Hi guys, Since I last built a machine a couple of years ago things have inevitably changed. Component suppliers, OEMs, etc. Can you recommend me a budget PSU for a PC that will run a Phenom II at stock, 8GB RAM and a couple of hard drives for less than the budget above? I would assume that all options are a compromise, but this is the requirement. If you can help, thankies
The cheapest PSU I can recommend is the Corsair CX430 for £35. Any PSU less than £30 is likely to be an unknown make and will probably go bang.
Considering that the PSU is the heart of your PC (with the CPU being the brain etc.) ask yourself if you'd want to use a pig's heart instead of a human heart installed your "system"...
I would be interested if anyone has any recommendations for a good (or at least best in that price range) quality sub £30 PSU. As much as I'd like to recommend spending more to get a quality PSU, sometimes it's simply too higher proportion of the cost of a budget system build to justify. Also, I've seen no end of systems built with stupidly cheap PSUs, often around £10, or £20-25 cases that include a PSU. Frankly, they actually seem largely fine. I think I've seen one cheap PSU fail outright, compared with lots of brand name graphics card, hard drives, motherboards. And the PSU it didn't take the system with it. This is purely anecdotal evidence of course, but dare I say there might be a bit of PSU snobbery going on , rather than evidence based advice
Well Scan do their own 500W PSU but it seems too good for £13, and then the BeQuiet! 350W is under budget! I guess most people here are really pushing their systems, stressing a PSU. Youtube and Office wont put much pressure on cheaper PSUs so I really don't know how they would perform in the long run.
For £38 like the CXM430 you can get an Antec EarthWatts, which I already have powering my main rig. But that's a bit over-budget really. The PC is going to be doing Photoshop mostly.
I'd never remotely stress, or necessarily trust the quoted wattage of a cheap PSU. However, I do think there is something to be said for using say a cheap 500W PSU on a relatively low powered system where budget is very important.
Having tested and used a few psus in a multitude of pcs. We brought a cheapo PC world 300 watt psu and put it in a similar spec system to what you have listed. It lasted aprox a 1 week then went bang taking out nothing with it thankfully. Also seen tests of most of the no name brands and they all are best avoided most review sites have even ran full on stress tests. None of these no name brands can do the wattage they say they can. If all your doing is Office and Web browsing then the 500 watt listed above is likely fine but id personally never do it, And niether would most of the people on this forum If it says 500 watt the most id ever put through a cheap psu is half that so 250 watt. And even then tests have shown that they cant even provide this level of power. ( hardware reviews have a Cheap PSU review up they brought 5 from different sources ( Cost them £53 for 5 psus). 3 went bang well below there max limits and 2 just stopped working) General rule of thumb buy cheap buy twice. P.S if you buy cheap get a fire extinguisher at the ready to put out the flames that it will likely cause once you push it passed its limits.
Here are a few articles: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=324 http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=154 http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=123 http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=71 The Corsair CX430 is a mediocre CWT built unit. Not awesome, but good enough. There is also the XFX Core series, which is based on the Seasonic S12II. I have one of those in a system and it's extremely quiet on low load. The 450W version goes for £35: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w...bronze-sli-crossfire-eps-12v-fan-atx-v231-psu edit: Hmm, the XFX unit on the pics on Scan looks different from mine. Either they have the wrong pics, or a new revision has been released. Maybe it's worth waiting for reviews of the new one. In any case, I have this unit: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=224
The big thing about a name brand for me is that you've got some recourse with the manufacturer if the unit goes bang. It's very simple to see- Google CiT or Colours IT, and you get nothing but sites looking to sell you a cheap PSU. Google corsiar and you get their website. When an IT company can't be bothered to make a website, which, in this day and age, takes 50p and a couple of hours, what sort of warranty do you expect? In my opinion, A decent 430W PSU, for £35 with a 3 year warranty is well worth the money. Can you honsetly say that a cheapo PSU will last for 3 years, and if it breaks in those 3 years, will be replaced for free by the manufacturer? No. A good PSU will last the life of the system, if not more- somthing tells me that the Corsair PSU will last more than one iteration of system, and so you'll end up saving money at the end of your PC's lifecycle when you don't have to buy another one. To me it's a no brainier, but, unfortunately, it's a lesson most learn the hard way.
The corsair cx series have an annoying BAD coil whine steer clear xfx core unit well recommended seasonic at the heart of it...
Hmm, interesting posts. Well I was going to migrate my Antec but I could leave it in there and buy another of the same for my new system. I'm not sure the cost will go down well with its new owner but it's worth a try and a sentence of explanation.
