Thoughts on This PSU

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CSx-2011

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 18, 2003
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I ordered a fortron 350, but decided to get a little more power for a few bucks more.

http://directron.com/tt45012.html

I had read a review on a super flower and it was good, but haven't been able to find it since.

Anyone know anything about this psu?
 
TTGI power supplies are suppost to be pretty good i think but not as good as an Antec or Fortron. You should of just stuck with the Fortron 350w. It probably puts out more wattage then that 450w TTGI. Just cause its rated 450w doesn't mean it can put out that much. Power Supplies from Fortron are underated which means they can put out quite a bit more power. 350w will more then power the majority of systems. Im building a workstation with 4-6 hard drives and 4 optical drives and im only using a 430w Antec PSU.

See for starters it only puts out 18 amps on the 12v line. My Antec 430w which only actually puts out 410w will do 20 amps on the 12v line which is 240w.
 
I've been running a TTGI power supply (520 W model) for about a year and a half on a loaded system (Athlon Thunderbird 1.4 GHz @ 1.7 GHz, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, 4 IBM Deskstar 60GXPs) and it's consistently yielded good voltage regulation as confirmed by my multimeter. As a side benefit, it has also dropped my CPU's temperature by 5 degrees Celcius. I have no complaints with it as a general purpose supply, when noise sensitivity isn't an issue.
 
well shit... I had two fortrons on order and got these instead... I thought I had read they were made in the same place...
 
Originally posted by CSx-2011
well shit... I had two fortrons on order and got these instead... I thought I had read they were made in the same place...
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I think TTGI have ties with Enermax but i could be wrong. Definately not the FSP group though.
 
Yeah, I think--I think-- that Enermax, TTGI, HeroIchi, and Super Flower are all related.
 
Originally posted by burningrave101
I think TTGI have ties with Enermax but i could be wrong. Definately not the FSP group though.
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Ya, they are made by enermax and their TTGI 520W are priced to sell. The Antec true 430 has tighter voltage regulation (higher quality).

Depending on how much you're willing to spend you can find quality psu's by Antec/Channelwell, Fortron/Sparkle, Enermax/TTGI, Thermaltake/Enlight(im sure i missed a few here), the others are either rebadges or otherwise junk for the most part.

Take a look at Ice Czar's informative post and be sure to read the reviews linked. If you do read it you'l prolly end up buying a True430 ;)
 
Originally posted by CSx-2011
fack. fortron goodness cancelled for SHIT.
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Not true, we just told you its one of the better psu's around (there are only a few oems making all the decent psu's) and ttgi is one of them. I'll bet you'll be totally satisfied wit your unit, barring possible defects which is normal with all brands.

link to TTGI review: http://www.dansdata.com/sfpsu.htm
Link to TTGI rebadge review: http://www.dansdata.com/top420p4.htm
 
Like i pointed out though, he's just gonna have to check and make sure each line can provide the wattage he's going to need for his devices. The 12v line is 2 amps lower then on my Antec and thats not alot but that is 24w on the 12v line alone. The 12v line is the most stressed line on the PSU so you want to always make sure it can handle what you have running. Hard drives can make a big hit on the 12v line especially if you have a high wattage CPU on there pulling off it also. Hard drives can draw 2x-3x their normal draw when they spin up.

The TTGI's description also failed to point out its combined 3.3v and 5v rails along with mentioning its efficiency rating which is the most important aspect of the PSU. If a PSU has a low efficiency rating it will pull more input from the wall outlet and just dissipate it into heat. Over a short period of time you'll save more money on the electrical bill than you ever spent by buying a more expensive more efficient PSU.
 
All is not lost I guess. I'm not running that much stuff. I just want to make sure my core voltage on this nforce2 board stays constant.

All I have is one hd, one dvd-rom and a few fans.
 
Originally posted by CSx-2011
All is not lost I guess. I'm not running that much stuff. I just want to make sure my core voltage on this nforce2 board stays constant.

All I have is one hd, one dvd-rom and a few fans.
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Oh im sure it will run fine dude. I'm just saying you turned down a better quality PSU thats all. You shouldn't have any problems with that one though. Except its efficiency rating may not be as hot as other competitors.
 
