Hello Everyone!!

I currently have an Allied 450w PSU, and I am pretty sure that it is dying. The +5v and -5v rails are constantly fluctuating!

Having said that, I need some advice for a new PSU! I have done some research, and so know about the things like PFC, and dual 12v rails. Not that I really understand what it means... just that having it makes the PSU better, haha.

Here are a few that I am considering:

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16817104155
http://www2.newegg.com/product/produ...82E16817104973
and http://www.coolerguys.com/840556018889.html

I need some advice on brands, and on how much power I need. This is my system:

Duron 800mhz (yeah yeah....)
Asus ASV-133C mobo
512 SDRAM
Floppy, CD Burner, DVD Reader
20gig HD, 80gig HD, 110gig HD
(I want to add a 300gig HD)
nVidia GF2 MX400
Allied 450w PSU
Lots of fans

First, is 450w enough for what I have? If so, would it still be enough with the 300gig HD? Including the 300gig HD, how much power should I have?

Which brands are good brands? Are any of the PSU's that I listed above good? I have heard that Enermax and Fortron are quality brands, but what about Thermaltake?


Thanks for the help! Selecting a proper PSU is rather confusing!


- Vince

A 300W would suffice for your system. However, what you want to do is purchase today for the gear you may have tomorrow. I just purchased the OCZ PowerStream and am quite happy with the stable lines while running a SLI rig.

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita A 300W would suffice for your system. However, what you want to do is purchase today for the gear you may have tomorrow. I just purchased the OCZ PowerStream and am quite happy with the stable lines while running a SLI rig.

300w would suffice.... hmmm. Do you think that the current fluctuation in my +5v and -5v rails on my Allied power supply is an indication that it is time for a new one? Is it safe to continue running my system with these fluctuations?

I think it's more like the quality of your power supply shining through. I would look into the OCz powerstreams like BA mentioned. Also If your willing to spend some money to get something really nice you might look at PC power and cooling. You won't find anything better. All though I think you would be better off getting a Antec true power around 400 watts and save the rest for better system components. But the choice is yours.

I bought this power supply on your reccomendations, as well as reading other reviews of it. There were two things that annoyed me about it:

The fan on the underside is very wide in diameter. It was hitting the little piece of metal on my case that acts as a "seat" for the PSU. So I just bent the seat down slightly. Otherwise the screw holes wouldn't have lined up.

The other problem is with the main molex that goes to the motherboard. The little clip that is on the molex is too wide!! My Asus mobo has a capacitor near the plastic connector, and so the clip on the OCz mobo molex was hitting this capacitor, because it was so wide! I ended up just having to break the clip off. So the mobo molex isn't clipped to the mobo, it is just pushed in. That was really annoying.

But ignoring those two things, I think this is a really great PSU. My rails are all stable now, and everything is working great. I am really impressed with the quality of this! I love how the cabling came pre-wrapped! That's great.


What are some of the best PSU's that someone could buy, assuming money wasn't an issue.

Do you have any pics of the ATX plugged into the mobo? I'm curious to see how big it is. Also which OCz psu did you get? The best power supply's out there right now are PC power and cooling ( www.pcpowerandcooling.com ) They are the only supply that have a line regulation of 1%. My next choice would be the OCz though so I'm sure you will like the stable power from it.

PC Power and Cooling is great. But they did outsource their PSU manufacturing in recent years to another company. Even so, they seem good if slightly overpriced. (I believe it was a 510 watt of theirs I was looking at.)

I have a Silverstone Zeus 650 watt. Pricey, but less than the PC P&C. Rock solid with watts to spare. And one of only a handful of SLI certified PSU's, as is the PC P&C.

Those were my 2 choices and I went with Silverstone because the quality was identical as near as I could tell, while the price was better. You can look up nvidia's SLI section for the PSU's they have certified. It's not necessarily going to tell you the best, but there are only 4 so far and all seem of good quality, though I'm not so sure about the Enermax. The reason I go on about SLI on this is they are PSU's designed to support 2 graphics cards and generally provide more than enough muscle for whatever you want to do, and aren't likely to need to be replaced to support new tech anytime soon.

