Which power supply?

[Kane1124]

Hi all, I'm wondering which of these power supplies is better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341010

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=Antec%20BP550

This is the system that I'll have soon:

NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45
EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
2x 2gb kit Kingston hyperx ram
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
CPUCOOLER ARCTIC P4 ACFZ7-PRO R
Western Digital 400GB SATA Internal Hard Drive
ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA

[Rev_pizzaguy]

I would go with the Antec, but probably this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371002

No real need for modular unless you want to pay more. The TruePower Trio line is very good.

[Cricket]

Between those two choices the OCZ is probably the better choice. OCZ owns PC Power & Cooling now and maybe some of PC Power & Cooling quality rubbed off on the OCZ power supplies.

I would look at these two power supplies instead:

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2

SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT 550W ATX12V V2.3

I'd make some changes to your parts selection too...I wouldn't use Kingston RAM, seen too many of them go bad over the years. I'd use Corsair or Crucial.

I would get a retail CPU and use the stock heatsink to get the 3 year warranty.

I'd use a Seagate HDD instead of a Western Digital...had a bunch of Western Digital HDDs go bad over the years but only had 1 Seagate die since 2002...and that one got fried by a Antec power supply, didn't just die on it's own.

Cricket

[Kane1124]

The processor I'm getting is going to be retail...If I use an aftermarket fan/heatsink is that going to void the warranty or will I still be ok?

What's the worst that could happen if my power supply fails? Is there any risk to the rest of the system or will I just need to replace the power supply?

[alanebro82]

I had my power supply die quietly while the computer was off and I was out of town. It didn't take anything else out with it.

However, if it fails and causes a large spike in voltage, you could potentially fry every single component in your PC. It will be different for every case, but don't count on being as lucky as I got. I'm not counting on it again.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kane1124 The processor I'm getting is going to be retail...If I use an aftermarket fan/heatsink is that going to void the warranty or will I still be ok?

If you use a third party heatsink on a retail CPU, you'll void the 3 year warranty. If you want to use the third party heatsink it's best to buy a OEM CPU since it comes with no heatsink...no warranty from the manufacturer either, only the short warranty or return period the seller gives you.

Originally Posted by Kane1124 What's the worst that could happen if my power supply fails? Is there any risk to the rest of the system or will I just need to replace the power supply?

Good quality power supplies have over-voltage protection built in and there's only a very slim chance that a surge or spike will fry your computer or individual components...but it can happen. I'm working on a computer that had a Antec power supply zap some of the parts. But this isn't a common occurance with good quality power supplies...if a good quality power supply does die, it does it quietly with no damage to the rest of the computer.

What you don't want to do is use a cheap low quality power supply as they almost never have over-voltage protection and can fry parts when they die. DEER power supplies were famous for doing this.

Cricket

[Khalil]

Building hundreds of machines a year for the last 5 years, I find that FSP and Seasonic are about as good as they get followed by Antec and Sparkle.

I have tried OCZ from recomendations on this forum and had to RMA about all of them. I find them to be of poor quality for the price.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Khalil I have tried OCZ from recomendations on this forum and had to RMA about all of them. I find them to be of poor quality for the price.

I guess owning PC Power & Cooling hasn't made a difference in the quality of the OCZ power supplies. I've never used OCZ before.

I used to feel confident about using Fortron Source and Sparkle Power PSUs until I had 2 Fortron's die in computers I built. I also read the JonnyGURU forums and it seemed that Fortron Source power supplies weren't as good as before.

I've had quite a few Antec PSUs die in computers I built over the years and I stopped using them a few years ago.

I've been using Corsair and Seasonic PSUs lately and they seem to be every bit as good as many people say they are.

Cricket

[shadowpr]

I have an ocz in a build now. So far so good.

And newegg has a great deal on them now too.

[Kane1124]

What happens if your system uses more power than your power supply can supply it? Will it just not turn on or can worse things happen?

[Kane1124]

I decided to go with this one just to be safe:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139002

[Alaron]

That will be plenty.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Kane1124 What happens if your system uses more power than your power supply can supply it? Will it just not turn on or can worse things happen?

You'd probably see really unstable system performance until the power supply died from being overstressed. But really, most desktop computers don't draw that much power, it's the high end gaming rigs that require really hefty power supplies because of the video card(s).

Cricket