Before Making a Thread About Buying a PSU....

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chaosan said:
wow, I feel so screwed...

I just ordered a Thermaltake PSU(This One) to power an a64 3500+, 6800GT, 2x160gig SATA HDs, 1gig corsair ram, and a dvd burner.

will it hold up? i havn't even recieved the parts yet, and I can't be shipping things back and forth because of a time constraint - i have to leave for school soon.

has anyone heard good things or had good experiences with Thermaltake PSUs?
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well check your 12V rail as that PSU only has 18A on its single +12V rail
http://takaman.jp/D/index.html?english
it wouldnt have been my first choice, but may serve
they arent anything to write home about but arent bad either, basic compliance with the regulation and ripple specs, single rail +12V thats an older +5V oriented PSU (and the A64 is powered off the +12V)

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=779582&
 
chaosan said:
wow, I feel so screwed...

I just ordered a Thermaltake PSU(This One) to power an a64 3500+, 6800GT, 2x160gig SATA HDs, 1gig corsair ram, and a dvd burner.

will it hold up? i havn't even recieved the parts yet, and I can't be shipping things back and forth because of a time constraint - i have to leave for school soon.

has anyone heard good things or had good experiences with Thermaltake PSUs?
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....my $00.02:

BlindedByScience said:
I've probably screwed together a hundred and fifty Enlight 7237 cases over the last three years, containing a mix of their (as I recall) 300, 350, and 360 watt supplies. These machines get used in our hardware lab at work. They get their ass kicked; Vcc's shorted together, shorted to ground, etc.

I think I've replaced one supply that I can remember.
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...so, IMHO they may not be the "designer supply of the month" but I've got a lab full of 'em working hard every day, as well as one in my main system. I think "screwed" is a little strong...... :rolleyes:

FWIW - B.B.S.
 
First off, Ice Czar, thanks for the sticky! :)

chaosan said:
wow, I feel so screwed...

I just ordered a Thermaltake PSU(This One) to power an a64 3500+, 6800GT, 2x160gig SATA HDs, 1gig corsair ram, and a dvd burner.

will it hold up? i havn't even recieved the parts yet, and I can't be shipping things back and forth because of a time constraint - i have to leave for school soon.

has anyone heard good things or had good experiences with Thermaltake PSUs?
Click to expand...

well I wouldn't feel screwed, thermaltake isn't THAT generic.....

Its not the best psu around, but you're not gonna get a whole lot better for $56. I have personally had a bad experience with that psu, but apparantly BBS and a few others have had good experiences, so I may have gotten a lemon. Keep us posted about voltage stability and whether your molex connectors fall off when you get it. I'd like to know if I got a lemon once and for all so I can stop dissing it :p
 
BlindedByScience said:
....my $00.02:


...so, IMHO they may not be the "designer supply of the month" but I've got a lab full of 'em working hard every day, as well as one in my main system. I think "screwed" is a little strong...... :rolleyes:

FWIW - B.B.S.
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alright, alright, I took enlight off the list.

But just curious, what does your quote about enlights in your last post have to do with the thermaltake 480 supply? Is thermaltake oem'd by enlight?

On a side note ladies and gents, one psu company that is DEFINETLEY staying on the list of don't buys is powmax. I had a pentium 4 approved 400w powmax with a rated 25a on the 12v line in another relatives machine that they brought over and since I didn't have the fortron 300w psu that I'm replacing it with in yet I decided to power it on....

1ghz p3, 512mb pc100 ram, 120gb hard drive, cdrom, and a few pci cards is all thats loaded on it basically. blue screen of death. I pop in my pcp&c, works fine :rolleyes:

400w 25a my ass when it can't power a freakin 1ghz p3 :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
computerpro3 said:
alright, alright, I took enlight off the list.

But just curious, what does your quote about enlights in your last post have to do with the thermaltake 480 supply? Is thermaltake oem'd by enlight?
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....to the best of my understanding, all the Tt supplies are "badge engineered" Enlights.

You can leave Enlight on your list if you choose, but I've got better than a hundred supplies here doing their thing every day. My experience is that they are solid. The very best available...??....probably not. Solid and dependable...??...I'd have to say "seems that way".

FWIW - B.B.S.
 
Ok sometime today, I will be getting my Delta Redundant Power assembly delivered to my house. My question hasn't been answered, Is Delta Power Supplies a good brand, and what are your comments about this brand?

Is this a generic brand, or is their anything out there that is Better Than Delta, or a power supply that has 20pin, 24pin and 14pin Aux connectors. Or am I stuck with what I have?
 