The PC Power and Cooling has 1% line regulation (3.3v, 5v, and 12v) while the Silverstone has a 5% regulation. That is why the PC power and cooling is more money and a better psu. However the Silverstone's are really nice and I would love to have one too.

It's pretty wide... if my digital camera weren't out at the Canon repair center, I would take some pictures for you. This is the widest connector I have ever seen. I couldn't understand what it was bumping at first... until I realized it was hitting a capacitor. When I get my camera back, I will take some pictures and show you.

Okay, so the couple of posts above have said some things that are really interesting to me. First, I noticed that PC Power and Cooling really only offers PSU units that go up to 510 watts. Unless you get the SLI one, which is close to a kilowatt! But anyways, even their speciality PSU that is guaranteed to run a dual processor board and guaranteed to run 13 drives, is only 510 watts! How do they do that? If even a server with a ton of drives only ever really needs 510watts, why do plenty of mfg's make wattages higher than that? Also, I really think the idea of modular cabling is great! Are there any high-end PSU's that offer this? I don't think that PC Power and Cooling's PSU's have modular cables, do they? Or is the modular cable thing just a gimmick?

I bought the OCz ModStream 520w PSU. http://www.ocztechnology.com/product...m_power_supply . Now, with this power supply, how much "stuff" can I safely connect to it? How many hard drives could I safely have running with this PSU? Is it safe to just keep buying Y cables to get an extra HDD molex connector?

Wattage is a goofy thing. Many PSU manufacteurs rate on different terms. As a psu gets warmer it can't put out as much heat as cooler one. For example the PCPC 510 deluxe puts out at 50c (which is a typical psu with a good load) However pretty much all the others rate their psu's at 25c. Hardly any psu's will run at 25c unless your room is an icebox. Take note that PCPC 510 deluxe is rated at 600 watts at 25c. I think this is the reason why mobo manufacteurs recommend psu's with a really high rating, do to the fact that many so called 500 watt psu's ony put out 410-430 watts. Even worse the bottom end junk psu's rate there wattage on max peak which you have to be very carefull of. Power supplies can be rated with two wattage numbers; peak and continuous power. The peak power rating is usually in parenthesis right behind the continuous power rating number. With normal operation the power supply has been rated to be able to deliver a certain wattage all the time. This is the continuous power rating but the PC can be a power hungry monster during startup. Components, such as hard drives, can chew up a lot of power when coming up to speed. Power supplies can have a "peak" power rating to accommodate for this spike. The power supply can sustain a higher wattage for a short period of time. This short period of time may be less than a minute but it is enough to get through the spike.


My rule of thumb for choosing wattage:

Quote: Originally Posted by Some one smart For choosing minimal power supply wattage for normal operation, as a loose rule of thumb, the sum of all wattages of all the PC components should be multiplied by 1.5 and rounded to the next available power supply rated output.

And a great chart to show the difference:
http://www.pcpowerandcooling.com/pdf...ool_510_vs.pdf

Part of what your seeing with that PC P&C rating and it's ability to handle all that stuff has to do with the way higher end PSU's are rated. Higher end PSU's often list ratings for constant power under more adverse conditions than lower priced PSU's. Cheaper PSU's tend to rate against a constant output under often unrealistically ideal conditions. Better ones, SIlverstones, PC P&C and a few others, tend to rate themselves in more realistic environmental conditions, which means that under practical comparison that PC P&C might be capable of matching performance closer to what you would usually expect from a 600-700 watt PSU. (Worst of the lot are ones that list their peak wattage as the wattage on the label. I've seen it before. Avoid those.)

Quote: Originally Posted by SPECIALBLEND218 Wattage is a goofy thing. Many PSU manufacteurs rate on different terms.

I guess great minds think alike. If only I hadn't read an email in the middle of posting.

Ah I see.... that is really interesting. Thanks a lot for this information. I appreciate you explaining it to me!

While this thread is active.....

I am also interested as to whether Thermaltakes are good or not. I'm on a tight budget of $900 for a new computer and monitor so spending $50 extra for a high end PSU does make a difference!

http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16817153006

Are Rosewill power supplies any good either? I don't think they are because of the price, but you never know.
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16817182009

Wow, talk about tight. I would go with an Enermax maybe... 900 _including_ a monitor is pushing it.