Would like some recomendations on a good PSU

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dunny Rummy
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Dunny Rummy

I wish to upgrade my 400W ATX PSU but not sure what is best on the
market. I would like a PSU, preferably name brand with all the bells
and whistles (minus that neon crap) and at least 500W (I run a lot of
hardware[ 6WD 7200 RPM HD],ATI 9600XT 128MB, 2 optical drives ).
Please comment on your PSU or what you would recommend. Thanks!
 
"Dunny Rummy" said in news:[email protected]:
I wish to upgrade my 400W ATX PSU but not sure what is best on the
market. I would like a PSU, preferably name brand with all the bells
and whistles (minus that neon crap) and at least 500W (I run a lot of
hardware[ 6WD 7200 RPM HD],ATI 9600XT 128MB, 2 optical drives ).
Please comment on your PSU or what you would recommend. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Visit www.tomshardware.com for testing of power supplies. I recently picked
up a Fortron but several others are good and you can read about them. Some
actually provide more power than they rate for themself (i.e., they have
reserve).

--
 
I wish to upgrade my 400W ATX PSU but not sure what is best on the
market. I would like a PSU, preferably name brand with all the bells
and whistles (minus that neon crap) and at least 500W (I run a lot of
hardware[ 6WD 7200 RPM HD],ATI 9600XT 128MB, 2 optical drives ).
Please comment on your PSU or what you would recommend. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Your motherboard uses 5V for CPU power. This leaves almost all of the
12V rail, that rail taxed most by your numerous hard drives,
available. A decent 400W power supply should power your system fine,
but a really good 300W might too.

What make/model is your power supply?
Do you find it inadequate or has it failed?

A generic 400W PSU may only be worth around 250 actual W, though this
can vary. Someday I'll have to do more testing, because I even have a
couple of Delta 240W PSU, which I think would power that system...
it's all in which PSU you choose.

Here are a few, based on your present system, but should be a little
more than you need on 12V rail, more likely to support future
upgrades:

Antec Smartpower 400W or higher
Antec Truepower 350W or higher
Sparkle 400W or higher
PCPower&Cooling, 350W or higher
Delta 350W or higher
Enermax >450W (really no good reason to get an Enermax, lower quality
per $, more eye-candy than capacity)

Shaking up the ole magic 8-ball, I came up with one for your system,
Antec Truepower 430W ;-)
 
Dunny said:
by the way. they didnt have the Antec i wanted so i opted for CompUsa
brand
Click to expand...

In other words, you asked a question here, knowledgable people gave you
answers, then you totally ignored them.

CompUSA PSUs are crap, usually last about three months, then take the mobo
with them. Good luck.
 
Dunny Rummy said:
by the way. they didnt have the Antec i wanted so i opted for CompUsa
brand
Click to expand...

Did you happen to notice the "Limited Warranty 3 Months (90 days)."
Hmmm.....maybe there's a reason the warranty is so short.

For a $100 you could have had an excellent P/S from one of the top companies
that were mentioned in previous responses.

Antec, as well as several others, have a THREE (3) YEAR or better warranty.
Hmmm.......maybe there's a reason for that as well.


That CrapUSA power supply has 2 fans.....I think. Where are they located? If
that's the same power supply I saw in one of their stores then one of the
fans is EXTERNAL to the power supply and won't do much good for your system
in terms of CPU cooling. Hmmm......maybe the P/S needs that fan there so it
will survive for 90 days!!!


I have to wonder why people ask for opinions from experienced people and
then essentially totally ignore those opinions.



--
callsignviper


The truth is out there. You just have to look in the right places and ask
the right questions.
 
Dunny Rummy said:
I wish to upgrade my 400W ATX PSU
at least 500W (I run a lot of hardware[ 6WD 7200 RPM HD],
ATI 9600XT 128MB, 2 optical drives ).
Click to expand...

Don't buy a CompUSA brand because some of them are Powmaxes, including
their 600W model, which are famous for not being able to put out their
full rated power. CompUSA says that their other PSUs are from FMI,
but they're just a distributor that gets products from 4-star, another
distributor that told me that they change brands virtually every week,
but the week I phoned them they were shipping Win-tact, a good brand,
used by PC Power & Cooling (Zippy and Fortron/Sparkle are their other
suppliers).

http://takaman.jp has a great power supply calculator that not only
gives the total watts but also the amps for each voltage. With eight
eight disk drives in your system, knowing the number of amps needed
from the +12V can be really important, especially if the motherboard
runs the CPU from the +12V (even some graphics cards use +12V), since
that could bring the requirement to over 18-20A. A 430W or 480W Antec
TruePower can provide that, as can a 530W or 550W Fortron/Sparkle.
NewEgg and Directron carry those brands, but with the 550W
Fortron/Sparkle be careful when ordering because some models have the
usual 20-pin and 4-pin motherboard sockets (ATX style), but others are
and have 24-pin and 8-pin connectors (EPS12V style).
 
went down to CompUSA and picked up a full ATX Tower


http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=300439&pfp=BROWSE

and bought their 600 W PSU


http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=291980&pfp=SEARCH

I just finished the transferring from one case to another. I really
wonder if that 600 W is true rating.
Click to expand...

CompUSA screwed you.

