THE Power Supply FAQ

[glc]

Delta power supplies are some of the highest quality on the planet, and I think very underrated. I have a customer who was running a GF4 Ti4400 card in a Dell Dimension 4100 with a 200w Delta proprietary Dell power supply and it ran just fine. Nvidia says that 300 watts is required for that card. Lite-On power supplies seem to be high quality too, we used to sell systems in Lite-On cases and only lost one power supply out of several dozen.

[KoMoDo]

glc.. thats a VERY old gfx card, i would not mind having a 200w PSU with that card, i wonder what'll happen, though, if he would have something like my card in there, which i bet also "requires" 300w or so... XFX Geforce FX 5900xt

[glc]

I don't care how old the card is - it's still a decent card and it DOES have a published 300w requirement. My customer didn't retire it till a few months ago (we moved it into a custom built 2.53 GHz P4 when we put the original TNT2 M64 card back into the Dell for an office machine a couple of years ago) and it was still playing Everquest acceptably when we retired it. He does love his new 6800GT though.

I just happen to have that very Ti4400 in my machine now - and it's capable of FAR more than I need. It's quite happy with a 300w Nspire PSU.

[glc]

I've posted a link to an excellent thread about power supplies over at the Nvidia forums in the "part 2" sticky here. Excerpts below:

Power Supply Manufacturer TOP 10 (or TOP 5)

#1a
Topower
(some TTGI - Super-Flower, OCZ, EPower/Tagan, RaidMax, Vantec, ACI)

#1b
FSP - Fortron Source Power
(Fortron, Sparkle, Cooler Master*, Zalman, Aopen)

#1c
CWT - Channel Well Technology
(Antec, Lead Power, Enermax, Xclio, Turbolink)

While these top three encompass more than the re-badges I've named, you can usually bet on a solid performer if you pick one of them. It's highly debatable which are better than others, of course. But all in all, everyone has had pretty good experiences. Not suprisingly, they are priced accordingly. None of them in the 400W range are going to be under $50. If your power supply is one of the above, chances are you can trust both the unit itself and it's claims on wattage per line.


#2a
Sea Sonic

#2b
Wintech
(Ultra X-finity)

#2c
Acbel Polytech
(Stateside, just the Cooler Master True Power)

Same with these, a bit more esoteric. If you can afford a Sea Sonic these have the best efficiency of any consumer switching PSU for computers. You'll pay for it up front, but your electric bill will be less in the long run.


#3a
Sirtec
(Chieftec, Enlight, ThermalTake, High Power)

#3b
HEC - HeroIchi Electronic Co.
(HEC, CompuCase)

#3c
AMS - American Media Systems
(Mercury)

Here you start finding dissention in the owners. Some claim it's the best in the world, some wouldn't let their dog run Windows 3.11 on one. Some of them have great reputations (TT & HEC) but the problem is a "squeaky wheel" one - it's hard to know just how good/bad things are when only people with problems post.


#4a
Youngyear
(Aspire, Logisys, MGE, Ultra X-Connect, Rosewill)

#4b
ATNG
(Coolink, CoolMax, Rosewill, StarTech)

Now we're into budget territory. Maybe it's just a quality control issue; some people love them but most hate them, and from bad personal experiences. I personally wouldn't touch them. They should work, but no one will be suprised if it smokes itself and takes your motherboard with it. They rarely come close to what their ratings state, very poorly constructed. (but usually colors or chrome and UV sleeved and colored Molex's and LED fans!) These for the most part are toys, although you might get lucky. Not all of them are, but it does take more effort in sifting through them than it's worth.


#5
CRAP!
(L&C, Deer, Allied, Eagle, CodeGen/Foxconn, EverPower, Maxpower)

If you believe one of these things will power your computer, I have a 7-band underdash amplifier/equalizer that's 250W+250W that I'll sell you for $5. You'll love it. Really, if you have one of these supplies, don't mention it to us. Just silently toss it out and buy one in the #1 category.

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by glc I've posted a link to an excellent thread about power supplies over at the Nvidia forums in the "part 2" sticky here. Excerpts below: Power Supply Manufacturer TOP 10 (or TOP 5) #1a Topower (some TTGI - Super-Flower, OCZ, EPower/Tagan, RaidMax, Vantec, ACI) #1b FSP - Fortron Source Power (Fortron, Sparkle, Cooler Master*, Zalman, Aopen) #1c CWT - Channel Well Technology (Antec, Lead Power, Enermax, Xclio, Turbolink) #2a Sea Sonic #2b Wintech (Ultra X-finity) #2c Acbel Polytech (Stateside, just the Cooler Master True Power) #3a Sirtec (Chieftec, Enlight, ThermalTake, High Power) #3b HEC - HeroIchi Electronic Co. (HEC, CompuCase) #3c AMS - American Media Systems (Mercury) #4a Youngyear (Aspire, Logisys, MGE, Ultra X-Connect, Rosewill) #4b ATNG (Coolink, CoolMax, Rosewill, StarTech) #5 CRAP! (L&C, Deer, Allied, Eagle, CodeGen/Foxconn, EverPower, Maxpower)

Most people who've tested PSUs properly (at least to full rated power) probably consider the best manufacturers to include PC Power & Cooling, Fortron-Source, and Zippy-Emacs. They may also add Win-tact, Delta, Lite-On, and NMB-Mineba. The second three companies also supply PC P&C.

