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PSU Advice Requested

D

darkwraith007

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 15, 2004
Messages
76
My build is in my signature.
I'd like a PSU of preferably 650W or greater with 80% or more efficiency. Because of the 4 fans of my Antec Case, the extra wattage comes in handy.
My budget is ~$150, though if I can get a good quality one for less that would be ideal.
I really don't want to have to spend more on the power supply than I did on my video card. >_<

Any direct advice or links would be appreciated, thanks!

Please only respond if you know your stuff and have worked with a decent variety of power supplies enough to know what works.

EDIT: Removed incorrect info.
 
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You don't actually need that much power. And fans typically draw about 0.3A each, which translates to about 4W. Hardly something you need to worry about power-wise. The Thermaltake PSU you bought is a piece of crap, but practically speaking, 500W or thereabouts is perfectly sufficient for your PC. I also read your thread, and nobody there suggested the Thermaltake unit, so I don't know where you got the idea to buy that in the first place.

Anyway, enough talk. Here are some good and budget-friendly PSUs that would suit your rig very well:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371021

You don't want to spend a ton of money and you don't need to spend a ton of money, so I don't see any reason for you to go out and buy a fancier unit. If it were up to me, I'd grab the 650W Antec PSU. It's partially modular, has quite good efficiency, it's a very good quality and reliable unit, and it's also quite inexpensive all things considered.
 
I'm a moron, but I also hate both NewEgg for their damn awesome combo deals (joking of course, they still rock) and I non-jokingly hate ThermalTake for their misleading bullshit of having certain brands of their PSUs manufactured in different areas, with drastically different quality but the same brand name!

Caveat emptor indeed...live and learn. Maybe I can find someone who's building a budget system and offload this TT PSU dirt-cheap.

EDIT: After a google search for the past ~2 hours on overclock.net (of all places), I found excellent guides on power supplies, more than I ever really needed to know. I don't need more than 600W at *peak* usage constantly, and even then I doubt my gaming would stress my system that much. I could get by with what I have but I'm gonna switch out my PSU anyways for 'cleaner' power since TT has such a crappy rep for reliability, I'd rather not have my PSU die on me while I'm in the middle of gaming. Its a personal choice for me of course, and yeah I definitely should learn to pay better attention to stuff in the future.

All you ever wanted to know about power supplies, and then some.
 
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darkwraith007 said:
I non-jokingly hate ThermalTake for their misleading bullshit of having certain brands of their PSUs manufactured in different areas, with drastically different quality but the same brand name!
Click to expand...

Umm, several other PSU manufacturers/companies does the same thing. Even Corsair and Antec.
 
According to the PSU guru over at the spot I linked earlier, Corsair and Antec both have variety in build qualities but you can buy just off the brand alone and NOT get screwed royally as much as with ThermalTake and my situation. The differences are more pronounced with Thermaltake, basically. Plus...Antec Signature Series *drool* :)

According to the guru, pretty much ANY Corsair PSU will do very well for most purposes. They won't always be the best but there are no 'bad' or horrible-quality PSUs that they make. Antec has the 'basiq' line which is utter shit, but ASIDE from that one zit on the beauty queen's face (as the author put it), Antec rocks as well. Thermaltake only has 3 main types of PSUs (with the special coding if you check the right thread there) and one is shit, one is average, and one is superb. The ThermalTake one that I got even advertised all this shit on the box but I only found out it was crap after reading about it online.
 
The Signature series is not that good any more compared to more modern designs.
 
darkwraith007 said:
According to the PSU guru over at the spot I linked earlier, Corsair and Antec both have variety in build qualities but you can buy just off the brand alone and NOT get screwed royally as much as with ThermalTake and my situation. The differences are more pronounced with Thermaltake, basically. Plus...Antec Signature Series *drool* :)
Click to expand...
I agree to some extent. But I did not make the argument that you would be screwed with any Corsair or Antec PSU. But let me quote you again but this with a bold:

darkwraith007 said:
I non-jokingly hate ThermalTake for their misleading bullshit of having certain brands of their PSUs manufactured in different areas, with drastically different quality but the same brand name!
Click to expand...

As I said, Corsair and Antec PSUs do have their PSUs manufacturered in different areas and the quality do indeed vary drastically. I.e the quality between the Corsair CX series differs greatly from the Corsair AX series. Or the Antec High Current Pro and the Antec Basiq series. The differences are just as pronouced as with Thermaltake when it comes to quality.

That's all I was commenting on.

darkwraith007 said:
According to the guru, pretty much ANY Corsair PSU will do very well for most purposes. They won't always be the best but there are no 'bad' or horrible-quality PSUs that they make. Antec has the 'basiq' line which is utter shit, but ASIDE from that one zit on the beauty queen's face (as the author put it), Antec rocks as well.
Click to expand...
Antec does have another "zit" in its lineup:
http://hardocp.com/article/2011/02/15/antec_high_current_gamer_900w_power_supply_review/
 
I decided to go with this PSU:
Antec TruePower New TP-750. I feel its pretty good for the price, and came highly recommended from the sources that I checked and a few reviews done on other sites. I couldn't find any [H]ardReviews of this specific PSU though.

If I'm unable to sell my ThermalTake PSU before the new one arrives, I'll just dump it for a bit of cash at the local used electronics computer shop. They take nearly anything that runs :)

I appreciate the advice given by all, constructive and otherwise. Once I'm finally *really* set up and ready to go, I'll have some really purty pics for people to oogle over.
 
Zero82z said:
The Signature series is not that good any more compared to more modern designs.
Click to expand...

Well not that good efficiency-wise, but the soldering, part quality and stability of the platform look to be top notch. Having an older design isn't the worst thing, especially when it's high quality.
 
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