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Solid, Inexpensive Power Supply

S

SidewinderX

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 30, 2004
Messages
2,645
Hey guys,

I'm in the planning stages of building a new system for the first time in a long time. It's on a moderate budget (<$900), but I want to get something good. I've had my experiences with a bad PSU (Powmax 430W unit years ago), and I don't want to walk down that road again.

Right now I'm looking at either the PC Power and Cooling 500W Silencer or the the Corsair VX 550W. The PCP&C units is ~$100 shipped from the egg, and the Corsair is $70 shipped/AR.

I like the price/reviews of the Corsair unit, my only reservation is that I'm looking at the CM 590 case, which mounts the PSU at the bottom. If I flip the PSU over, that means the 120mm fan in the Corsair will be blowing hot air into the case. In that respect a PSU with the standard 80mm rear fan is appealing.


Price is an issue, the cheaper the better. Are there any other units that I should be looking at? Thanks!

(btw, prospective system specs: E8400, 4GB DDR2, 9600GT, 1 (maybe upto 2 or 3ish eventually SATA HDD) )
 
SidewinderX said:
I like the price/reviews of the Corsair unit, my only reservation is that I'm looking at the CM 590 case, which mounts the PSU at the bottom. If I flip the PSU over, that means the 120mm fan in the Corsair will be blowing hot air into the case. In that respect a PSU with the standard 80mm rear fan is appealing.
Click to expand...

You've got it backwards. The 120mm fan doesn't blow air into the case, it pulls air out of the case and blows it out of the honeycombed backside of the power supply. This is a universal truth for pretty much all PSUs, not just the Corsair.

You're on the right track and I'd pretty much second your recommendation, although for the system you've spec'ced you could easily do with something like the Corsair 450VX and still have plenty of power to spare.

If you're hell bent on spending around $100 for a PSU (as you mentioned the PC Power & Cooling unit) you can get the Corsair 650TX for around that mark if you look hard enough. Definitely plenty of power for future upgrades...
 
Yeah for your system, the $70 450VX is more than enough.

However, for $100 you can get the 750TX:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $100

It's a bit overkillfor your system but at least you'd never have to worry about power requirements for most future upgrades or rebuilds.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yeah for your system, the $70 450VX is more than enough.

However, for $100 you can get the 750TX:
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU - $100

It's a bit overkillfor your system but at least you'd never have to worry about power requirements for most future upgrades or rebuilds.
Click to expand...

Wow it's gone down ten bucks since I bought it last month!

Yup, the 750TX is an awesome sexy beast of a PSU, but be aware that the thing has a massive amount of cables/connectors which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much room your case has to hide cables. :)
 
Blue Falcon said:
You've got it backwards. The 120mm fan doesn't blow air into the case, it pulls air out of the case and blows it out of the honeycombed backside of the power supply. This is a universal truth for pretty much all PSUs, not just the Corsair.

You're on the right track and I'd pretty much second your recommendation, although for the system you've spec'ced you could easily do with something like the Corsair 450VX and still have plenty of power to spare.

If you're hell bent on spending around $100 for a PSU (as you mentioned the PC Power & Cooling unit) you can get the Corsair 650TX for around that mark if you look hard enough. Definitely plenty of power for future upgrades...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions.

With the overkill issue in mind, I'd be more than willing to save a few bucks..

I could get either the Corsair 450VX that you mentioned or the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 420W or a SeaSonic SS-500ES 500W for $70.

Is there one you'd choose out of that group, or is there another PSU in this class I should look at?

Thanks!
 
Both the Corsair or Seasonic PSU are good choices. I wouldn't get the Silencer 420W because it only has 30A on the +12V whereas the Corsair and Seasonic PSUs have 33A and 34A on the +12V respectively.

So go with either the Corsair or Seasonic. I personally would go with the Corsair due to the 5 year warranty it has. Seasonic only has a 3 year warranty for that particular PSU.
 
SidewinderX said:
Thanks for the suggestions.

With the overkill issue in mind, I'd be more than willing to save a few bucks..

I could get either the Corsair 450VX that you mentioned or the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 420W or a SeaSonic SS-500ES 500W for $70.

Is there one you'd choose out of that group, or is there another PSU in this class I should look at?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

All three of those units are actually made by Seasonic, personally I'd go with the Corsair 450VX since it's got the best warranty.
 
Kinda dragging this thread back up, but does anyone know if I'd likely have issues with the length of the cables on the Corsair 450VX, as the PSU mounts on the bottom on the CM590 case?
 
The Corsair 450VX fit in my antec p180 with a bottom mount psu bay. If you know this case it forces you to do some crazy rounting of wires to get up to the motherboard. I would bet it will be no problem.
 
John Gault said:
The Corsair 450VX fit in my antec p180 with a bottom mount psu bay. If you know this case it forces you to do some crazy rounting of wires to get up to the motherboard. I would bet it will be no problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response... I think I'm going to go ahead and order either the 450 or the 550 soon while that buy.com rebate is still in effect.
 
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