Budget PSU recommendation

[cotswoldcs]

I need to replace a dead 250W PSU in a Dell P4 2.6Ghz machine with basic AGP card. The cheapest PSU I can find at Scan is

450W EZ-Cool Silent pPFC PSU AMD & P4 Ready 12cm Silent Fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=141417
15.03

Will this be sufficient? I know it's not going to be great quality but it's an old PC and not worth spending much on.

Any other recommendations?

[staffsMike]

i think i'd get this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=468725

better quality and you'll be paying £7 for delivery on the first one anyway.

[shadowmaster]

I would not buy an Ezcool psu, the last one I had blew up. Go with the FSP.

[-N!CK-]

yes go with the fsp one.

[peterb]

It would but not for long - that is ridiculously cheap so the mfr must have cut corners somewhere!

The cheapest one i would buy is this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=468725 which you could safely reuse in another machine or

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=409607 which costs more, but gives the flexibility of re-use in either an AT or an ATX case.

(Sorry - I juswt saw someone else has recommended the first of these - the FSP)

[cotswoldcs]

Thanks for your input people.

I'll forget the cheapo EZ-Cool. I could go with the FSP but for £2.85 extra I could get this...

400W North-Q Super Silent 12-17DB With 140mm Fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=660927
£28.19 (on TodayOnly)


I know it's more watts than I need but is NorthQ a better bet than FSP?

[oralpain]

Dell have often used proprietary PSU connectors. An off the shelf, non-dell, PSU may not work.

[Pob255]

Thast's a good point, although I think all the ones in the last few years have standard connectors, however the case lay out means you need giganticly long leads to reach the hard drives.
Also case shape can mean a standard ATX will not fit and you need an differnt shaped PSU (like the microATX seasonic)

Which model dell is it?

Don't know about North-Q but given it's cheaper but "higher" wattage than the cheap model FSP I'd say it's one to advoid.

not sure about the Sliverpower the price makes me suspissious, there are a cople of reviews that found it ok, nothing great, but nothing desasterious, not very effecent.
However the one on scan is the SP-400P2C and the one reviewed is the SP-400P1B so it could be the case that they released an ok PSU got reviews then released a new "revision" with cheaper components / lower build quality.
FSP is a more trusted name.

[Blitzen]

I need to replace a dead 250W PSU in a Dell P4 2.6Ghz machine with basic AGP card. The cheapest PSU I can find at Scan is

450W EZ-Cool Silent pPFC PSU AMD & P4 Ready 12cm Silent Fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=141417
15.03

Will this be sufficient? I know it's not going to be great quality but it's an old PC and not worth spending much on.

Any other recommendations?

Those EZ-Cool PSUs are total rubbish and should be avoided at ALL costs.

The Fortron that Staffsmike pointed to is a great budget PSU.

[peterb]

Thanks for your input people.

I'll forget the cheapo EZ-Cool. I could go with the FSP but for £2.85 extra I could get this...

400W North-Q Super Silent 12-17DB With 140mm Fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=660927
£28.19 (on TodayOnly)


I know it's more watts than I need but is NorthQ a better bet than FSP?

As I said before, if you are getting (apparantly) more for less, then they have cut corners somewhere, either on the build quality or the quality of the components - or both. In general terms ina competitive market you get what you pay for (and if something seems too good to be true - it probably is)

[Saracen]

As I said before, if you are getting (apparantly) more for less, then they have cut corners somewhere, either on the build quality or the quality of the components - or both. .....

In this case, you may well be right, but I'd just point out that in general, that logic is not necessarily true. Why? Economies of scale.

If you produce 1000 units of something a year, and I produce 10,000,000 units a year, what price do you think I get from my suppliers, compared to yours?

Oh, and there's all sorts of fixed costs involved in running a business, like ... rent, power bills, etc. I may need a bigger building and use more power than you, but it's still likely that the element of that fixed cost per unit is lower than yours.

Higher price often, but by no means always, means higher quality. It's just something to bear in mind.

[peterb]

In this case, you may well be right, but I'd just point out that in general, that logic is not necessarily true. Why? Economies of scale.

If you produce 1000 units of something a year, and I produce 10,000,000 units a year, what price do you think I get from my suppliers, compared to yours?

Oh, and there's all sorts of fixed costs involved in running a business, like ... rent, power bills, etc. I may need a bigger building and use more power than you, but it's still likely that the element of that fixed cost per unit is lower than yours.

Higher price often, but by no means always, means higher quality. It's just something to bear in mind.

true - but I did go on to say in a competitive market, and the PSU market is very competitive, with many manufacturers producing switch mode PSUs. But a high price does not necessarily indicate high quality, particularly if there is little competition, and there is sometimes a premium to pay for a brand name, although that might be worth paying if the brand has a good reputation.

[amjedm]

If you want cheaper then have a look on ebay, I've bought decent psus (Forton/FSP and HEC) for £15 or under.