+1, the cheap 550W would have just been a 350W PSU with the ability to peak at 550 for a limited amount of time. You were probably drawing 350-400W anyway. We not fanboys here thinking that corsair and a like are the best because there corsair, no far from it, we all know what is generally required of a power supply, and we also know that if the retail price is ~£20, then the internal components will be very cheap, with voltage tolerency a joke. Oh and note, everyone has an XP disc in there 'draw' in some form or another so OS is never a worry, if he's not gaming give ubuntu a spin its very pleasent to use and makes a joke of mac's as ubuntu 'just works' for free!
I agree with the mob here. If money is tight, the case and especially the PSU should not be skimped on. Please, cut out the quad and buy a decent dual core whatever, you can upgrade that later if you really really have to. My feeling is that he wont even miss the quad.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ocz-s400 - OCZ 400W £35 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151287 - Powercool 450W £31 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166784 - BeQuiet 350W - £30
You can't trust the brand name at the really cheap level, odds are that they are just rebranded OEM parts.
Most brand name PSUs are rebranded OEM parts, regardless of price. However, the trusted PSU brands guarantee a level of quality. For example Corsair doesn't build PSUs. I think all their stuff comes from Seasonic. But they won't put their name on a product that doesn't deliver in all aspects, as they have proved many times.
Stole this of Overclock3d.net - don't tell Below is a list of power supplies you will see for sale followed by the companies that actually manufacture them: A+GPB- Topower Akasa- Enhance Antec- ChannelWell Aopen- FSP Group Aspire- Youngyear Athena Power- Topower Chiefman- Powmax Chiefmax- Powmax Chieftec- Sirtec Coba- ATNG Coolermaster- AcBel Polytech Coolink- ATNG Coolmax- ATNG Corsair: Seasonic & CWT Demon- Powmax Enermax- Enermax Enlight- Sirtec EPower- Topower Fortron- FSP Group (same company) HighPower- Sirtec (same company) Hi-Q- FSP Group Hi-Val- Topower Logisys- Youngyear Lead Power- ChannelWell Mad Dog- Topower MGE- Youngyear OCZ- Topower & PC Power and Cooling PCMCIS- Topower PC Power & Cooling- PCP&C Powerman- FSP Group Powmax- Ultra Raidmax- Topower (XP Series) Rosewill- ATNG (AP models), Youngyear (RE models) Seasonic - Seasonic Silverstone- Enhance Sparkle- FSP (same company) Startech- ATNG SuperFlower- Topower (same company) Tagan- Topower Turbolink- ChannelWell Thermaltake- Sirtec TTGI- Topower (older ones), Youngyear (newer ones-?) Turbolink- ChannelWell Ultra- Wintech, Youngyear (X-connect ?) Ultra X-Finity- Wintech Vantec- Topower XClio- FSP Group Zalman- FSP Group Zippy- ? Disclaimer- this is by no means a comprehensive list and may not even be totally accurate. Many of them have been verified, but there may be variances within a product line. Also, just because the same manufacturer OEM'ed a product for a vendor doesn't necessarily mean that it is the same as a product from a different vendor since a vendor may take the OEM product and upgrade it with better components or they may give the manufacturer a tighter set of specifications. As you can see - virtually no one makes their own PSUs EDIT: I added Corsair and Seasonic and edited OCZ
This info is too juicy, Bindi - where are you mate - if I type this up in a new thread can you make it sticky - we can keep updating it when ram changes? I'lll type it up
I don't really see a reason for an OEM list sticky. Let alone one that's pasted together from info found on other sites. Maybe a link in here.
Not the PSU List - the RAM list would be very helpful when debating Micron vs Elpida EDIT: I would ofc provide a link to the original site and give credit to them...
it is interesting though, for example i'd never buy an Akasa PSU but they are made by the same company (Enhance) as Silverstone. which i probably would buy tbh
Yeah but being made by the same copany doesn't mean they're equal in quality. These manufacturers build what is ordered from them. For example Silverstone might order their PSUs from Enhance with high quality components, while Akasa might get theirs built with cheap chinese stuff.
Half a year. Perhaps on low loads, but on a computer that draws a bit of power, it's better to stick to a decent PSU. Perhaps a Corsair HX-420?
Alot of companies might be making PSU's for different companies, but you've got to remember the customer such as Antec has worked with ChannelWell to develop Antec's range of PSU's, and channelwell are keep to that spec. So if a company like FSP group as there pretty much behide alot of them, can be making crap PSU's as well as great PSU's. Its all down to the customers spec. Therefore that list is useless!
