[QUOTE="spank_thru101"][QUOTE="Wesker776"]

500w in itself is enough for TWO modern mainstream cards. I don't understand why people overrate power consumption so much...

The problem with PSU's isn't so much the wattage figure, but the quality of output that the PSU generates. You should also consider what voltages the PSU outputs to attain its wattage figure. Modern PC's typically require a lot of power from the +12V rail of a PSU, unlike the older days where the +5V and +3.3V rails were important. Thus, you should make sure that your PSU is built for the times.

Overkill.

Just get a decent 500w unit from the above mentioned brands. There are a few other brands such as Antec, FSP and Silverstone that deliver good PSU's too.

For PSU reviews, go to:
www.jonnyguru.com

wklzip

Dude have you read any gpu reviews lately! A 4870x2 eats nearly 500watts under load, my 8800gt sli setup eats 300! A single 4870 eats around 280-300watts under load and a single 4850 eats nearly 250watts under load. While you are completely correct with the mentioning of the rails and volts, to be safe you definately want something better than a 500watt PSU. If he has multiple perephirals installed (sound card, gamepad, usb connection, data readers, etc...) tied with moderate efficeincy he can eat all that in no time and a higher psu will benefit you in terms of futureproofing.

Full system power consumption.

Ok, so what I'm seeing from here is that if I were to get the HD4850, it would work well enough on 500W, but if in the future I wanted to upgrade, or buy another card or w/e I would need a better PSU? Ok just one question; Will any PSU, as long as it has a good amount of wattage work? And because the case I plan to get already comes with a PSU, can that just be removed and a new one placed in?

(Two questions...)

Corsair, SeaSonic and PC Power & Cooling are all good brands. Something like this would be good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

--Anna--

Thanks again for another suggestion :) But is 650w high enough? or should I be getting 700+ like spank said?

Wow, I'm lucky I posted here! So are do I just buy any (decent) PSU and it will work with any case?

And thanks for the other people who responded as well!

Out of the cards you listed...the 4870 is the best performer. The 8800gt is a great card, currently at a good price and an even better card to SLI (I got two of 'em in SLI myself and depending on what resolution you play at, you can easily achieve 9800GX2 performance for much less). First off you may want to consider this - Do you plan on doing any kind of SLI/Crossfire configurations in the future? That will be a big factor in what board you get as you will need to then decide whether to go with a Nvidia chipset or an ATI chipset as mobos are generally exclusive to either one (but never both). Also when considering what motherboard to get look at the FSB and what kind of RAM it takes. A Q6600 only supports 1066FSB, but if you plan to overclock it it may be worth it to get a motherboard that supports something highter than 1333 (which is the standard...for now). Also what kind of ram you plan to put in your motherboard is another determing factor. Currently PC6400 is the standard, but as we speak higher/faster speeds are becoming the norm, so again it may be better and beneficial to get a mobo that supports PC8500. The mobo your friend posted is not bad, but for a few extra dollars you could do better. I apologize for dropping lots of info on you, but PLEASE do some more research before buying and feel free to ask more questions.

SIDE NOTE: What OS are you planning on using? I ask cuz 4gb or ram in a 32bit operating system will only be recognized as 3.25 (this is due to 32bit limitations). I just want to warn you on that.

spank_thru101

Ok, thank you for all that info, most of it's gone straight over my head but I will look into all of it, don't you worry.

While I was waiting for a reply I did some more research and decided that the HD48xx cards were the best bet to go with, and I guess it will depend on how much money I have as to which I get. I'm also most likely going to get Windows vista 64bit, along with ddr2 ram.

Just a couple of questions, (hope it's not too much trouble) first off, should I think about the PSU? The case I'm getting comes with 500w psu, is this enough? Does it matter?

I'm definately leaning more towards ATI at the moment, so are you able to give me a price range on mobo's depending on whether or not I go for a 4850 or a 4870? (I can probably look it up with the info you gave me if it's too much trouble.

And thank you very much for helping me out!

Hello everyone :)

The reason for this post is that I am going to be building my first PC in a few weeks and I would like some help with a few things.

1. I was planning on gettinga HD4870 or HD4850 graphics card, but one of my friends said to just get an NVIDIA 8800GT as it's a lot cheaper, but I'm not sure if it's going to make a great difference or not. I would like a card that would be able to play future games such as fallout3, GTAIV, and Fable II pretty well on it, (I know theyre not out so theyre not very good examples, but I can't think of anything :( ) as well as online games.

Which of these cards wouldbe the better option/ Would it really make that much of a difference/ Should I look at other options?

2. I don't really know much about motherboards and my friend said to get an "XFX MG-63MI-7159 NVIDI" O.o Because it's cheap at $99. I would like to know if this is a good option, do the affect things such as computer speed or if theres something I should look out for with them. (I'm somewhat of a newb at the inner workings of a computer sorry :P)

Just for the record, I am getting an intel quad core Q6600 and 4GB ram.

A big thankyou goes out to all who read this and even more if you can help :D