PSU recommendation

M

Matthew Kane

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
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Hey guys, need a new PSU for a system powering a 8800Ultra, 8400GS(Physx), Leadtek TV Tuner card, 2x2GB DDR800 RAM, [email protected], 4 hard drives and 2 optical drives and 6 case fans with a Zalman fan controller. Budget is below $130 on a good PSU that is able to power the mentioned specs above and maybe bit of headroom expansion for future upgrades. Current Coolermaster 550Watt PSU cannot power the system stably, so need a upgrade for it.

Thanks
 
 
Coolermaster make garbage power supplies. Buy any quality power supply (XFX, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec) around 550W would be more than enough for that system. I'd go for a ~650W though just for future proofing if you ever get a quad/hex core CPU and a power hungry video card.
 
`br4dz- said:
Coolermaster make garbage power supplies. Buy any quality power supply (XFX, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec) around 550W would be more than enough for that system. I'd go for a ~650W though just for future proofing if you ever get a quad/hex core CPU and a power hungry video card.
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I've had couple top of the line and mid range CM psu's and they were fine, from past experience Antec psu's are just crap, they crap out almost 1 year after use.

Btw, would anyone happen to know how many amps a single 1TB non green edition HDD would pull off the 12v rail?
 
Matthew Kane said:
I've had couple top of the line and mid range CM psu's and they were fine, from past experience Antec psu's are just crap, they crap out almost 1 year after use.

Btw, would anyone happen to know how many amps a single 1TB non green edition HDD would pull off the 12v rail?
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I've owned at least 4 Antec PSU's, if not more, some I had for ~6 years until I decided to send them off on someone else. As with a lot of power supply manufacturers, some PSU models will be garbage because they skimp on certain things, and other models will be outstanding. Antec's Earthwatt's series (at least the low wattage models) are phenomenal, using Seasonic units.

As far as "using CM PSU's and they were fine", I've heard that line time and time again. In fact, I just heard that from someone a week or two ago, and I was curious as to if it really was fine. Come to find out, under moderate/high load, the +12V rail was dropping to 10.5-11V on his 550W power supply, when his PC requires no more than ~300W. Point being, just because things "seem" fine, doesn't necessarily mean they are ;).
 
Zero82z said:
The Earthwatts line has not included any Seasonic-made units for several years now.
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The EA380, EA430, and EA500 all use Seasonic's S12II platform, I'm not sure what you're on about.

Maybe I should have rephrased myself saying that Antec's Earthwatts lower wattage models use Seasonic platforms.

The "Green" and 650W+ don't use seasonic.
 
The entire Earthwatts line is manufactured by Delta. The EA380, EA430, and EA500 were originally made by Seasonic, but were later replaced by Delta-made units. If I remember correctly, this happened sometime in 2008. Either way, the Seasonic models have been gone for quite some time now.
 
Zero82z said:
The entire Earthwatts line is manufactured by Delta. The EA380, EA430, and EA500 were originally made by Seasonic, but were later replaced by Delta-made units. If I remember correctly, this happened sometime in 2008. Either way, the Seasonic models have been gone for quite some time now.
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The Green's (i.e. EA380D) are made by Delta. The EA380/430/500 that are non-D still are Seasonic. I don't think Antec makes the original EA380-500's anymore, but they can still be gotten at some retail stores.
 
The original Earthwatts models were replaced by the D models (not Green). D means made by Delta. This happened several years ago. Then, Antec introduced the Green models, which are updated versions of the original Delta Earthwatts units with higher efficiency so they can meet 80Plus Bronze standards. The Seasonic-made units were completely discontinued several years ago like I've said several times before, and it's highly unlikely that you can get them anywhere, simply because they've been out of production for so long and any units left in the channel should have sold out long ago.
 
Zero82z said:
The original Earthwatts models were replaced by the D models (not Green). D means made by Delta. This happened several years ago. Then, Antec introduced the Green models, which are updated versions of the original Delta Earthwatts units with higher efficiency so they can meet 80Plus Bronze standards. The Seasonic-made units were completely discontinued several years ago like I've said several times before, and it's highly unlikely that you can get them anywhere, simply because they've been out of production for so long and any units left in the channel should have sold out long ago.
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So you mean to tell me that this EA500 on newegg (non-D) is Delta made even though it doesn't have a D? That just doesn't sound right to me, I've even seen reviews on non-D EA's from 2009/2010 that stated they were Seasonic made. Maybe I'm the fool here.
 
Zero82z said:
If you can't get those PSUs then it would help to know which PSUs you can get.

That Gigabyte probably isn't great. It's made by FSP and it looks like a fairly low-end unit.
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Btw this unit is not for me its for a client, but I treat every of my clients problem/situation as if my own.
 
Some of the PSUs I suggested to you previously are in fact on that list. Overall, I would go with the Antec Truepower New 650W.
 
Zero82z said:
Some of the PSUs I suggested to you previously are in fact on that list. Overall, I would go with the Antec Truepower New 650W.
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Thanks the client can have extra $30 on his budget, so I've gone with the 750 watt, will be picking it up tomorrow.

Thanks again for the help
 
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