I'm not going to pretend I know much about server psu's; I don't. I have never heard of Delta, but that doesn't mean anything because I haven't heard of many server psu's besides zippy/emacs. Plus, it could be oem'd by someone. I think I'd better leave this question for someone who knows more than me in this field; maybe Ice Czar knows about delta?
 
Delta is a pretty big concern from what I gather
but there is even less ready info on server class PSUs then there are on enthusiast PSUs
redundants are nice, but finding single replacement moduals isnt all that fun

Id expect it to perform to the spec it was built to, but certainly not beyond it
what model is it?

Ive always liked the Zippy\Emacs
14 pin? what are you powering?
 
Delta RPS-630AB, SRKA4 Power assembly it is just the cabinet w/o power modules.

The power modules are: Delta, DPS-350KB Hot-swap 350w
Here is what I found: Delta Powersupplies
Scroll down till you see the Part# DPS-350KB

I'm powering a Intel SRKA4, Quad Pentium 3 Xeon MB
 
that explains a bit
Id stick with it, quad power VRM schemes (which are sometimes added with processors to some boards) and the resultant weird connectors are way out of my league
I would simply check that its a supply listed as recommended for the board if you can
trying to match up something modern to it would be a nightmare, its oreinted toward +5V powered VRMs
and predates EPS12V SSI specs

hmmm...maybe not predate SSI but ceratinly EPS12V
http://www.delta.com.tw/products/powersupply/server.htm
be careful with the +12V Amps available you only have 12A
(watch the number of drives)
 
The RPS means Rack power supply and DPS means Desktop Power Supply. The strange thing about this motherboard, it took two different types of power supply assemblies, one was for a Pedistal model and one for a rack model, but both the same wattage of power.

Could I also ask a question, I seem not to get anywhere in the cooling forum. How hard is it to make a part using Emachineshop?
I was leaning toward water cooling this, and not air cooling this, so which road should I take with this computer.

Air cooling or watercooling?
 
well, there are advantages to either
aircooling will be far simpler and cheaper to implement
and unless your going to use phase change to cool the water
you should be able to see similar results (ambient)
I run my workstation (sig) in a 4U rackmount fed AC air, and consider that more reliable than watercooling (just alot less to go wrong), or at least without considerable additional investment something Im working on (actually for the whole rackmount enclosure)

looks like I got that +12V amp rating wrong was looking at the wrong figure its 22A

I havent used Emachineshop
 
I will be running Windows 2003 with cluster Server services running. I have a website being designed out, hosting my own websites and others. Me and a few friends are planning to design a role playing game and will also be using this as the computer to do 3D rendering on it.
Another friend of mine just happens to be an wholesaler, so I don't need to use Emachineshop for machining parts, he will help me get the parts I need really cheap.

This board only takes full length Pci cards and 32bit PCI cards, so what is the recommendation of a Pci Video card for the 3D rendering. Has anyone used a Quadro video card?

I just got home about an hour ago, so I now have got the Power assembly for this motherboard, looks can be different from showing it on ebay and then taking it out of the box. Gosh, it is about 10lbs for a power assembly, now back to the drawing board to figure how to mount it in my case.

The VRM's I have to get is the 12v vrms
 
you still have InWin and Power-Man on your list... they are just rebadged Fortrons
 
thanks for all the great replies. I will definatly be keeping a close eye on the voltage stability, and hopefully I'll change it when I gather up enough money for a better PSU. And of course, I'll keep everyone posted on the quality of the cables :cool:

thanks again, i don't feel as screwed anymore :p
 
FLECOM said:
you still have InWin and Power-Man on your list... they are just rebadged Fortrons
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aer you SURE about power-man; I have a 250w and its garbage.....not like the 300w fortron i have.....
 
computerpro3 said:
aer you SURE about power-man; I have a 250w and its garbage.....not like the 300w fortron i have.....
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Ya pretty sure. The ones labeled "Powerman" are almost definitely. As mentioned prior i've stumbled across the reference several times now, on review and mfr/merchant websites. The labels on most models have "FSP" clearly on them. I wish i didn't peel the label off my 300watter since i'm now unable to verify it.

