New system, power supply recommendations, comments?

[davephan]

I am putting together a list for a new system to replace my old MSI KT6V-LSR Athlon XP 2800+ system with the dead mainboard.

I decided to replace my case and power supply. My old power supply is 380 watts and has the older 20-pin connector. I want a new supply with a 24-pin connector and more capacity.

I plan to re-use my low-end video card, DVD RW, floppy, Hauppauge PVR-350 and Windows XP Pro operating system from the old system.

I would like to use my three IDE drives in the new system. I don't own any serial ATA drives now, but will probably buy them in the future when they are on sale.

Here is the list I have so far:
Intel Q6600 quad-core 2.4 GHz processor (stock cooler)
ASUS Commando
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400
Promise Ultra 133TX2 PCI IDE controller card
Thermaltake Amrmor series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum Steel ATX Full Tower case

There are so many choices for power supplies, I am having trouble deciding. I am looking for a mid-range priced power supply, but cannot decide on which one.

I don't do gaming with the system. It is mainly for SageTV and browsing the web. I do a lot of Mpeg2 to Xvid AVI transcoding, so the quad-core should help my system performance. My old Athlon XP+ 2800 could barely playback AVI files on one MVP, with CPU sustained at nearly 100%.

I have old Matrox G2+ 8, and Matrox G45+ 16 video cards laying around that I was thinking about using. Maybe I need to think about replacing the video card with a better one.

The old mainboard died after three years of service. I am hoping this system will last at least three years.

I am looking for recommendations for the power supply, and which ones to avoid. I am also looking for comments about the video card and other system components.

Dave

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by davephan

I would like to use my three IDE drives in the new system. I don't own any serial ATA drives now, but will probably buy them in the future when they are on sale.

Sata drives are nearly the same price as IDE now. I almost converted all my drives to sata.

Here is the list I have so far:
Intel Q6600 quad-core 2.4 GHz processor (stock cooler)
ASUS Commando
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400
Promise Ultra 133TX2 PCI IDE controller card
Thermaltake Amrmor series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum Steel ATX Full Tower case

I'm about to build a similar system, only I'm choosing the intel Bad Axe 2. I think for stability and reliability, intel CPU and intel motherboard is the way to go. I have two of the Thermaltake armor cases. If you plan to put many drives in the system, this is the case for the job. It cools the drives very well. Be sure to buy extra harddrive cages as you add more drives, it only comes with one which holds three drives. If you buy from newegg, keep watching the price on the thermaltake case, they usually offer rebates every other week or so.

There are so many choices for power supplies, I am having trouble deciding. I am looking for a mid-range priced power supply, but cannot decide on which one.

I bought two of these Apevia PSUs, they power 8 to 12 harddrives. Running over two years non-stop now, so far no problems. It supports both 20 and 24 pin.

I have old Matrox G2+ 8, and Matrox G45+ 16 video cards laying around that I was thinking about using. Maybe I need to think about replacing the video card with a better one.

If those matrox are AGP cards, they won't work on the new boards anyway as almost all new boards use PCI-Express.

The old mainboard died after three years of service. I am hoping this system will last at least three years.

Again, best to stick with intel.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by davephan

I am putting together a list for a new system...

Here is the list I have so far:
Intel Q6600 quad-core 2.4 GHz processor (stock cooler)
ASUS Commando

I'm also thinking about replacing my system, and was looking for feedback on the differences between using the Q600 quad-core, or going to a dual 771 socket board and using two dual-core Xeon 5050 3.0GHz.

The Xeon 5050 bumps the speed of each core to 3Gz plus supports Hyperthreading, but the FSB is slower than the Q6600.

The machine would be my sage server, plus do all my mpeg2 to mpeg4 conversions, commercial analysis, etc.

Any thoughts?

There's just getting to be too many choices these days to keep up with them all !!

[malbec]

My experience

The Corsair power supply is absolutely the way to go based upon all the research I did and now, my experience with it.

[weeber]

I just installed an Antec Earthwatts 430W in my HTPC. It seems pretty nice an quiet. Supposedly, it's 80% efficient at any load, which really cuts down on the heat. It's got a $20 rebate going at Newegg right now, which puts it right in range with other PSUs

My PSU