power supply for SLI mode

i am getting a new comp, heres my setup

athlon 3800+ dual core (will overclock)
eVGA 7800GTX
kingston, corsair, or samsung ram- 1GB (dont know what kind yet)
Asus A8N-SLI mobo
preferably a 10k rpm hard drive

what i need to know is if i need a power supply that is "specifically made" for SLI, or how many watts i need, im not doing SLI now, but will in the future. so, what kind do i need.

also what kind of ram is best, and what kind of speed should i get? this will be my first ever Athlon Build

3rd and last question, is there really that much of an advantage with a 10k rpm hard drive over a 7200??

 

No there isn't really any special power supplies for SLI. Someone might have stuck a sticker which says it on some but it doesn't matter. Typically speaking SLI boards need a lot of power though. So I'd personally look for something around or above 450Watts if you want to be on the safe side.

As for RAM, most tend to be OK. Kindston for the longest time was considered the best, it's price also used to be WAY more then the others. Personally I still buy kingston and I've never had a problem, although now it's quite cheap. The relative cheapness of kingston seems to have scared some people away but I've never had a stick of kingston go bad on me.

As for a 10K HD. Odds are if you have to ask then the answer is no. You won't really use the extra speed a 10K HD gives you unless you're running a server or some other HD demanding job. If you plan to game it won't make any diffrence at all. Besides from give you bragging rights with other gamers (which some people seem to consider important)

 

To add in, unless you need the SCSI drive, 10k rpm drives are only SCSI drives, and mainly used for Video applications. You could go with a 500watt powersupply, but the 450watt would be sufficient. And yes the Asus A8N-SLI is a "Scalable Link Interface" motherboard, so there is no more power used then any other motherboard.

If using dual video then a SLI motherboard would be the way to go, otherwise it is just overkill.

 

Go with the 10k HD, the HD is the slowest part of the pc these days, it will efect perfomrance, where do you think the data for the cpu to process comes from. BTW for atleast a year there's been the 10k WD Raptor drive, scsi is a thing of the past.

 

SCSI is far from being a thing of the past. It still exsists in tons of servers and is still the server standard. Although there are of course 10K IDE drives as you have said. But you also need to keep in mind that RPM isn't the only factor to look at when determining the data transfer rate of a drive.

 

Do you use a server for your desktop? Most likely not, I listed the 10k WD raptor, cause it is still the fastest sata HD available for seak times and other stats, there are too many reviews to even list, still faster than any SATA II solo or in all type of raid configurations. I am awaiting a WD Sata II Raptor, that should be something, but no news of such yet, but you know it's coming. Also if Dennis 316 hase enough money to sepnd on the system he's building with such specs, spend the extra for a HD that will match the speed of the system

 

Actually there are psu designed for sli,next to the pci-e ports there is an extra 6 pin socket,you will need to have this extra power installed for an sli system,below 6800gt it isnt needed the ports can supply enough power,but above in the case of the 7800 in sli you will need it,you can use any power supply and just use a molex adapter,but the latest and greatest have one built in thats always nice to have when it doesnt cost you anything extra.

ps I love my WD raptor,once you have seen a raptor install a 300 meg demo in you wont want anything else.

 

Agreed, but also pic your PSU based on quality and performance rather than just having an extra connector. I'd rather have an Antec and use the adapter.

 

I'd rather have two stainless steel braided electromagnectically sheilded pci-e extra power connectors with thier own stable 12v rails the best build quality I have ever seen with a psu and in testing some of the most stable voltages ever.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=230450

 

Have a look here:
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=136602&page=1&pp=20

Here too, SLI certified psu at bottom of page:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build.html