Best card for sub £180?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Since you are not overclocking you should be fine IMHO.

If you want to get a more powerful unit both of these are made by Seasonic too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...0mm-fan-atx12v

There are also a few FSP and CWT made 500W units in the £45 to £50 price range too.

[5867dude]

Since you are not overclocking you should be fine IMHO.

If you want to get a more powerful unit both of these are made by Seasonic too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500w-...0mm-fan-atx12v

There are also a few FSP and CWT made 500W units in the £45 to £50 price range too.

My Dad seems to believe that PSU's can't actually 'blow-up' because of UK laws requiring a certain level of quality? Is this true?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

My Dad seems to believe that PSU's can't actually 'blow-up' because of UK laws requiring a certain level of quality? Is this true?

Not really. The PSU won't literally blow to pieces like in some Hollywood movie but when it goes it ends up damaging the rest of the PC components.

In many cases the PSUs themselves cannot output their stated wattage and have horrible ripple on the 12V line. It is like those micro-systems stating X amount of watts with massive THD. Compare that to a separates system with the same amount of watts and the difference in sound quality is massive.

If you look at companies like Dell and HP for example they tend to use well known OEMs like FSP to make the PSUs for their computers. Even FSP PSUs are more expensive than the el-cheapo PSUs available for £10 to £20.

[5867dude]

Not really. The PSU won't literally blow to pieces like in some Hollywood movie but when it goes it ends up damaging the rest of the PC components.

In many cases the PSUs themselves cannot output their stated wattage and have horrible ripple on the 12V line.

It is like those micro-systems stating X amount of watts with massive THD.

'horrible ripple on the 12V line.' What does that mean? I'm a noob to this

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I modified my last reply before you quoted it!!

A PSU has three voltage lines namely 3.3V,5.0V and 12V. In modern PCs the 12V line is responsible for providing power to the CPU and GPU.

Basically a poor PSU will have massive deviations from these values under load and this can cause damage to the components in the PC.

[5867dude]

So, under load the 12v changes to 12.5v for example? Looks like I will buy that 400W PSU, seems to be sensible considering there will be alot more damage than £30 if the PSU messed up

However how can companies sell bad PSU's? Can they be held to blame if it does damage compolents?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you intend to overclock then perhaps get a 500W PSU. OTH, according to Corsair the CX400W can supply up to 360W on the 12V line:

http://www.corsair.com/products/cx/default.aspx

Your X4 620 has a 95W TDP and the HD6870 a 151W TDP so the CX400W looks like it will be fine.

Here are some reviews for the PSU:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/750

Funnily enough the CX430W which replaced the CX400W is inferior.

[bearbear]

Not really. The PSU won't literally blow to pieces like in some Hollywood movie but when it goes it ends up damaging the rest of the PC components.

My el-cheapo of cheap PSUs actually made a loud pop/bang sound with accompanied flash of light and smoke. I think I bought it from Ebuyer or PCWorld.

Luckily my PC was still fine, so hooray for cheap PSU's.