Power Supply Reference Guide

[netnamakan]

I have an okia 450 watt ps does anybody know about how good the company is or if I should upgrade?
thnx

[Eagle 101]

LOL great for beginner builders like me!

[thorlo6]

netnamacan, Welcome to the PCMech Forum! I've never heard of them, but then my knowledge base is not that extensive. What kind of stats does the PSU have? Also, is it heavy or light? According to Bigandy, The local PSU guru, if a PSU is light, run as hard as you can an get a new one from either Enlight or Astec. Hope that helps.thorlo6

[netnamakan]

iv vever seen any of them before either but the stats are ok according bigandy. heres the stats
+3.3 +5 +12
28a 40a 20a
the weight seems pretty heavy to. so i guess its alright.
thnx

[bigandy]

Originally Posted by thorlo6 According to Bigandy, The local PSU guru...

I'm by no means a guru. I simply took some time to read through some reviews and check past posts here to compile this list in hopes that it would help people who were unsure on a given power supply.

[netnamakan]

well you certainly helped me
thnx

[thorlo6]

Hey bigandy! I don't know where you live, but, here, if someone takes the time to know more about a subject, they become the local "expert". I know, all the Nurses on my floor consider me the local "expert" on computers. So relax, you just seem to know more than anyone else right now! You da' man! thorlo6

[i486]

will a 300w enermax dual fan run the following system:
gigabyte ga7vt600p-L
athlon xp 2000@1700mhz
seagate S-ATA hdd(80gb)
256mb CAS-2 DDR 333 ram
powercolor radeon 9200se
creative 52x cdrom
LG 16x dvd-rom
speaker bay
blue cold cathode
red led fan(draws power from mobo)

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by i486 will a 300w enermax dual fan run the following system: gigabyte ga7vt600p-L athlon xp 2000@1700mhz seagate S-ATA hdd(80gb) 256mb CAS-2 DDR 333 ram powercolor radeon 9200se creative 52x cdrom LG 16x dvd-rom speaker bay blue cold cathode red led fan(draws power from mobo)

Yes, it should handle that system fine.

Cricket

[Eagle]

hmmm didnt realise Raidmax PSU's were bad... im using a 420watt Raidmax PSU that i got with my latest case..... so far so good

[corosus]

i have a friend wha swears by sweex psu's does annyone have anny experience with them good or bad. he claims they are good quality, but the price seems kind of low to me, althou if i weigh his PSU the weight is good (heavy)

[bigandy]

Originally Posted by Eagle hmmm didnt realise Raidmax PSU's were bad... im using a 420watt Raidmax PSU that i got with my latest case..... so far so good

Just because a brand is on the "bad" list doesn't mean every unit from them is going to explode in your PC and take everything with it. But it does mean that they have a higher failure rate than what most would see as acceptable. Sure not every Sparkle or Enlight PSU is going to run forever with no problems, but the failure rate for the "good" brands is very low.

Your Raidmax may work for as long as you have your PC. It may die next week. It may die and not harm any other components, but it may die and take your CPU, MB, HD, etc. with it.

Originally Posted by corosus i have a friend wha swears by sweex psu's does annyone have anny experience with them good or bad. he claims they are good quality, but the price seems kind of low to me, althou if i weigh his PSU the weight is good (heavy)

Sweex seems to be a European only brand of PSU. I looked at their website, and the rails on the PSU's are a little on the low side.

[corosus]

sorry if i ask something that is selfevident, what do you mean by "rails"???

[bigandy]

There are several different voltage rails, i.e. +3.3v, +5v, +12v, -3.3v, -5v, -12v. Each of these rails puts out a certain number of amps. My Enlight 360W for example puts out: +3.3V@28A, +5V@35A, -5V@0.3A, +12V@17A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2A, while a 420W Raidmax PSU puts out: +3.3V@26A, +5V@32A, -5V@0.5A, +12V@13A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.0A, and that's probably being generous. Also, with a quality unit, the amout of good, clean power that it puts out is relatively constant, whereas with a low quality unit, you get spikes and dips.

[corosus]

ok thanks, that clears up a lot. i'll check how stable (if that os the correct term in this case) the rails on my buddy's psu are

[Outshined]

Great list! The power supply in my kids' PC crapped out, and I checked with the list before buying a replacement.

