Guys, PLEASE listen : PSU's

[Logan[TeamX]]

I have a Thermaltake Silent Purepower 420W PSU. Not only does it come with 9 Molex connectors along with the other usual goodies, but the dual fans keep it cool, and the gold grilles for the fans themselves look good too!

Rails:

12V: 12.22
5V: 4.92-5.08 (fluctuates a bit, nothing serious though)
3.3V: 3.34-3.38

I had a Tsunami 300W in my system when it was a XP 1800+ Palomino, and I still use it now that I built the system below for the Barton. The 3.3V rail was a bit low, but nothing earth-shattering.

[Rythmic]

Just another vote for the Antecs and against the Qtecs - I bought a Qtec 550W when I bought a P4. Result, crashs every 1/2 hour or so, no o/cing whatsoever. Replaced with an Antec TruBlue 480W - and it's now very stable.

The 550W quoted for Q-Tecs is peak output. actual output is (taken from the side of the PSU):

3.3V 20A 66W
5V 35A 175W
12V 14A 168W

Not counting the small wattages on the other lines (-5,-12) thats 409W. 3.3V and 5V are combined - but no max wattage is quoted for the pair - so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. Now for the Antec:

3.3V 30A 99W
5V 38A 190W
12V 22A 264W (max load accross all 3 lines 460W)

You get what you pay for....

[Lexeus]

I got no problems with my good old ebuyer 400W PSU. Never caused me any problems and i been using it for quite a while.
Great value at just under a tenner !
They are a bit pricey now though, almost £11 if i remember correctly

[dgr]

Originally posted by Lexeus

They are a bit pricey now though, almost £11 if i remember correctly

pricey indeed when it takes your £2000 pc with it...

dgr

[Ravens Nest]

Originally posted by Rythmic
Just another vote for the Antecs and against the Qtecs - I bought a Qtec 550W when I bought a P4. Result, crashs every 1/2 hour or so, no o/cing whatsoever. Replaced with an Antec TruBlue 480W - and it's now very stable.

Exactly the problems i keep getting, i'll definetly be glad when my antec arrives

[megah0]

NEVER buy Qtec, my 400W unit set fire, taking out the motherboard, CPU and a hard drive. AVOID

[bouncin]

i gotta agree a good psu helps you with high fsb,s naswell

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Reading this I'm getting worried.

El Cheapo ebuyer 300w psu in my system.

2500 barton @ 2 ghz ( crap ram )
512 mb pc 2700 generic
radeon 9600 pro
MSI KT4V-L
60gb maxtor

I basically know nothing about how a PSU affects ur system, someone please lay it down for me....

[Nox]

basically the cheaper the psu, the cheaper the components in it. the cheaper the components the more/worse voltage fluctuations you get. compnents are happiest with a steady voltage, and what they are rated at, so constantly over/undervolting them leads them to briefly fail (crash the pc) or even worse permanently fail if the fluctuation is bad enough, though all psu's should work with certain tolerances. You will prolly also find that el cheapo psu's are rated at 300w because 300w is when they die hopefully not in a blaze of glory, but you never know, but would put money on them taking the mobo/cpu or ram with them, expensive ones will shut themselves off at the rated wattage, and prolly won't blow until way over that.

The only ones i know of which are 1% are the pc power and cooling ones, i think enermax/antec etc are 2-3%, and the rest up to whatever the psu guidlines from x years ago state (i dread to think but prolly 5-10%) unfortuantely, pc power and cooling dont have a distributor outside the usa :/

i would seriously think about getting a better psu for xmas, an enermax 350w is only £30, though i would think a little hunting will get you a cheaper deal.

Nox

[Zaphan58]

Guys a good PSU is a must for a high end system, dont put youself together a top end PC and then scimp on no name PSU, and one thing is for sure dont but Q-Tec PSU's there the devil just waiting to hose your PC whenever they feel like it. If your stuck for a cheap PSU go for a CWT (Channel Well Technology) PSU, I say this to everyone and for one reason they make the PSU's for antec so basically what you are buying is a nice antec PSU without the fancy brand price tag. You can get them at scan IIRC for about 35 quid for the 450W version and that is a bargain!

[Enverex]

Thats a nice little bit of information to know. Cheaper than most other power supplies, and now we know that they are infact the non-branded version of the best PSUs available.

Cheers
NS

[Slick]

I've had a q-tec 550w PSU for quite a while and have never had any problems from it

[fullspizz]

I have heard nothing but bad reports on these Q-tec psu's.
I tend to buy decent units cos it's sometimes a false economy to buy the cheap smeggy psu's.

[TiG]

Another Vote for an Enermax 465w one here..

The dual fan in it certainly helps with cooling too.

TiG

[dgr]

it seems to me now is a damn good time to buy a pc.

get a xp2500 or a p4 2.4c, get a ati 2800np AIW, get a CWT psu, OC a bit and you end up with a p4 3.2, ati 9800pro AIW and a antec psu for a hella lot less than it should have been.

wish i was buying now rather than a few months ago!!!!!

dgr

[PriestJPN]

Reading thru this thread, would I be right in saying that a Q-Tec 550 is OK for a low spec system (e.g. 1 x HD, 1 x DVD, mid range GFX, 1Ghz CPU) but not so great for a high spec / OC'd rig?