Quote from: gingerbaker on December 17, 2013, 08:42:33 PM

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought thats what you meant.
As far as power, the tower came with a 300 watt power supply but I can't believe it would use that much. Also, as far as ATI cards go, I'm starting to see just how expensive the PSUs are above 750w.

Is there any way to calculate the usage of the CPU, fan, etc? I know the power usage of the GPUs obviously.
If I already have this NVIDIA card that runs at 500watt, should I just return it and get an ATI? Is there any doubt it wouldn't be compatible?
I've been looking at the chart(s) but is there a general rule of thumb regarding model numbers (eg. 7750 vs 6750 vs 5850) when it comes to MH/s per watt?
I can't seem to find much about what the card identifiers actually mean. I'm wondering if the first number is a _____ then that means it's ______.

1; There are various statistics and information out there for every computer component, if you want to check the entire usage of your own computer, yourself and to a precise value you can get yourself one of these; Kill A Watt / Amazon
Otherwise, a quick google search or trawl of a reputable forum such as http://overclock.net will reveal the right range of Wattages for your components.

2; I doubt that Nvidia card runs at 500W, that's just the recommended minimum power supply Wattage for the card. From what I can see and attain, the NVIDA GTX 650 Ti BOOST runs a maximum load wattage of around 240-250W.
The minimum recommended is usually a good guideline of the overall sort of powersupply your computer should have. The 500W is to allow for CPU/HDDs/Fans/etc on top of the GPU load Wattage.

In terms of compatibility, you needn't worry. If your Motherboard has a PCIe x16 slot (Which it clearly has for your 650 Ti) then ANY PCIe device (GPU/RAID card/Sound card/etc) will work.
The restriction is on the software and drivers to the Operating System, not the Hardware itself. And given how ALL modern GPUs have support in Windows, I doubt you'll ever expect an issue.
Just remember to download and install the correct software package/drivers for whichever GPUs you use;
ATI/AMD: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx

3; There's no real rule of thumb, higher shader count and faster clock speeds are usually your best bet. But try to buy cards in newer generations, as they're more optimized each time. A HD 79XX card is the most advised 'mining' card, or some of these newer 280X / 290X GPUs are equally as good if not better. Just check the Litecoin Hardware Comparison sheet and (as a rough guide) change KH to MH when doing SHA-256 (Bitcoin) instead of Scrypt (Litecoin/Most Altcoins)
SHA-256 seems to benefit from higher core speeds whereas Scrypt benefits more from higher memory speeds.
https://litecoin.info/Mining_hardware_comparison

4; The Identifiers are usually easily looked up from the Manufacturers site, or using general shopping sites;
I.e. A 11196-00-20G is a Sapphire 7950 3GB as Google reveals;
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1439&psn=000101
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11196-00-20G-HD7950-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/B0091MER16

Hope this helps ^_^