DEAL OVER! Delta DPS-300BB 300W ATX PSU, OEM ***Now back to full price...$29.99***

[stevejst]

This particular Delta has low output on 12V so it is not surprising to have reading low as well. As long as you are in 5% of 12V you are OK though it is obvious you will not be overclocking anything with this PSU, the +5V is just about OK, 3.3 is not doing much either. But then again what would you expect for $13? If the reading goes lower you are endagering your hard drives with that low 12V line. I would be very apprehensive about that.

 

[mindless1]

stevejst, I'm sorry you don't like these PSU, but my offer to you still stands... Open up your Enermax and we can compare them better.

As for overclocking with it, my Athlon XP1600 o'c fine to XP2200 with this PSU, with 3 HDD and 4 optical drives, Geforce 3, 1GB of memory, enough fans to keep the system more than cool enough. Thanks to AT threads like this one, it's almost silly how inexpensive it was to build myself yet another system (not that I need another one, but you know how that goes...) My second Delta 300BB went into a box that has a Celery 600 o'c to 1200, and I can assure you that THAT old system is about as picky as it gets about clean power, didn't hiccup once with the Delta.

I think someone would have to spend a minimum of 3X as much to get a better PSU, and still would have to be particular about which one they choose. If that someone would rather buy an Enermax, fine... that leaves more Deltas for the rest of us

 

[stevejst]

I've said nowhere that I don't like Delta. You have done quite a magic with 300W power supply, the way you described.
I was commenting the readings Xidus has in his Bios, nothing magical there, I'd say his power supply is obviously underperforming. Perhaps you can help him tweak that.
My Enermax 350W is doing fine, all lines are stable, nothing to worry about. More or less that is the experience of many more Enermax users though of course it does cost a "little" more than $13. I have no intention of replacing it with 300W PSU no matter what are the opinions expressed on this board.
I could consider that for a low end system, I have 5 or 6 of those around and a cheap replacement power supply would be nice to have, I admit. Fortunately I have two already so for now I'll spare $13 for other things.

 

[ElectricLegs]

I cracked mine open like I always do and it's a nice piece of hardware. It has all the stuff you'll find in a $60+ PS including the bigger TO-243 transistors/diodes which I usually upgrade my other cheapo's to and huge chokes/coils etc. Top quality!

The 12 volt line could be lower than 11v and still run Ok. It won't change the OC'ing ability since the 3.3 and 5v fuel those circuits.

 

[wasamicron]

If weight is an indication of quality, I'd say this is a very good power supply. I can't believe how quick I got my order from Directron. I ordered it in the afternoon on Tues. with UPS Ground, and they still shipped same day, and I got it on Fri. Wow!
Forgot to mention that when i placed order, I listed "anandtech forums" as referrer. When i got my invoice back, this exact thread address was printed on invoice. Guess Directron pays attention!

 

[porkbun]

Good to know, as mine is coming tomorrow. I don't need it, but a backup for $13 will come in handy at some point.

 

[MrHans]

I just ordered three myself... I figure @ least two of em ought to work right!
hans

 

[porkbun]

It works for my Gigabyte 7DX, but it doesn't work for my Epox 8K7A+. Do you guys know why? For my 8K7A+, sometimes it would power on for 1 second and then shut off. Other times it doesn't even power on.

 

[Wurlybird9]

Originally posted by: mrhans
I just ordered three myself... I figure @ least two of em ought to work right!
hans

Yeah I got 3 also. I sure hope these work with my ECS K7S5a's. If they really are a steal, it's amazing this deal is still good. How many of these did Directron get?!

 

[MrHans]

Just a thought, but try disconnectiong some of the devices pulling power ie: cdroms extra drives and fans etc... It may be asking more than this lil feller can give!
hans

Originally posted by: porkbun
It works for my Gigabyte 7DX, but it doesn't work for my Epox 8K7A+. Do you guys know why? For my 8K7A+, sometimes it would power on for 1 second and then shut off. Other times it doesn't even power on.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: porkbun
It works for my Gigabyte 7DX, but it doesn't work for my Epox 8K7A+. Do you guys know why? For my 8K7A+, sometimes it would power on for 1 second and then shut off. Other times it doesn't even power on.

More system specifics (component/load) might help, although your best bet is likely newsgroup posts related to the 8K7A+... does it have the D-LED or whatever (any codes listed)?

