New computer for my birthday!
 

So, my mom asked me what I want for my birthday.. heh.

I've pretty much decided on what I want already, however I am not sure what kind of power supply I should go for. Anyways, here's the basics.

Mobo - Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe
Its got all the right features, except I wont be taking advantage of the SLi.

CPU - Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2.4 GHz

RAM - 2gb Corsair DDR2, on dual channel

Video - eVGA Geforce 7950GT 512mb
This scares me 'cause it only has a DVI connector. If my flatscreen goes out, i'm screwed.

Anyways, I'm looking for a 500-600W power supply. I don't know if modular or non-modular makes a difference, but I don't want to spend more than $150 on it. Does anyone have ideas?

there are DVI - VGA adapters which came with my 7900GT

otherwise it looks great...

450 to 500 watts should do you., my 550 powers my dual 6800 ultras, and 4 hard drives with ease.

And you need a hard drive, and an optical drive.

seagtes are the best imho, 7200.10 SATA drive would be nice and peppy, don’t get suckered into the raptors, the only edge they have on the seagates is price, and random access time, the overall speeds are comparable.

I have a DVD-ROM drive already. I'm ordering a Western Digital Caviar SATA drive - I dont trust Seagate.

half of the drives in my server are SG, the other half are WD, I’ve had to replace more then twice as many WD than SG over an equal time, however, I have had 2 SG start to fail after just a few months, where as the quickest WD was 8 months, no lost data, just some corruption that was fixable. WD RMA is easier then SG, but SG are much quieter.

also, one of my 120 gig WD just passed 3.6 years of power on hours

No guarantees with these things - backups and/or redundancy is a must. Still, I'd seriously consider one Barracuda over two Caviars. I've had so many Maxtor and WD "box models" die that I've lost count. Then there's the performance improvement. Caviars collect in my junk bin like so many... well, never mind the planned parenthood reference.

Not to complicate things but I have to agree with Dilbert.

Get an Enermax power supply. 400w should do you fine. The wattage is second place when it comes to choosing a power supply...the first is choosing a good quality manufacturer (Enermax, Sparkle, Thermaltake, etc.), and then choosing a decent wattage. My brother has 6 hard drives, an athlon 64, nice videocard, and his 400w Enermax has been going strong for years. Up the wattage to 450w if you feel the need, but you won't need more than that. If you buy a 600w POWMAX or RAIDMAX, it's the equivalent of running a 200w quality power supply, and it can and will die in less than a year.

HARD|OCP is great for reviews. Their power supply section is at http://www.hardforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

As for the power supply:

I've gone with OCZ PowerStream in my last three gaming machines.

The last two, OCZ Powerstream 520W for $115 dollars. Absolutely excellent output with a five year manufacturer warranty to boot. 12V @ 30 Amps!