New build

[rushholme]

Not entirely trusting speedfan, I have just tested the 12V rail with a multimeter:

Idle 110W - 12.15V
Load 330W - 11.74V-11.82V

Seems OK.

Remarkably, the air coming out of the PSU is not very warm.

I will take it apart to see what the cooling looks like and which capacitors are used.

[nibbler]

My EZ Cool works fine
460W should be PLENTY for a single GPu and even quadcore pc. Don't know if that PSU is any good though.

[Zhaoman]

the OP should stick with the original freebie than get an EZ cool thats for sure

[marshalex]

well after having the order for the MSI board cancelled today I'm back to square 1 again. Will welcome any suggestions for good board/processor/cooler for this system. thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

well after having the order for the MSI board cancelled today I'm back to square 1 again. Will welcome any suggestions for good board/processor/cooler for this system. thanks

Change the CPU,Motherboard and RAM in my original spec to these instead:

AMD Phenom II X4 940 ~ £125

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

OR

AMD Phenom II X3 720 ~ £91

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...che-95W-Retail

The Phenom II X4 processors come with a decent cooler.




4gb PC2-8500 RAM ~ £48

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-%...S-5-6-6-18-EPP

Gigabyte MA770-UD3 revision 2 ~ £54

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...D3-Motherboard

[rushholme]

Compucase Z-Power 650W PSU

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151781

I am going to do a photo review of this PSU with multimeter and power consumption monitor.

I will post a new thread asap!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

HEC does make some reasonable PSUs as they supply Mesh for example.IMHO, it is a bit of a lottery which of the ranges they make are decent and what are crap. However OCZ is just a better company especially since they own PC Power and Cooling too!! Also the 500w OCZ has modular cabling which makes things much less cluttered in the case and the OCZ has a three year warranty.

[watercooled]

Look we don't want to hijack this thread by arguing about PSUs - firstly Z-Power isn't a known good make like it or not - it's cheap because it's made cheaply from cheap components. Testing how hot a PSU gets only tests efficiency/cooling - a crap PSU can be efficient so it means nothing. You say you will test your PSU with a multimeter when loading your PC - just because that's the way some 'reviewers' test them doesn't mean it's the right way to do it - a crap PSU could easily enough give a decent voltage reading but you are likely to load it to less than half of it's rated output with your PC probably less so it's not a test of quality. Also ripple alone is possibly the most important aspect of PSU testing which will not be picked up by a multimeter and any reviews without adequate load/ripple testing are useless as they provide no information about the quality of the PSU. Also as mentioned cheap PSUs are known for destroying hardware when they go bang - that's something not covered in reviews for obvious reasons but a PSU from a good MFR is going to have proper protection circuity to prevent that. Go ahead and ignore what I or anyone else says but that's the truth. As mentioned - why do you spend hundreds on a PC and not complain about the price but then buy a cheap crappy PSU 'because it works just the same' - yeah it might for a while or even for the life of the PC but do a quick search of this forum/the Internet and see just how many people have been stung by 'budget' PSUs. Checking caps/cooling is fine but means basically nothing if the PSU is a bad design or is missing components. Some of the best PSUs use poorer quality capacitors.
The upshot of it all is you generally get what you pay for - good PSUs aren't expensive for no reason.

[marshalex]

Thanks for the advice Cat, this is well within the budget I had set out as well. Whats the gigabyte board recommended and the phenom II X4 like for overclocking? AMD stock cooler looks much better than the stock intel cooler as well

edit: btw i've just spotted this article. anyone know how much the i5 processors will be as this is really tempting if the processors are about £150ish

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the advice Cat, this is well within the budget I had set out as well. Whats the gigabyte board recommended and the phenom II X4 like for overclocking? AMD stock cooler looks much better than the stock intel cooler as well

edit: btw i've just spotted this article. anyone know how much the i5 processors will be as this is really tempting if the processors are about £150ish

The Gigabyte motherboard should be able to overclock an X4 940 but it does need extra heatsinks around the VRMs to cool them down.

I would look to get this motherboard if you are overclocking the X4 940 and has better power regulation too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Sapph...-3Gb-s-ATX-VGA

It has got excellent reviews:

http://www.overclockersclub.com/revi...pp_790gx/7.htm

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/mother...e/790GX/p6.asp

With the stock cooler people have got the X4 940 to around 3.5ghz although as with all overclocking YMMV.

The problem with the Core i5 is going to be the cost of the motherboards and the DDR3 RAM not necessarily the processors themselves and also their availability too.

The best thing is to wait and see how much the combined cost of a Core i5,motherboard and RAM will be.

[marshalex]

thanks for that. the main thing was going on the assumption that I can get one of those MSI boards mentioned in the article for £63 and hope the i5's are not too expensive and then go from there. wouldn't mind spending a little bit more for a system thats going to get more life out of it. whats been recommended seems really good too, just have to wait and see what happens on monday when the i5 hardware is released!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

thanks for that. the main thing was going on the assumption that I can get one of those MSI boards mentioned in the article for £63 and hope the i5's are not too expensive and then go from there. wouldn't mind spending a little bit more for a system thats going to get more life out of it. whats been recommended seems really good too, just have to wait and see what happens on monday when the i5 hardware is released!

Good luck!! The full RRP of those MSI P55 motherboards are insane IMHO!! No wonder they have to discounted!!

I also hope that the low voltage DDR3 RAM needed for the Core i5 is not overpriced too as the Phenom II can use the cheaper higher voltage DIMMs.

[Pob255]

Untill the i5 actually hits the UK market we cannot say how much it will cost, even if US prices come out that's no garranty as to what the final UK prices would be.

[rushholme]

watercooled - I know your stance on quality PSUs is right - but I guess I like to take [measured] risks.

However, I would never put anymore than 400W through this PSU; Never attempt SLI with fast cards.

As I can't test for ripple and you say capacitor manufacturer is unimportant, I won't bother opening my PSU.

[watercooled]

Yeah it's probably best you didn't - it will void the warranty. Sorry if I sounded like a troll - just I've seen plenty of cases where a bad PSU have destroyed an expensive system. Of course what you want to use is your choice but my advice would be to stick with good known brands.

[jim]

Yeah it's probably best you didn't - it will void the warranty. Sorry if I sounded like a troll - just I've seen plenty of cases where a bad PSU have destroyed an expensive system. Of course what you want to use is your choice but my advice would be to stick with good known brands.

Happened to me, and Hiper aren't a particularly budget brand either.