A [random speculation] is that the 8K7A+ has inferior 2-stage regulator circuitry onboard... possibly manifested as a 5V rail problem, might be overcome by tweaking that POT inside the PSU (suggest turning it in 15 degree increments and attempting boot/POST).

 

[stevejst]

The 12 volt line could be lower than 11v and still run Ok.

No it won't. It might run, but it won't run OK. You are endagering mechanical components of your hard drives and that sounds very foolish to me. Not to mention a possibility of having your CPU fan underpowered.
Recommendations for +12V line are +/- 5% and that is very lax.
If you are overclocking and exhausting 3.3 and 5 max then not much is left for 12V line and that will easily cause the hard drive failure. It might cause CPU fan failure (it needs about 5W of 12V *continuous* current, not a peak) and that will shut down your boot if your motherboard has "health control" feature or simply melt your CPU if not. How smart is that?
If it is OK for you to be careless, go ahead but don't try to convince others in the opposite.

 

[porkbun]

First, thanks for your input. Let me give you the full details of my system
EP-8K7A+ 384 MB DDR XP 1800+
Volcano 6 Cu
Geforce3 Ti200
One USB 4-port PCI card
One Ethernet card
Three HDDs
Three DVD-ROM/CD-ROM/CD-RW drives
One floppy drive
Two case fans

It may be too much for the 300-W Delta, but even my crappiest no-name junk PS would power it up and crash in Windows. My A+ GPB 400-W is working very fine. For the 7DX, all the power supplies (including two junk ones) work, but I don't have the same components on it, though, so it may be the reason. But, still, I would think it should at least power it up and crash at some point. Even so, I agree with you that the Delta is well-built; it has superb large capacitors, compared to the tiny little ones in my junk units. I guess it's just a coincidence that the Delta doesn't work with my 8K7A+. Knowing that it works for my 7DX, I am quite satisfied, as I will purchase another 1800+ pretty soon and will need the Delta.

PS: I also tried tweaking the POT, but it did not help.

After reading some newsgroup threads, it seems like the 8K7A+ is incompatible with some Enermax PSes. It's not that Enermax is bad. People are saying the 8K7A+ "drags down the 5V line too much." I dunno what exactly the problem is, but it now appears to be merely an incompatibility issue, not an inability one.

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: stevejst

The 12 volt line could be lower than 11v and still run Ok.

No it won't. It might run, but it won't run OK. You are endagering mechanical components of your hard drives and that sounds very foolish to me. Not to mention a possibility of having your CPU fan underpowered.
Recommendations for +12V line are +/- 5% and that is very lax.
If you are overclocking and exhausting 3.3 and 5 max then not much is left for 12V line and that will easily cause the hard drive failure. It might cause CPU fan failure (it needs about 5W of 12V *continuous* current, not a peak) and that will shut down your boot if your motherboard has "health control" feature or simply melt your CPU if not. How smart is that?
If it is OK for you to be careless, go ahead but don't try to convince others in the opposite.

First off, I've never tried using or testing a system where the 12V line was under 11V, I can't give predictions for success/failure, but I do know that the motor controller circuitry will give QUITE a bit of latitude in what voltages it'll tolerate, it's not at all sensitive like 3/5V.

Whether the 12V line is exactly 12V or a little under is not significant to the CPU fan... if the CPU is THAT close to overheating, a few hundred RPM loss from the fan is the least of the problems.

Stevejst, there is something you still seem to be misunderstanding about Delta power supplies... They are high-end workstation and server oriented (Delta dominates the server market), NOT consumer marketed, very conservatively rated. An Enermax EG365, for example, has a MTBF based on a 70% load, meaning it's rated at 245W continuous output for that MTBF. The Delta's MTBF is at 100% of it's 300W capacity, 300W continuous output. You can't really compare this Delta PSU to other 300W PSU (like a 300W Sparkle or Antec, etc) because it's better built, only listed as a "300W" BECAUSE Delta uses a conservative rating system. In other words, I wouldn't be surprized at all, if (when put head-to-head) this Delta can support/output more clean 12V power with it's 13.5A rating, than many PSU of higher 12V ratings.

When a power supply is inadequate on a rail, increasing the load on that rail will ALWAYS decrease the voltage on that rail. We've seen reports of the 12V line being under 12V, but based on my experiences with these PSU (using common/typical equipment), this is solely a POT-adjustment or motherboard reporting issue, and when the load is increased, the voltage doesn't significantly drop as it MUST when a power supply is inadequate.

