$26.99 CoolMax 400W PSU!

[tealk]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817159035

CoolMax 400W PSU for $26.99 Not to shabby.

 

[inthell]

nice

 

[labgeek]

This is kind of alive again... but you now have the option of getting an Al case too for $50 plus shipping..

I created a thread here before I found this... sorry

 

[MadScientist]

This maybe adequate for an older system only. Only single +12V 18A rail.

 

[RMSistight]

You get what you pay for.

 

[Interitus]

I think these are Fortron rebadges. At least the one I had looked like it. I bought the black version of the 400w to play around with PSU mods and stuff awhile back. Ran my Athlon XP setup just fine. Looks pretty identical to my Fortron on the inside with exception of the fan control PCB. Rails were good and stable and the PSU was quite heavy.

Should be a good budget buy for a non-OC'd P4 (478) system or Socket A/Sempron as long as you use a non-NF4 board.

 

[richardycc]

dont you need to buy the case to get this price?

 

[floydenheimer]

Coolmax makes solid PSU's. Nice bargain.

 

[sintaxera]

Yes, you have to buy the case to get this price. OP should change headline.

 

[fibes]

Originally posted by: richardycc
dont you need to buy the case to get this price?

Not a bad deal, but since you have to buy the case for this price, you can find a better deal with this combo:

Skyhawk case

Super-Flower PSU

 

[berkut7]

I got the deal from newegg. I'm not aware that you need to buy something else to get the 30 instant rebate. They let me have it for $26.99 + 6.99 shipping. But here's the interesting part: apparently the power supply inside the box is: CL-550L( +12V 35A!). There appears there's been some mistake, but I'm not complaining. One possibily that the PSU has a wrong label attached, but it's more likely I got a 550W PSU istead of 400W. I can add a photo, if I get some time.

 

[opulent]

Newegg now has it on for $32 w/ Free Three Day Shipping
One Day Sale, Ends 10/26/05 @ 5:30 P.M. PST

 

[aceO07]

I haven't bought any new hardward for a while so I'm out of it. If the PSU has a top fan, does that mean the case also needs an opening for the air to get out through the top?

 

[emjem]

Originally posted by: aceO07
I haven't bought any new hardward for a while so I'm out of it. If the PSU has a top fan, does that mean the case also needs an opening for the air to get out through the top?

That's a bottom fan.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: berkut7
I got the deal from newegg. I'm not aware that you need to buy something else to get the 30 instant rebate. They let me have it for $26.99 + 6.99 shipping. But here's the interesting part: apparently the power supply inside the box is: CL-550L( +12V 35A!). There appears there's been some mistake, but I'm not complaining. One possibily that the PSU has a wrong label attached, but it's more likely I got a 550W PSU istead of 400W. I can add a photo, if I get some time.

I got a CL-450L, so looks like a nice little freebie bonus even though the price is up to 36.99.

 

[mindless1]

Pretty sure these are not made by SPI/Sparkle/etc, might be Channel Well relabels. Not necessarily a great deal $27, that's about right, a reasonable value for a lower end system. 12V rail insufficient for a higher end system and 5V rail appears overrated. If 12V is similarly overrated, expect problems.

Newegg price now appears to be $57-20+7 S/H= $44. Deal hunters can do better for $44

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: mindless1
Pretty sure these are not made by SPI/Sparkle/etc, might be Channel Well relabels. Not necessarily a great deal $27, that's about right, a reasonable value for a lower end system. 12V rail insufficient for a higher end system and 5V rail appears overrated. If 12V is similarly overrated, expect problems.

Newegg price now appears to be $57-20+7 S/H= $44. Deal hunters can do better for $44

Seems to work nicely enough in my A64 @ 2.25 GHz. It has higher amp ratings than the Enermax that it replaced.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: mindless1
Pretty sure these are not made by SPI/Sparkle/etc, might be Channel Well relabels. Not necessarily a great deal $27, that's about right, a reasonable value for a lower end system. 12V rail insufficient for a higher end system and 5V rail appears overrated. If 12V is similarly overrated, expect problems.

Newegg price now appears to be $57-20+7 S/H= $44. Deal hunters can do better for $44

Seems to work nicely enough in my A64 @ 2.25 GHz. It has higher amp ratings than the Enermax that it replaced.

Therein lies the problem, the false amperage ratings. In this day and age, WHY do people keep mentioning what is printed on the label of an off-brand PSU???

Then again, Enermax in particular is also falsely rated, must be derated to 70% per the label. Point being, this is another one of those take-a-generic-made-pretty-and-rate-for-peak-instead-of-sustained-output, power supplies. Not that this should be surprising though, rather that the true price/capacity doesn't change, you'll just see inflated prices on some of the beautified generics.

With exception of the 12cm fan, these aren't much better than the typical pseudo-500W $25 PSU. That doesn't mean it won't run system "X" if system X's actual power needs are below the psu's actual power capability, BUT that also does not mean it will run long term in any particular config, nor what will happen if it POPs. That makes it a fair deal at $27, maybe, but not $44.

General rule of thumb, the lowest price obtainable for a PSU should be around 10% of the total system cost. Wattage rating on a label is pretty irrelevant when shopping the low-end power supply market.

 

[XMan]

Originally posted by: mindless1

Originally posted by: X-Man

Originally posted by: mindless1
Pretty sure these are not made by SPI/Sparkle/etc, might be Channel Well relabels. Not necessarily a great deal $27, that's about right, a reasonable value for a lower end system. 12V rail insufficient for a higher end system and 5V rail appears overrated. If 12V is similarly overrated, expect problems.

Newegg price now appears to be $57-20+7 S/H= $44. Deal hunters can do better for $44

Seems to work nicely enough in my A64 @ 2.25 GHz. It has higher amp ratings than the Enermax that it replaced.

Therein lies the problem, the false amperage ratings. In this day and age, WHY do people keep mentioning what is printed on the label of an off-brand PSU???

Then again, Enermax in particular is also falsely rated, must be derated to 70% per the label. Point being, this is another one of those take-a-generic-made-pretty-and-rate-for-peak-instead-of-sustained-output, power supplies. Not that this should be surprising though, rather that the true price/capacity doesn't change, you'll just see inflated prices on some of the beautified generics.

With exception of the 12cm fan, these aren't much better than the typical pseudo-500W $25 PSU. That doesn't mean it won't run system "X" if system X's actual power needs are below the psu's actual power capability, BUT that also does not mean it will run long term in any particular config, nor what will happen if it POPs. That makes it a fair deal at $27, maybe, but not $44.

General rule of thumb, the lowest price obtainable for a PSU should be around 10% of the total system cost. Wattage rating on a label is pretty irrelevant when shopping the low-end power supply market.

Seems to me that you're jumping to conclusions. Do you have any proof to offer that would conclude that listed ratings are incorrect?

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: X-ManSeems to me that you're jumping to conclusions. Do you have any proof to offer that would conclude that listed ratings are incorrect?

I was ready to write a few pages, but frankly I just don't care to prove it anymore, so, go ahead and take that gamble. If you really want to prove me wrong, set it up to output 400W with 40A on 5V rail, and run it like that for months. Vary the load and contrast recovery time with another known true-400W PSU. Ink on a label is cheap, open it up and compare to a good PSU, part-by-part.

I already know it'll die from output as rated on the label but some people just won't believe till they see it for themselves. Nevermind the undersized and spec'd capacitors, transformer, rectifiers, or crap fan. Hint- those who really know PSU can simply glance at this and know it's no 400W PSU. If you feel otherwise then I encourge you to actually TEST this long term before potentially misleading the AT community. Outputting 200-odd watts for a few months is not a valid test, unless of course the PSU label reads "250W Disposable" on it.

 

[Ghettocowboy]

A few $$$$ more, get thermaltake PS from newegg

 

[Samus]

I've got a sparkle 350-watt psu in an overclocked nforce4 system:

Athlon X2 3800+ @ 2.4GHz (each core is 2.4GHz)
Chaintech VNF4-Ultra nForce4 board
XFX 6600GT PCIe
Audigy2 PCI
2 Seagate 250GB Hard Drives
1 WD Raptor 36GB
1 BenQ DVDRW

Yes. Thats all on a 350-watt PSU. According to my APC UPS, total current draw from the whole system, minus the monitor, is 218 watts at full load in prime95, 199 watts at idle. I've managed to get it up to 260 watts while running 3dmark05 and burning a dvd-r at the same time. Still shy of the 350-watt peak output, which from experience, is underrated by SPI

Don't believe the hype. Nobody needs 500-600 watt PSU's. Most of them are crap anyway. This 400-watt, if built with quality components, is probably capable of running a great system with a high end 7800GT or something of the like. My hard disks alone kill about 40 watts of power, most people only have 1 drive.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: SamusDon't believe the hype. Nobody needs 500-600 watt PSU's. Most of them are crap anyway. This 400-watt, if built with quality components, is probably capable of running a great system with a high end 7800GT or something of the like. My hard disks alone kill about 40 watts of power, most people only have 1 drive.

you are correct that even most high-end systems need nowhere near 500W. That doesn't make a PSU with a label stating high wattage, any less deceptive though. The leap is the part about "if built with quality components". The wattage of a power supply is in direct relation to components used, it is the beginning, middle and end of how one PSU is 300W and another 500W. This PSU does not have the build quality of a 400W Sparkle, and a lower sustainable current than your 350W Sparkle.

 

[stuartkahler]

Seems to me that you're jumping to conclusions. Do you have any proof to offer that would conclude that listed ratings are incorrect?

My experience has been that the cheaper brand PSUs add up the max loads of every rail and call that the rating for the whole unit. The 'name brand' units pull back from this number by 20-30% to a number that the PSU could reasonably sustain on a 'typical' machine.

There are two problems with this:
1. A PSU will burn out quickly if run at 100%.
2. It doesn't matter how much total power the unit puts out if one of the rails is insufficient.

Number two is the most important one. If you're running a machine with dual CPUs, you're not going to draw power from the same rails as a machine running a high end graphics card. An under-utilized 3.3V rail won't help the insufficient 12V that's burning up. There's a lot of people plugging their high-end graphics card into the rail that was only being used by a few hard drives and CD burners before. That's a LOT of additional and unexpected power to supply.

There's a lot of voodoo in finding the right PSU. You could theoretically call the manufacturers for every part in your system, and ask for them for the max power draws from each rail, add them up, and then hunt down a 300W PSU that covers them all with an extra 20%. You'd probably have to build a few hundred of that particular machine to make it worth your time, though. This is how the big manufacturers get away with 250-350W PSUs, btw, and why upgrading a vid card in a prebuilt system often requires a PSU upgrade.

On to my anecdotal evidence:
My Super Flower PSU (cost me $15 on sale) is rated for 450W, and the rails add up to 480. My Thermaltake (cost me $40 on sale) is rated for 400W, and the rails add up to 520. I had a PSU once that came with the case, that was rated for 350. The rails added up to 345. The rails were not listed on the PSU; I used the part number to find the info on the manufacturer's web site. The system would lock up as soon as it displayed the windows desktop.

BTW, never buy a PSU that doesn't list the individual rails listed out. P=I*R Add the rails up yourself and check their math. A 400W PSU != a 400W PSU.

 

[cmv]

Down to $14.99 after $10 rebate + $6.99 shipping.