Another PSU Question

[Taxboy]

I've checked through the previous posts and products from Tagan, Akasa etc come highly rated they are a bit on the pricey side for my budget. Are there any recommended "cheaper" quiet PSU's or are the two mutually exclusive. I'm looking to keep the budget for the PSU to no more than £30 if posible for my system build. All thoughts appreciated.

If its any help the proposed system is Cooler master centurion 530, Gigabyte K8 NF9 MOBO, AMD 64 3000, GeForce 6600, Seagate 200GB, 1GB Crucial value, Sony DVD and NEC 3540 DVDRW with Win XP Home.

The main use will be image editing but I like to use flight sim to relax. Total budget £550. Will buy from Scan given the free P&P offer

[daveyboi]

I have never managed to find a PSU that is both cheap and quiet, or if one arrives that way it doesn't stay that way for long; if you are serious about keeping your machine quiet (or maybe silent) then my rule is generally that you have to pay for it, so I'd tell you to go somewhere like www.quietpc.com and find a PSU in your price range that's been tested and buy buy buy

[Rohan]

I usually go with antec cases, which usually include smartpower PSUs, so you get a good case and power supply for a low price. If you can find a cheap antec PSU then I'd recommend it.

Otherwise, you could go with a cheap Hiper or Tagan, I think there's a Hiper 425W for around £35. I have the same CPU and graphics card as you, running fine on an Antec Truepower 330W, so as long as you get a PSU with at least 16A on the 12v rail you should be fine.

[Agent]

Have a look for some Thermaltakes

[herulach]

You could go with the 400W tagan, i believe its around 40 quid, they do do a smaller one too, but youd be pushing it, and its only a few quid cheaper

[Rohan]

Forgot to mention Enermax, the EG365AX has a whopping 26A on the 12v line. Pretty good for a 350W PSU.

[kempez]

Why do people always skimp on one of the most important parts of a PC?? I never understand that!

You should get a decent PSU for a K8 system - Tagan, OCZ, Enermax, PCP&C....

If you don't and the crap one goes wrong or indeed doesn't even power your system - you won't be happy!

[Taxboy]

Why do people always skimp on one of the most important parts of a PC?? I never understand that!

You should get a decent PSU for a K8 system - Tagan, OCZ, Enermax, PCP&C....

If you don't and the crap one goes wrong or indeed doesn't even power your system - you won't be happy!

I suppose because its a bit hidden if you see what I mean. Generally the last thing to buy in the spec, so you run out of cash & have to skimp money wise. The problem is that all the advice I've had says just spend another £20 on the MOBO for example and by the time you've applied this across the board on all components the budget is well blown.

[unrealuniverse]

i have a £27 PSU thats quiet. has 30A on the 12V rail and is similar to the antec's but for like half the price. the company is colours it however there is no website and nor can i find any infomation about them.

[OmarSantiago]

Don't skimp out on the power supply my friend - every single part of your system relies on it and while you can use load calculators to determine how much power you need and work out a tight PSU budget every single piece of equipment will feel the effect of an undernourished system. The last thing you need is for your supply to blow and take your system with it, or at least something you can't afford to replace. The analogy of the CPU being the equivalent of a car's engine. You can run your car nicely to the shops but you won't be going up any hills

Looking at Scan, the Enermax EG365AX-VE should be the absolute minimum supply you buy, and the 370W Noisetaker should be the one to go for if you can stretch to it. A decent PSU will power your system as well as help cool your CPU and with all that hot air being expelled from it, you need something that'll be able to cope with heat. Cheaper PSUs will generally have lower rail tolerance and lower quality fans as well as smaller heatsinks. Don't run the risk of an overheating PC straining to deliver power - buy an Enermax, fit it and forget about it.

Lastly, be warned about buying Q-Tec or the like from high-street electronics stores. They may offer 600w for £20 or so but that's like saying Ben Affleck is an actor in the same breath as DeNiro.

[malfunction]

Do you need a DVD ROM and a DVD RW drive? Or how about a slower GFX card if you don't play games that often (6200 or similar)? That could free up a few quid for a better PSU.

[Pealy]

Enermax EG365AX-VE should be the absolute minimum supply you buy

Thanks for pointing that one out, I hadn't seen the Enermax before, 26A on the 12V is pretty good for the price..

[iranu]

Simple - drop the seagate 200g and get a maxtor 160g for £54 add the £16 saved to the PSU budget.

I personally would drop the Sony DVD and go with am LG one - cheaper (£2 more for PSU budget and better performer.

[Dougal]

This is the range Unrealuniverse was talking about.

http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/Color_It_Psu_s.html

Saw them a while back but not looked into them much

*Goes hunting for reviews armed with a mouse and keyboard*

[amjedm]

I've bought 3 Fortron 120mm fan psu's. One brand new, one off eBay and one (250watt - powering a XP2400 system) for £3 from a computer fair.

They are one of the better makes (Nexus rebrand Forton psu's).

The one I bought off eBay worked out to around £16 for a 350W so you might want to look there.

[rajindergill]

I would avoid Hiper. Had a 420watt model, which I'm convinced burned up the AGP power rail with one motherboard and stopped another Gigabyte board with in 3 months. Never used it since and always used Enermax or Thermaltake. I've just got on order a cheap Antec 380W True Power PSU to replace a gateway 300W PSU. Its only cost £25 + £5 delivery. Has got very good reviews. Please look at Ebuyer.com, they have quite a few in stock.