My comp. just got a new motherboard which is cool but we had to take out a hard rive because the power supply couldn't take it. We'll probably buy a better one. Does anyone know where power supplies like that can be got cheap?
Generally, cheap power suplies suck.
PSUs are definitely one of those parts that you do NOT cut cost with, else when (note: when) it blows up, it'll take the rest of your hardware with it.
Don't believe me? Watch some videos on youtube where 6 'unbranded' PSUs blow up (literally) in a row, when a named brand handles it fine.
Still wanna be cheap? Don't say I didn't warn ya :P
Get a Corsair or something. Mines a Corsair 800W, cost me £74 of ebuyer, yeah its pretty pricey but you can't cut corners with these things when you have pretty beefy graphics card that chews up 26A...
So yeah, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you gotta shell out for a good one. I tried to get a cheap one too, infact I think it was even on these forums that people gave me the same advice I'm giving you now!
Ok.
Yeah we overtaxed our power supply and in turn it burnt our processor to a crisp thus introducing the need for a different motherboard.
#1 Golden Rule of electronics when i was studying it was, if theres something wrong, check the power supply. Its nearly always the problem.
DON'T go cheap, you get what you pay for with these things.
meh... ive never bought a power supply for more than $35. Usually around $15-$25. Currently I've got a quad core 2.66GHz, 3gb RAM, nvidia 8600 with 1gb ddr3 and i havent had a problem yet.
Quote from: ScarleTomato on September 21, 2009, 08:23:05 PM
meh... ive never bought a power supply for more than $35. Usually around $15-$25. Currently I've got a quad core 2.66GHz, 3gb RAM, nvidia 8600 with 1gb ddr3 and i havent had a problem yet.
lol.
DIE PSU DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE.
(youre a glob mod now... calm down)
true... yet in the 15 years i've actually owned a computer. I've never had a power supply failure from one of my computers. Cheap memory seems to go out for me more than anything. Then harddrives. In the 10 years i've been in the computer repair business ive had maybe one or two of our power supplies go out on me. We buy them by the crate at 7 bucks a pop. Usually they don't explode unless lightning hits em, you plug a dell powersupply into a whitebox mobo (or vice versa), or they don't have proper cooling (due to confined space, caked in dust, wasp nests, etc, etc...)
The only time i would recommend spending high dollar on a power supply is if you're going to be overclocking. and even then its not really for safety as it is for the power rating. The safety budget should be reserved more for cooling imo.
I got an Turbo-Cool 510 ATX Power supply in my system, had it for 6 or 7 years and it's handled like a dream, Built like a tank and very reliable.
http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/turbo-cool-510-atx.html if anyones interested
Ho, and thing thing is, it's heavy with loads of cables too. but it did cost over £150 at the time.
Quote
true... yet in the 15 years i've actually owned a computer. I've never had a power supply failure from one of my computers.
Back (1996-1998) when I was getting $20 PSUs, they died in 6 months. Spent 40-50, and they lasted years.
-- GSH
Power consumption in an old Pentium would be less than 200 watts.
Power supply in any new computer is at a minimum double that, and anyone sticking a couple of those heaters we're using for video cards now is going to need at least 600W of clean, stable power.
That being said I spent a little less than $100 at Newegg.com for an Antec 750W that I'm so in love with I sleep with it under my pillow. :)
-Av-
Like I've said before, use 2 power supplies. One for the drives and one for the MB and slots.
Quote from: Red Devil on September 22, 2009, 03:45:26 AM
Like I've said before, use 2 power supplies. One for the drives and one for the MB and slots.
'
so do you have a power supply hanging out of the back of your box?
Duct tape solves everything.
indeed it does
Corsair
Antec
FSP
?
Thermaltake has some good ones as well, but they also have some fail ones...
It depends on what kind of system you are putting on this supply. Smaller systems can run on almost no power at all hardly and even a cheap one may hold up well enough to not die for a long long time. It doesn't mean its doing a good job, it just means its really easy to power that system. This is especially true when you cross the threshold from medium/light gamer video card into the enthusiast/extreme gamer video card.
I remember a review site getting an no-name PSU that was 500W I believe. They hooked it up to their test rig which they had been measuring the draws. They had a variety of test wattage draws... something like 150W, 220W, 310W, 390W, 450W, etc... If memory serves, the 500W powered up the 150W system, then refused to power on the 220W, and died completely when it was asked to put up 310W. They had a replacement unit sent, 150W good, 220W fail start, 310W fail dead.
The numbers are probably different, as it was quite a while ago, but I remember it failing at half its branded load.