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Need a budget PSU
- Thread starter Tullphan
- Start date
I agree with this suggestion: It costs only $1 more shipped than the Corsair CX430. The Basiq 500W, on the other hand, is actually a total rip-off at $56 shipped: It is a "dual-rail" design whose total combined +12V capacity is unknown (or unspecified) - but will actually be substantially less than 36A (never add up the two rails!). And the Basiq 500W is actually built on a derivative of the notorious FSP Epsilon platform, which has had out-of-spec ripple issues near or above 500W. Plus, with a single 30A +12V rail the $48 NEO ECO actually has slightly more total +12V capacity than either of the other two (the CX430 offers only 28A on its single +12V rail). Lastly, the NEO ECO 400C is more efficient than either of the other two PSUs.
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No, it's not, but for $25 it's certainly a better deal.
Agreed. The EA430D is of slightly lower quality than the NEO ECO 400C, but still better than most of the other budget-class PSUs.
Now I'm curious about another budget (in terms of price) PSU line - Eagle Technologies' VOLTAS line (specifically, the 500W and 600W models that MicroCenter is fire-sale-ing; the 600W model is going for $32 including tax at the Fairfax, VA store).
I bought one for Mighty Mouse (specs below), but not because I necessarily plan to put a higher-end GPU in it; the problem I had been having is that the Startech.com 450W PSU I had in it was running *light* on the +12V rail (11.85V), which had been leading to issues with hard/optical drives (running three SATA drives didn't help any). I went higher-rating (600W over 500W) because I wanted to be sure (though this is my second consecutive *brand X* PSU, I'm normally NOT a fan of such in terms of PSUs; worse, this is a dual-rail PSU, which I am even less a fan of). The one fortunate thing is that I am running plumb out of upgrades for Mighty Mouse as it stands - I found out that the E3xx0 are officially Dead Quacks (at least at this particular MC); same is true for LGA775-based quads. That makes it a certainty that my next upgrade will be out of LGA775 (and possibly away from Intel altogether). Does anyone else have any experience with this particular PSU?
I bought one for Mighty Mouse (specs below), but not because I necessarily plan to put a higher-end GPU in it; the problem I had been having is that the Startech.com 450W PSU I had in it was running *light* on the +12V rail (11.85V), which had been leading to issues with hard/optical drives (running three SATA drives didn't help any). I went higher-rating (600W over 500W) because I wanted to be sure (though this is my second consecutive *brand X* PSU, I'm normally NOT a fan of such in terms of PSUs; worse, this is a dual-rail PSU, which I am even less a fan of). The one fortunate thing is that I am running plumb out of upgrades for Mighty Mouse as it stands - I found out that the E3xx0 are officially Dead Quacks (at least at this particular MC); same is true for LGA775-based quads. That makes it a certainty that my next upgrade will be out of LGA775 (and possibly away from Intel altogether). Does anyone else have any experience with this particular PSU?
$25 for a 550W PSU? Crap. And what possessed you to buy a Startech PSU? Obviously that's a piece of shit as well. If you were checking your voltages through software, the readings were also probably not correct, though even if they were, 11.85V is absolutely fine for the +12V rail.
Dangman
Ninja Editor SuperMod
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No experiences with that PSU but you can tell the quality of the PSU from the following red flags:
- Efficiency is stated at 70% to 73% max. Which points to an old or just plain crap design.
- Only 228W and 264W on the +12V rail for the 550W and 600W versions respectively. Not a good sign of quality considering that decent, we're not talking about high quality but just decent quality, 550W PSUs have around 36A to 40A on the +12V rail and 600W PSUs have around 45A to 49A on the +12V rail. For comparison, that 600W PSU actually has LESS power than your current Startech.com 450W PSU on the +12V rail. The Startech.com 450W PSU happens to have 30A or 360W on the +12V rail. So considering that the Startech.com 450W PSU is a total piece of shit and the fact that you're already having issues with that PSU, imagine how well the 600W EagleTech will do with its lesser amperage/wattage on the +12V rail and even lower quality.
- Their price.
If you don't care about that PC at all, by all means use it.
The immediate problem was price - a person can only buy what they can afford.
Those *decent quality* PSUs are now all over $50 retail (and don't even THINK about opening up that e-tail can of worms).
I stated categorically that this PSU is a *stopgap*, and it won't be going to another system - in point of fact, it couldn't, even if were a decent one, as Sandy Bridge or successors all require 24+8 power.
You gonna give (not lend) me the price difference between a brand-X PSU and a name-brand PSU that's decent? If not, and you're not going to provide any useful info, then say nothing.
I was checking via the BIOS (most software-based monitors have issues even with decent PSUs, so I don't trust their readings).
The Startech, like the Eagle that replaced it, was what was affordable, as I did NOT have the luxury of another PSU available.
The issue I was having was related to the three SATA drives (two magnetic and one optical) - the oldest (and most power-piggish) of the three (Maxtor 6LS200) would fail to get enough power at times - with it being my Sabayon boot drive, that's a definite problem. And waiting until the Startech flat-out failed was not an option either. Since doing various illegalities (such as robbing banks) was also a non-starter, I needed an affordable *stopgap* PSU in the meantime. 600W was overkill (and would be extremely overkill for my needs with a "quality" PSU, considering I have no devices, other than the drives, that suck large amounts of current); however, since I WAS going budget, I eliminated any 500W PSU from consideration (not just the VOLTAS 550, but Inland's 500W PSU as well; those were the only others within my budget). Also, despite the PCIe power connectors on the VOLTAS, I have no current plans to head in that direction with this *system*, let alone this PSU.
Actually, I distrust BIOS voltage readings as much as I do software-based voltage readings. This is because the BIOS readings are also software-based (believe it or not). The only way to accurately determine the true voltage of a particular rail would be to use a separate digital multimeter, and stick its two probes into the correct wires of a Molex connector (for +5V or +12V readings). I have found a fair number of motherboard/PSU combinations which read 11.85V in the BIOS to actually read an overly high 13.12V (versus the 12.6V maximum of the ATX spec) - high enough to cause earlier-than-expected death to any PC components that use the +12V rail. Conversely, a reading on the +12V that's actually lower than the minimum 11.4V will result in stability issues and possible early death to the PSU itself.
Sorry, but you're crapping on someone else's thread, taking it off topic, and now insulting someone who's giving you suggestions? If you have a problem with Danny's reply, start your own thread and put him on your ignore list. His comments were based on the best knowledge he had at the time, and you can't expect him or me to know more details of your situation when you never provided them in the first place. People are trying to help you. A little graciousness is in order.
BIOS counts as software.