recommend me a good PSU

[DudeMiester]

In you case, I would highly recommened getting a more powerful PSU. I gauruntee your overclock will increase.

You don't know the first thing about how loaded his PSU actually is, yet you're still able to make such sweeping statements? Incredible, perhaps you should take up a new carreer as a psychic. You could find peoples' misplaced purses or sunglasses or such!

It's a 400W PSU with all that hardware drawing from it, now I admit it's 3.3v (28A) and 5v (40A) rails are respectible, but that 12v (18A) rail is just pitiful! If he has any major load on that rail, I seriously doubt he has clean power. Most high-end PSUs supply about 30A on the 12v, espcially with SLI and modern videocards, they can pull quite a bit of juice from the 12v line. Although I admit, his CPU oc probably won't be hugely effected, but I'm sure he would do better on the GPU side of things.

I don't know about Thermaltake, who was the origional manufacturer? Fortran and Zippy from all accounts are respectable ones. Topower is banned in some countries for being so terrible, the only exception to my knowledge being the OCZ PSUs. Then there's a number of generics, that are simply dangerous and foolish to use. I almost lost my comp to one in my foolishness. Forunitly, I powered down fast enough once I smelt burning. Now, my Antec TruePower 430W does this simple rig well, but when I upgrade I am going to need more.

 

[FX5900]

well, i have 3 HD's, 3 CD ROMS, 7 80 mm fans, FX5900 flashed to fx5950 ultra, xp2500 OC'ed to xp3200 @ 1.70Vcore, 3 HD coolers, 2 Neon lights, 7.1 channel sound card...

Yeah, it's not much..but seems like my cheap 650W cannot handle it. I always get a "not enough sufficient power" from my video card, when i run doom 3 or any other intense 3D games, but it works fine when i am not playing games. I think my PSU now is really only 300W and not 650W even though the manufacturer stated 650W. POS!

I'm just afraid the next PSU might just be another POS and will not actually have as much power as it claimed to have. I want a powerful one cuz i'm planning to upgrade my comp soon too. I guess having too much is always better than not having enough...

I think i'm gonna get that 550W Aspire..if it really does have 550W...

check this out. I did a screen shot:

This is @ pretty much idle..i'm only surfing the net during this time of this screen shot. my 12v rail is quite low..DAMN! my CPU is HOT!

the CPU FAN readout is incorrect..not sure why it does that..

 

[FX5900]

this one sure does look good

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-473&depa=0

but no more
===============================================

Damn this one seems good too:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-159-026&depa=0

 

[FX5900]

can someone explain what these means to me? thanks

PFC: Yes
Power Good Signal: 100-500ms
Hold-up Time: Not Specified
Efficiency: >65% at full load
MTBF: Not Specified
Approvals: Not Specified

i especially wanna know the hold up time, signal and efficiency

 

[Mariner]

can someone explain what these means to me? thanks

PFC: Yes
Power Good Signal: 100-500ms
Hold-up Time: Not Specified
Efficiency: >65% at full load
MTBF: Not Specified
Approvals: Not Specified

i especially wanna know the hold up time, signal and efficiency

Efficiency can be important. Higher efficiency means less power is 'wasted' as heat. This means your PSU is cheaper to run and your computer remains cooler. The Seasonic PSUs typically have efficiency of around 80%+ at full load. 65% isn't particularly good at full load, especially when you consider that efficiency is usually less at lower loads.

The best PSU reviews I've seen are at SilentPCReview and they include plenty of information about what all the various tech specs mean.

 

[{Sniping}Waste]

You might look at this one even if its states its a 480W. Its a Tagan and all the reviwers that reviwed them love them. Its a very stronge PSU with rails that don't drop on you under heavy loads. The 480W is realy around 550W.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-101-509&depa=1
its around $79.

 

[Luminescent]

What about PSUs from PC Power and Cooling?

 

[Dr. Ffreeze]

FX5900,

Many good supplies are being mentioned, just wanted to say again that we use >>100 Antec 550 TruPowers between 0C and 60C. They are working well.

Dr. Ffreeze

 

[swaaye]

I have a Thermaltake Silent Purepower 420W that has been very reliable and very quiet for over a year now. It's cheap too, at Newegg around $40-50. Dual temp-sensitive fans make it nearly silent.

I also have a old PC Power & Cooling Turbocool 300W that has just lasted forever. It must be 6-7 years old now. I changed fans in it though cuz it was LOUD. They don't call it a Turbocool just for marketing kicks. As I understand it PC P&C validates for much higher temperatures than basically any other manufacturer, so they design with serious cooling needs in mind for like 50C ambient. Their supplies are also supposedly very efficient at near full load.

PC P&C is very expensive though.

 

[Guden Oden]

that 12v (18A) rail is just pitiful!

Um, those 'pitiful' 216 watts represent more than what most PCs draw *aggregate*. You must be crazy if you think that'd be any kind of a limitation for pretty much anyone.

