Dead power supply! Help or suggestions

[E55 AMG]

My old username was BoxsterS258(forgot the password and site wouldnt recognize my email), and I appreciate everyones help on my other posts regarding the cooling of my prescott. Anyways, I have a problem. The crappy, hot, loud 350 W power supply that came with my cheap case on my new computer (P4 2.8HT 478 Prescott) died on me yesterday at my dorm and I have to resort to using my crappy P3 667 at home. This is dissapointing because I go to school away from home, and life at my dorm at UNT will suck without a working computer. In the mean time, I have been looking for a new power supply (a quiet one), but I have discovered that the quieter ones from antec and other brands cost upwards of 80 dollars, and even the cheaper 400 watt power supplies from lesser brands cost at least 50 dollars, which is lot of money for me to spare right now. Going to college 2 years early put a bit of a strain on my parents, and I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for a nice cheap quiet power supply(400+ watts) that would be able to help cool my computer down better than the loud single 80mm fan on my dead power supply that my roomate would complain about, or if anyone has a spare one that they arent using, I would be more than happy to accept a donation. Thanks in advance.

[Xerxes]

the cheapest power supply that i would recommend would be an enlight. They are pretty quiet and are pretty well made, alot better than the cheap ones that come in a lot of cases they have one its a 350watt with a single 120mm fan that i just built 10 systems with and they seem pretty quiet. The other option imo would be a sparkle.

[eric m.]

all i know is that if you can afford an E55, you can afford the top of the line PSU. get a pc power and cooling 510 deluxe and you'll never need another PSU again. or at least not until BTX becomes standard. so either get a good power supply, or change your username to 89 civic or whatever car you really own, if you are old enough to drive.

just kidding. but usually when a power supply goes out, it's cheaper to buy a decent $50 one than to get it repaired, unless it is under warranty. antec, thermaltake, and a few others make good cheap power supplies that will last 100 times longer than a $15 generic model.

[Benny]

Don’t subject your system to dirty, wimpy power. Buy double the watage you think you need. 600 w is what you want for a new system. Try an Enermax, they are top rated and come with provision for 6 - sata devices and pci express video cards.
Here is the one I bought:
http://www.maxpoint.com/products/pow_su ... /index.htm

If money is the problem, look around your room. Find some crap you don’t need and return it to CompUSA for store credit. Tell them it was a gift, after Christmas is the best time. If one store fails try another. Then go to the business counter and special order it.

[infinitevalence]

I dont know about that, first off returning things that you did not buy at a store is unethical and im not about to support that in the forums. Secondly buying 2x the power you need is just silly. What makes more of a difference is the quality of the power your buying, i have been running my overclocked 2500+ xp-m with a raid0, and storage drive, on a small little 350w. My system pulls under full load around 200w from the wall and as much as 250 when im accessing all the drives at the same time. so by your theory i would need between 400-500w power supply to run an athlon xp. Thats kinda crazy. In most cases a top quality power supply that is 25-50% more power than you need perfect. It gives you upgrade room and saves you money, thats why Fortron is such a popular brand of power supply, because they have a wide range of products that will fit almost any project and at reasonable prices. For the price they generaly cant be beat.

[LVCapo]

I think this fits the itle of quiet and cheap. Thermaltake also is a pretty solid company. If you can afford a little more you might want to look at the Antec NEOPower 480, which is just under $100. Both would more than run your system
Inifinite is the main man when it comes to PSUs, and alot of other things, I would trust very much any recommendation he gave you.

Newegg.com - THERMALTAKE W0014 (BLACK) Power Supplies
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductde ... 007&DEPA=0

[Benny]

The model you suggest is old. It does not fully support a current motherboard or video card. Note only one SATA line. Asus P5AD2 motherboard will support 15 SATA devices.
http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/W001314.htm

This would be a better choice for a new system.
http://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/w0 ... atx12v.htm
Price:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe ... 021&depa=0