Yeah, that is what sucks! I had ordered it, found these and thought I had read fortron/super flower were the same. So I cancelled that order and got these, and it made it take longer to get here too... sucks on all fronts. More money, less quality, longer shipping...
 
burninggrave, The +12v line isn't neccessarily the most stressed. P4's are powered off it, but older Athlon's and still a fair bit of Nforce2's still use the +5v to power the CPU.
An example of an nforce2 using the +12v for CPU power is some MSI boards; they even have the extra +12v connector for more stability.
Asus Nforce2's still use the +5v though.
 
TTGI aren't bad, by any means. Some other PSUs are better, but TTGI puts out a decent product. I have used two or three in systems I've built and they have run fine.
 
UPS just dropped them off. Wierd thing is that my 12v rail is lower than with the 300w sparkle I had. It flucuates from 11.40-11.34. 3.3 is at 3.23-3.22 and the 5v rail is at 4.92-4.89. Core voltage stays a little bit more steady when set to 1.8 at 1.76-1.78 back and forth.

The 12v rail is a little concerning. What is going on?

DFI Lan Party B, 2500+ at 3200+, Geforce 3 and a one 25gb HD.

Numbers from Winbond Hardware Doctor 3.4.1.1
 
You can only trust the results of a Multimeter when it comes to psu voltages. Don't go by what the bios or software tells you because they can be way off... all of my psu's i have measure up pretty bad in software but are spot on when i test it with my multi.

Its up to you, test it the correct way or return it.
 
Usually around 5% fluctuations is within the error of margin and you dont really need to worry about it.

burninggrave, The +12v line isn't neccessarily the most stressed. P4's are powered off it, but older Athlon's and still a fair bit of Nforce2's still use the +5v to power the CPU.
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All the recent Pentium 4's and Athlon XP's are powered off the 12v line and so is all the optical drives and hard drives and fans and anything else with a motor so yes its the most stressed. The 12v line has to power motors while the 3.3v and 5v are electrical circuitry. Hard drives pull between 2x-3x their normal wattage when they spin up. If you have several drives this can really put a pull on the +12v rail. Especially if you have them in a RAID array and they all try and spin up at once.

If you look up any information on PSU's it will tell you that the 12v line is by far the most stressed rail on the power supply. Most PSU makers suggest buying larger PSU's because the 12v line's draw will fluctuate so greatly at times.
 
My multimeter says 11.76-11.78 when I plug it straight into the molex. I guess it is ok.

Still wish I got the fortrons though.
 
Originally posted by burningrave101

All the recent Pentium 4's and Athlon XP's are powered off the 12v line and so is all the optical drives and hard drives and fans and anything else with a motor so yes its the most stressed. The 12v line has to power motors while the 3.3v and 5v are electrical circuitry. Hard drives pull between 2x-3x their normal wattage when they spin up. If you have several drives this can really put a pull on the +12v rail. Especially if you have them in a RAID array and they all try and spin up at once.

If you look up any information on PSU's it will tell you that the 12v line is by far the most stressed rail on the power supply. Most PSU makers suggest buying larger PSU's because the 12v line's draw will fluctuate so greatly at times.
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All p4's and a growing amount of Athlon's.

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/fc/st336753fc.html
Required startup power isn't even 20 watts.
Let's assume a DVD Burner uses 10 watts max.
Floppy drive 5, and say 5 fans use up say 20 watts.
That's barely the power that a CPU uses up.

Toss in a video card, and account for sound, MB and RAM, and you're probably pushing another 20-50watts right there.
Those, I'm quite sure, run off the +5v and +3.3v.

In the end, it all depends on which MB/CPU you have.
But it's incorrect to generalize that the +12v is the most important.
Frankly if I had a CPU that ran off the +12v, probably my first choice would be the new Enermax Noisetaker with the dual +12v rails. Second would be a PC Power&Cooling if I could afford it ;)
 
Originally posted by CSx-2011
My multimeter says 11.76-11.78 when I plug it straight into the molex. I guess it is ok.

Still wish I got the fortrons though.
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I hear ya. Another test of quality would be to test it with opticals & spare hard drives unplugged, write down the numbers, then plug everything back in and run it all at once to see if theres heavy voltage sag.

Is there a restocking charge if you decide to return it?
 
I don't know about restocking fee on the psu.

I only opened one to test. I am using it on the p4 system now and it reports 12.038, 5.026 and 3.312. These numbers using asus probe. Much better!

