I need to buy a new PSU - been using a Q-tec '550W' dual fan model for over a year now - its too noisy and there have been a few question marks over reliability as well. What i really need is a beefier PSU, one that wont crack under strain and is pretty quiet (25dB or below), maybe with a 12cm fan. At the moment it will only have to power an Athlon XP1600, 2 HDDs, 5 case fans, 2 cathodes, fan controller, 2 optical drives and a geforce4Ti card, but id like to allow for some future upgrades. My budget is pretty much £80 or below - can anyone help by giving me some recommendations - ive no idea how to tell a good psu from a bad one
Well if you have a budget of £80 the you have a lot to choose from. If you're going for silence then take a look at the Zalman and Thermaltake PSU's. Both are very quiet as well as being high quality. (Never thought I'd say that about a Thermaltake product )
if you dont want to spend 80 quid on something silent (id get the zalman over the TT one) then sparkle power ( FSP group) so a 350watt one with a 120mm fan in it, its very quiet, and has a knob to override fan speed. they are knocking around for about 40 quid. hope this helps, p.s bin the q-tec, i had many a problem with them, too weak on the output voltages
Another TT vote here.... V quiet (tho bearings in one fan seem shafted, mkaes an annoying grating noise now) lines are good and no failures from ANY of the 3 I've used.....
thanx for the help guys - the zalman one is certainly tempting - i totally swear by their stuff, but is 400w a future-proof bet? - ditto the 350W FSP, altho the 12cm fan is the kinda thing im looking for.. - the Thermaltake specs suggest it could get real loud when it gets hot, or am i wrong? - The Antec one looks pretty damn fine - and nice to see some serious hardware on the inside as well sorry to bug again, but from my specs above, could anyone suggest what sort of power (W) i should be looking for? thanx in advance
I suggest the antec true power series, I believe they make em up to 550W?? could be wrong, anyways the 430W I have is silent in my water cooling case
The TT supplies dont get noisy at all... even with the PSU as the only source of air movement within the case, and temps ~40°c (case) there was still no noise from the PSU at all... ~400-450w is about all you'll need most likely. some people even get away with 350w supplies of a decent brand.....
Yep they go to 550W. I have a TrueControl 550, and I am very impressed with the quality of these PSUs. There may be other PSUs out there that are as good but I cant see how any of them could be better. I would definitely recommend the Antec TruePower series.... but I'm not so sure how useful the adjustable voltages are going to be in the TrueControl series, but this feature doesn't cost must extra at all. The way I see it; I'd rather be looking at it than looking for it!
If you're gonna be overclocking enough that you want extra volts on your rails, consider a Hiper PSU (from over-clock.co.uk) - they have trimmable pots inside the supply so you can tweak your rails to your heart's content. With an Antec you have to piss around with soldering VRs to places, something I'm gonna have to do soon...
Actually the TrueControls have pots that mount on the front of your case (in a 5.25" bay) to adjust the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. And theres a pot there too to set the minimum fan speed of the fans in the psu and case fans as well.
Yeah but a) you need to mount a beige box in your case and b) they don't allow enough tweaking (only about 5% IIRC) - I want my 3.3V rail at at least 3.5V etc...
The thing you mount that came with my psu is a dark silvery colour, probably to match their cases. Reviews say that max setting on the 3.3V rail is about 3.51V which I guess would be a little limiting in your case but i'm sure you could moddify some values to get the range u want.
zalman have just released new versions of there 300/400w psu's, the new ones come with a slightly higher amp rating on the 12v line, ie 18A instead of 15A. I'd go for one of these when stores start stocking them, or if you need one sooner the thermaltake's get a good review and are quite a bit cheaper than the zalmans.
Probably, but I'd rather keep the Antec 480W I have already and modify that They are very solid PSUs.
Still tipping in favour of an Antec at the mo ANyone know any more about these Hiper PSUs ? Found a few retailers in the UK and am surprised to see that they are dirt cheap - are they good solid supplies? I dont O/C at all, but id still like to know Cheers so far guys, nice to see a good convo goin
Ok - read alot of stuff about the Hiper PSUs and bad voltages, so i might give them a miss. Friend of mine said Levicom and Enermax PSUs are pretty damn good - what do u guys think?
