Hi guys I'm in the market to upgrade to a Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI PCI-Express having had enough of Nvidia 8500 GT shimmer problems in FS9 and will also need to update my power supply. Could anyone suggest my best bet for power?Many Thanks in advance.

Two things:1)What is your current power supply and its wattage?2)The shimmer problems could be you having the MIP-Mapping Quality slider at max, but 4 is enough.Regards,BoeingGuy

My last two PSU's were from PC Power & Cooling, who most of the computer websites seem to acknowledge as the best out there from a performance and reliability standpoint. HOWEVER, they are noisy! Still use an 80mm fan. I'm switching to a Zalman ZM850HP for my next build. 140mm fan and uses heatpipes. The quietest one these guys have tested: http://bios.techpowerup.com/reviews/Zalman/ZM850-HP/.

A power supply in the range of 450-550W should be sufficient for your needs. Contrary to popular belief, the power supply does play a significant role in your computer setup and for power supplies usually the rule applies: The more expensive and heavier, the better. I am not saying that you should get a $100 power supply, but don't go with a really cheap one either. Cheap ones either tend to suffer from significant voltage fluctuations or, well, have a short lifespan -or- in the worst case blow up, because of cheap capacitors (really!).I have a 550W X-Clio power supply with my setup and have never been disappointed.My favorites are the X-Clio and CoolerMaster, that offer a good price/quality. Fortron Source is also a renowned supplier. I am sure there are various others. Look for reviews on newegg.com of hardware review sites.Hope this helps,Pat

>My last two PSU's were from PC Power & Cooling, who most of>the computer websites seem to acknowledge as the best out>there from a performance and reliability standpoint. HOWEVER,>they are noisy! PC Power & Cooling p/s are actually very quiet now, compared to how they used to be!I have a 12 year old PC Power 300 watt Turbo-Cool in one of my rigs and that thing sounds like a hurricane. Yeah, it's 12 years old and still pushing an overclock on that rig.But if you want ultra quiet, PC Power is not for you. No question they are not the quietest. But if you want the best, PC Power is what you want.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

My only advice is that not all power supplies are created equal. Some thoughts:- You get what you pay for. High wattage and cheap price usually indicates crappy components, in particular, capacitors and heat sinks.- While you do not need the 1200W power supply, it will be likely more efficient at 50% load than the 600W power supply at full load (meaning, less electricity used per month). A higher wattage supply is also able to absorb bad power better, such as spikes and brownouts.- Some manufacturers have gone to a single rail, or single circuit for the entire power supply. That's considered better these days good up to 650W. Higher, you will need more rails. Note that this is like diets, so that's today's thinking. Tomorrow, you may need less omega 3 oil or more rails - that depends on what's in vogue :)- Look at hardware sites that review power supplies before you buy. Thermaltake, PC Power & Cooling (now owned by another company), Silverstone are not bad.- Look for rail stability under load.- Modular cabling doesn't help that much and adds cost to the unit.- Round or shieved cables are better for airflow.- High wattage power supplies tend to be more efficient energy wise at lower wattage use. There is a sweet spot between 60 and 80% rated wattage load. Look for the 80+ energy efficiency certification at AVERAGE load, usually, usually, this is near 60% of the total wattage ability for normal use. They are also quieter.- Bigger fans are quieter, as they need to spin at fewer RPMs.- Note that Nvidia doesn't allow the "SLI" label to be displayed along with a competitor's certification and probably ditto for "ATI Crossfire". Consider the power supply exactly the same - avoid the marketing gimmicks. It just means there are enough connectors for 2 video cards - doesn't mean the power supply can actually handle two high end cards.I wouldn't get anything below 600W myself these days. My rule of thumb:- 100W for the dual core CPU (150W if you intend to overclock or a 4 core CPU, 200W if you want to do both).- 250W per video card (hmm, ATI 2900 video card used near 300W each?).- 50W per 7200RPM hdd, 80W per 10,000RPM hdd- 50W if using high end cooler or water system- 100W for the motherboard- add 20% for contingencies.- add 30% for quiet and spike suppression- do you need the new 8 pin PCIE 2.0 video card power connectors?- do you need the new 6 pin ATX CPU power connector?- does the power supply FIT the case (length wise, height and width are standard)- The bigger the fan, the quieter.- Forget about using the power supply in another computer in two years, the connectors will have likely changed.Hope this helps.Etienne

To add to what Etienne said-- also keep in mind that many p/s makers advertise their power output figures based on 60 degrees fahrenheit. This is misleading, as the typical operating environment of a p/s will be closer to 80+ degrees fahrenheit, even in a case with good cooling. The hotter the ambient, typically the less power output there is, so consequently many p/s makers power ratings are overstated as to what you will get in real-world conditions.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian