say, you run you main install, on 4GB RAM, then lend 3GB (each) to 2 VM's, that's 10GB right there, assuming that they're doing a lot of work. So 12GB would probably be ideal for me.

That's why when I do build, I want RAM, CPU & PSU to spare, in addition to a decent video card. Newegg has bundles for every need, and they also offer other combo packages at huge discounts.

It's good to see you here, and look forward to hearing from you again.

Best of Luck,
Cat

Ram seems to be reasonably cheap at the moment. I got 4gig (2x2) of DDR3 (Corsair) for $65. In fact looking over old receipts most things are cheaper now (not sure if better but anyway).
For instance my old PSU was 560W (Thermaltake Pure Power) and cost $220. My new one (Corsair Micro) is 850W and around the same price. I was going to get a 650w then saw then 750w was only $17 more, that was out of stock so for $22 more got the 850W. You can buy DVD burners now for less then what you would one have paid for a box of floppies.