 

[stevejst]

Yes, you got it right. I have a bunch of PCs and one of them is with Epox 8KHA+, every power supply I tried on that system was showing 5V line at or below 5. Enermax included. It kept the line stable up to 145Mhz front bus but above that it would rapidly drop and the system would not boot windows. I repeated that with Channel Well 350W and got 2 more Mhz but that was all.
Now I am using Enhance 350W on that system and it gives me the most. Enhance is what is called "workhorse" so the only other option would be to use 400+W power supply.
Epox boards are power hungry so it is good to have that in mind while buying one.
Gigabyte 7DX is one great board, I have one too, the front bus is 15Mhz overclocked and 300W PSU was quite enough.
But it doesn't offer that many overclocking features as Epox, that is for sure.

11V? Mindless, Delta PSU are on many places, nothing exceptional and secretive about them. And since you are saying they are only OEM manufacturer, did ever cross your mind that these PSUs could be used?
But I am not going to debate further because for the converted no argument is good enough. I am sure you would claim that you can power you refrigerator and few other appliances with the same PSU. Good luck.

 

[Xidus]

Damnit stevejst stop scaring me! Now I have to worry about my computer melting.

 

[kenja]

Xidus: I recommend mounting it in the aforementioned refrigerator.

 

[erickotz]

Cool, now if I only new how to adjust it or even if I would want to. My bios says;
vcore: 1.77V
vtt: 1.50V
VIO: 3.28V
+5V: 4.99V
+12V: 11.67V
-12V: -12.26
-5V: -5.02V

I'm gonna say it's best for you and your equipment, that if you don't know how to adjust it, you leave it alone. Tweak it too high and you can fry stuff. You could also electrocute yourself inside.
Also, who's to say how accurate the voltage monitoring on these motherboards is? Time to get out my Fluke 79 and see how close my BP6's are

 

[sleefer]

erickotz-I agree with you on that, don't mess with it unless you know what your doing and know for sure that you need to.
Here's some readings that I took with a multimeter and what my bios says:

---------> bios--------->multimeter
+5V-----> 4.86---------->4.94
+12V--->11.87--------->12.16
+3.3V-->3.29----------->3.35

So the bios is off in my case. These were taken with a full load, by the way, not sitting idle. Also it's with an Athlon 1.4, Radeon 8500, 256MB PC2100 DDR RAM, U160 SCSI controller, 2 10K U160 HDD's, 3 Optical drives, PCI NIC card, PCI sound card. Oh, forgot to mention, also 6 fans.

 

[CartysCrib]

Maybe you powersupply gurus can offer some insight into why mine doesnt work.

I opened it, noticed it was switched to 230, switched it to 115, put it in my system, fan only spins for 1 second then stops. I did the green wire/ground trick, does the same thing
HOWEVER
If I switch it to 230, it runs the fan forever but wont boot the system

Smokin deal for $13...............................If it works

 

[mindless1]

We seem to have missed something, or maybe it wasn't available before.......

Free Power Cord with any order.

 

[overdoze]

I bought the two Delta DPS-300BB power supplies on Jul 14; they were both DOA. When I push the on button, The power supply fan just spin a little bit and then stop. I RMA'ed both of them; and I received them back today 7/25/02. They are both dead again!. The power supplies have been test on these mother boards: EPOX-8kah+, EPOX-3kta+, ASUS-P2B, and Iwill-KK266. I also check the power switch to make sure It is set at 115V. I post this as a warning to anyone, thinking about getting this power supply.

 

[CartysCrib]

I'm trying this on an Iwill KK266 as well.
I don't know why, But try switching the PS back to 230 and bridging the green wire & a ground...it will turn on...I did this with mine, it just wont spin drives...only fans.. no clue
These power supplies suck!
I requested an RMA as well
I also found a post on their boards stating these are old OEM units from Acer Computers.

I just want a working 300w ps

 

[Bob/NYC]

The Directron used junkyard stole $20 from me too,
with a dead salvaged Acer PSU ! Good thing I didn't spend
real money. :-(

Your 4 dead PSUs are NO accident-WARNING!!!!

 

[sleefer]

Sorry some of you guys are having problems with these. I've added a warning to the title and in my original post stating it. I wonder if they are selling the same one's to someone else that you guys are sending back to them.