i am goin to build a pc

rhinoseed

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i am goin to build a pc and want to know how much power a 4870 video card that you guys recomend?? and if you guys have any cool parts for my pc that are really good i would appreciate it. Please i am tryin to buy stuff from newegg so please keep it at that website for the ideas.

-Rhinoseed
 
What are you talking about?? A 4870 can easily be ran on less than 500 watts.
 
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* Intel Celeron Dual Core, Pentium Dual Core, AMD 3800+ or higher, 2.0GHz or faster
* 1GB of system memory recommended Installation
* 400 MB Hard Disk space
* 450 Watt or greater power supply with 75 Watt 6-pin PCI Express? power connector recommended (550 Watt and two 6-pin connectors for dual ATI CrossFireX™)
* PCI Express? based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available
* Certified power supplies are recommended
* Software requires an optical drive DVD playback requires DVD drive
* Blu-ray™ playback requires a Blu-ray / HD DVD drive
* an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per board (included) are required.
* Double slot solution


I got this off of website for the 4870... the x2 minimum is 650 watt.... i would always go with more then the minimum
 
It really depends on the rest of your configuration. Post an idea of what you'll end up getting and we can give you a better estimate.
 
The minimum for the 4800 series alone is in the 500 range.

Not to mention the processor, 125 or 140 (if you get a quad)....

Then you have the mobo....

So and so forth.

lol, when they say minimum 500 watt power supply, they don't mean for the card alone, they mean for the whole system. And the number they say is a little bit more than you need in most configurations. My friend is running a 4870 on a 450 Watt PSU. The most power a 4870 could ever possibly use is 225 watts. PCI-e bus provides 75 watts, and each 6 pin provides 75 watts. 75x3 equals 225. But it doesn't use all of it unless you are doing some extreme overclocking.
 
Here is a little tid bit I learned when I moved into major video cards a couple of years ago. Watts is not the only thing you should be looking at. When you look at the box it also talks about how many AMPS it is needed from the 12v+ of your power supply. So yea you may have 350w or 1000w but it means nothing if it all doesn't piece together.(1000w will have the sufficent amps required. lol) I learned this when I got my 7950 GT 2-3 years ago. I had a 500 watt PSU and the card ran but it wasn't giving me the performance it should have. It was not due to the rest of my setup but the PSU wasn't giving it all the amps! I got a another PSU with more than enough amps and it ran better than ever. You never want to go for the optimal or just meeting the margin. You want to go for more incase you need that extra power down the road. What if you get SLI or another card that needs more juice. Well then you need to get another PSU but why not already be prepared. Power Supplies(PSU) are relatively cheap now a days. I am not saying to go out a buy a 1000w extreme performance PSU but get atleast something that is above average and future proof. I got my 750w Thermaltake Tough power for 179.99. It has 4 dediated 12v+ rails for SLI. Now I do not have anything that will use it all up but I rather have the knowledge in knowing that I am prepared for future upgrades that take alot of juice.
 
True true, if you plan on XFiring or SLIing you'll want to have a big 12v rail so as to supply sufficient amps. But for single cards, pretty much any PSU with enough wattage will have sufficient amps to power it.
 
My computer is running a 9800 GX2 AND an 8800 GT on a 750 Watt PSU... so you are probably set with about 600 ish.
 
The minimum for the 4800 series alone is in the 500 range.

Not to mention the processor, 125 or 140 (if you get a quad)....

Then you have the mobo....

So and so forth.

I'm running a dual core and 2 4850's with a 550 Watt Power Supply....

So a 4870 Could run with less than 500.

I asked the guy at geeksquad xD (Joke)
 
Running my rig (see Signature) on an Antec NeoHE 500W PSU. What's not listed on my Signature is that I have two 250GB SATA2 HDDs and two CD/DVD-Roms. However, these days, I'd recommend getting at least a 650W to 750W, just to be safe and for some head room later on down the road. Like stated before, your most important thing you want to look at is the amps on the 12V rail. Do NOT skimp when it comes to a PSU, it is the heart and soul of your rig and a cheap PSU can ruin it beyond repair.
 
Running my rig (see Signature) on an Antec NeoHE 500W PSU. What's not listed on my Signature is that I have two 250GB SATA2 HDDs and two CD/DVD-Roms. However, these days, I'd recommend getting at least a 650W to 750W, just to be safe and for some head room later on down the road. Like stated before, your most important thing you want to look at is the amps on the 12V rail. Do NOT skimp when it comes to a PSU, it is the heart and soul of your rig and a cheap PSU can ruin it beyond repair.

I consider the mobo "the heart and soul." :P

But I agree, out of all the components, don't go cheap on a PSU.
 
Get around 500 watts and you'll do fine. As long as you're not running multiple hard drives or anything.
 
I consider the mobo "the heart and soul." :P

But I agree, out of all the components, don't go cheap on a PSU.

Oh definitely. The MB is the key component of the entire system. You can take killer hardware, smack it all in a garbage MB - and you'll have a garbage system.

Take so-so hardware (value stuff, not *dirt cheap* bare-spec stuff, but good stuff that's cheap), put it on the best motherboard you can buy - and you'll have a killer system.

I've always made a point to spend nearly as much as I do on my CPUs - on my MB. 3 parts that are always equal price with me:

- MB
- CPU
- GPU

- RAM can be equal too, but it's heavily market priced. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.

But yeah, definitely. Never skimp on your motherboard. You'll pay for it later.

( And like I always enjoy saying - when you go buy the good one later, it's going to be more expensive - it's going to be the price of the good one, plus the price of the cheap one you just wasted your money on. )
 
Oh definitely. The MB is the key component of the entire system. You can take killer hardware, smack it all in a garbage MB - and you'll have a garbage system.

Take so-so hardware (value stuff, not *dirt cheap* bare-spec stuff, but good stuff that's cheap), put it on the best motherboard you can buy - and you'll have a killer system.

I've always made a point to spend nearly as much as I do on my CPUs - on my MB. 3 parts that are always equal price with me:

- MB
- CPU
- GPU

- RAM can be equal too, but it's heavily market priced. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.

But yeah, definitely. Never skimp on your motherboard. You'll pay for it later.

( And like I always enjoy saying - when you go buy the good one later, it's going to be more expensive - it's going to be the price of the good one, plus the price of the cheap one you just wasted your money on. )

PSU is the first thing I look for...

Nothing will work if that doesn't.

~Gooda~
 
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