How big a PSU do I need?

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11-08-2005, 03:30 PM
Pealy

How big a PSU do I need?

I've just about recovered from a HD falure which I'm convinced was due to my PSU starting to fail. I have a digidoc which monitors the 5V and 12V feeds and the 5V was definitely getting too low. I've since had to upgrade the MOBO to get the replacement drive working (and so the Processor and Memory) and I'm now paranoid about making sure my PSU is up to the job.

In the (big) case I have:

P4 2.4 MOBO with 1GB DDR
1 x 20GB Maxtor running from ATA133 PCI Card
1 x 160GB Seagate Barracuda (ATA)
1 x 200GB Seagate BArracuda (ATA)
1 x 200GB Maxtor (ATA)
(All drives are in Cooldrive enclosures with fans set to cut in at about 35C)
Didgidoc temp/voltage monitor & fan controller.
Combi CD/DVD Writer.
2 x Arctic 80mm temperature controlled fans
1 x Arctic CPU temp controlled CPU cooller
1 x 802.11g PCI card
1 x Bog Standard Video Card

It's all running quite happily from a cheap 300W PSU at the moment but Im putting in a decent 400w supply today. Is 400 enough or should I be looking to go higher. I have considered a dual PSU set-up but this might be overkill..

Any opionions?
11-08-2005, 03:33 PM
mike_w

A decent 400W should be enough - remember the brand is more important than the wattage. Stay away from Q-Tec, and stick to the good ones e.g. Antec, Tagan, and you should be fine.
11-08-2005, 03:41 PM
iMc

As above, make sure you have at least 22A on the 12+V line and all shall be well.
11-08-2005, 03:46 PM
Pealy

Quote:

Originally Posted by mike_w

A decent 400W should be enough - remember the brand is more important than the wattage. Stay away from Q-Tec, and stick to the good ones e.g. Antec, Tagan, and you should be fine.

Dead right - I cancelled an order for 2 q-tec's when I realised what I was doing! I've got an AOpen FSP400-60BNP which might be a re-badged Fortron?? Not the best but if 400W is enough it should be reliable.
11-08-2005, 03:49 PM
Pealy

Quote:

Originally Posted by iMc

As above, make sure you have at least 22A on the 12+V line and all shall be well.

Oh dear - the Aopen looks to be max 16A on 12V, maybe I should think again.
11-08-2005, 03:50 PM
StoneNewt

I hope this doesn't controvean any rules, but here is a great guide to work out how much power your system requires ;) It's not simple but it gives you a fairly definative answer as to the power requirements (and belive me you'll work out why SFFs can 'make do' with a 300~350w psu)
11-08-2005, 03:55 PM
Pealy

Brain-ache

Quote:

Originally Posted by StoneNewt

I hope this doesn't controvean any rules, but here is a great guide to work out how much power your system requires ;) It's not simple but it gives you a fairly definative answer as to the power requirements (and belive me you'll work out why SFFs can 'make do' with a 300~350w psu)

Crikey StoneNewt, I think I'll need to pour myself a large glass of Chianti before I tackle that one.. Thanks for the link though, a great test for how committed I am to getting it right!
11-08-2005, 03:57 PM
terror_adagio

If you are going to overclock, I recommend at least 520W. A good power supply, don't cheap out.
11-08-2005, 04:32 PM
StoneNewt

oh it's not that bad Pealy... just take a deep breath and follow what it says exactly, if my partner can follow it I'm sure you can!
11-08-2005, 04:34 PM
RegMaster

I think that the best would be a real 450W power supply, of any builder, but not oem. the hard drives needs sufficient energy to run fine
11-08-2005, 04:36 PM
menthel

Tagan are damn fine and you can get the 480w one for a good price now. Probably £60 odd quid.
11-08-2005, 05:48 PM
roklipni

Hmmm, how bout Tagan TG420-U01? I have heard only good about it.
11-08-2005, 06:27 PM
hatsumi

I second (or third!) the Tagan reccomendation. I am using the Antec Neopower 480W, but the Tagan 480W was much quieter. (I managed to blow one up! hence the neopower)
11-08-2005, 06:45 PM
Scarlet Infidel

