Please don't laugh (PSU question for old machine)

Hi all,

Thanks to fiscal reasons and a case of being robbed, I had to put together a machine built out of old parts.

Now, bless it, it's done me proud and managed a few games. This is the spec.

P4 2.8 GHZ
1gb Corsair VS
Radeon 9250
40g IDE HD
bla bla other stuff.

Now I didn't have a case so I bought one of the cheap scan ones with the 450w inbuilt power supply.

I bought Test Drive Unlimited which I love but the machine wont run it.

I do have a Radeon 9800 (which is the rec spec for the game) , but when I put it in the machine it wouldn't work and it basically died.

I presumed this was down to the power supply as I remember from when I bought it, it was power hungry, as is the P4 so along with the rest of the stuff, the crappest PSU in the world (The one that comes with those cheap cases) probably wont cope to well.

I was wondering if you think any of the budget 500w PSUs (the EZcool for example) would cope better, or if you could suggest any sub £30 PSUs that might run the machine satisfactorily?

Sorry this isn't about i7s and cool stuff, but there we are!

This will do the job:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ltra-Quiet-Fan

The 400w Silverpower I usually recommend is not stocked by Scan any more it seems!! :(

You should be able to get free postage from Scan too as you have 20+ posts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

This will do the job:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ltra-Quiet-Fan

The 400w Silverpower I usually recommend is not stocked by Scan any more it seems!! :(

You should be able to get free postage from Scan too as you have 20+ posts.

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Thanks very much for the tip off :).

Well, I'm only 5 minutes away from Scan so I'll pop down there hehe :D.

EDIT: That 400w silverpower one was a gem though, I remember a review in custom PC years ago that put it higher than PSUs at double the price. That's what I looked for but was sad it was not there too :(

The one cat recommended will do the job fine. Dont get Ezcool as their quality tends to be very low.

Thanks very much :). I guess I always worry about a "low" wattage number, even though I'm well aware it's about quality of supply but something in my male head says "HIGHER NUMBERS ARE BETTER! BUY THE CIT 550W DUAL RAIL ONE!".

Stupid brain :D.

Thank you again.

The Akasa has a decent review although it is not very efficient:

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=627

If you can stretch to £32 the Silverstone ST35F is better:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ATA-80plus-Eff

It is more efficient though but has relatively short cables:

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/...T35F/index.php