biulding new computer need help

LoonylionVideo card is a Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX and yes the USB ports are used (keyboard, mouse, printer, UPS and other things). I do heavy gaming on that machine, as well as programming, surfing and video editing.

and you're running a 500watt power supply without any problems?! what brand is that power supply?!

a 600W OCZ Powerstream. As I said previously, typical draw of my system is around 350W (measured using an inline Wattmeter)

just throwing about my advice, go for a well respected power supply company, and try and avoid the ones that come with cases - they're very often unreliable and if they go they might well take your system down with it, as well.

Replying to #23

already been said at least twice :)

dammit... my onepiece to contribute, flushed at the hands of a loony cat :P

LoonylionVideo card is a Nvidia Geforce 8800GTX and yes the USB ports are used (keyboard, mouse, printer, UPS and other things). I do heavy gaming on that machine, as well as programming, surfing and video editing.

Loonylionmine is an overclocked Dual Core with 8 hard disks...

Loonylion · #22a 600W OCZ Powerstream. As I said previously, typical draw of my system is around 350W (measured using an inline Wattmeter)

This is why I'm perfectly happy with my 400W power supply. I do heavy gaming on my machine as well, but I don't need all that. I'm happy with my DVD burner if I need extra storage. You can get a 1TB HDD for $250~. Unless you're doing something like messing with a ton of uncompressed video or having your computer act as a web server, I don't see a huge need for more than a couple of HDDs.

yes I do deal with video, both compressed and uncompressed. I also download a lot, and have special high speed disks for games. My CPU is very power efficient, my old single core used to draw more, and Intels in particular aren't very efficient (I use AMDs exclusively because they perform better when dealing with video). I have separate drives for source and rendered video, and a third drive for temporary data (a 300GB that I don't trust with anything valuable). I would not be happy running my machine on a 400W because the margin is less than 50W at times, and the PSU could break down at lower than it's rated output (frequently happens with generic/cheap PSUs, not so much with branded ones, but still can happen). My PSU is 700W peak output, so I'm pretty safe.

well im no longer going to build a computer (for now) im just going to buy a dell Inspiron 530 :D, and what are some video/sound  cards for gaming?(majorly for mmos not for heave gaming)

MMOs will typically run on anything, and sound isn't that important, onboard HD Audio will do, alternatively most cheap sound cards will do the job.

new computer q&aok i know this post is old but i thought it would be more convent to fuse my post if there close enuf to the topic, i plan on buying (in the very far future) a dell dimension 530 as is with no upgrades (would drop a link but i have a virus and its a wonder i can do this), what should be the most important things i should upgrade (plan on doing lite gaming, web browsing,and runing vms, and runing office programs

Shouldn't have to upgrade anything if that's all you want to do.

really i thought i would have to upgrade my sound card and graphic card (there both intergraded)

if it comes with intel graphics (regardless of the specific model) then upgrade the graphics. Intel graphics are shit.

They all run Intel. I know, because there's so many Dell advertisements on TV.

Dell do make AMD machines, just not many. Also just because it has an intel processor doesn't neccessarily mean it has intel graphics, although in my experience most dells do.

yup intel graphics, get a plug-in card. Also make sure its a proper tower case and not one of those tiny little cases they make now. You can't upgrade them and they overheat easily.

yah i dont really like the slims, the one im going to buy is a fat tower,so whats the best graphics card i can get thats $100(usd) or below?

hard to say without knowing what bus it has (i.e what expansion slots there are) and what the PSU is rated for.

heres a link http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs