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Best PSU under 50$?

C

Copyright

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Nov 17, 2000
Messages
6,004
I have a build of left over parts I am working on. Consists of a GTX240, A9450, 4gb ram, 1 HD. I want room to upgrade the video card if at all possible but this is to help a coworker who has very little $ to work. Thanks for any advise. I haven't looked into power supplies in a long time. I don't mind used either.
 
Definitely the CX430 V2. Best bang for your buck power supply for the low-end.
 
I would like to not limit him if at all possible on video card selection later on when he can afford it. Maybe im asking to much out of a 50$ psu? His plan is to move to a 6950 later on.
 
If he's looking to go to a 6950, the CX430 will be able to handle it if you don't overclock. How about the CX500 V2 if you're looking for more headroom? Or if you want modular, the ModXStream 500 watt is a decent buy. Not as good quality as the CX500. Both the 500 watts will handle a 6950 without any fuss.
 
Tsumi said:
If he's looking to go to a 6950, the CX430 will be able to handle it if you don't overclock. How about the CX500 V2 if you're looking for more headroom? Or if you want modular, the ModXStream 500 watt is a decent buy. Not as good quality as the CX500. Both the 500 watts will handle a 6950 without any fuss.
Click to expand...

Yup, the CX500 falls within range after Rebate. I don't mind front him the rest he needs since I can send off the rebate for him. Thx for the info!
 
What were the changes in the CX V2 from the 430W V1?
 
Different OEM, and better efficiency. I believe the V1 OEM was CWT, while the V2 OEM is Seasonic. There's also some other minor changes, but the main one is efficiency.
 
Copyright said:
I would like to not limit him if at all possible on video card selection later on when he can afford it. Maybe im asking to much out of a 50$ psu? His plan is to move to a 6950 later on.
Click to expand...

You should spend more money if he's going to upgrade his card or he will just have to upgrade his psu too.

This corsair 650w is $70 after rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005

I know you are not wanting to spend more than $50, but that is the exact same trap I fell into before, I bought a 450W and it just couldn't handle even a moderately beefier video card than the one I had (a 1600xt in this case). In the end I had to buy a new PSU so wasted $50.
 
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Probably because you bought a crappy 450 watt. The CX500 watt and OCZ ModXStream 500 watt I suggested will be able to handle a 6950 without any issues, and probably a 6970 or 570 as well. The only single GPU card they may or may not power is the GTX 580.
 
Tsumi said:
Probably because you bought a crappy 450 watt. The CX500 watt and OCZ ModXStream 500 watt I suggested will be able to handle a 6950 without any issues, and probably a 6970 or 570 as well. The only single GPU card they may or may not power is the GTX 580.
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No, it was a pretty good one. FSP

It's better to buy a higher capacity PSU, because he will upgrade components or add extra things before that PSU runs to the end of its life. Not to mention if he's running a 450w or 500w PSU near the limits of what it can handle its efficiency will be less than a higher rated PSU and will use more electricity. IMHO it is better to get more than you need now as you will save money down the line.
 
matteos said:
No, it was a pretty good one. FSP

It's better to buy a higher capacity PSU, because he will upgrade components or add extra things before that PSU runs to the end of its life. Not to mention if he's running a 450w or 500w PSU near the limits of what it can handle its efficiency will be less than a higher rated PSU and will use more electricity. IMHO it is better to get more than you need now as you will save money down the line.
Click to expand...

FSP as I recall are not that great.

How do you know he's going to upgrade to higher wattage components? Do you have a crystal ball that can see into his future or something? And he's specifically looking for cheap, not necessarily more efficient. And it takes a really long time under normal usage to recuperate costs savings on electricity for the difference in initial costs. And under normal usage, with a 6950, he will only hit around 65-70% load. Only in furmark and p95 at the same time will he hit around 80-90% load.
 
The CX500 is great and will give you a little extra headroom for further upgrades. I'd get that over the CX430. It's $40 after MIR.
 
If he's planning to buy a 6950 (which I assume he will unlock and overclock too) to run with an older intel quad he will upgrade, maybe not for a few years but he will. That cpu will bottleneck that card, so first he might try overclocking which will consume more power then he will buy a new system because he will be frustrated by having poor fps on a $300 card. If he was going to buy a lesser video card then sure, 500w would be enough, but the $300 card shows he wants to game, gaming = upgrading. May as well spend $20 more now than another $70 in a few years time. Plus that corsair unit is very good.

That is my opinion. The OP is free to do whatever the hell he wants, why are you so defensive?
 
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Tsumi said:
Different OEM, and better efficiency. I believe the V1 OEM was CWT, while the V2 OEM is Seasonic. There's also some other minor changes, but the main one is efficiency.
Click to expand...

Hm, the CX430 V2's are still CWT DSA, at least according to the review over at JG.com. But they are tweaked for better efficiency yeah.
 
