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I'm running a core 2 quad system, overclocked, with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives and an 8800gts 640mb on a 500W enermax liberty with a single 32A 12v rail from 2005. Have NEVER had it kerplode on me. People with 700W+ power supplies without multi-gpu are wasting their money.

He'll be fine methinks.

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lol my mate just built his first computer a fortnight ago and did the same thing. Lucky I was there to help or he'd have been pretty sad!

This post has been edited by MercuryFree: Jun 8, 2009 - 4:30 AM

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Yeah, I connected everything, and the only issue is that the HDD is making a god-awful squeaking noise......not too confident about that one.

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Thank god I'm not the only one!

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Is it a Western Digital?

Yup. 750gb WD Caviar Black. DOA. Sata won't recognize in AHCI or Native IDE. And the squealing and clicking haven't subsided at all. Calling it quits, got an RMA with New Egg already.

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Yea, good idea. Don't go Seagate. I have heard a lot of bad things about their 1tb hd.

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Well I'm just doing an RMA for a replacement right now. If the second one becomes a dud, I'll find something else.

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No actually it's not a waste of money. It is quite beneficial in a couple ways. One is that you are not taxing your PSU at near 100% capacity all the time which helps to reduce heat generated as well as stresses the PSU components. Most PSU's are also more efficient when not running at 100% load, so if your PSU is rated as an 82+ or an 80 Plus, you may want to see where it runs most efficiently because I'm sure it won't be at 90-100% capacity.

Also, I would be much more comfortable running an Enermax (quality brand) closer to 100% load than some PSUs that comes pre-packaged in cases.

Two is that you have upgrading headroom. You may not have multiple GPU's when you build the system, but that doesn't mean you won't have multiple later on. Or what if you decide to upgrade a year or two down the road? That's one less part that you will have to replace.

Also, having a single rail PSU is a better idea than a multi-rail PSU as it is easier to manage the power load and there are no potential losses. Here's a little info about multi-rail PSU's from the PCPC website:


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As for Seagate, they had some firmware issues with their 7200.11 series of 1TB hard drives. Those issues have since been resolved and their 7200.12 series work just fine. They actually have denser platters than the 7200.11 series offering better performance. I have been a longtime user of Seagate HDDs and I still find them to be some of the quietest drives you can get. I went WD because of the performance but they are definitely louder than my other 4 Seagates.

This post has been edited by Sinyk: Jun 9, 2009 - 12:34 PM

Well, I'm being impatient right now and am HIGHLY considering getting a 1TB Seagate Barracuda and having it overnighted (or comparison pricing at least, the local BB has it for $108 + tax, New Egg is $90 plus shipping). I'm trying to hold out until this WD comes back in. I will be admittedly discouraged if it's noise because as of right now you absolutely can not hear the computer running. This puppy is QUIET.

One thing I did have to do already is bump the DDR voltage. Gigabyte had it set at 1.8 volts, and you could increase in .1 increments up to a .3 total increase. My OCZ Platinum memory is a 2.1v memory, so guess what I had to do?? It was running fine at 1.8 but I didn't want to take a chance and have it start crashing when I was trying to load windows.

Often you can get away with running the ram at lower voltages, but some systems require more right out of the box. If your ram is rated for 2.1v, you are safe running it at that voltage. You can also get low voltage DDR2 now that is rated for 1.8v. Extra voltage produces extra heat, but as long as you stay within the rated specs, you should be nice and stable.

I love seagate drives. I never had a single one fail on me, and they are extremely quiet.
I did however read about some issues with the 1tb series, so it might be worth it to research that a bit.

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I'm going to just hold off and see how this replacement WD turns out when it comes in. I have other things (Celica Brakes and shocks, Pacifica Brakes) that need tending to where money is better spent.

This is my first WD drive I've bought. The only ones I've ever bought otherwise are a Maxtor back in like 2003 that's still running, and more recently a Samsung Spinpoint for my laptop that's just awesome.

I've had mostly good lucks with WD, Maxtor drives tend to crap out over the years and Seagates have problems with firmware issues. I've had 3 Maxtor already that failed after 2-3 years of use. My WD from my 00' PC Is still running 24/7. Stay away from Hitachi drives, they just for some reason crap out and slowly start dieing by running slower and slower even with a complete format.

New drive came in today!!!! Was on the door step when my wife and I got home from our "prepared childbirth" class.

WORKS!!!!!!!

The slipstream XP/SP3/Updates and AHCI SATA driver cd WORKED!!!!!!!

Windows was uploaded and running in about 15 minutes (45, but I kept leaving the computer and coming back to find questions I missed in the slipstream process), no problems noted!!! I'm stoked, I actually built a running computer! I'm not an old geezer yet!

Please, get a different case and a discrete gfx card.

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Negative on the case, probably on the card. I found that case is the ONLY one that I really liked that had what all I wanted. It suits me fine thank you very much.

congrats!

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Thanks Art. Too bad my car builds don't go as smoothly.