OK so I did not articulate the "square-root" lingo properly to make sense for those who do not understand some of the technicality behind this BUT I did so also to check wether anyone has a clue...and it seems that not many do...so what is the point in talking to someone who has no clue about the technical stuff behind this...really no point.
1) The 1440W for that 'coolermaster pro 1200W' is the maximum it can deliver but honestly do you know what this means and what conditions must be met? Well let me explain it to you before you become cocky and think you know anything; this value simply means that the unit can deliver 1440W of energy in a burst, prolonged length at churning such energy and even at high(er) temperatures will mean that the unit will shutdown or worse yet fry it self and the PC. Now do you really think that a real case scenario when using a PC would mean you can draw that much power? This means it really is not a true value but its a fake value just like when sales people give a wattage number in PMPO rather than RMS.
2) I am not sucking up to timewilltell, not at all. Simply agreeing to the points he makes and I think he has made more valid points in this discussion than you have all together.
3) When I (and timewilltell) said buying a PSU that has more power than needed means you need to evaluate first how much (on average) you will use then have than bit extra otherwise you will work the PSU too hard too often and it will degrade its life and possibly even fry your PC parts IF it breaks. I never said go overboard and buy a god know how huge PSU. I have said that before but you, once again, missed the point and made astupid assumption which lead to false statements.
4) I appologise for saying 'square-root/ root-square'. It is just the lingo I have learned from electronics classes and working around electricians/scientists. Maybe not every group uses that lingo but the people I have been around seemed to use it and we knew what we were on about.
5) About buying top end parts that you can afford and this issue all together: I wrote previously that just because you have the money it does not mean that you should spend it on buying top end stuff - specifically electronical stuff such as pc parts and tvs. I did say that even if I had say 10K to spend I would not buy top end parts since its not worth it based on both personal and technical variables. The parts are overpriced and the suckers who buy it (and it seems you are one of them from what I have read) are really overpaying for the quality and what it offers at its initial stage of being released. As a perfect example - price of flat screen TVs when they first came out. You had to pay +10K and look how quick the technology made them better. So really just because you have the money it doesnt mean you should buy it even though its in your price range...as you suggested.
6) Name one electronical device which is not OVERPRICED when its initialy released - and you cannot use some "homebrand" style device as an example.
Seriously nelots you have little or no clue and your so called expertise has fallen short thus far.
Now going back to the OPs question on buying a gaming computer:
a) Decide what features you want it to have and what you will use it for.
b) Decide how much money you want to spend on it. Yes it does come second because lower end parts can still deliver these features BUT maybe not at the same quality if you were to pay more.
c) If you want to save money then buy the parts yourself and put it together. The PC I have (which I payed $1400 WITH monitor [$1200 for PC]) would have cost me around twice as much if I were to buy it all ready pre-packaged and from a firm/brand or from a retailer.
d) Search around to see what pc parts offer and how much they would cost -
http://msy.com.au/ this webiste IMO is good to see good prices for parts.
e) Once you know what parts you want for your gaming rig try to find out how much power they would use and buy a PSU with about 30% more than what you have come up with. There are fewbistes which give you an idea how much each part would use power but if you want to be more concise then try to find out.
f) Quality and quantity has always been one of those dilemas but if you want a safe point then IMO get something in between. You do not want to overpay for the quantiy by getting a higher quality part but you also dont want to be cheap and pay little for some brand which offer high quanity but low quality and breaks too soon.
It does take time and research but in the end you will end up satisfied that you know what you are buying and if you want to upgrade then it will help you out.
It took me about 1months research in buying my gaming rig and im happy with it and I know I can always upgrade it any time. Just as a side note I have 430W powering a DVD, asus p5nd MOBO, 8800GT (512MB) GPU, 4GB ram, 320GB HDD, 4USB inputs and 4fans. I know I possibly would require around 550W but it came with the case and when I begin to see signs of PSU degradation I can simply put in a new one I also dont work the PSU too much since I dont crank up the graphics too high nor use many applications at once and such.
