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- Mar 5, 2002
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As mentioned in another thread, on Sunday evening one of my computers just shut off. After a few tests I figured it was the power supply, a 480W Tagan. My biggest worry was that the power supply blowing may have damaged other components.
After a little shopping around I decided to order a Corsair 650W non-modular PSU from Scan. The PSU because I didn't need a modular one as there was no window in the case, an Antec Sonata, and ample room to tuck leads I didn't need out of the way.
And Scan because their price was competitive and as a long standing member of the Hexus forums I get free postage at Scan. I ordered the PSU late Sunday evening. I also ordered a KVM switch for the two machines in my bedroom.
Monday morning 10am, Scan acknowledged my order. There followed four more e-mails during the day from Scan, detailing each stage of the order, culminating at 4.30pm saying the goods had been despatched. I was able to track the order at City Link's website.
At 11.18am today (Tuesday) the goods arrived and I set to installing the new PSU.
As you can see from the pix I had to remove my Noctua cooler to swap PSU's, which is a bit of a pain. In some cases you have a removable back plate for the PSU but not with the Antec Sonata.
Here's my machine minus the PSU and CPU cooler:
My Heatsink fitted with two Noctua fans in a push-pull combo, it comes with one fan as standard and I added another. It works well.
Here's my shiny new PSU (well, actually, it ain't shiny at all
:
And here's the PSU fitted:
Never mind the 'one dollop and twist' technique, I prefer to spread it all over. Arctic silver applied to CPU. It looks thicker in this pic than it actually is.
And the cooler refitted:
Connected everything up, switched on, held my breath and.......
.....yay! Everything's alright
Phew.
The Corsair is quieter than the Tagan, I notice. The Tagan that died was three and a half years old and was the one I reveiewed for this forum. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
I mentioned Scan's order in detail as I was quite impressed with their service, they've improved. They also give a phone number which is reassuring.
As for Power supplies, I'm sold on Corsairs now, I think they're great. I've had two or three Antec PSU's die on me (can't remember if it was 2 or 3 but at least 2) and one Jeantech Arctic modular, which I managed to repair myself and is still in use (I had to bypass the fan regulation, I think, and hardwired the fan to the 12V rail).
In my media machine I have a hardy little no frills 350W Jeantech PSU purchased from PC World around five years ago.
C'est La Vie say the old folk it goes to show you never can tell....
After a little shopping around I decided to order a Corsair 650W non-modular PSU from Scan. The PSU because I didn't need a modular one as there was no window in the case, an Antec Sonata, and ample room to tuck leads I didn't need out of the way.
And Scan because their price was competitive and as a long standing member of the Hexus forums I get free postage at Scan. I ordered the PSU late Sunday evening. I also ordered a KVM switch for the two machines in my bedroom.
Monday morning 10am, Scan acknowledged my order. There followed four more e-mails during the day from Scan, detailing each stage of the order, culminating at 4.30pm saying the goods had been despatched. I was able to track the order at City Link's website.
At 11.18am today (Tuesday) the goods arrived and I set to installing the new PSU.
As you can see from the pix I had to remove my Noctua cooler to swap PSU's, which is a bit of a pain. In some cases you have a removable back plate for the PSU but not with the Antec Sonata.
Here's my machine minus the PSU and CPU cooler:
My Heatsink fitted with two Noctua fans in a push-pull combo, it comes with one fan as standard and I added another. It works well.
Here's my shiny new PSU (well, actually, it ain't shiny at all
:And here's the PSU fitted:
Never mind the 'one dollop and twist' technique, I prefer to spread it all over. Arctic silver applied to CPU. It looks thicker in this pic than it actually is.
And the cooler refitted:
Connected everything up, switched on, held my breath and.......
.....yay! Everything's alright
Phew.
The Corsair is quieter than the Tagan, I notice. The Tagan that died was three and a half years old and was the one I reveiewed for this forum. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
I mentioned Scan's order in detail as I was quite impressed with their service, they've improved. They also give a phone number which is reassuring.
As for Power supplies, I'm sold on Corsairs now, I think they're great. I've had two or three Antec PSU's die on me (can't remember if it was 2 or 3 but at least 2) and one Jeantech Arctic modular, which I managed to repair myself and is still in use (I had to bypass the fan regulation, I think, and hardwired the fan to the 12V rail).
In my media machine I have a hardy little no frills 350W Jeantech PSU purchased from PC World around five years ago.
C'est La Vie say the old folk it goes to show you never can tell....
- I like the way the drive bays are layed out in the Antec Sonata. I've got a Thermaltake Soprano, and the drives slide in from the direction of the HSF which is a real pain in the arse if you need to switch drives over. 
