So my second psu in two years went today, made more annoying by the fact that i had just set up my lovely new dell 2209wa Anyway they were both antec neopower 650's, but the good guys at ebuyer are sending me a third. Is it a bad psu that i should sell and get a corsair tx, or is it third time lucky for me do you think? Cheers
The non-Quattro/Signature Antec PSUs always seemed like a bad sell to me. Go for the Corsair 650 watt.
The Earthwatt series has done well by me for a year and a half But you can never go wrong with a corsair
Just make sure its not a HX620, we have a lot of reports of that perticular PSU blowing, too many to be bad luck
Go for PC power & Cool.... i used Turbo-Cool 510 ATX-PFC Deluxe for more than 4.5 years unfortunately in Pakistan we are facing energy crises so one fine day PSU just died on me... send email to their support they agreed to replace it... but shipping cost was almsot US$ 120 so i decided to go for CORSAIR 620 WATTS SLI READY.
During 3 years I had a Antec Smart Power 2.0 500w inside my PC, a Brave of the Brave. I Changed it because I needed more wattage and AMP. Antec is a Mainstream Brand but Good. I want you to know, on a PSU depending the Model and the brand, ex: My old Sp-500, 500 is the 'maximum' power delivery, in Peak, the constant power is around 470w. Maybe your Antec ran at the limit all the time What's you RIG ?
I've had problems with pretty much every PSU make, including Antec and Corsair. I now swear by Enermax PSUs.
I dont understand why the PSU in my Mom Computer Is alive after 4years, its a 350w Generic Crap installed by HP, the kind of PSU I can buy for 30$. So why when I pay 115$ for a good, it Blow after 1years and Half. This is a mistery.
I'll tell you exactly why - your mum's computer is probably old, and so is the PSU and the PC has a very low power and efficiency requirement. Newer, faster components need more power, more stable power and therefore more advanced PSUs. They are put under more strain and let's not forget the old saying "they don't make 'em like they used to" and generally die more often than older components.
This response has completely confused me. On the whole older computers can require less power but there is no such thing as an efficiency requirement. The efficiency of a PSU is a measure of how much of the power the PSU uses to convert the mains supply into voltages that a computer can use. Newer component are generally smaller process nodes which require less power. All computers regardless of age require stable power supplies. For a modern computer the PSU should comply with the ATX12V standard. I do not believe modern components are any less reliable than older components. The strain that a PSU is put under is dependant on the relationship between its rated output and the load drawn by the computer it is installed in. More expensive PSUs such as Enermax, Corsair, Seasonic and BeQuiet use more expensive and reilable components. They also have more sophisticated filtering and voltage regulation that requires more components which is where the cost comes in. I also believe that you do pay a bit of a premium for the name on the outside. Even good quality PSUs can fail but it is statistically less likely to occur when compared to a cheap PSU and the better filtering and voltage regulation is more likely to prvent nasty voltage spikes escaping to damage other parts in the computer.
2 reports no manufacturer is perfect, and 2 in a row is very possible. i haven't heard of many other hx620s going. i'd still say it's a good supply, but given the price point, you could get a bigger and beefier power supply these days. i still recommend the hx620. just not at the current pricepoint.
Apologies, I worded that wrongly. I was talking about peak power, not efficency. Most modern computers require the full peak power that a PSU can deliver because, for example, people might install a 600W PSU for a system that requires a 580-600W supply. I disagree with you here. The very fact that PCI-E connectors, the 24 pin ATX connector and auxillary motherboard connectors have been added to PSUs in recent years should tell you that PCs built from modern components do require more power, not to mention that PSUs built now come with at least 3x the standard connectors and rails that old PSUs did. I'd pretty much guarantee that if I took the 250W short form factor PSU that's powering my P4 Northwood file server at the moment, split it's 4 molex connectors about 10 times and tried to power up my new P55 i7 rig with it, it would fail miserably. I think the 1050W Enermax is going to have to stay in there. I admire your belief in this area, and everyone is entitled to an opinion, but believe me when I say that in some cases, PC components are getting less and less reliable than those that were being produced before performance computing became a mainstream industry. I built 5 PCs last year (happy NY by the way) using Biostar motherboards, 3 different models of board in fact. All 5 failed within 8 months. An MSI motherbord of mine died just 2 weeks ago. I've had 2 machines returned with faulty Corsair PSU's, 2 more returned with dead Samsung F1 hard drives and I have literally lost count of how many components (especially graphics cards) have had to be returned as DOA in the past 12 months. If I got paid £1 for every dead component that I see which is supposed to be manufactured using more advanced, modern techniques and more reliable components, I'd have a few days wages for free every year. I am fast losing faith in the mantra that you get what you paid for, because none of the components that have failed in my PCs lately were cheap parts. I just bought an EVGA X58 classified at close to £450 for a new project - you think I have as much faith in that board as I should after what I've seen in the past? I don't, but this is what waranties are for. From memory: Me - 4 dead within warranty or DOA Corsair HX series PSUs within the last 12 months. 2 DOA Seasonic PSUs. 1 Enermax returned because it was DOA (later found to have been damaged in transit). My Colleague - 2 Corsairs, 1 Tagan, 1 Be Quiet and another Corsair that works, but clicks under load. Overall, I have seen a dramatic decrease in the reliability of components over the past few years, but warranties are there for a reason, and it's inevitable that as manufacturing processes become faster and more advanced, mistakes can happen. I have some machines lying around here that I built 4 or 5 years ago, and they would have been considered top of the range at the time. Most if not all of them are still running without having given any problems.
Q6600 @ 3.2, 4 gig ram, 2 hdd, 8800gt. There's this power usage calculator online and it said that it only draws 380w so i dont think its that. @ Unicorn, warranties are good, but I'd much rather manufactures invest in quality. Like my psu has a 5 year warranty and ive used that for two replacements now which must have cost them a bit. Replacements are a hassle more than anything. Anyway thanks for the the replies guys. I'll get a corsair, albeit a non modular one. I just hope this **** doesnt happen again from a supposedly good brand.
Thanks for clarifying your post, Unicorn and happy New Year. I personally would recommend using a 600W PSU for a system that required 480W or less. I guess it depends on how you look at it. A Pentium D 840 has a TDP of 130W which is pretty much the same as a Core i7 920. The Core i7 however has a significantly higher transistor count. Probably the more important point is that all computers require stable power supplies regardless of age. You obviously build way more PCs than I do and I am quite happy to accept your personal experience. Imagine how long that list would be if you built using £25 700W PSUs chocked full of cheap electrolytic caps, however the point you make about even the best PSUs failing is a very good one.
Nothing is perfect, maybe its only a Badluck, PSU are assambled by Human. Who know if the tech was Drunk when he installed the Musfet