I haven't seen any labeled plain "Inwin" so i couldn't speak for them.
 
computerpro3 said:
aer you SURE about power-man; I have a 250w and its garbage.....not like the 300w fortron i have.....
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sorting quality by manufacturer is largely a pointless exercise
with the exception of the veracity of the specs
but few actually review those indepth
say the overvoltage protection, hold time, PG Delay Operating Range
simply glossing over those to the amps per rail

FSP makes a range of PSUs, whatever they can make money on
and if someone orders a brand from them within X pricepoint with X overvoltage protection, it could well be "junk" in a given system config, irregardless that its an FSP Group PSU

same could be said of many other manufacturers
Channel Well Technology makes the Antecs, from the Neopower and Truepower to thye cheap seats you slammed

now some manufacturers specialize in junk and at that point its not a pointless exercise
but with the big manufacturers, it needs to be broken out to models
and in addition to what level of performaance they are capable of, right now the list is based on some sort of median system config (implied) but thats rapidly changing
a point that you and I are aware of, but that a n00b just showing up here isnt\
which is why Im trying to get this http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=779582
together (was delayed by my unschedualed holiday, research has proved more elusive than I anticipated and yesterday I managed to loose a page of revisions :p )
 
Hey Flecom, Have fun modding that proliant 3000 to fit a different motherboard in it. I just mounted the Power assembly an hour ago, I went better than I thought.
So after I disassembled the Proliant 5000, I took out the Power supply and Hotswap cage with Hot-swap HDs and put it to the side, hoping that I would build an external case for the two.

I could put the Proliant 5000 Powersupply on top of the power assembly and still be able to provide power to some drives and the hot-swap cage. I was going to take the HD cage flip it sideways like an rack mount and work on it from there.

So I want some comments, should I try to mod these two into my computer case that I am currently working on?

Thanks for the information about delta though.
 
I gotta vouch for the Thermaltakes... ive got a 480w purepower and its dead stable, and the rails dont fluctuate much at all. it powers my a7n8x, 3000+ @ 2.3, 2 cd's, sata hdd, 6800 GT, gig o ram, 4 case fans, wireless ethernet very well, and i am very happy with it. never have any instablity issues that arent caused by overclocking endeavuers. very good psu IMO
 
phasmatis_nox said:
I have an L&C 420W PSU that came with my Cheiftec. Is it going to kill my PC?
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well what is your PC?
the components involved and the listed specs of a PSU
and their veracity
all enter into it

thats not a particularly good PSU
 
phasmatis_nox:

yea, we need to know your system specs, but I would get a new psu regardless. Post your system specs and we'll help you pick one out


Ice Czar: You seem to know a TON about who makes which supplies... we should make a sticky consolidating the knowledge of who makes which psu's and who oem's them and stuff...it would be REALLY useful. I remember there was a thread I think you started a while ago about [H]ard PSU info that was on the right track but I can't find it...maybe if you cleaned it up a bit or something....I dunno, its just an idea :)
 
Would it be possible to add information in regards to how loud each psu is? Or what you would recommend for a quiet psu?

That being said, I love the list and it is VERY helpful
 
As for adding the decibel level of each psu, I would def. do that if I could find the info on them...I guess whenever I come across it listed on the net I'll go back and add it.

For quiet psu's, the Antec Trupower series is very good, although some people that have NO fans in their system besides the psu say its still too loud. In all practical cases, I think the trupower would serve well. If you want something quieter, look at Silenx supplies (forgot to add them to the list, ill fix it tonight). Some seasonics and fortrons (the ones with 120mm fans) are also VERY quiet.

EDIT: How could I forget?!?! The pc power and cooling Silencer series is very quiet (17db I believe) and is one of the best performing silent supplies you're gonna get (not as good as the turbocool series though, don't be fooled...)

Also, if you have the money, there is a FANLESS psu by silenx starting @ $200 for a 340w and $280 for a 460w. Heres a link:

http://www.silenx.com/productcart/pc/viewCat_Z.asp?idCategory=20
 
i hope sparkle is as good as you guys say cuase i just grabbed a 530watt from newegg.
 
windoze9x said:
i hope sparkle is as good as you guys say cuase i just grabbed a 530watt from newegg.
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just built a rig pretty similar rig for my brother with one
dont expect it to see you through to the next gen however
but for that rig you should be good
 