That PSU is likely worth around 280W. If you're stuck with it, you
ought to consider building a low-end box, putting that PSU in it, and
selling it... then take the proceeds and buy a better power supply.

If that's what you wanted, you could've had quite similar but better
power supply here:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-115

or if you really need a window, then there's deals on just the case
then add a power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-124
http://www.buyxtremegear.com/sx1040win.html
(but NOT one of the power supplies offered with case @ buybxtremegear,
those PSU are junk).
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-125-262
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-908
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-914


That case, if you bought it at $100, isn't such a horrible deal since
at least it's a useable, good case, but the FMI power supply is WAY
overpriced junk.
 
Ouch! I'm sorry if i insulted anyone. I'm taking the PSU back today
and getting an antec!
 
Ouch! I'm sorry if i insulted anyone. I'm taking the PSU back today
and getting an antec!
Click to expand...

If I were you, i'd take both back, that is, if they'll accept the case
back.

Here's an example of CompUSA pricing:
$223 for the Antec 1080 w/Truepower 430W, but available for delivery
only, so add more $$ for S/H.
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=50236320&pfp=BROWSE

Newegg Price:
$105 + S/H = $120
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-115
 
Well, I'll keep the case. It has a lot of good airflow which what I
needed. However I'm heeding the warning of the PSU from others in this
thread. I can NOT afford a crappy PSU to cripple my machine. I had
asked the CompUSA rep about the 600W and couldn't figure out why is
was cheaper than Antec's 400W TruePower.
The PSU I replaced is a ALLIED AL-A400ATX but I'm beginning to think
my problem lays with bad memory sticks and there was nothing wrong
with my allied PSU because My machine hard rebooted on me AGAIN while
playing 3D games and no its not my VGA card 'cuz I switched out to a
FX5200 Ultra and same thing happened. So I think my twin 512MB PC3200
@ 200MHz aint what they say they are. So it is narrowed down to the
mobo, memory or CPU OR maybe an IRQ issue? O'Well, I'm just gonna get
an antec ASAP.
TIA!
 
Dunny said:
Well, I'll keep the case. It has a lot of good airflow which what I
needed. However I'm heeding the warning of the PSU from others in this
thread. I can NOT afford a crappy PSU to cripple my machine. I had
asked the CompUSA rep about the 600W and couldn't figure out why is
was cheaper than Antec's 400W TruePower.
The PSU I replaced is a ALLIED AL-A400ATX but I'm beginning to think
my problem lays with bad memory sticks and there was nothing wrong
with my allied PSU because My machine hard rebooted on me AGAIN while
playing 3D games and no its not my VGA card 'cuz I switched out to a
FX5200 Ultra and same thing happened. So I think my twin 512MB PC3200
@ 200MHz aint what they say they are. So it is narrowed down to the
mobo, memory or CPU OR maybe an IRQ issue? O'Well, I'm just gonna get
an antec ASAP.
TIA!
Click to expand...

Maybe you could slacken off the timings a little on the RAM and see if it
makes a difference.
 
Well, I'll keep the case. It has a lot of good airflow which what I
needed. However I'm heeding the warning of the PSU from others in this
thread. I can NOT afford a crappy PSU to cripple my machine. I had
asked the CompUSA rep about the 600W and couldn't figure out why is
was cheaper than Antec's 400W TruePower.
The PSU I replaced is a ALLIED AL-A400ATX but I'm beginning to think
my problem lays with bad memory sticks and there was nothing wrong
with my allied PSU because My machine hard rebooted on me AGAIN while
playing 3D games and no its not my VGA card 'cuz I switched out to a
FX5200 Ultra and same thing happened. So I think my twin 512MB PC3200
@ 200MHz aint what they say they are. So it is narrowed down to the
mobo, memory or CPU OR maybe an IRQ issue? O'Well, I'm just gonna get
an antec ASAP.
TIA!
Click to expand...

Test memory with
http://www.memtest86.com
 
Dunny Rummy said:
Well, I'll keep the case. It has a lot of good airflow which what I
needed. However I'm heeding the warning of the PSU from others in this
thread. I can NOT afford a crappy PSU to cripple my machine. I had
asked the CompUSA rep about the 600W and couldn't figure out why is
was cheaper than Antec's 400W TruePower.
The PSU I replaced is a ALLIED AL-A400ATX but I'm beginning to think
my problem lays with bad memory sticks and there was nothing wrong
Click to expand...

did you remove one of the memory chips and then try playing games?

search for "stress test program" at yahoo for programs to test pc
 
I'll second that, if I'm having any problems at all with memory, memtest
will show them up everytime. Far better idea than my original suggestion of
relaxing timings first. Doh! <slaps forehead>.
Click to expand...

It was a good suggestion.

I ALWAYS test with memtest86, every single system, every minor memory
change, the box gets a day running memtest86, longer if a critical
system... There's nothing worse than data corruption IMHO, these days
data & time is worth a lot more than the box(es) it's stored on.
 
kony said:
It was a good suggestion.

I ALWAYS test with memtest86, every single system, every minor memory
change, the box gets a day running memtest86, longer if a critical
system... There's nothing worse than data corruption IMHO, these days
data & time is worth a lot more than the box(es) it's stored on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I always run memtest on new builds, I've got the floppy in my drawer
here next to me. Memtest for at least 12 hours, then Prime95 for 12 hours.
Same with new memory.
 
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