I swear, there's so many PC lusers out there stricken with the PSU cocksize bug these days... It's gone completely overboard in this regard, people post on boards asking if they can run a second harddrive on a 400W PSU...

My system (which I've posted the details of before):

1.7 Willy core P4 (75-ish watts peak)
512MB DRDRAM (hot)
All PCI masters used (Audigy2ZS, USB2, USB2/FW, TV tuner, modem, NIC)
6+ buspowered USB devices, numerous other devices
2 7200RPM HDDs
2 DVDRW
Radeon 9800Pro @ 426/325
3 case fans (120, 92, 80)
...+Probably some crap I forgot.

ALL @ 250W PSU ROCK STABLE!!!!!!!

It remains stable with both DVDRWs spinning max speed, max CPU load and 3D card drawing full tilt. Yes, I tested it just to make sure. That's what you can do with a good PSU, but you go on believing you need 500+W power supplies to run a decent PC if you like and waste your cash on oversized hardware that will do nothing except burn excess power and cost you money as long as you keep using it...

 

[DudeMiester]

They validate up to 50C. Here's a breif list:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50821

This guy is going to do a review of the 510W SLI soon:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51293

Might want to keep an eye on that. He's a professional overclocker, and a hardware beta tester/validator for G-Skill. You can trust his judgement.

As for PSU "ePenis" battes. Well if you can afford it, then there's no reason not to get it. If you're going to push the limits of your bleeding edge hardware, then you can use it. Plus generally speaking if it's good quality, then it can deliver a lot of power to begin with. However, if you're just a normal computer user, then yes you don't need such powerful PSUs. At the same time it can't hurt.

 

[Dr. Ffreeze]

Correct me if I am wrong but,

Power supplies are the most efficient close to their full power rating, and less efficient at lower wattages. That would infer that using a power supply that is way over the top, 600W, for a system that really only pulls 250W, is actually dumping more heat into the case than a more appropriate wattage power supply. If that is true, then to a degree too big of a power supply can not be a good thing.

Dr. Ffreeze

PS. I also thought that power supplies were not only more efficient but also worked better (cleaner?) at rated wattage.

 

[Pete]

can someone explain what these means to me? thanks

PFC: Yes Power factor correction--something to do with smoothing out the power signal? SPCR says this improves efficiency, but I've read at Ars that this actually requires slightly more power.
Power Good Signal: 100-500ms I guess time from pressing the power button until the PSU can give full power?
Hold-up Time: Not Specified No clue, tho I may be confusing Power Good with this.
Efficiency: >65% at full load How much energy is wasted in the AC to DC transform. 65% efficiency means that if your PC needs 65W, your PSU is drawing 100W from the wall and losing 35% of it in translation. Higher efficiency means both less power wasted and a cooler PSU at a given power draw. Peak efficiency is achieved close to the PSU's rating. Use a 550W PSU for a system that requires a 300W one, and you're looking at a slightly higher energy bill. I believe 65% is average for quality PSUs.
MTBF: Not Specified Mean Time Between Failure: how long your PSU is expected to last.
Approvals: Not Specified Whatever certification hoops the PSU jumped through.

i especially wanna know the hold up time, signal and efficiency

Here's the thing. Chumbo now only sells PCIe BFG 6800GTs in pairs along with a BFG-branded 530W PSU. So BFG expects a 530W PSU to be powerful enough for basically the fastest desktop CPUs (who else buys an SLI system?) along with a pair of practically the fastest video cards available. Thus everyone's skepticism at the need for 500W+ in most systems.

Also, as I think we've covered, not all PSUs provide an honest or real-world rating. The brands people are recommending tend to be closer to reality with their ratings, whereas cheaper brands can exaggerate (wildly).

You've got a decently power-hungry system there, FX5900, but I think you'd be OK with a quality 400W PSU. Those three HDs and that gaggle of fans may require a decent burst of juice at startup, but I still think 400W is enough. This online calculator agrees. Keep in mind 3.5" HDs draw a lot of power spinning up, then drop down to about 10W in normal use. And you probably won't be using all three optical drives at once, so factoring in their max power draw basically gives you a margin of safety.

That said, you're probably not losing much more than a bit of money by going with a quality 450+W PSU, and you gain some headroom for a faster video card or CPU. Dunno about CoolMax as a brand, but that design looks far better than the Chameleon (only holes for the fan intake and the rear exhaust means hot air can only enter one way and exit one way, as AMD recommends in their system builder's guide), and the specs look beefy enough. I *think* I saw a review for that PSU somewhere, possibly at SPCR or TechReport. You could check NeoSeeker.com to see if they track PSU reviews.

 

[DeathKnight]

This online calculator agrees.

Heh. Nice to see people still linking to this. I work there

Buy a machine from us and I might be the one building it up for you

 

[Mize]

I bought an Ultra X-connect 500 W on sale and like it fine. The cable system kicks butt and the 500 W is a continuous, not peak, rating. Not an OCZ with independent rails, but a LOT less expensive and great cable system for a clean case.