Hey DB,
The Seasonic was a 550w despite your advice but after sleeping on it and re-reading your recommendation I cancelled my order at Newegg and purchased the Corsair RM750x. Was only $30 more with next day but gives me a lot more leeway going forward. I chose the Seasonic last night because I just had to
have it by tomorrow and somehow missed the Corsair. I was determined to find one with two EPS cables. I don't care what the other guy says, ASUS says to plug in the 8+4 for the board to run cooler and, as you say, I build for tomorrow also.
I've been building my own rigs since '89 starting with a 386/33. I'm no pro but I've learned a thing or two and I always build a solid upgrade path for the future, not fixating on the
bestest everything right now. For most, that means obsessing over raw, expensive horsepower at the cost of future versatility. For me, it means starting with the MB and usually 2nd or 3rd place components that were #1 just 6 or 12 months ago. Once they slip out of #1 they shed what I call the "
WOW! premium" of 20-50% markup. I was going to get the i7-10500K but traded the $130 difference in CPUs for a better, next level ASUS board than I had in mind. CPUs and memory only get cheaper every six months and can be easily improved so long as you have a good board. That and I didn't think the price in heat solutions and potential problems of a 125w chip were worth it, all things considered.
My new rig:
ASUS Prime Z490-A
i5-10400 2.9mhz; 65w
32gb (16x2) Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2666 (ASUS OVL)
MSI GTX 980Ti (carry over)
WD Black 1TB M.2 2080 SSD
Intel WiFi 6 AX200 M.2 2230
Cougar Case MX331 Mesh ATX-mid
Corsair RM750x PSU
Total: $920
Old rig:
ASUS P5P43TD/USB
Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 3.0mhz (OC'd to 3.76)
8gb DDR3 1333
2x WD Black 1TB HDD
Creative SB X-Fi Fatality Extreme Gamer Pro (Gen1)
WiFi PCI-1
Built it around 2008 under the same principles and it still runs great just not great enough for what I want to do any longer. Started with an E6600 and 4gb, if memory serves. Upgraded to an E8700 and then the Q9650 along the way. Been through about 5 GPU cards with the last one a Galaxy 450 GTS I put back in it since I'm moving the 980 to the new rig. I picked up the 980 a few months back for a good deal hoping to keep the system going another year or so but even my moderate projects are pushing its limits. Also, had to put in a new EVGA 500w a few weeks after the 980. Its original, 12 year old Rosewill 450w PSU up and died. Had no power issues with the 500w and the 980 plus peripherals and I doubt I ever pushed the 980 anywhere near its 250w TDP or will. I think overall power demand should actually be less with the new system given everything today is engineered to be more efficient and responsive to actual load. Thus my logic for the Seasonic 550w. Or rationalization.
But still, my policy is to keep my eye on the future and I believe I did very well with my new system for under $1000 given we're just at the dawn of socket 1200 and 10th Gen i-series. It should carry me for at least 5 years. The old system will still do yeoman service as an online, light duty machine for the wife for at least another two years. I'm working on it right now, anxiously awaiting the new PSU to fire up my new rocket tomorrow.
That's what it'll be compared to this rig. Better both qualitatively and quantitatively by several orders of magnitude in every sub-system. Just unleashing the 980s power through a 192bit slot on a vastly faster bus carrying vastly more volume will make editing a joy again yet alone benefiting from all the other improvements like 4 times the RAM at twice the speed.
I think one reason upgrade junkies (like I used to be) are always chasing a new fix is because the next $500-$1000 spent every few months buys only a marginally noticeable improvement whereas firing up my new rig tomorrow night will be like taking the helm of the Starship Enterprise compared to driving a '57 Chevy.
Thanks, again. Cheers.
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