Building a low end machine

[ENFORC3R]

Building a low end machine for a friend, had a quick questions

Getting a MSI GTX460 HAWK

From what ive read is underload a high end machine with the same card will consume around 320W of power. Was wondering if a 400W psu would be fine?

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

Look at the 12v rails on the PSU, you need to provide enough amps for the card and peripherals. I'd say go for 450 if not higher, but for 400 might work since the cards are generally stated to be higher wattage.

[ENFORC3R]

Thats what i was thinking, he ordered the 400W already anyways everything checks out fine.

Thanks again lol.

[[THANATOS].Sneye.GT]

Good call on the 460's. Power supply is correct as Hades said. Also, I hate to say this, because I'm still an ATI/AMD vid card guy, but the 460's are one of the best bangs for the buck out there. I'm running 2 of them in SLI and they work great. Only drawback is the sli thingy on them, you can't run more than 2 of them at one time.

[ENFORC3R]

Isn't there is a special connector to add on more than 2? Or is just that Card that cannot be run with more than 2?

[[THANATOS].-Hades]

there's 3 and 4 way SLi bridges but I guess the card might not support it, idk I haven't stayed in the loop on recent cards.

[ENFORC3R]

Ya same, I only get up to date on that stuff when its time for a new machine

[[THANATOS].Sneye.GT]

enfo, yeah, the 460's only have the 1 sli bridge, and due to the positioning of them, you can only run a max of 2 cards in one system. IE, 1 sli slot on the cards. Still a very good card though. I'm running 2 of them oc'd in sli. Works great. Think the new 560 TI's are the best bang for the buck right now.

[[THANATOS].Metal]

OR, you could go with the 465, and flash them over to 470s like I did..

Companies I can confirm that produced boards with 10 memory chips and used the GF100 GPU (need to meet both of these critera -- can't unlock what isn't there to begin with):

PNY

EVGA

MSI