The only 3 things that concern me, about the Graphics Card, is (1) its power consumption. I plan on buying a 750W PSU, and the GPU says it consumes 630W! Will that leave enough for other components and lighting?

Luke,
I can't see how the card could be that different than mine, I have a system running 2 EVGA GTX 260s (core 216, same speeds as the XFX you listed), using a 750W Antec PSU, also have 4 120mm fans, 3 7200 SATA drives, 1 DVD RW & an X-Fi card in it... 630W just for the GPU doesn't sound right, are you sure they're not saying the minimum recommended PSU for the card is 630W?

-Dave

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Luke,
I can't see how the card could be that different than mine, I have a system running 2 EVGA GTX 260s (core 216, same speeds as the XFX you listed), using a 750W Antec PSU, also have 4 120mm fans, 3 7200 SATA drives, 1 DVD RW & an X-Fi card in it... 630W just for the GPU doesn't sound right, are you sure they're not saying the minimum recommended PSU for the card is 630W?

-Dave

Are you ready for this? Essay time!

Luke, I agree with Dave. I'm running a Corsair 620w PSU with 2 sata hdd, 2 sata dvd-rw, same number of fans and only the one GTX260. Had a look at the adverts, and it does say 630w but that must be for the total supply. I'd say whatever you get, make sure it's a quality psu, and make sure that it has two 6-pin PCI-E connectors. One of my PSU's didn't, and it means a bit of mucking about with adaptors. The better the warranty, the more faith they tend to have in their product, and I find you tend to get what you pay for.

The price of the card is very similar to the ones in the UK of the same spec. The Gigabyte I bought has a 3 year warranty, but the EVGA I was looking at came with a 10 year warranty. The guy I spoke to on the phone at the website said that 2 years was fine, (when I was sorting out my out of stock card) because most people would look to upgrade by then anyway.
It will give you a nice boost on your RAC, and you'll be able to play games too!

If you want a rough guide to a power supply, I've used this in the past, http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp, and it tells me I'm using about 500w of my 620w PSU, which is about the max I'd want to take from it.

The case should be fine for the GTX260, it says in the advert that it will take an 8800GTX which is the same physical size as the 260. Just remember that it will take 2 slots up on the back of the case. It should have 2 DVI ports on the back of the card, so it should do your 2 monitors. Mine certainly does, and most manufacturers follow the Nvidia reference cards.

The i7(920) is a great CPU, that will certainly give a great boost to your RAC, and is really easy to overclock too, should you wish too.

Any more problems or questions, post them, or drop me a pm, and I'll do my best to help.

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!

Also Luke, I don't know where you were planning to buy the case from, but I noticed that Overclockers NZ stocked the case you were looking at. I also noticed that they stock the Antec 300, while not as fancy(?) as the NZXT, is an extremely good case too, as long as you buy a couple of extra 120mm fans for the front grill. I have one myself for my kids' machine. The power supply goes at the bottom, so you need to buy one with quite long leads to reach the top of the motherboard, and I installed mine upside down so that the cooling fan for the psu wasn't blocked.

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!

Thanks for all the answers dnolan & gizbar!

The PSU I am currently planning on using is the Silverstone ST75ZF, with a output of 750W (Link to item), can't find a warranty as of yet for it, but it was recommended to me from a friend, and from what I've heard, they are a pretty solid brand. On the topic of the 6-pin PCI-E connectors, it appears to have 4 of them. (Link to PSU on sale here).

On topic of the GPU, I just wanted to clear up some of the perceived compatibility problems I thought I might encounter. On the page with the GPU, it states:

Minimum Power Requirement (Watt)
This is the minimum power supply wattage requirement for the graphics card to perform properly.
	630

I thought this meant it would use 630W out of the 750W supplied by the PSU I wanted to buy. Thanks for the correction on that.

@Gizbar: I am buying the "toaster" case from OC Zone for about $170.00, compared to OCNZ, which is selling it for $229. However, OC Zone's page is misleading because the title and image shows the Blue Edition and the description says it is the Red Edition, so I have inquired about that to them. The only reason I would prefer this case over others is that stands out from the rest. But I gotta' admit that Antec 300 appears to have better cooling than that of the NZXT Lexa. Also thanks for the PSU calculator! Looks like I'll be putting out about 590W.

Regards all,
Luke.

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- Luke.

@Gizbar: I am buying the "toaster" case from OC Zone for about $170.00, compared to OCNZ, which is selling it for $229. However, OC Zone's page is misleading because the title and image shows the Blue Edition and the description says it is the Red Edition, so I have inquired about that to them. The only reason I would prefer this case over others is that stands out from the rest. But I gotta' admit that Antec 300 appears to have better cooling than that of the NZXT Lexa. Also thanks for the PSU calculator! Looks like I'll be putting out about 590W.

Regards all,
Luke.

Hi Luke, seems like a pretty good power supply. It has a 3 year warranty from silverstone according to one review site, http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=255, but it is a little larger than a standard atx power supply. Gets a couple of good reviews from Newegg too. Wish there was Newegg in the UK too, might shake the prices up here a bit...

590w? What you putting in there? An aircraft carrier? I thought mine was pretty high at 500W or so... LOL :-)

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!

@Gizbar: I am buying the "toaster" case from OC Zone for about $170.00, compared to OCNZ, which is selling it for $229. However, OC Zone's page is misleading because the title and image shows the Blue Edition and the description says it is the Red Edition, so I have inquired about that to them. The only reason I would prefer this case over others is that stands out from the rest. But I gotta' admit that Antec 300 appears to have better cooling than that of the NZXT Lexa. Also thanks for the PSU calculator! Looks like I'll be putting out about 590W.

Regards all,
Luke.

Hi Luke, seems like a pretty good power supply. It has a 3 year warranty from silverstone according to one review site, http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=255, but it is a little larger than a standard atx power supply. Gets a couple of good reviews from Newegg too. Wish there was Newegg in the UK too, might shake the prices up here a bit...

590w? What you putting in there? An aircraft carrier? I thought mine was pretty high at 500W or so... LOL :-)

regards, Gizbar.

Thanks for finding out about the warranty... About the size, will it still fit in an ATX case though, or is it too big?

We don't need cheaper prices here, we need to be closer to Aussie, UK or US for cheaper shipping! Half the time intl. shipping to NZ costs as much as the item itself.

LOL! I overestimated slightly to see if I could "future-proof" myself. (i.e. addition of another HDD, extra lights, extra Opti drive)

Regards,
Luke.

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- Luke.

Can't do much checking now, I'm "supposed" to be getting ready for work. It's 5.30am here, lol! The review said it was slightly bigger in length only (I think) and one of the reviews on Newegg said it was a tight fit, but I must admit I didn't do any thorough research.

Yes, I know about NZ prices. I've wanted to move there for a while, but can't find any way to get around the immigration/settlement policy. Think they just don't want me, as I can't find a way to qualify!

Off to work now, so I won't get any replies until this evening.

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!

Can't do much checking now, I'm "supposed" to be getting ready for work. It's 5.30am here, lol! The review said it was slightly bigger in length only (I think) and one of the reviews on Newegg said it was a tight fit, but I must admit I didn't do any thorough research.

Yes, I know about NZ prices. I've wanted to move there for a while, but can't find any way to get around the immigration/settlement policy. Think they just don't want me, as I can't find a way to qualify!

Off to work now, so I won't get any replies until this evening.

regards, Gizbar.

My apologies, I should be the one looking for this information... I'll take a deeper look into it.

Have a good workday!
Regards,
Luke.

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- Luke.

My apologies, I should be the one looking for this information... I'll take a deeper look into it.

Have a good workday!
Regards,
Luke.

No apology necessary. Hope you've found the info you were looking for. I know the normal ATX power supplies are usually a fairly standard size. I know that some of the larger wattage psu's are physically bigger because they sandwich 2 psu's in the same box. No guessing on which one ends up where. It all comes down to the skill of the designer and the care they put in to it.

My guess is that it will fit, but I didn't check if the psu went in at the top or the bottom of the case you've chosen. I think that normally 2 out of the 3 dimensions are the same, because of the way they have to fit in the case, and it's just the length that increases.

regards, Gizbar.

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A proud GPU User Server Donor!