Guys, PLEASE listen : PSU's

[Agent]

The second system in 3 weeks has been brought to me that has been killed by an el-cheapo no brand PSU.
First one took out the motherboard, the second system the Hard drive. Both PSU's are now non working as well.

One was a good ol Q-tec "550 watt" . The other just labelled "Power PSU" - so thats a "Power power supply unit" ?

Seriously guys, buy decent PSUs, don't skimp on it, its one of *the* most important parts of your system.

Thanks for listening to the Agent public announcement

[SilentDeath]

q-tec - aviod, there psus are crap, not even cheap crap, worse than that!

i see no problem with proper unbranded psus (like mine with just a big red W, my other psu is codegen but iirc they are resonable?)

im needing a new psu though, one of the molex's on mine is dodgy and my 2 sata hdd's keep getting turned off, not a big prob but i cba to resolder the connector (recrimping would make it worse unless i got new conectors.. but why waste money.. )

any good cheap ones you can recommend? what are the CWT's like?

[Kezzer]

I got myself a nice Enermax which are a very good make and of high standards. I was tempted to get a Q-tec but the price put me off

[Ethos]

Antec are meant to be among the best!

"Dedicated output circuitry for each voltage output, overcomes the limitations of combined output of traditional design"

Which I believe no other psu brand do?

I had a q-tec in my old rig, seemed fine but then again i didnt use it for a long time.

My 430w antec does me fine....

[Nox]

Originally posted by |SilentDeath|
any good cheap ones you can recommend?

yeah a 350w enermax, they only around 30-35 quid. does they job with a cd burner, two raptors, a 2.4 @ 3.2 and a mildly clocked 9700 pro.

as agent allready said, get a good psu. my next one i want to be a pc power & cooling but they don't sell them in the uk. they work to tighter tolerances than anyone else. other than that, an enermax, antec or vantec. it will save you having to replace half you pc in a years time when it blows it up, they will also last longer and the psu will fit into the next gen btx cases fine.

Nox

[Enverex]

The best ones around at the moment are the Antec True Power series. Enermax are nice but suffer from quite (sometimes very) weak 5v rails, which may hinder overclocking ability...

NS

[Jonny M]

I use a Chieftec 340W

Very nice quiet PSU

[Enverex]

Originally posted by Caged
I use a Chieftec 340W

Very nice quiet PSU

Aren't the Chieftecs rebranded Antecs? Or is that just the ATX cases....

NS

[Nox]

hmmm, if anything in my enermax, its the 12v line thats a little weak, usually between 11.95 and 12.03, the 5v line never drops below 5 and is sat at 5.03 99% of the time. mind you, it is atleast 2 years old now, so it may be something thats happened more recently.

Nox

[Enverex]

It may be that your machine just isn't that draining. What you will find is that when you add more devices your 5v rail will start to drop and your 12v rail will begin to increase, just having a look at Mr DigiDoc..... 5v = 4.99v and 12v = 12.32v.

When I play games my Radeon 9700 pulls it quite a bit and the 5v goes down to 4.82v and the 12v rail up to 12.63v.

It's pretty much the same for both my 451w Enermax (in this machine) and the 350w Enermax I used to have in it.

NS

[Nox]

very possibly, but would think its starting to get a little close:

2.4c@3.2
2xraptors
dvd + cd-rw
9700pro mildly clocked

but i would have to say i've never checked it while playing games.

Nox

[TooNice]

Well, I've got an Antec True Blue on the PC I am building.. Hopefully they are as good as they are on paper

(My current one is a 200 or 230W PSU - no idea if its even branded lol).

[Bruno]

I'd really like to know what 'Watt' is really needed for most PC's. My friend ran 4HD's, 2CD-ROM's and an Athlon for well over a year - on a 250W PSU. I've got an Enermax 350W and it' been ace, even when one wire that'd came out a molex slowly found it's way into the end of another - and ZAP! It just set fire to that cable and molex, but the power cut off nice without taking anything else out with it.

Bruno

[Ravens Nest]

I have the Q-tec 550W dual fan PSU, not a good buy that..
It does hinder you're overclocking i went from a generic 300W PSU that allowed me to do 200FSB on a XP2200+ to the Q-tec (boo!!) and could not get it stable even at 166FSB and the rails move very erratically.

Well i was going to get a new (good brand) PSU, and i'd like to thank Agent for the nice reminder

Have ordered a rebranded Antec from Scans..

[Howard]

I have a basic 350W one, and according to my mate the amp ratings are better than the Qtec 550W one. Lol. Anyway it does the job fine, stable, good voltages, etc.

[dgr]

antec 430w .

when you compare how much my pc cost me to build vs a similar spec pc world crappot one, i feel my wallet screaming at me. but hopefully it should last a tad longer....

well heres hoping

dgr