power supply

[Bud]

i need some input guys, i need to buy a new power supply and need some help deciding which one to buy. I not sure how many watts or make i should get. i was thinking about 500-550 and not to expensive but not fubar my system.

[madmat]

You're better off buying a good 430w PSU such as an Antec or Enermax than buying a $40 or $50 500-550w PSU because as the old saw says, you get what you pay for.

[muddocktor]

I'm kind of partial to Antec's psu's myself, but some folks here swear by their Robanton and Powmax psu's. I have 3 Antecs(True Control 550, SL450, PP412), 1 Enermax 651P-VE and some generic type POS psu's. The Antec psu's are definitely the best I own, including that overpriced Enermax.

[Geeky1]

1. There are 3 brands that are absolutely worth considering, as well as a few that may or may not be.

Absolutely look at:
Antec
Enermax
PC Power & Cooling

Also consider:
Allied
Fortron Source (FSP)
anything else on AMD's approved list of power supply vendors.

Stay far, far, FAR away from generic power supplies; I bought one the other day to keep around as a backup/bench unit. It was $30 and was advertised as a 550w PS (yeah, right...). I figured it must be good for at least 350w if they advertise it as 550... I was wrong. I killed it today while I was stress testing it. It died at <B>WELL UNDER 300W</B>

What are your system specs? In all likelyhood, you'd be just fine with a 350w or 400w Antec SL350/SL400; I've run a dual 2500+ system off of a 400w Antec PS, and I've had a 2500 up to 2.37GHz on a 350w Antec...

[Bud]

i have a A7N8X Deluxe with a barton 2500, has 2 case fans and a tornade for cpu, dvd, cd burner, 9000 pro, 2 hard drives i have a antec smart blue that came in my antec lanboy. i was gonna swap my power supply and put old one in another computer cause i need another for my spare computer.

[Geeky1]

Well, the 350w SmartBlue is the same thing as the SL350, but it's got blue LED lights.

I'd get another Antec PS rated @ 350w+; if you want to upgrade, a TruePower 430w would be fine, as would an SL-400 or SL-450. Check Newegg's refurbished power supply section obsessively (I'd make it my homepage if I were you... their refurbished video card section is mine; the reason it needs to be checked often is because they update it at random intervals, and the good stuff is usually gone in less than an hour of the update) and wait for a 350w+ Enermax or Antec PS to become available.

[Bud]

k thanks

[Armo]

i got an enlight 430 psu for about $50 dual fans real quiet, i likes

[edcentric]

The key is to find a psu with stong 3.3+5 rating. If the psu says that you can draw 240W or more from those two lines combined then I'll use it. I have seen good 350W supplies that will do it and bad 500Wers that can't.
I have had good luck from Fortron and Enlight for great prices.

And if it isn't heavy don't use it. This is one part where doing the job right takes parts that are heavy.

[MJO]

edcentric: The weight is indeed an issue.
My Antec Truepower 430W is apprx. two times heavier than my Aopen 300W.

I of course recommend the Antec as well.

[Bud]

is enlight any good? what the one thrax always recommends?

[Al_Capown]

Thrax is a staunch supporter of the Compusa power supplies. Thrax generally recommends quality hardware. However, when it comes to psu's I would rather pay a few more bucks for an Enermax or Antec.

[GHoosdum]

I've got a Thermaltake PurePower that's heavy as a brick (literally!)... but the great Powmax 400W that Omega has in his sig is really light, and had been running my Primary PC stable as you can imagine for a long time before I got the Tt... I guess there's an exception to every "rule."

I'd still get the Antec over the CompUSA any day. Then again, I didn't go to CompUSA on Black Friday, so the CompUSA PSUs I found are more expensive than the Antec True 430!

[Geeky1]

Enlight is good, but not as good as Antec, Enermax, or PC Power & Cooling

[Thrax]

:respect: http://www.compusa.com/media/cusa_logo.gif

CompUSA 500w for $80 (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?sid=3FCBD6003C8EE17F&product_code=282827&pfp=SEARCH)

:respect: http://www.compusa.com/media/cusa_logo.gif

Yep.

Antec < CompUSA. Self-tested.

[GHoosdum]

Thrax states that his opinion is more valid than eveyrone else's:

CompUSA 500w for $80 (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?sid=3FCBD6003C8EE17F&amp;product_code=282827&amp;pfp=SEARCH)

Yep.

Antec &lt; CompUSA. Self-centered.

CompUSA PSU's are made by a company called FMI (http://www.4fmi.com/)... they apparently are a manufacturer of many kinds of electronics. Not much info about them though. In fact, I think Thrax is the only positive recommendation I've ever seen for FMI PSUs. Leonardo stated the only negative I've seen. (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=46828#post46828)

I'd still pick Antec over the CompUSA unit any day. Moreover, the Antec is cheaper at Newegg ($79 shipped). But I'd buy CompUSA's before Enermax, just on the strength of Thrax's 65 recommendations. And the fact that Enermax doesn't get nearly as many good reviews as Antec does!