Maybe I can return the unopened one and go for something else for my athlon rig. The blue leds would interfere with the black light once I get a windowed case as well.

Maybe the DFI board I got is a crappy one as far as power regulation. Too late to return to the store. :(
 
Originally posted by Viperoni
All p4's and a growing amount of Athlon's.

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/fc/st336753fc.html
Required startup power isn't even 20 watts.
Let's assume a DVD Burner uses 10 watts max.
Floppy drive 5, and say 5 fans use up say 20 watts.
That's barely the power that a CPU uses up.

Toss in a video card, and account for sound, MB and RAM, and you're probably pushing another 20-50watts right there.
Those, I'm quite sure, run off the +5v and +3.3v.

In the end, it all depends on which MB/CPU you have.
But it's incorrect to generalize that the +12v is the most important.
Frankly if I had a CPU that ran off the +12v, probably my first choice would be the new Enermax Noisetaker with the dual +12v rails. Second would be a PC Power&Cooling if I could afford it ;)
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Peak vs. Continuous Power

When you read the current (or power) rating of a device such as a hard disk, you are usually seeing the manufacturer's claim of how much the device uses during normal, continuous operation. The actual peak draw of the device is at its maximum, however, at startup--not while it is running. The +12 voltage provided by the power supply is used primarily to drive disk drive motors. Because of their design, these motors can take up to double their steady-state current when they are spinning up from rest. If you have 3 or 4 hard disks in your system and all of them start up at the same time, this can be a tremendous demand on your power supply's ability to provide +12 V power.

Fortunately, most power supply companies take this into account and build into the power supply the ability to exceed its normal output for a short period of time during startup. You will usually see this specified as a "peak" rating, often only for the +12 V line, where this is a particular problem. (It is much less of an issue for the +3.3 and +5 voltages, and therefore many power supplies do not specify a peak rating for these voltages.)
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http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/output.htm

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/op/spinPower-c.html

Barracuda 7200.7 SATA

http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/personal/family/0,1085,599,00.html

Max load is around 2.8 amps +/- 10% on the 12v line. Thats 33.6w +\- 10% per hard drive at spinup.

For overall power supply wattage, add the requirement for each device in your system, then multiply by 1.8. (The multiplier takes into account that today’s systems draw disproportionally on the +12V output. Furthermore, power supplies are more efficient and reliable when loaded to 30% - 70% of maximum capacity.)
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http://www.pcpowercooling.com/maxpc/index_cases.htm

Optical drives can use 10-25w max.

Pentium 4's and at least the newer Athlon XP's and the A64's draw primarily from the 12v line.

Also figure in all the case fans where in some cases they have up to 5 or more at 2w+ a piece. Hefty fans like the Vantec tornado pull even more power.

The high end 550w Enermax PSU's can provide a hefty 12v max but only 200w on the 3.3v and 5v combined which is less then some 350w PSU's.

http://www.maxpoint.com/products/pow_supp/spec_pg/651fma/651fma.htm

The 12v line is definitely the most stressed line on the PSU. Its the whole reason why its so much larger then even the 3.3v and 5v combined. It has to be to support todays processors, hard drives, and optical drives which togethor can pull a monstrous amount of power in a high end system. Processors are pulling closer to 100w all the time. Prescott is over 100w. My Antec 430w will only supply a total of 410w and if you substract at least 200w for the 3.3v and 5v lines where the Video Card, Motherboard, PCI Cards, RAM, and all the rest of the circuitry is getting its power from then theres not alot left on the 12v line which definately has to hold up to the most stress.
 
Depending on how much the shipping and restock is I might go with a Antec True380 or 430.

Otherwise, this will do and I will have to figure out how to block the blue leds from ruining my UV lighting.
 
Hey burninggrave, have you thought about writing a PSU sticky? I find myself going to answer PSU questions on a regular basis, but you always beat me to it (and with the right answer, unlike most other people who post about PSUs around these parts). You're a great resource for this community, and I think it would be great to start compiling a quality sticky about PSUs.

PM me if you're interested in collaborating
 
Would It make a difference if the mobo is mounted onto mobo risers? It is just on my workbench.
 
It should technically be on standoffs to avoid electrostatic discharge. I'm not sure if sawdust and the like has static properties, but usually plain wood is okay for non-permanent use.
 
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