Lol how 'big' cracks me up every time. 480w tagan here too, you'll never look back.
11-08-2005, 06:49 PM
herulach

If youre really on the cheap, and of course depending how big your case is then you could always go for 2 psus. WE had that for a while as a crutch in our house file server. (Used a 250W generic i got in my system when i first bought it 3 years ago (pre built, oh god i was such a noob))
11-08-2005, 08:20 PM
Pealy

I'd kill for a Tagan 480-U01, it's clearly a well respected supply but there's no way I can afford £60 (the missus would kill me) I'll keep an eye out for a cheap one on ebay but I'm thinking a dual PSU might be the way to go for now. If I did, should I use the good (AOPEN) PSU to power the disks to protect the data and the Cheapo to run the MOBO or the other way round?
11-08-2005, 08:58 PM
herulach

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pealy

I'd kill for a Tagan 480-U01, it's clearly a well respected supply but there's no way I can afford £60 (the missus would kill me) I'll keep an eye out for a cheap one on ebay but I'm thinking a dual PSU might be the way to go for now. If I did, should I use the good (AOPEN) PSU to power the disks to protect the data and the Cheapo to run the MOBO or the other way round?

Id say other way round, and i really wouldnt reccomend it other than as a temporary measure. could you maybe stretch to something like this
11-08-2005, 09:03 PM
Dougal

Can I just pont you to this: http://www.vadim.co.uk/news/The+sile...+6500+3dmark05

SLi system, dual core, 2 Gigs of high end RAM, and a Seagate Barracuda.

ONLY 300W!
11-08-2005, 09:37 PM
Drugar

I am also in the market for a new PSU.. I currently have a 300w..but I am planning on upgrading here in the next few months, so I know I will need a good PSU.

I looked at some of ya'll recommendations in regards to Tagan and found something called ePower/Tagan (as described on Pricewatch). Is this basically a Tagan repackaged under the name ePower? Have any of you heard of this and is it any good?

Here are the specs for a 450 watt version:

http://www.epowertec.com/power_cheetah_450g.html
11-08-2005, 10:31 PM
StoneNewt

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pealy

I'd kill for a Tagan 480-U01, it's clearly a well respected supply but there's no way I can afford £60 (the missus would kill me) I'll keep an eye out for a cheap one on ebay but I'm thinking a dual PSU might be the way to go for now. If I did, should I use the good (AOPEN) PSU to power the disks to protect the data and the Cheapo to run the MOBO or the other way round?

Hehehe, justifying it is easy, I spend 60£ now to get something that is high quality and more than adequate NOW because it'll be 60£ and done with, not 35£ now then another 35£ in 6~9 months, then another 35£ in 12~18 months. Thus long term you save money. That one works for me :D
11-08-2005, 10:32 PM
herulach

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drugar

I am also in the market for a new PSU.. I currently have a 300w..but I am planning on upgrading here in the next few months, so I know I will need a good PSU.

I looked at some of ya'll recommendations in regards to Tagan and found something called ePower/Tagan (as described on Pricewatch). Is this basically a Tagan repackaged under the name ePower? Have any of you heard of this and is it any good?

Here are the specs for a 450 watt version:

http://www.epowertec.com/power_cheetah_450g.html

Tagan is a brand of Epower, which doesnt mean all epower psus are good, most of them are pretty mediocre.
12-08-2005, 12:26 AM
Drugar

Hmmm...thanks for the info...I will look for something that has the Tagan name..just to make sure
12-08-2005, 12:58 PM
azzkicker_9002

I've had enough PSU's to finally realize that a brand name 420 will most probably never let you down.
12-08-2005, 07:56 PM
Pealy

What's in a name?

Quote:

Originally Posted by azzkicker_9002

I've had enough PSU's to finally realize that a brand name 420 will most probably never let you down.

Q-Tec is a brand name! I know what you mean though, sometimes you can go too deep into making your choice, I like the 'choose a brand you trust' approach, it's often pretty reliable.
12-08-2005, 09:03 PM
KnightWhoSaysNi

Deer is a brand name too. Guaranteed to explode within 3 years.
14-11-2005, 01:14 PM
Pealy

Tagan power supplies at Scan, has the bottom fallen out of the power supply market or what?

