How to choose a Power Supply

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:59 pm

I am about to buy a new WaveMaster case and figured while I was at it I should get a dual fan PSU to maximize the cooling of the new case. I was wondering if you guys could wiegh in on some good choices as far as reliability/ Price are concerned. There are sooo many brands and as far as I can tell the all meet the Gov. specs for safety, but I know that is not the same as meeting the customers specs for not blowing our high dollar, Moded out equipment. Recomendations please!

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 8:05 pm

Just wanted to add that my current PSU is a powermax 400w and I am running: 1 primary boot drive, 1 secondary storage drive, a 52x24x52 CD Rom drive, an 8x DVD burner, 1 gig of ram, an AMD 2500+ Barton, and with the new case I will have three case fans, CPU fan, Northbridge fan and soon a Radeon 9800 Pro. How many watts do I need?

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:33 pm

Frankly and I know other people will say different but you could run all that and get some decent over clocking with a 350w. As for brands I like Sparkle, Forton, SeaSonic, Super Flower (you may notice that they are all made by Forton). The Forton and Sparkel are good buys for the $$ and the Super Flower offer a nice sound level vs. cost while the SeaSonics are the Jag. I love my SeaSonic it has active PFC and is super efficient (~75%) and i can set it on my desk leave it running and never know it’s on its that quiet. They cost a bundle but the way i see it a power supply is an investment so get one that will last.

for more than just my op LINK

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:46 pm

I have an Enermax EG-651. I bought more power than I needed at the time, but didn't want to have to replace the power supply as I upgraded. I run my 3.2 E at 1.475, a 12V pump, 4 120mm fans, 2 80mm fans, plus all my system stuff no problem at all.
If you are the type who likes to upgrade and experiment, I would recommend a PC Power and Cooling PSU, that is the top of the food chain. I love my Enermax though.
As to power consumption, here is a general guide (I hope others will verify/ collaberate on this as well)
Athlon/P4 60-90 watts
MOBO 20-30 watts
RAM 80 watts per GB
PCI card 10 watts
Video Card 30-50 watts
fans 4-5 watts
HDD (7200) 10 watts
HDD (10k) 15-20 watts
FDD 5 watts
CD/DVD 20 watts

Those are just the usual things, I don't know what you have, but this should give you a general idea.
Shop around, and ask lots of questions. I would recommend at least a good quality 400W PSU

http://secure.newegg.com/app/Custrating ... 17-104-968
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 011&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 914&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 922&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 454&depa=0
http://pcpowerandcooling.com/home.htm

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:54 pm

Capper your numbers look good.

alister · Post by **alister** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 11:33 pm

Here is some info on powersupplies:

http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?thre ... &styleid=1

http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?thre ... &styleid=1

Alister

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 11:39 pm

Here is a link to a chart that was done to help people compare power supplies. its large and has a lot of data so be prepaired.

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/adunlap/psudatasheet.html

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:17 am

As it turns out my current PSU went out last night. It didn't take anything with it at least not that I can tell right now.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:44 am

That sucks that it went out, good that it didn't take anything with it. I always use Antec PSUs myself. With all the high power demands of todays systems I wouldn't get anything less than a 400 watt. PSU, never hurts to have a little extra power in reserve.............

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:06 am

Losing a power suply sucks. i had one go out a few weeks ago. i was kind of expecting it to go though seeing as i had volt moded the fan to run at 5v. i was gettting cool screen glitches and then it just started rebooting all the time and then just stoped working.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 3:18 pm

Well I settled for an Aspire 500w for $59.00 I really wanted an Enermax coolergiant 430W but it was $109.00 and if I got that I couldn't get my Wavemaster, I really want my Wavemaster it just looks soooo cool to me. Anyone know about Aspire PSU's while I still have the chance to return it.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:47 pm

They are supposed to be pretty good PSU's, although I've never used one. The reviews seem pretty good tho...... :D

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 9:35 pm

Thanks, I'll keep it then , it looks pretty cool. Aluminum body with twin LED fans and a plex cover. All the wires are wrapped in tubbing.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:03 pm

Here's a few reviews if you want to read them.......

http://www.envynews.com/index.php?ID=588
http://www.extrememhz.com/aspire-p1.shtml
http://www.atruereview.com/aspirepsu/index.php