Ice Czar said:
just built a rig pretty similar rig for my brother with one
dont expect it to see you through to the next gen however
but for that rig you should be good
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not through the next gen because of power requirements or btx or what? I just got a 9800pro from a dude on these forums and I figured i probably shouldn't try my 350 watt with it and the gobs of hard drives i got goin (4 total in the system)
 
next gen will be 24 pin main, PCI Express and really make use of the +12V rail
with everything on that rail you will really want dual +12V rails to mitigate the effects of the dynamic load of components

the 9800 pro aint too bad but compare the X800XT

RADEON 9800 Pro (not overclocked)
+3.3V..........4.35A (AGP)
+5V.............5.41A (4.26A Aux + 1.15 AGP)
+12V...........0.59A (0.44 Aux + 0.15 AGP)


not alot on the +12V rail but for comparision of what is coming
+12V .................Idle..................Load
(stock speeds, obviously increases with overclocking)
X800XT.........0.85A\10.09W...........3.25A\37.73W
9800XT.........1.71A\20.26W...........2.4A\28.07W
having isolated +12V rails has distinct advantages which is why its the new spec
even with a supply that has as tight a transient reponse as the PCP&C 510 (1%)
there can be configs where that isolation can play a factor
and since Im one of those that just packs my computer full of HDDs I consider that important, but its not just drives that introduce transient loads the CPU(s) are power hungry devils these days as well (and are powered off the +12V) as are the graphics cards (primarily), from idle to full load on the GPU can you see a considerable jump in power consumption and the resultant dynamic loads they would introduce

source > Power Consumption of Contemporary Graphics Accelerators. Part I: Graphics Cards on ATI Chips Xbitlabs

run the numbers http://takaman.jp/D/index.html?english
the deduct 1\3rd of the amps listed on the supply and see if it fits
(input the 9800 pro numbers)
then youll have a rough idea of how close you are and what growth is possible
 
hey ice czar, think my 510 deluxe will be able to power next-gen with an adapter, or will I need to buy that 800w model they have coming out? It has a nice, fat 12v line, but its still not dual....
 
likely, my 510 is a single rail but has the EPS12V wiring harness
(24 pin main and an 8 pin aux)
you would likely want to investigate a conversion cable for the 20 to 24
but with 38Amps on the +12V it will probably handle the vast majority of configs you could throw at it, and its 1% regulation deal with the various components changing their load
but
there is likely some point where that load would be better handled\regulated with isolated rails
depending on the config, considering that all the fans and HDDs (or RAID arrays) would already be spinning when you started to switch the GPU(s) and CPU(s) from idle to load and back they wouldnt really be much of an issue, but adding a bunch of opticals?
other power hungry PCI Express components (as alluded to above say SLi) ect, could eventually push even a PCP&C 510 Turbo Cool over the edge

which is why I was sort of disappointed to find mine was simply compatible not compliant with EPS12V, having a single rail, instead of 3 of them
provided I had the info on what the various rails where rated at, and which connectors where on which rails, I could do without the "flexibility" that the single rail provides
 
I've got one you might want to add to your hate list, A+GPB (A GPB). I have a 450W that before I RMA'd failed to boot my p4 system in my sig. Put my old 410W back in and it fired right up. The voltages fluxuate quite a bit according to a digital muli-meter. Unless you've had better luck with them, go ahead and add them.
 
Actually there seem to be several combinations of PSUs that are failing to boot mobos
some of them like the OCZ Powerstream and Antec Neopower, seem to have some signal issue with the mobo, (Regarding the load required to turn on) I havent got to the bottom of actual causes in the case of the Antec or all the boards involved (seems some configs on the same board work while others dont) but the OCZ workaround was to simply add a few HDDs or an Optical to increase the load drawn

OCZ stated that with that particular Asus mobo the BTX signal specs (compatibility incorprated into their supply) were not implemented and led to the issue

the same might be true of some other powerhouse supplys, could be something else
or, it could be as possibly represented in the case above that it lacks the power on the +12V rail

hard to say
 
Luck.exe said:
I've got one you might want to add to your hate list, A+GPB (A GPB). I have a 450W that before I RMA'd failed to boot my p4 system in my sig. Put my old 410W back in and it fired right up. The voltages fluxuate quite a bit according to a digital muli-meter. Unless you've had better luck with them, go ahead and add them.
Click to expand...
One bad experience does not a bad supply make ;)
 
I am trying to get my finger on how we do power calcs when sizing up a PSU I found this link. http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/articles/guides/Power_Supply_Guide_2.html According to this memory is 8w per 128m of memory on the 3.3v rail. So doing the math I get the following.

8w/3.3v = 2.42a for 128m of memory
So for 2Gs of memory I need ~40a of 3.3v rail and if I was crazy enough 4Gs would be ~80a. Is this right if so where do I find a PSU able to push 80a on the 3.3v rail I looked and I think the highest I found using Newegg was ~40a.
 
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