What are the best 425-480 watt power supplies??

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Krazy_Joe

Limp Gawd
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What are the best 425-480 watt power supplies?? Im looking at the coolermaster 450 watt but also at the 480 watt enermax ps. Does anyone have recomendations?!
 
the best PSU in that wattage range is probably the PCP&C Turbo-Cool 425w unit. the Antec Neo looks pretty cool, but i haven't read any reviews yet.
 
The Antec Neo does include a 120mm fan, but I would also look at the 400w Fortron Aurora. And I would also consider the Enermax Noisetaker line, esp. the 475w model. No 120mm fan, but it's still a solid unit. Finally, you can't go wrong with the Turbo Cool 425w Deluxe
 
the fan they use isn't that noisy, and you can order a quiter fan if you like.

i wouldn't depend on your PSU to be moving air out of your case anyway. they aren't really designed to move more air than is needed to cool themselves.
 
Antec Neowin series or TruePower series
Enermax Noisetaker series
Tagan's power supplies
Forton/Sparkle power supplies

You can't go wrong with any of these.
 
felix88 said:
the fan they use isn't that noisy, and you can order a quiter fan if you like.

i wouldn't depend on your PSU to be moving air out of your case anyway. they aren't really designed to move more air than is needed to cool themselves.
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im not, i just like the fact that the 120mm are silent. I really like the cooler master, has performance and isnt to expensive. It has some good reviews but i havent found one store that has them in stock. Im guessing this one is fresh out of the oven :p If anyone knows where I can pick up one of those bad boys let me know
 
"Good Reviews" meaning what? Did they actually do any real testing ala silentpcreview.com, or just the normal "it looks nice and works, I used MBM..."

I would definitly take the enermax noisetaker over the coolermaster anyday
 
Vertigo Acid said:
"Good Reviews" meaning what? Did they actually do any real testing ala silentpcreview.com, or just the normal "it looks nice and works, I used MBM..."

I would definitly take the enermax noisetaker over the coolermaster anyday
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Actually, my favorite site bit-tech gave them a thumbs up on their ps http://www.bit-tech.net/review/341/1 And literally dozens more did as well. Plus the PS has a 120mm fan which very silent in comparison to enermax double fan solution, in addition it supports active pfc which will save me on electric bills. Give me some credit man, im not just looking for a "it looks cool" ps. Enermax is a great ps unit but their are other companies that offer great products as well. :p
 
The Cooler Master power supply might be good, but let's get two things straight. Number one: Bit-tech, regardless of what you think of them, is not qualified to evaluate power supplies beyond the usual, "well, this looks solid" or "the voltage looks okay in this one measurement." They just aren't--in fact, the vast majority of reviewers aren't. They are doing you a disservice as reviewers by not evaluating the factors which really determine the performance of a power supply. But hey, everything has a certain amount of risk to it. Not being fully informed is the reality we live in. Number two: active PFC--or any power factor correction--doesn't reduce your home energy bill. It does reduce apparent power consumption, but not real power consumption, which is what the meter is measuring.
 
xonik said:
not qualified to evaluate power supplies beyond the usual, "well, this looks solid" or "the voltage looks okay in this one measurement."
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Can't argue with a thing you said. SilentPC and a few others make an effort, but most of what passes for a power supply review on the net is of little value. Unless they can, at a minimum, measure the efficiency, the actual output at a range of temperatures, and how tight the regulation is, it's best ignored. It's only in the last few years that we started getting noise information.

I stopped using Antec for good a couple years back after a couple of their higher 400w supplies failed after less than 18 months on some workstations I'd built, costing me some real money on downtime, and a mad scramble to get everthing back up, only to have it happen again to the other one a few months later. Never again. They are quiet and they are cheap, but losing entire days cleaning up the mess is certainly no bargain.

The Enermax supplies I've used haver been 100% reliable for me, but not as quiet as some others. The Noisetaker EG475P is the one I'm using on builds these days, and I haven't had one go down yet.

The PC Power & Cooling is a good unit (by PC industry standards at least) with tight regulation and good power and higher temperatures, but the thing is silly noisy, like 56db or something, and costs more than a lot of processors. The Sparkle is nearly as loud and doesn't seem to perform even as well as the Enermax.

oc
 
Does anyone know anything about the reliability of Thermaltake PSUs e.g. their PurePower line? No one seems to mention them, and I can only find one review online (although it's a very positive one...).
 
SearchForTheAnyKey said:
Does anyone know anything about the reliability of Thermaltake PSUs e.g. their PurePower line? No one seems to mention them, and I can only find one review online (although it's a very positive one...).
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They aren't old enough to have any sort of long-term reliability statistics, but I've heard many positive comments on them. BlindedByScience, one of the General Hardware moderators, seems to swear by them.
 
xonik said:
They aren't old enough to have any sort of long-term reliability statistics, but I've heard many positive comments on them. BlindedByScience, one of the General Hardware moderators, seems to swear by them.
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Actually, he swears by the butterfly line; From the buzz i've heard around, it appears that the >480w Tt are different and crapier than the <=480w models. YMMV
 
Vertigo Acid said:
Actually, he swears by the butterfly line; From the buzz i've heard around, it appears that the >480w Tt are different and crapier than the <=480w models. YMMV
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I think's it's actually the PurePower line; oh well, the search isn't working quite right, and it doesn't matter anyway. That's strange about the Thermaltake rumors you're hearing; well, at least the thread starter isn't looking at power supplies beyond 480 watts.
 