I could only find ratings for the 480W but they look good:

+3.3V 28A
+5V 35A
+12V 25A
-5V 0.5A
-12V 0.8A
+5vsb 2.5A

400W Silent pPFC AMD & P4 12cm Silent Fan - £8.81 inc vat
450W as above, £11.16 inc vat
480W as above, £13.51 inc vat
550W as above, £17.33 in vat

Cheap as chips!
14-11-2005, 01:27 PM
kalniel

The unbranded ones, yes. But you won't find Tagan at that kind of price :p

Cheap as chips usually ends up frying like chips too.

I would recommend going for branded, and lowering your wattage to cut costs. That said I went for an XClio (meridian) PSU which isn't exactly a quality brand, but there's a sudden improvment in the hi end ones (480 and 550W) which made me consider them.
14-11-2005, 01:31 PM
Pealy

Quote:

Originally Posted by kalniel

The unbranded ones, yes. But you won't find Tagan at that kind of price :p

How right you are kalniel, I should look more closely in future..
14-11-2005, 01:42 PM
Rohan

The XClio 480W PSU is actually pretty good, with identical internals to the Antec Trupower series. It's recommended by many and has had some good reviews.

And you can get it from Scan on Today Only for £35. I've got one in my system and it's great.
14-11-2005, 02:18 PM
amjedm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rohan

The XClio 480W PSU is actually pretty good, with identical internals to the Antec Trupower series. It's recommended by many and has had some good reviews.

And you can get it from Scan on Today Only for £35. I've got one in my system and it's great.

Any links to the information?

A couple of years ago I used to hear CWT and Chieftec had same internals as Antec's. Not sure how true it was.

Thanks.

Edit: The Silverpower 400 (I think) had a good rating from Custom PC magazine recently and it is around £30 (form the top of my head) from Scan. I use a Seasonic 400 Tornado and usually recommend them or the Fortron's.
14-11-2005, 03:19 PM
kalniel

There's a review of the 550W xclio PSU here:

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/r...o_550BL_1.html

Note that my 480W doesn't have any rubber coating (that I'm aware of) and the cables are different than described in that article, but the rest is the same as the 480 and 550 are both based on the same tech, which as the article says, is identical to the antec true power 2.0 PSUs.
14-11-2005, 03:27 PM
GFiSH

I've got a similar setup running on a 480 Enermax Noisetaker, very realiable, and fairly quiet too, especially when the fans turned down, although I keep it turned up all the time.
14-11-2005, 04:00 PM
specofdust

Quote:

Originally Posted by terror_adagio

If you are going to overclock, I recommend at least 520W. A good power supply, don't cheap out.

Tosh. I've got an overclocked Athlon, 4 hard disks, usual other bits, a wireless card, and Im running all that totaly stabley on a 330W Antec. A good 330W power supply would be enough for most people, although a very small number of people might need more then that. But the majority would be fine with a 330 or 380.
14-11-2005, 08:15 PM
fatchan

Not sure if you can find it in the UK, but I have a superflower PSU and it makes NO noise at all, 400W 32A on 12V, paid 69 euro for it (omg.. bloody foreigner)

Has a cool blue led fan, mostly like the fact it has a ultra quiet setting. Only thing I hear right now is the raid drives. Lets be honest: you also want a quiet PC, maybe not right now but after a while.
09-04-2016, 10:02 PM
rogerroger

Re: How big a PSU do I need?

I`d always go for bigger than you need - gives you scope to upgrade later and also means you put less stress on the power supply because you are not driving it near its limits all the time.
09-04-2016, 11:54 PM
EndlessWaves

Re: How big a PSU do I need?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogerroger

I`d always go for bigger than you need - gives you scope to upgrade later and also means you put less stress on the power supply because you are not driving it near its limits all the time.

This thread is over ten years old....

p.s. A bigger PSU can also reduce your efficiency and increase your power usage, particularly if the computer spends lots of time below 10% of the PSU's maximum output.

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