Anyone have a PSU recommendation?

Post by **rep** » Sun May 29, 2005 5:11 am

I'm looking for a 400W to 600W power supply. My current supply is wearing down, and the fan is loud. I'll need more power soon with dual cores around the bend, so...

Requirements: It must work in an AMD system. It must have molex plugs, although SATA plugs are a good bonus for future upgrades. I want it quiet, but I'm not willing to spend $50 extra just for a fanless PSU. That would definitely be a plus, if I could get fanless for not much more.

I don't give a crap about stupid LEDs or neon lights or any of that horribly trendy garbage that you nerds love so much.

I'm looking for performance, reliability, low noise levels, and a good price (As close to $0 as possible.)

Thanks.

Love,
rep

Post by **Tormentius** » Sun May 29, 2005 5:31 am

Antec Truepower.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Sun May 29, 2005 6:25 am

ThermalTake, Antec, or other "quality" name brand..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153007

have one.. its solid as hell

and an antec

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817103929

Post by **rep** » Sun May 29, 2005 10:13 am

Yeah, I'm definitely into name brands as far as PSU, RAM, and some other components go.

I'd really like to get one of those silent Enermax ones, but they're way too overpriced for what they are, lol.

Who spends $250 for a fucking power supply?

Post by **Psyche911** » Sun May 29, 2005 2:53 pm

First, no matter what, get one that is ATX v2.0 compliant and has a native 24 pin connector, not 20.

I've got the OCZ 520watt unit here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817104152
(PowerStream, not ModStream) They make it in 420watts, 520 & 600. And unlike many companies, that is not just the PSUs peak power they usually advertise. The peak power for each unit is 100 higher, so the 420 supplies as much power as some people's 520 watt units, etc.

It's great. It's got adjustable rails, built in SATA & PCI-Express connectors along with 6 regular molex 2 shielded molex connectors. A lot of enthusiats/overclockers/etc use them and they are very well regarded.

As far as asthetics go, it's very quiet. The loudest part in my system is my ATi Silencer 1, which says a lot for this thing's volume. I can't distinguish the PSU's noise over my case fans running at 7volts, and my CPU fan is not really audible.

All cables are either sleaved or braided (see photo below), so that really helps with the clutter. And the dark grey mirror finish on the PSU is just damn cool looking.

It does have green LEDs which are a turnoff for me, but oh well. I've been considering modding it to disable the LEDs, but that would void the warranty.

But other than that, the Enermax adjustable fan ones are good. That's what I used to have (and now resides in the closet). They're very reliable, and if you turn the fan speed down to about 1/2 way you can just barely hear it and it stays cool, at least with my systems load which isn't too heavy (P4 2.4C/9800Pro/1 hard drive/1 optical drive/2x case fans, 1 cpu fan, 1 gpu fan).

I myself wouldn't buy a Thermaltake, but that's just my opinion which SOAP doesn't share. Though, the one SOAP suggested doesn't look like it's ATX v2.0 compliant according to their site and it looks like it's natively 20-pins and they give you a 24-pin adapter that splits 4 wires in two to achieve that? Hard to tell.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:53 pm

i Never worry about "upgrades" with current PSUs.. because if im going to go nuts adn get something thats omg all new, ill be sure to upgrade my PSU and buy a new case as well.

Post by **rep** » Sun May 29, 2005 9:28 pm

I'll never buy an OCZ product. Years ago for doing some design work for a site, besides the money, I got all kinds of hardware goodies, including a bundle of OCZ RAM. That stuff is horrible... Advertised at PC2100, it would barely make PC1600, and always was giving me problems.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Sun May 29, 2005 9:33 pm

rep wrote:I'll never buy an OCZ product. Years ago for doing some design work for a site, besides the money, I got all kinds of hardware goodies, including a bundle of OCZ RAM. That stuff is horrible... Advertised at PC2100, it would barely make PC1600, and always was giving me problems.

OCZ has gotten better with ram.. PSUs tho, i dunno..

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon May 30, 2005 1:54 am

SOAPboy wrote:
OCZ has gotten better with ram.. PSUs tho, i dunno..

Yeah their product quality has come a long ways. Enough so that I used their RAM in my home system when upgrading to 1GB from the 512 of Corsair XMS I was running before. The performance is just as good IMO.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:13 am

Antec.

Don't fuck yourself and buy something else.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Mon May 30, 2005 3:11 am

Damnit gramps check your PMs