I think it depends on your proccessor. With A64 you need a minimum of 20a on 12v. That's not included drives and such. 30a or more is needed. I had a 530w Sparkle but it only had 15a on the 12v rail. My 350 TrueBlue had18a. Believe it or not the 350 water out performed the 530 watter :eek It's not a matter of haveing tons of wattage the power actually has to be partitioned correctly.
 
:rolleyes: The Fortron 530w has been shown to exceed that +12v rating, so I find it hard to believe that would be the culpret. I'm curious, where are you getting 20a on the +12v for A64 processors from? I totally agree about the distribution of amperage tho.
 
MSI forum has a great A64 builder's guide check it out here:

http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?threadid=46719

PSU.... one of the most overlooked and most important component,
that old 300 watter you have from your old duron 800 don't even try.PSU's have caused alot of trouble with a64 systems, they use alot of power Get a good name brand psu if you can, and make sure it is at least 400 watts and has at the minimum of 20a on 12v, also look at combined total wattage
the psu must have a 20 pin connector and a 4 Pin( Square) Connector, and there is Only 1, Called the+12V 4 Pin Processor Connector.
some of the recomended brands are enermax,and antec.

Here is the reason most problems are the psu
amd64 uses 12v power, intel chips used alot of 5v power.
so until now most big psu's pushed 5 v not 12v
almost everything in your computer uses 12v except ram (3.3V)

amd 64 and motherboard =12a @12V
so your already at 12A with no fan,s no hd, no cd,no dvd ,no mobo chipset , no mem, no sound..etc

so what happens is your mem gets starved for power and then gives out errors,in your data, which = corupt sata,or it fails to post. .
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Here is the amperage according to newegg: Fortron 530w +3.3V@30/17A,+5V@44/24A,[email protected],+12V@16/28A,[email protected],+5VSB@2A


There's that split divided thiny. A64 don't like split divided thingies
 
I think it means adjustable pots. You can manually "up" the wattage on any of the rails. Anyone know more about that please comment.
 
No, "split divided" refers to the two independent 12 volt rails. Some power supplies feature two 12 volt rails (one for the motherboard; one for drives, peripherals, and fans) to ensure that the motherboard receives a dedicated current supply.
 
I'm gonna be running a s-939 system (3500+) with one of the newer vid cards (probably the 6800 GT OC), and am just trying to find a PSU that will work. Other than 2 fans, 3 HDD's, and 1 DVD burner, it won't be running anything else. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good PSU that's hopefully in the $100 range that will work? I don't care about OCing anything, I just want it to pleasure all my hardware with as many sweet, sweet amps that they might desire...

...*ahem* So....uh...will the Enermax 470 with the dual 12v lines work? Even with the 6800GT?

From what I've heard, the Vantec's are too loud, and I can't use any Antecs because my mobo doesn't like 'em...
 
1. The fortron 530 does not have split rails. That's with the Fortron 550 EPS. Split rails means that you have multiple output circuitry for the same voltages. EG. 12V1 @ 15a, 12V2 @ 16a. The different outputs serve different components. In a typical dual rail setup, one of them will server drives and peripherial, and the other will do the CPUs. At this point i'm still unclear about what Newegg and Fortron mean by those numbers. It may have something to do with peak output vs normal output but I don't know

2. Funbun, I think you're a bit confused as to how a switched-mode power supply functions. A "500w" power supply does not constantly output 500w. It just (supposedly) has the capacity to output that much. SMPSs only output as much as the components attached to it need. So, if you've got a 1a 12v fan attached, you'll be drawing 12w and only 12w. Adjustable pots refers to the ability to fine tune the output voltage of a specific rail. So, if you're +5 rail is running low at 4.5, you could adjust it up to a solid 5.0 volts.

3. At this point, I say go for the Enermax. They are fairly future-proof, given the 24-pin connector and PCI-E connector. They are quite stable because of the dual +12v rails. And they aren't too pricey either.
 
Enermax Whisper EG465P-VE (FC)
or
Thermaltake Silent PurePower 480W w/ PFC Silver (W0011)
or
Antec TRUE430
or
SuperFlower 450W w/ 14cm Large Fan, 4 LED Light

Thoughts?
 
Antec or Enermax, whatever's cheaper. You should also see if there is a Tagan power supply available in that range at your retailer.
 
the coooler master has independent rails as well. So why is everyone so against this PS?!
 