CWT varies a lot in quality, with Antec TruePower and the A, AS, AD, ASP, ADP suffix models, followed by Antec SmartPower/Solution Series and the B, BS, BD, BSP, and BDP suffix models, down to the Turbolink junk.

I've never heard of Topower being considered among the top tier, except for possibly their Tagen brand. They're usually in the #2-#4 tier, roughly the same as Sirtec.

I think that everybody will agree about your lowest-tier PSU brands, but MaxPower/EverPower is higher-quality junk, an I found that my 300W (included in a Soyo case) was able to put out its rated power and rated combined power for at least ten minutes (limit of my test) and withstood a dead short.

[Stryker]

Hiya folks,

Just thought I would post this up from extremeoverclocking.com for anyone who wants some good reading on PSUs. It's a great article that I just stumbled across, and the link below is to a particular page in the article I thought was most pertinent. There are links at the bottom of the page for the rest of the article if you want to read further.

Have a look...
http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/a...y_Guide_8.html

Stryker

[jayb1234]

Intel Tested Chassis and Power Supply Listings This might be helpfull.

[Ishy]

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.co...d.php?t=136602

just thoughht i'd put this up, its a very in depth psu guide by David Hammock on the Extreme overclocking forums

[MaxRat]

I would also like to add here.....

Some of the power supplies listed here are very good power supplies.... Another thing to look for is a warranty...How long of a warranty does the psu maker offer....

The better brands will offer a better warranty and a longer one at that...

For a good all around psu I recomend the Xclio 450BL... They also have the 480BL and the 550BL these are very nice psu's...They offer a 500watt goodpower psu but the ratings are below that of the 450BL plus it's cheaper...

This would be a very nice psu for a basic to moderater build....It's not intended for a high power sli build....if you are going sli you will need a sli certified psu....NOT a sli ready....these are not certified.... cost is about $43.00-$48.00

Also for you hard core users and overclocker I recomend the OCZ psu...This is a very nice psu...The 520watt powerstream is the way to go...It carries a 5 year warranty and has adjustable rail and is extremely quiet... The price is usually over $130.00 but is well worth the coin...

I have used both of these and can personally vouch for both....The Xclios replaced 350watt Raidmax switching psu's (that are still running) while the OCZ replace a 550watt Raidmax unit...The OCZ unit hold very steady while the Raidmax unit was undervolted and drooped under load....

Other I have used...
Aopen
Hipro
Deer (got it on trade)
Lite-on

You have to remember you can spend a little more now a get the better psu or you can spend alot more later when you replace the system...

[glc]

If you want a stable cheap PSU, look at an EPower - it's made by Tagan. I have a 350 watt EPower standard ATX 20 pin in here, it was only $21. It's every bit as good as a FSP/Sparkle in the budget category.

[larrymoencurly]

Originally Posted by glc If you want a stable cheap PSU, look at an EPower - it's made by Tagan. I have a 350 watt EPower standard ATX 20 pin in here, it was only $21. It's every bit as good as a FSP/Sparkle in the budget category.

Tagan gets its PSUs from Topower, whose products vary greatly in quality, with OCZ and Tagan being their best and Aspire being among their worst. Aspire actually isn't that bad and is better than Channel Well's worst, even though Channel Well's best, their A & B series, which are like Antecs, are better than Topower's best. In comparison, Fortron-Source seems to make nothing but top quality PSUs, with their budget lines (Hi-Q, PowerQ, and maybe Powertech) falling short only because they lack ball bearing fans and temperature-sensitive fan speed control.

How much can a 350W EPower put out before it goes out of spec, shuts down, starts to fail, or burn out? My 300W Sparkle ATX300GT managed to run my 380W test load for 10 minutes (load overheats after that), consistent with Tom's Hardware's finding of 390W for a different brand FSP, and Tom's found that a 350W FSP with single 80mm fan maxed out at over 450W.

[glc]

I don't know, and I have no intention of overloading it. My recommendation should be taken at face value, and that is as a 350w power supply for a low price that's not going to blow up in your face. It's as heavy as any other power supply in its class if that means anything. Heck, in its class, I'm happy with Enlights, and those are made by Sirtec, not one of the greatest manufacturers. We've sold a lot of Enlights with very few failures, and the ones that did fail did so quietly with no collateral damage.

[maximus2688]

I was just wandering, if a PSU fails can it still work turn on for a few seconds or minutes at a time?
Does it have a funny "burned" smell? It seems that mine burned out, but I can still turn my computer on for about 5 mins in the morning when its cool and about 20 seconds when its hot. Does that sound normal?

Thank You!

[glc]

Very possible. Try a different power supply to make sure.

[thefultonhow]

I just cleaned out a lot of extraneous posts. People were asking for help with specific questions when they should have started their own thread; that's why this one was locked. If you would like to add anything to this thread, please PM kram 2.0 (the mod of the General Hardware forum) or another mod.

[glc]

Link to a pertinent thread:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=181499

I'm also withdrawing my recommendation for Epower units. Mine just died. No collateral damage though, it just rolled over and quit.

[glc]

Link to a video:

http://www.corsair.com/cinema/movie.aspx?id=622747