I was thinking of going with a Corsair 520w-650w PSU for this build. This is also my first build and i was wondering if using a modular PSU would make things much easier for me or if a standard PSU with some zip ties is just as easy.

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M

CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Saitek PK17U Black/Silver USB Standard Cyborg Keyboard

SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

I have built computers using modular and standard PSUs. I have used ones like the PC P&C 750wt and the Thermaltake Toughpower series. I personally have liked the TT Toughpowers a bit better, in part because I like having less wires strung about in the case, potentially interfering with airflow, and I like the Toughpower's quieter fan.

I have an Antec 900 case with a TT Toughpower 850wt. Because of the PSU being at the bottom of this case, I ended up having to use an extra wire for my hard drives, as the hard drives are now upside down in relation to the PSU and the connectors are also upside down. I tried a spare PSU that I have with standard wires, but the situation was worse with it, so the modular PSU was better for my situation.

Various people will weigh in about modular verses standard wiring, and single verses multiple rails. I'll take a piece from Jonnyguru to answer that question:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.p [...] ry&reid=94

"Now that I've typed all that out, I'm going to get on my soapbox here for a moment. While I was typing point #4, I distinctly head a number of people saying, "Pfft. Quad 12V topology is bad. Pass." This seems to be going around the various forums I frequent, and I wanted to take a moment to address this. The common thought is that the 240VA limitation imposed by Intel is a bad thing, resulting in "trapped power."

To use a couple more Q words, this is a quibble not worth qualifying. The fact of the matter is, if the engineers knew what they were doing when they decided what connectors went to what 12V rail, there will never be a problem with the unit shutting down due to overdrawing one of the 12V rails, unless you tried to do something inadvisable like jump starting a car or powering a pelt off a single 12V rail. If the engineers did their job well, and I daresay most of them do these days, there will be no power starving or instability due to the multiple 12V overcurrent protection. You might run into issues from overloading the power supply in general, but incidences of the unit failing due solely to the multiple 12V topology are very few and far between. Actually, I can't think of the last time I've seen it on the forums I frequent.

Ironically, some of the companies now out there blowing the "single 12V rail is better" trumpet were some of the only ones who couldn't seem to design their units' multiple 12V distribution properly. If these companies can't build a good multiple 12V design, of course they're going to claim single 12V is better, right? It's not a design problem, it's a feature!!! Perhaps children play checkers. I should point out though, some of these companies offering single 12V units are doing so strictly because they want to compete with certain others now doing so. "

There you have an answer from someone who knows a whole lot more than I do about electronics and PSUs. Based on that, I'd say get a good quality modular PSU, have fewer wires tangled in the case, and don't worry about the quibbling.

Don't forget Antec and Corsiar!

Unless you are building huge quad systems with 4+ hard drives and several DVD drives, and SLI'ing huge cards, then a single 12V rail will suffice.


Here are 2 awesome modular units; these, however, have 3 12V rails
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139002

They should last you a long time. People are able to SLI 8800GT's under a 400-watt. 520-watts will be plenty.

get a antec earthwatts series psu, they are friggin great, and the efficency rating is one of the best out there.

PC Power is tough to beat.

I hope I wasn't misunderstood. First, the PC P&C is a good PSU, its just that there are other PSUs that I think are also good. Also, I wasn't trying to advocate an overly large PSU for the OP. Probably something in the range of 500-650wts would do well for the OP unless he was to go Crossfire. From what I've read so far, the 4850 and 4870 cards are very power hungry, so a Crossfire setup would need a large PSU. In fact, this is what Anandtech said when they tested a 4850 Crossfire:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3338&p=5

"With two 4850s paired up in CrossFire, we once again ran into issues with our power supply. Our 1000W OCZ EliteXStream wasn't always enough for the dual-GPU setup and in Call of Duty 4 our system rebooted in the middle of our test at 2560 x 1600. Thankfully OCZ sent us a PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1200W unit that is certified for use with GeForce GTX 280 SLI, and if it works on that beast, it had better work with a pair of 4850s in CrossFire.

The PCP&C unit is quite loud as we mentioned in our review, but it got the job done, we were able to run all of our benchmarks without a hiccup after swapping power supplies. Despite AMD's small-GPU strategy, power consumption on multi-GPU configurations is still just as much of a problem as it is for NVIDIA."

That points out that these are hungry cards and not for the smaller PSUs that some people like to advocate. Its also why I intend to stay with only one 4870 when I get one, as I'm not up to buying a very large PSU right now.

Ok i think i will go with the modular PSU. Can i get away with the 520W or should i get the 620?

Am i going to need to buy extensions also. If so which ones/where to buy

Thanks for all the help

single gfx card go a 520w