The Cooler Master Real Power 450 RS-450-ACLY is rated at 450W (as you might expect from the name). Although it's not mentioned in any of the literature I was supplied with, the PSU is also equipped to operate on EPS systems, which is a standard for server class systems, and is the reason that the power supply has a 24 pin connector instead of the ATX standard 20 pin. It also sports Active Power Factor Correction. Without getting into an overly-technical discussion on Power Factor, we'll limit ourselves to quoting our own Robotech, who intones thusly: "Power Factor is defined as the ratio of true power (measured in watts) to apparent power (measured in Volt Amps). It measures how effectively AC power is being used by a device." Active PFC is normally only found on high end power supplies and uses some extra circuitry to maximize the Power Factor of the unit. Normal (non-PFC) power supplies will usually only have a Power Factor of <.70, whereas a unit equipped with Active PFC is usually >.95, and often as high as .99 (1.0 being perfect).

One of the most unique and welcome features of the Real Power 450 is the inclusion of an analog power meter that fits into a spare 3.5" drive bay and allows the user to monitor the overall powerconsumption of the system. The meter displays the power usage in watts, and the range runs from 0-600 watts.
 
Now that we've seen some of the basic features of the Real Power 450W, let's take a complete look at all the advertised features and specifications for the unit, as taken from the Cooler Master web site and various marketing literature.

Super Silent, Super Power, Smart Fan with auto-adjust speed control
Fully supports the newest ATX 12V 2.0 specification
Dual +12V rails for high efficiency power output
Super Efficient, Reliable Performance and Continuous Power
Innovative analog dial continuously monitors power consumption
Two SATA connectors for today's high speed hard drives
Satisfies the power consumption of high end systems and continuous operation
Green Power design meets Blue Angel and Energy Star requirements.
Complete protection from over-voltage, over-current, high temperature and short circuits.
 
Wheres the real specs like ripple and regulation :p

Or how about a real under-the-hood review? :D

Seems to be a nice PSU with split rails and all, I wonder who OEMs it?
 
Vertigo Acid said:
Wheres the real specs like ripple and regulation :p

Or how about a real under-the-hood review? :D

Seems to be a nice PSU with split rails and all, I wonder who OEMs it?
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if you find out let me know! I just found out this one doesnt come out till end of Aug. I need it this week
 
Heads up:

Enermax Whisper EG-465P-VE (FMA) (XP / P4 Ready) 460 Watt PS

Selling at Monarch Computer Systems (www.monarchcomputer.com) for $72.00 + free shipping. It is a discounted item so who knows how long it will last.

-dario
 
xonik said:
You should also see if there is a Tagan power supply available in that range at your retailer.
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And Tagan is produced by Topower, right? I know their high-end P6 line (OCZ Powerstream is a Topower P6) is badass, but what about their mid-range P5 line? KevC is most likely looking at canadacomputers.com, and they carry some Topower P5s.
 
Just to let the thread starter know, the pc power and cooling 425 deluxe is hands down the best performing psu in that wattage range, and the pc power and cooling 510 deluxe is the best performing psu period.

The reason people keep reccomending other brands is because of two things:

1. Publicity and sales. Ever see a pcp&c add? I haven't.
2. Pc Power and Cooling are priced according to their quality ;)

However, take it from me, I have tremendous psu experience and once you get a Pc Power and Cooling, you NEVER go back.
 
computerpro3 said:
Just to let the thread starter know, the pc power and cooling 425 deluxe is hands down the best performing psu in that wattage range, and the pc power and cooling 510 deluxe is the best performing psu period.

The reason people keep reccomending other brands is because of two things:

1. Publicity and sales. Ever see a pcp&c add? I haven't.
2. Pc Power and Cooling are priced according to their quality ;)

However, take it from me, I have tremendous psu experience and once you get a Pc Power and Cooling, you NEVER go back.
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The reason not everyone recommends PC Power and Cooling is they are overpriced. A PSU for a $100 less can perform almost as well if not as well as the PC Power and Cooling and you'll be extremely lucky to ever notice a difference.

The 510 PC Power and Cooling is also very loud. Its one of the loudest out there running at around 44db i believe.

Most of PC Power and Cooling's parts are also manufactured by Fortron Source so you'd be better of just buying a 530w Fortron.
 
burningrave101 said:
The reason not everyone recommends PC Power and Cooling is they are overpriced. A PSU for a $100 less can perform almost as well if not as well as the PC Power and Cooling and you'll be extremely lucky to ever notice a difference.

The 510 PC Power and Cooling is also very loud. Its one of the loudest out there running at around 44db i believe.

Most of PC Power and Cooling's parts are also manufactured by Fortron Source so you'd be better of just buying a 530w Fortron.
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1. No psu for $100 less can perform anywhere close to the 425 deluxe. You do realize that a psu $100 less would be $25, correct? If so, you are an utter fool.

2. You should also know that a. the fan is thermally controlled and only spins up to 44db when your case temp hits 50C, which it should NEVER do. It runs around 30DB in my machine right now. and b. they will put any fan on earth that you want to in the psu when you order it. So slap a panaflo in there if you wish.

3. The 510 deluxe is manufactured by Zippy (with minor parts by fortron source) to pcp&c's custom specs. So you're not better off buying one of their $350 supplies.

Please don't talk out of your ass about something that you have never even seen, and I have sitting in my machine right now.
 
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