Any single graphics card/single CPU system will never pull more than 600 watts. And that's with top-end CPU's and GPU's (GTX 580 and i7 990X overclocked). With a 6950 and sandy bridge build, he probably won't pull more than 400 watts even if it's overclocked, and the 6950 unlocked to a 6970.
 
I don't know where you're getting those numbers from, but a 6970 pulls around 225 watts, and the 6950 pulls about 200 watts in a worse case scenario, and typically pull less. CPU's overclocked pull maybe 150 watts. Peripherals for a typical setup pull about 50 watts. And PSU recommendations over-exaggerate by 50-100 watts. Personally, you may not think it'll cut it, but factually, it will.
 
That is most likely wall load, which includes CPU, hard drives, etc.. and doesn't correct for power supply efficiency. Based on that test, I would say the CX430 is enough to handle a 6950. There is no way most modern graphics cards idle at 100 watts, most idle around 30-40 watts.
 
Tsumi said:
That is most likely wall load, which includes CPU, hard drives, etc.. and doesn't correct for power supply efficiency. Based on that test, I would say the CX430 is enough to handle a 6950. There is no way most modern graphics cards idle at 100 watts, most idle around 30-40 watts.
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"That is most likely, probably...."

sheesh, you recommend the ModXStream Pro 500w
more
Well you can get the 700w for $5 more or the 600w for $10 more

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...07657 50001550&IsNodeId=1&name=OCZ Technology

But personally I would never spend $50 on a PSU if I was spending $300 on a GPU.
 
Actually, Tsumi, the CX430 v2 is still made by CWT. In fact, the CX430 v2 is built on an updated version of the CWT DSA platform (dubbed the DSA-II) that's of slightly higher quality than its predecessor.
 
Okay, how about this: I am 99.9% sure that it is wall load, but because they don't actually specify on the site, I am not 100% sure.

The ModxStream 500w when I last looked at it was $40 or $35. The ModxStream 700 watt was a failure, as it cannot output 700 watts. There's also a reason why I recommended the CX500 V2.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/Radeon_HD_6970/27.html

This is an proper video of graphics card power consumption. As you can see, in general gaming usage, the 6970 uses about 160 watts, and peaks at 185 watts. Only at maximum overclock with maximum overvolting does it hit 300 watts. Nowhere near your link saying that it uses 300 watts in gaming.

E4g1e said:
Actually, Tsumi, the CX430 v2 is still made by CWT. In fact, the CX430 v2 is built on an updated version of the CWT DSA platform (dubbed the DSA-II) that's of slightly higher quality than its predecessor.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I could've sworn that I read somewhere that Corsair was switching to Seasonic for it's OEM on the CX V2 models. Ah well, still a good unit.
 
Tsumi said:
Interesting. I could've sworn that I read somewhere that Corsair was switching to Seasonic for it's OEM on the CX V2 models. Ah well, still a good unit.
Click to expand...

Actually, it was the TX V2 line that switched from CWT to Seasonic.
 
Seasonic made the first 400w and 450w ones. Then CWT made the 430w and they made the V2 one. Personally for me the Xfx Core edition 450w one is better.
 
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Spooony said:
650w TX -SEASONIC
650w TX-C CWT
650w TX- V2 -SEASONIC
Click to expand...

That's just for the 650W model. The 750W and 850W models have switched from CWT to Seasonic for the V2. There is no 950W V2 yet.
 
E4g1e said:
That's just for the 650W model. The 750W and 850W models have switched from CWT to Seasonic for the V2. There is no 950W V2 yet.
Click to expand...

you get the Seasonic ones in the line. The CWT have the C extension and the Seasonic again with the V2 but doesn't matter as the original Seasonic ones has been discontinued
 
Antec's Neo Eco line frequently goes on Shell Shocker for $30+ with free shipping. Manufactured by seasonic, the 520w model would be a jewel to snag.

Especially since it's 520w of continuous output, not maximum.
 
I am sure someone will have something bad to say, but this-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339001&cm_re=585w-_-17-339-001-_-Product

Has been powering my friend's crossfired 3870's for the last 3 years. He just upgraded to a 1090T, 8GB, and kept the 3870s- psu handles it extremely well.

The linked one may be a different revision, because his is sleeved. But I have used them in 6-8 builds now, all with excellent results (1+ years going, no complaints from any of them).

The most recent build (last week) was a GTX280, which I would think pulls more power than the casrds in question.

Having said all this, if you have a $50 budget- buy a $50 psu after MIR, namely the highest wattage corsair psu you can get. I have used the TX750's for all my folding rigs, and they are just awesome (picked up one from CL for $60, got another in trade for an N64!).

My friend has the Corsair 400w from last summer's $20 shipped deal, and it powers his 5770+5670+quad core just fine. Yes, I am sure he is pushing it.

But, if you want to spend as little as possible, I would recommend that 585w for $30 (free 2 day shoprunner shipping). Its the cheapest, good power supply I have seen, and the cheapest one I would consider putting in a family member's desktop.
 
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