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About LinkBacksA 700 watt PSU for £60 cant be good.
Just get the antec sonata.
And the MSI P35 neo 2 or abit IP35 dark raider are perfect for the lower cost.
And you need a case to put it all in remember.
A 700 watt PSU for £60 cant be good.
Just get the antec sonata.
And the MSI P35 neo 2 or abit IP35 dark raider are perfect for the lower cost.
And you need a case to put it all in remember.
I would get,
Intel Q6600 - £150 + Arctic Freezer £13
Abit IP-35 Dark Raider - £60 (look out on scan today only's)
4GB geil PC6400 (2x2GB) - £60 (ocuk ram deals)
Antec Sonata III with 500W earthwatts PSU -£70
320GB Western Digital AAKS and Optical Drive - £65
ATi HD3850pro 512mb ~£100
Total ~£465
I think someone mentioned the £140/£150 8800GT.. that is the most I would get but still a bit over the top if you ask me.
Alright thanks for all your help guys...I'll put one together with all of your best suggestions and post it up here before I go and buy it if that's okay? Just out of interest, that Sonata is good is it? Lots of people seem to have recommended it...]
Cheers.
It's great value for money. It's not your typical cheap case and psu combo. It's a high quality hard wearing PSU and the case is pretty high quality too.
Deffinatly worth considering on a budget such as yours. Where you can spend £130 on a decent case and PSU this does the same job or near as makes no difference for £50 less.
Tbh I didn't read what everyone else had said (sorry guys) so I might have repeated their suggestions but the build I suggested will be pretty much the best compromise for a long term PC while giving it a bit of gaming oomph especially as a £150 GT still fits the budget although I would take the ATi myself
its had good reviews and is made by the same people who make the antec psu (parts that is) so should in theory be the same just cheaper, paying for the name imo.Originally Posted by Bhavv
A 700 watt PSU for £60 cant be good.
Just get the antec sonata.
And the MSI P35 neo 2 or abit IP35 dark raider are perfect for the lower cost.
And you need a case to put it all in remember.
Yep even Blitzen defends the xclio PSU's and he is some sort of PSU guru
Every manufacturer has different standards of products just because something is made by the same OEM company doesn't mean that the components are the same parts or indeed quality.
As it happens Blitzen said the other day that in his opinion the XClio PSUs were of reasonable quality.
The other question is do you actually need a 700W PSU? Under full CPU load my PC only draws 140W from the wall which at 85% efficiency is only 120W add on a graphics card under full load (max 150W for a single card with 1 6 pin power) you are still looking at less than 300W. The only caveat is that its not total power that is important but whats available to each voltage having loads of 12v power available is more important than excess 5v and 3.3v power.
an 8800GTS uses 200W on load roughly, im just saying my build as it could help. It was an option so i got it, i didnt think paying more for less is right(yeh false economy but i looked at reviews etc) and its been very stable for me, voltages hardly change even on load.
Early on I suggested the Sonota III as well thinking it may well be the only option at that price range.
But then, I found that the Corsair VX 450W + CM Centurion 5 is £66.96 from Scan.
On the PSU side, the EarthWatt is competent, but my impression is that the VX is as good and quieter.
So that leaves the question as to how good the case is. I had some skepticism at first, but reviews were mostly positive. I like the full tool-less design, the 5+1 external bay.
I wouldn't expect it to be as quiet as the Sonata (due to the 80mm fan intake), but it does allow more room for upgrades (versatile).
Last edited by TooNice; 09-02-2008 at 11:40 PM.
Unintended posting.
From my personal experience with PSU's I would pay more money for a 500 watt PSU from antec or tagan then pay less for a cheap 700 watt PSU regardless of brand. Your entire system relies on the PSU and you want one that is going to last. I had a cheap case PSU blow up in under a month and a hiper blow up in 3 months. My antec and current tagan have lasted for years. Enermax and seasonic also make award winning quality PSUs, but I'll always be getting a tagan now. They are pure quality and class when it comes to modular PSUs.
I bought the Antec (TruePower series) for one of my earlier build, but it died after about 2 years. RMA was a pain and I ended up just not going through with it. Moved onto Enermax since back then, I was under the impression that Antec and Enermax were the big players. That one also died, but at least it was replaced quickly. But it was too noisy, so I went Seasonic (if I didn't care too much about noise, I would've given PC Power & Cooling a shot - the Turbo series that is - incidentally, their Silencer series are made by Seasonic).
The thing about PSUs is that it is hard to know who makes what PSU, unless you do a lot of research. Some of Antec's PSU are actually made by Seasonic, and others by CWT (this is the case of the True-series). Despite my bad experience (by no mean unique), CWT manufactured PSU are generally not considered a ticking bomb. And as far as I know, quite a few Xclio are CWT manufactured. To be honest, £60 is probably not too low for a decent 700W PSU - I have very little doubt that you do pay a premium for some brand over other for the same thing. It doesn't raise red flags nearly as much as this this.
Staffsmike and WebbyA 700 watt PSU for £60 cant be good.
Just get the antec sonata.
And the MSI P35 neo 2 or abit IP35 dark raider are perfect for the lower cost.
And you need a case to put it all in remember.
I just read your posts
Nothing wrong with XCLIO.
They are excellent budget units and in fact, over in the states they love them. For some reason they havent caught on here and i have no idea why.
Obviously a few corners do get cut. YOu dont get all flashy freebies. You dont get cable wallets like with Enermax.
What you do get is a good quality efficient PSU and a cable quality that easily rivals the Corsair units at an extremely competitive price.
If i needed a budget PSU that i could rely on, i wouldnt think twice about an XCLIO Greatpower.
Maybe you need to do a little more homework on them rather than dismissing them.
I would love to know on what basis you think the XCLIO's are so bad. I would guess you have no real reasoning behind that assumption at all except your 'cheap case PSU' experience. What that has to do with an XCLIO unit i cant fathom as they are not 'bundled' units and afaik they never have been.
Also....i would rather have an XCLIO than a Tagan ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. Tagan PSUs, although some get lucky, are another brand that are notorious for taking other components with them when they die.
Beautiful PSUs. When they were a company on their own it was safe to say they were one of the top manufacturers.if I didn't care too much about noise, I would've given PC Power & Cooling a shot - the Turbo series that is - incidentally, their Silencer series are made by Seasonic).
(Zippy/PC P&C imho were always the top of the tree).
I have been looking at the 1KW Version recently as the price is great.
The only thing that puts me off atm is that they are now made by OCZ. I really like OCZ components but it does make you wonder if any quality has been dropped now they have got a litle cheaper.
On a side note regarding the case PSU combo, i built a PC for someone with VERY similar spec to yours(Micro ATX though) 2 weeks back and used this: Coolermaster Elite 340 MATX Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer
I was a little sceptical at first but this is one of the best looking cases i have seen, the picture does it no justice.
I ran some full tests under load aswell to see how the PSU would perform (if rubbish i wouldve swapped it out). I was amazed at this aswell. The rails were rock solid and the PSU was incredibly quiet.
For £42.99 this is one of the best value combos i have ver bought. I actually ordered 5 more straight afterwards for future builds/jobs i was that impressed.
Last edited by Blitzen; 10-02-2008 at 02:02 PM.
See what I mean.. There's just no arguing with him over PSU's
See what I mean.. There's just no arguing with him over PSU's
Sorry
I just like to explain why (as you do) rather than just positng 'get this or get that'.
I know dude, you are very handy with all this PSU stuff. I'll be annoying you when I want a new one if I can't make up my mind
Sorry
I just like to explain why (as you do) rather than just positng 'get this or get that'.
Blitzen (10-02-2008)
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