[Thrax]

Ya'll don't trust me.

You have to drop the reservation, go out on a limb, and trust my word. It's a good, quality, power supply.

It's heavy, gives better voltages than all three Antec true 420s I've ever tried, and continues to give SOLID voltages for a good price.

[GHoosdum]

That makes me wish I'd known about the $40 deal at CompUSA Black Friday... I'd have bought one just to give it a chance. I trust you, Thrax, but it takes an exceptional deal (like half price) to get my hard-earned dollars!

[Geeky1]

Thrax, I trust you as well, but it's a generic PS

I should point out that the generic "550w" PS I bought from SVC couldn't take ~300w; the fact that the voltages are stable means nothing. It's like people who review PSes and give you voltages based on hardware monitoring software or the BIOS. The review is totally worthless.

There is one, and only one way of objectively comparing 2 power supplies- hook them up to a power supply test unit (one of the big ones with banks of resistors, and plugs for every connector on the ps) and comparing voltage output at a known, fixed power draw, as well as seeing how much power the PS can provide before it dies. The only way to thoroughly test a PS is literally to test it until something breaks.

[GHoosdum]

FMI makes power supply test units... ;)

[Geeky1]

So? They're probably biased towards their own power supplies ;) ;D

[MoTHA_NaTuRE]

yesterday i was on directron and saw antec true 430 for 59.99, not a bad price, at least i don't think it is, damn, i hate being unsure.

[EyesOnly]

Sounds good to me.

[seversphere]

the compusa 500 is a decent unit. I buy them when I need a psu right away. The internal fan tends to go out on them very quickly but can be replaced. I don't know about better rails than other psu because any one psu will have different readings for any one motherboard. I have had around 6 to 10 systems at any one time and generally the rails are good enough over all my systems as I switch parts around constantly. Powmax is the cheap brand that I like to get.

It needs to be mentioned that besides the watt/amp rating the temperature factor needs to be considered. Those really cheap 500w units perform okay at 35 or 40 C but once you get to 50 C and higher it drops dramatically. A quality psu will only drop a little vs. a lot. And most of the time the psu will be operating in 50C or higher conditions unless you live in cold area or it's winter. So if you get a cheap one it might work okay at first but will eventually go out not because it's crap but because it's not rated to provide whatever amount of watts at the higher temperature. This just happened to my friend. He initially bought a TTGI or whatever 520w psu from Directron based on stuff I read at xtremesystems and it went out a week later and Directron never even responded to the many attempts at a RMA. So I gave him a standby 300w just so he could be up and running. Well it worked fine so he never bothered to get a new psu and after about 8 months it just went out taking the motherboard with it. He was watercooled so he never really circulated air in his case and so that psu just couldn't handle the load anymore at the higher operating temperature. I'm surprised it lasted that long. This is just to show an example of why the temp rating is important.

A few links to reviews that talk about this would better explain so if anyone remembers one please post. I'll use the generic "I'm too lazy to search for one right now" excuse showing that I'm too lazy to even make up a better excuse :D

[Bud]

well what about that allied 500w, has anyone heard about it?

[Al_Capown]

Bud had this to say
well what about that allied 500w, has anyone heard about it?

I've got one powering my Pentium4 @ 3.2GHz and my 9800 Pro 256. It's a good power supply.

[Straight_Man]

Of the generics, the only one I use is Codegen. German parts, Taiwan assembly. I run boxes 24\7 on them (including a 98 SE Barton box that is a bit OC'd) and they stabilize slower at first but are hyperstable. They are also babied by a UPS, very good one. I have boxes in cusotmer's hands with those PSUs in them, and about 1 in 100 is dead within 6 months. Out of 100 I have handled, I had to RMA one after 6 months adn it was over-the conunter replaced. They also have the face label on box name of Super Power, and used to be called Sparkle PSUs.

Agree, major brands will last longer adn stabilize faster and not get out of balance as easily with sudden large load demand changes. A 500 would be upper end for most all boxes that are not servers with large numbers of HDs on them (the cheap ones can cut out 12 to support 12V, the Codegens run slightly high on 12, and hyperstable on lower voltages with decent amounts of DVD\CDRW\HD loading and large fans in large amounts in box). The 500 in the Barton box cost less than 1\2 the cost of the comparable Antec wattage rating per voltage on line class (3.3, 5. 12) and box runs very well-- 98 SE reboot after one week is average time between reboots, mostly due to dunderhead between hair and chin problems and not hard problems, or software installs that fubar things other software needs.

John.

[Straight_Man]

Do a pricegrabber search, be aware that TruPower is best, and Performance or Solution are lesser Antec lines. THEN, do a pricewatch search and concentrate on the folks that also are on pricegrabber and not the little guys who might have one and it might be a refurb or slightly used. $60.00 about, is decent but not best price I have seen for that PSU. Big major bulk retailers carry it for about $20.00-$30.00 more.

John.

[seversphere]

pass on the allied from newegg. not good quality control.