good PSU under 40 bucks?

Someone's going to complain that the +12 Volt rails are low in amperage...so therefore I will do it. ;)
 
Thermaltake is an ok co. I personally think they suk for their prices. You're better offwith that sparkle or fortron in the 350 category.
 
would a good 350 like the fortron hold up an upgrade to a s939 3000+ and a 6800GT or x800XL (or whatever a good budget card is at the time)
 
omega-x said:
would a good 350 like the fortron hold up an upgrade to a s939 3000+ and a 6800GT or x800XL (or whatever a good budget card is at the time)
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No. You won't be able to have your cake and eat it too here since you have too highly a constrained budget to get a good ATX12v2.0 psu and if you did up your budget and get one you will run into crossloading issues with a sytem that is most likely 5v heavy (your current one).
 
so what about my current 450 sparkle and superglueing whatever bit is doing the high pitch buzz :)
 
omega-x said:
so what about my current 450 sparkle and superglueing whatever bit is doing the high pitch buzz :)
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There are a couple easons it could be whining....non that superglue would probably work for though ;)
 
er, hot glue. (which afaik solves alot of capacitor buzzing issues)

to give an idea, it whines with no load but it varies. HDD access makes it vary wildly and rapidly. (i thought it was my harddrives at first but they're dead silent in any other system)
 
omega-x said:
so what about my current 450 sparkle and superglueing whatever bit is doing the high pitch buzz :)
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Try submerging it in water with both hands while hooked up to your turned on computer and report back. That should stop the buzz but if it doesn't we'll at least have a good point to start from.

Seriously: Stick a screwdriver in the back to stop the fan from turning. My bet is that there's a cheap sleave bearing fan which is on it's deathbad creating a racket in there. If this is the case it should be a simple job to replace it with another 80mm fan.
 
Exactly what's buzzing inside your 450W Sparkle? A fan (check by blocking its rotation with a wooden or plastic stick or a straw)? The PFC coil? If the latter, then wedging a toothpick against its core or soaking it in varnish can quiet it down.
 
yes. because both of those are hugely SMART GENIUS ideas........

anyway, ill try the fan but im fairly certain its a capacitor or that coil mentioned because of the variance of buzz with load.

edit, its not the fan.
 
I know people do that with caps...but imo it isn't the best idea. It could be a winding on transformer or inductor that didn't get fully varnished......fans tend to whirl if that makes sense where as inductors tend to whine. Has it always done this?

Edit: snaked by larrymoecurly
 
spectre, ever since i bought it, yeah.
but it was rock solid for rails so i kept it since my fans at the time overpowered the noise.

now ive toned down fan noise and am fairly use to the high pitched crap (but wouldnt mind at all getting rid of it)
 
I honestly wouldn't mess with it as it would be more of a headache then it would probably be worth especially since you will be upgrading soon.
 
yes, but if i fixed it. the 450 would hold though an upgrade (cept i dont think it has 24pin, ive had it for years).

the only thing that would kill 2 birds with one stone is if the antec p180 i have coming will silence it enough.
 
omega-x said:
yes, but if i fixed it. the 450 would hold though an upgrade (cept i dont think it has 24pin, ive had it for years).

the only thing that would kill 2 birds with one stone is if the antec p180 i have coming will silence it enough.
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If you bought that 450w when you bought that system I have a feeling it will be an outdated ATX12v1.x PSU and really wouldn't work very well with a new setup anyway. Basically the way it looks to me is you have a holding action here. If you really want to you could pop the lid on the PSU and try and find the offending component and maybe add varnish. But I would get into contact with gee (he designs SMPS) to find out the best approach and the appropriate varnish to use. IMO this would be more trouble for you than it is worth.
 
Spectre said:
I would bet it is a inductor or transformer then.
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Bingo. If it's been doing it since day one and is louder at higher loads, its probably just the windings on the main transformer vibrating. Very typical "problem" but most PSU's resonate at a frequency we can't really hear so nobody typically complains about it.

Totally harmless. If it bothers you, up your budget. But don't just buy a cheap PSU that you don't actually need to replace.
 
Hvatum said:
Seriously: Stick a screwdriver in the back to stop the fan from turning.
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Is that a good idea, considering how in many PSUs there's exposed high voltage very close on the other side? I use a plastic straw because it won't conduct electricity and will bend enough to not crack hard plastic fan blades.
 
larrymoencurly said:
Is that a good idea, considering how in many PSUs there's exposed high voltage very close on the other side? I use a plastic straw because it won't conduct electricity and will bend enough to not crack hard plastic fan blades.
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Probably a good idea lol :)
 
SKy042 said:
It's a bit over $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008

But I actually had this powering my X2 4400+ 7800GTX 2 optical drives and 6 hard drives along with 4 120mm fans. I wound up replacing it because I was at it's absolute limit and when I tried to overclock my CPU I overloaded the PSU. it was dead stable and well made. Just on the large side.
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Junk. Some Aspire PSUs don't even meet ATX12V specification. These are much better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189003
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103927

And the list goes on...
 
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