By the way, the one that dies was an Allied, on the bad list...

[TurtleQ]

Originally Posted by Eagle hmmm didnt realise Raidmax PSU's were bad... im using a 420watt Raidmax PSU that i got with my latest case..... so far so good

I have the same one. It lasted for two months. I ordered a new one from Directron, a Super-Flower Silent PS-TT-550SS 550W Dual Fans. I used this guide to help me. I just want to say thanks to the author of this guide.

[fedz]

Here is something absolutely unbelievable (to me)

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3.../index.x?pg=11

http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q3.../index.x?pg=26

Bearing in mind that the PSU gets about 30% less efficient with heat, this is still well within 350W range.
This should serve as a reminder to gamers that PSU requirements are nearly always over-estimated for good measure (or maybe Nvidia just have a contract with PSU makers)
Hope that helps, and I've posted a copy as a thread (sorry admin!!)

fedz

[gamer4life]

I think this is the "Ultra" that another poster was referring to.

http://www.xoxide.com/ultra.html

[gamer4life]

Where does OCZ go? Good or Bad?

[ric449]

OCZ are definately on the good list.

Also, Coolermaster and Hiper PSU's are supposed to be good:

http://www.bit-tech.net/review/356

[Kov-Ice]

My 2+ yr old Enermax PSU just bought it today. I got a crackle from in back when I went to restart, and then came that acrid smoky smell. Is the good part of buying a brand like Enermax that when it does go...(crossing fingers), it doesn't take other stuff with it?

[Hi Ho]

Yes, good quality power supplies are much less likely to kill other components when they die. They have protection circuits to prevent it. Of course it's not 100 percent but it's a good chance that no damage was done.

[rustywood]

as some might know ive craped out two gainward 6800gt,s one of them a goldensample in a month,first lasted 3 weeks second lasted 3 days,i understand these cards are 12v rail hungry, i have a thermaletake 480 psu but its only 18a on the 12v could it be not enough power to the card that caused all the problems like artifacts problems.im thinking of changing to ocz 470 because its 33a on the 12v.

[Panama Red]

rustywood, you'd be better served to start a new thread with this type of problem/question.

[fedz]

he has

fedz

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by fedz he has fedz

Yea, you're right. Just ran across it last nite.

[ChromWolf]

I'll be bad and post this here---as gamer4life suggested, the Ultra-X power supplies are the ones I'm looking for---the idea of a modular power supply is just great! The only thing is, I really don't know what I'm looking for, and what's good and bad among these "power rails". And obviously, I can't check the PSU for how clean and consistent its power output is, but I guess what I'm wondering is, for each power rail, what's a good range (or minimum, anyway) to be at? Someone (was that bigandy?) mentioned a few of the rails, but I guess I'm looking to get all of them. Also, would these numbers change as the PSU wattage went up? So, say, are these numbers going to be significantly different from a 350W to a 500W made by the same manufacturer? I'd really like to get this modular power supply, but it seems beyond just the "good" and "bad" list, these power rails seem the best way to tell--would this also be a correct assumption?

...So yeah, my questions summed up are what the rail ranges/minimums are, whether a higher wattage PSU will affect these numbers, and if the rails are what we should really be looking for.

[MystifyingMonkey]

Too bad for me that I didn't know these facts from before and now I got to get a whole new computer...

[rustywood]

chromwolf,i dont know if this will help but,i just installed a OCZ 520w powerstream in my system its got 40a on the 5v rail 12v rail has 33a and28a on the3.3 and its rock solid! yes rail ranges are important even more if your running a high voltage video card,the 6800,s are power hog,s and if you got a system full of drive,s and other goodies the higher the rail values the better, im running a 6800gt vc that had a thermaltake 480w psu hooked up to it that was causing me all kinds of problems {like graphic corruption} since i installed my new ocz all of that dissapeared.a lot of these psu,s out there are way overated on their output and have power fluctuation problems {like my thermaltake}if you got or are going to build a hotrod system get all the power you can,it will save you problems in the long run,i just read that the new pci express systems are going to need a 500w- 600w psu and ocz just came out with one.