Not sure what graphics card you are going to use after your first rebuild, but generally I'd take those PSU calculators with a serious grain of salt.
I damn sure wouldn't buy a new PSU that would not also work when I switched from a BTX to ATX case at some later date. If I thought I was going to be forced into that, I'd just wait until I could upgrade to an ATX case and PSU at the same time.
At the moment I just have a GEFORCE 8600 GTS.
To be honest I'm not much of a gamer really so I'm not looking at high end graphics card.
I've had the PC since 2007 and the only thing that failed me was the DVD drive which I replaced with a Sony one. Other than that it's been pretty reliable.
So if the psu still runs fine after adding the SSD then I won't bother getting a new one and just wait til I decide to build from scratch.
Burdus77 +1 on the new case as it will be a vast improvement for future upgrading and will function much better with the new PSU. I would buy as much case and PSU as you can, look for a well designed mid tower and then a top flight high grade PSU from manufacturers we can suggest ala Corsair, Antec, Thermaltake, Seasonic......
When done wisely these core components will outlast many mobo and cpu's and the like. These are two suggestions among many:
Corsair Special Edition White Graphite Series™ 600T Mid-Tower Case - ATX, Micro ATX, 4x Ext 5.25, 6x Int 3.5, 2x 200mm Fans, 1x 120mm Fan, 4x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x IEEE 1395 Front Ports, CC600TWM-WHT at TigerDirect
Corsair CP-9020006-NA Professional Series Gold AX650 Modular Power Supply - 650W, 80 Plus Gold, 120mm Fan, Active PFC, Single +12V Rail at TigerDirect
Nvidia says here that a 350 watt PSU is the recommended minimum:
GeForce 8600 FAQ
At this link, it says measured power consumption under a load is 198 watts for an entire system using an E6600 overclocked to 3.0.
XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX Review - Page 10 - Power Consumption and Final Thoughts
At link below, peak 3D power consumption for the card alone is shown as 47 watts:
GeForce 8 Streams to the Mainstream: Asus GeForce 8600 GTS Review. Page 7 - X-bit labs
Based on that, I'd say 380 is OK if it's a decent unit.
Thanks guys, that's given me a few things to read up on.
I've built a couple of pcs in the past but they were just very basic ones nothing high end.
I'll do some serious research into the right gear to buy before I do anything.
Back to the psu's, yeah the corsair and antec ones I've had a look at don't seem that expensive either. I think I'd be more picky about the case than psu.
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