Pretty simple: I need a new PSU

L

Lyrids

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
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I've been rocking a 350w Antec PSU that came with my case for about two years and it had a good run but it's starting to scare me. I've run into a whole bunch of memory and motherboard problems in the past few months and before I go out and buy a new motherboard I want to make sure that my PSU is completely solid. What can I get for cheap?

EDIT: Figured I should add my specs . . .
MSI K8N Neo Platinum (will be replaced with another S754)
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Evga Geforce 6800 GT
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtrememusic
2 x 512MB Crucial DDR400
1 x DVD-RW drive
1 x 160 GB WD HD
Floppy
 
www.newegg.com

Power supply prices and avaliability aren't the same around the world...and I don't like to assume.

You can easily get something under 100 bucks. Not exactly sure of what your definition of cheap is though...
 
Lyrids said:
Westchester, NY . . . not sure how that's pertinent . . .
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Newegg doesn't ship to Lybia... or even Calgary for that matter.
 
Don't go cheap - otherwise you'll just run into the same problem a couple of years down the line. Get the best you can possibly afford - then you'll have something that'll last for the next few rounds of upgrades.

Go for 600-800w - I suggest the latest OCZ GameXtreme 600 or 700. Whatever you do get something with APfc - Active power factor correction.
 
That's completely overkill for the system.

Unless he plans on keeping the PSU (which we don't know), telling him to spend such a large amount of money would be far from "good" advice.

 
Suggesting something that won't have enough juice to run a high end video card and OC a little would be much worse advice than "spend whatever you can so you can get something that'll last.

Besides, a good sparkle/FSP 600w w/APfc runs about $100 and the OCZ 600 is $105 on Monarch.
 
I would suggest a Ultra X-Finity 500 watt or 600 watt, depending on what you feel you need. I run the 600 watt version and I love it. You can get either at a good price from Overcool.
 
Avman said:
Don't go cheap - otherwise you'll just run into the same problem a couple of years down the line. Get the best you can possibly afford - then you'll have something that'll last for the next few rounds of upgrades.

Go for 600-800w - I suggest the latest OCZ GameXtreme 600 or 700. Whatever you do get something with APfc - Active power factor correction.
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I'm curious. Why do you feel the OP needs APFC?
 
Much more efficient, cooler and will generally provide cleaner power to the components/mobo - Will also take surges better. I would suggest/recommend it to anyone asking about PSU's
 
For a power supply to be more efficient, it would have to use less AC input to product more DC output. APFC does not lower the AC input. It only lowers the VA input.

APFC is actually less efficient and runs hotter. The circuitry that provides the correction requires power in itself, that "loss" of used power is lost as heat.

That's why you'll see the same PSU's available in the states w/o PFC while the EU counterpart is 230V only with APFC. Higher voltage = less amperage. Less amperage = less resistance. less resistance = less heat. Therefore, APFC in a 230V unit is not as inefficient as it is on a 115V grid.

You are correct about the power cleanliness. The extra noise on the line created by an AC that's out of phase due to a non-linear load can be detrimental on the other electronics on that same cicuit.

But there's lots of good PSU's that don't have APFC because of the tremendous inefficiency at higher wattage. For example: The Mushkin 650W does not have APFC.
 
"APFC is actually less efficient and runs hotter. The circuitry that provides the correction requires power in itself, that "loss" of used power is lost as heat." - Half True, but inconsequential as the overall amount of power used (ie pulled from the wall) is (relatively speaking) much less compared to a non-apfc power supply.
 
A 70% efficient non-APFC supply will simply put, use more power than a 80-85% efficient APfc supply. The efficiency is in its ability to turn AC into DC with the waste being heat. APfc supplies generally work best at higher voltages - thats why at 230v in Europe they tend to have Max Efficiencies around 85% as opposed to the 80% we see at 120v.

Still its much better than the 70-75% with standard PSU's.
 
I'm sorry Avman. But you are wrong.

A 70% efficient PSU is less efficient than an 80-85% efficient power supply becuase it pulls more AC wattage from the wall to product the same amount of DC wattage. Regardless of PFC.

A 75% efficient power supply is still 75% efficient regardless of if it has power factor or not. It doesn't pull ANY less wattage from the wall because it does or does not have power factor correction. What it does pull is less VA. But pulling less VA is not going to lower your electric bill in the US where we're charged by the kWH and it's not going to make that PSU suddenly stop radiating extra heat.

Because Active PFC doesn't allow a PSU to pull less wattage from the wall it still generates the same amount of heat regardless and in fact may radiate MORE heat from the power factor circuitry.

As I said (which you reiterated), Active PFC does work best at higher voltages because at higher voltages you have lower amperages and when the PFC circuitry has lower amperage going through it, it wastes less energy. But that's not why PSU's are 85% vs. 80% efficient going from the EU to the US. That fact has NOTHING to do with PFC and EVERYTHING to do with power supplies having less amperage going into them, creating less resistance, creating less heat in the components affected by input voltage.

I would still rather have an 80% efficient PSU w/o APFC than a 70% efficient PSU with PFC.
 
About the shipping issues, no worries, I've ordered from newegg a bunch of times.

And only the first couple posts were helpful, I'm more confused now than I was before.
 
Lyrids said:
Westchester, NY . . . not sure how that's pertinent . . .
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For one thing, if you're near Fry's (but not Fry's), they sometimes have Antecs for $5-25, after rebate.

Avman said:
"APFC is actually less efficient and runs hotter. The circuitry that provides the correction requires power in itself, that "loss" of used power is lost as heat."

Half True, but inconsequential as the overall amount of power used (ie pulled from the wall) is (relatively speaking) much less compared to a non-apfc power supply.
Click to expand...
Which one of the following statements can be true?

1. Wow, that real power sure generates a lot of heat!
2. Wow, that apparent power sure generates a lot of heat!
 
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