[Carbon]

Originally Posted by blckrob042000

Also the part about the rails (Im assuming outputs) wasnt very clear to me. So I need a rail (output) for each device in the tower. And the corsair I woulld be able to afford at $100 (still a bit on the high side) only has 1 12v rail and its at 41A. The rest are -12 and 5v
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004

No, single rail PSUs are better, and you're spending way too much on it.

See this, or this.

And no, Intel is beating AMD in every desktop/consumer market segment now except possibly super super low end.

[blckrob042000]

Nice. I didnt think you would chime in here I was gonna PM you since you wrote the write up....but since your here......sorry I dont mean to nag I just like to understand why Im doing things.....so from what I understand with a single rail I can power everything off of this 1 12v source b/c the amperage is high and w/ the quad rails I'll have to power components seperately b/c of the low amperage and these componets will still only be getting the low amperage that is being output from each rail? And if I am accurate why is this better?

[Carbon]

Pretty much.

Since the rail is limited to 18A per Underwriters Laboratory standards, if one rail uses more than 18A, other rails can't supplement it unless the video card requires two connectors. Obviously, most do at this point, but you're still possibly wasting a lot of power (after all, you may only use 3/4 of the rails or less). Grabbing a single rail with a lot of amperage means that everything can grab what it needs out of the collective bucket, as it were.

[blckrob042000]

Ok...so from an install point. Im guessing w/ the one rail PSU you wire everything in series and with the 3/4 rail PSU you wire everything in parallel? Also I found a mobo I like but it uses the still expensive DDR3 I've seen some that support both DDR2 and DDR3 as well:
http://www.compusa.com/applications/...7&Sku=I69-2172

[Carbon]

Don't grab that motherboard - I used to like the hybrid chipsets but now that DDR3 is not really anything special and an integrated memory controller will quickly make those speeds obsolete, skip it.

Grab a solid mobo like the P45-UD3P.

[blckrob042000]

How important are those 2.0 PCIE slots for a gaming /media rig. That one had two at x16 these two I found are similar but they have two PCI E 2.0 slots but one is 16X and the other is 8X.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157131

[blckrob042000]

The later one supports DDR3 and DDR2. And what do you mean by a memory controller making those speeds obsolete?

[Carbon]

integrated memory controller on nehalem means it's pretty much only limited to a given voltage range, so ddr3 speeds will quickly shoot up way past anything on ddr3, ddr3 is really useless at the moment.

the latter board has bad reviews, get the ud3p. PCI-E 2.0 doesn't really matter too much

[blckrob042000]

Yeah I saw those reviews. But, why doesnt PCI E 2.0 matter much? ISnt it the only way to run "true" Xfire or SLI?

[blckrob042000]

I do want to have room for expandability, thats why Im asking. If Im gonna break my budget on a mobo I just wanna get a good one.