2. It's will give you power. the components will run. if it's not very efficient, whatever.. if the power isn't very clean, again.. the components aren't gonna care. If it blows up, it most likely won't damage anything else and you can get a new one then.

 

1 - not at all, 10 - very worried, I would say it's a 4-5 issue. It's not that it'll explode or anything, just that pricier PSs waste less power, run less hot, and provide smoother and cleaner power if you're running a lot of devices. If you're not, you'll probably be good for a long time.

PSs are a lot like amplifiers for stereos; ya it's great on paper that a $300 Sony amplifier can do 1000 watts...but there's a reason why a Harmon Kardon costs $500 for 500 watts: it's much more quality wattage. Not quite an apples/apples comparison but it's the best one I could think of.

 

Hard drives are really dependent on where you get them. Hard drive manufacturers bin their drives, so generally the retails stores get the worse drives. I prefer to stay with the drives that have the 3+ year warranties, as they have a higher MTBF. I have 4 older WD drives at home, and all are fine after 3 years of use.

No reviews out there on the psu, so I doubt it's anything special. As long as you keep the load level reasonable for the unit, it will likely do the job. Antec power supplies have definitely gotten better over the years, but I prefer PC Power and Cooling psu's, but my 860 watt unit was $200+, so obviously not for everyone.

 

I've seen bad psu's take out mb's before.

 

ive been wanting to upgrade to a new system and this seems like a good deal....but now i have the itch to just go a little higher end. i can certainly afford to, i just don't know if i'll use it. i used to be more of a 'gamer' back in hs/college but for a long time now ive been on the 360 instead of the pc.

meh. tough call.

 

Happened on my last computer

 

Always a tough call. I've always been a hardcore gamer on the PC, but in the last couple of years, I've been mainly playing console games, but I'm getting tired of the lack of control, so I decided recently to build a new gaming rig. No holds bar, so the $$ is adding up fast. I figure I'll be $2.5k into it when I'm done, and that doesn't include the cost of the monitor I already have.

 

jesus dude. i'd think you could get damn decent rig for 1k with prices as low as they are right now...

 

I priced out a machine the other day that ran me just over $2 grand. And that didn't even have the best available video card or duals for SLI. Quality components still cost money, and in my next machine I'd really like to have a very high-performing primary drive (WD's Raptor was an idea, but it easily adds $200 to the cost alone), in addition to a very good PS, which appears will run me near $200 as well. I'd like to game some, but don't plan on spending 20 hours a week playing Unreal 3 online, or even playing the best games right when they come out. I just like getting an above average machine so it'll last 3-4 years and still be a decent performer after that amount of time. My current machine is 3.5 years old.

I do agree that it's better to buy parts online, as the retail places do seem to get a lot of duds. Plus, you can be choosy down to the serial number range depending on the part.

 

Play nike and just do it.. dont be a wussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss