hot deals on a PSU

[biggerwang]

Originally posted by: TheWart
So the allied PSU's are not bad? I really need a good one. Also, could someone give me a link (or post right here) what the voltages in Motherboard monitor should be for my +/- 3.3, 5, and 12v rails? Thanks!

I wonder about that too.
Guys?

 

[pelikan]

I emailed Allied and they told me their 400W is less than 30dB, and their 450W is a little quieter (same fans but the exhaust mounts outside the case so there's no grate to block air flow). But I think I'm getting the Fortron/Sparkle 350W from Directron because it seems to be widely respected as a good power supply.

My 300W Enlight powers this machine just fine:
1800+
A7V266-E
512 ddr266
9500 pro
IBM 7200
DVD
CDRW
Floppy
NIC
SB live
3 fans

But I ordered an A7N8X and a 2400+. I want to make sure I have enough power to overclock this baby.

 

[rootaxs]

Originally posted by: ralphhorn
The Verax FSP300-60ATV mentioned in the Tom's Hardware article is available at Directron for $27... I ordered this PS on 12/26. It is scheduled to be delivered 1/7. I'll report back here regarding how quiet it is and how well its working.

Having had the same PS for a month now let me tell you this, it's *very* quiet. In fact were it not for the noisy coolermaster fan on my Athlon i'd have a relatively silent PC running right now. It's also been very stable inspite of all the peripherals i'm running on it (see previous page). Having built-in overload protection circuitry is also an added bonus

Btw, if weight is also any consideration. This baby weighs a tad more than most 350w P.S. i've found on Microcenter.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

Originally posted by: rootaxs

Having had the same PS for a month now let me tell you this, it's *very* quiet. In fact were it not for the noisy coolermaster fan on my Athlon i'd have a relatively silent PC running right now. It's also been very stable inspite of all the peripherals i'm running on it (see previous page). Having built-in overload protection circuitry is also an added bonus

Btw, if weight is also any consideration. This baby weighs a tad more than most 350w P.S. i've found on Microcenter.

did you buy yours off newegg or directron? (i guess they are both the same)

you seem to have almost the same system specs as me(check my profile link).. if that 300w one runs all that stuff of yours fine... it will probably be fine for me as well... i just need a quiet psu...

hmm im at 50-50 again .... Anyone have any advice b/w these 2 diff brands

 

[rootaxs]

I got it from Directron. Yep, we're pretty close as far as specs go. You're probably having a bit more load than me though (e.g. your vid card and xp1800). I've been able to OC both vid and cpu at times without a problem, the 3.3 and 5v lines go down just slightly but it's still pretty stable running memtest86 and prime. I would have gotten the P.S. from newegg but seeing as it'll cost me the same to get it locally, i went through Directron instead.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

Originally posted by: rootaxs
I got it from Directron. Yep, we're pretty close as far as specs go. You're probably having a bit more load than me though (e.g. your vid card and xp1800). I've been able to OC both vid and cpu at times without a problem, the 3.3 and 5v lines go down just slightly but it's still pretty stable running memtest86 and prime. I would have gotten the P.S. from newegg but seeing as it'll cost me the same to get it locally, i went through Directron instead.

so its real quiet?
any psus you can compare it against?

 

[rootaxs]

Compared to my 230w HiPRO P.S. the Fortron fooled me into thinking that perhaps it's not running. I say it's as quiet, if not more silent, than my 145w P.S. in my old Dell.

 

[sleefer]

Was in microcenter today and they have the FSP-350 there. Looks like a well made unit. Get this now, $84.99. Yep, but you get 20% off. What a rip, the also have the TruePower 430 for $99 -20% which makes it about what you can get it online for shipped.

 

[weepul]

i own a Allied 400W PSU and luv it. no problems with it so far. got it after my generic 300W PSU crapped out on me.

i think i paid newegg $55 shipped some time last year.

 

[UNCjigga]

I bought the $39.99 Antec SmartPower 400w from Compusa a few days ago. How does that compare to these PSUs?

 

[asdren]

thanks for putting together a very informative post with links to good products.

 

[dxpaap]

nice post - and of course I just saw it after I picked up a no name (turbolink) from a computer show this afternoon.

anyone heard of this one - 420 watts, two fans, 40A on the +5v, 18A on the +12V, and 28A on the +3.3v

thats 292.4w on the +3.3v/+5v lines combined ? I think ? V * A = W ?

Seems decent ? I have no idea what the variance is - anyone know how I could tell ?

oh yea - cost $35

thx

 

[Crucial]

Originally posted by: dxpaap
nice post - and of course I just saw it after I picked up a no name (turbolink) from a computer show this afternoon.

anyone heard of this one - 420 watts, two fans, 40A on the +5v, 18A on the +12V, and 28A on the +3.3v

thats 292.4w on the +3.3v/+5v lines combined ? I think ? V * A = W ?

Seems decent ? I have no idea what the variance is - anyone know how I could tell ?

oh yea - cost $35

thx

I had this exact power supply for about 6 months before it almost burned up my system. I started getting crashes saying my video hardware was failing. I pulled the psu plug out of the MB and there were 3 black sockets on the plug. I don't know how much longer it would have lasted before burning up the whole thing.

I had luckily just ordered an Antec 430W true power to replace it. Very nice unit, very quiet and has great specs. 36A on the +5V, 20A on the +12V, and 28A on the +3V. Key spec being the 12V line. A majority of the PSU's you see are way over spec'd on the 5V line and not nearly enough on the 12V.

Nope, on the P4-spec compliant motherboards the CPU uses 12V, but AGP, memory, etc, use predominatly 5V, some 3V.

On the majority of Athlon systems the 5V line is used for processor, the 12V hardly powers anything EXCEPT HDD, Optical Drives, fans. It's quite easy to tell looking at the motherboards, if it uses the 12V line, it always uses the ATX12V connector AFAIK, even on an Athlon motherboard.

I would like to know where you are getting this information. Do you have any proof to these truths that are being put out there? I see 2 seperate articles from respected sources stating the exact opposite of what is being said in this thread. That puts a big cloud of doubt over you statements. This is not a personal attack on you or others who are saying the same things as you. It would just make it more believable if there were some proof to back up your statements.

Taken from the firingsquad article.

Athlon and Pentium 4 CPUs run entirely on the +12V rail and you can determine their power consumption using the following formula that takes into account voltage regular inefficiencies:



1.25/12*core voltage* current


The processor?s current can be determined by reading AMD and Intel PDF tech documents, but as a general rule of thumb, the higher the raw megahertz, the higher the current, and the smaller the die process, the lower the current. We?ve listed some common CPUs below:

Processor Consumption

+12V Current CPU
5.742188 Thunderbird 1GHz
6.289063 Thunderbird 1.1GHz
6.466667 Thoroughbred 2100+
6.55 Thoroughbred 2200+
6.872396 Palomino 1800+
7.115625 Thoroughbred 2400+
7.115625 Thoroughbred 2600+
7.291667 Palomino 2000+
7.492188 Palomino 2100+
8.145 Northwood 2GHz
8.505521 Northwood 2.4GHz
8.53526 Northwood 2.2GHz
9.292188 Northwood 2.6
9.707813 Northwood 3.06GHz
10.1175 Northwood 2.8GHz

Doesn't sound like speculation about future usage.

[edit] I bought a 430W not a 480W [/edit]

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: csaddict
I had this exact power supply for about 6 months before it almost burned up my system. I started getting crashes saying my video hardware was failing. I pulled the psu plug out of the MB and there were 3 black sockets on the plug. I don't know how much longer it would have lasted before burning up the whole thing.

I had luckily just ordered an Antec 480W true power to replace it. Very nice unit, very quiet and has great specs. 36A on the +5V, 20A on the +12V, and 28A on the +3V. Key spec being the 12V line. A majority of the PSU's you see are way over spec'd on the 5V line and not nearly enough on the 12V.

Your black sockets on the plug were from arcing. It's not a problem with the quality of the PSU per se, but the ATX connector contacts. Most likely your motherboard's ATX header has smaller-than-usual pins in it, the connector on the PSU was defective, or the installer or user put excessive strain on it when plugging/unplugging. Certainly the mechanical contacts are the weak link in most electrical circuits. Could this has a negative effect on the PSU? Possibly, through continued open and closed circuit it would be experiencing repeated high-drain cycles to an extreme.

The interesting thing about it is that most likely your old Turbolink and New Antec are both made by Channel Well, probably not as different as you think. There are a TON of those PSU being sold in cases, if there were significant problems, reports would be spreading over the 'net.

Originally posted by: csaddict

Originally posted by: mindless1
Nope, on the P4-spec compliant motherboards the CPU uses 12V, but AGP, memory, etc, use predominatly 5V, some 3V.

On the majority of Athlon systems the 5V line is used for processor, the 12V hardly powers anything EXCEPT HDD, Optical Drives, fans. It's quite easy to tell looking at the motherboards, if it uses the 12V line, it always uses the ATX12V connector AFAIK, even on an Athlon motherboard.

I would like to know where you are getting this information. Do you have any proof to these truths that are being put out there? I see 2 seperate articles from respected sources stating the exact opposite of what is being said in this thread. That puts a big cloud of doubt over you statements. This is not a personal attack on you or others who are saying the same things as you. It would just make it more believable if there were some proof to back up your statements.

Taken from the firingsquad article.

Athlon and Pentium 4 CPUs run entirely on the +12V rail and you can determine their power consumption using the following formula that takes into account voltage regular inefficiencies:

1.25/12*core voltage* current


The processor?s current can be determined by reading AMD and Intel PDF tech documents, but as a general rule of thumb, the higher the raw megahertz, the higher the current, and the smaller the die process, the lower the current. We?ve listed some common CPUs below:

Processor Consumption

+12V Current CPU
5.742188 Thunderbird 1GHz
6.289063 Thunderbird 1.1GHz
6.466667 Thoroughbred 2100+
6.55 Thoroughbred 2200+
6.872396 Palomino 1800+
7.115625 Thoroughbred 2400+
7.115625 Thoroughbred 2600+
7.291667 Palomino 2000+
7.492188 Palomino 2100+
8.145 Northwood 2GHz
8.505521 Northwood 2.4GHz
8.53526 Northwood 2.2GHz
9.292188 Northwood 2.6
9.707813 Northwood 3.06GHz
10.1175 Northwood 2.8GHz

Doesn't sound like speculation about future usage.

If you don't know how to look at a circuit and follow it on a PCB, or haven't ever taken meter readings on a motherboard, I'm not surprised that you believe what's posted on a website, especially without encountering any info to the contrary it would be the only conclusion one could make.

Let's look at what the Firing Squad author wrote, that Athlons "run entirely on the 12V rail". This is where the mistake was made. From that point, the next logical step was to produce a ton of numbers that started with an invalid supply voltage, which made be laugh a little when I saw the attempt to be precise by not rounding off to the significant digits.

To repeat what I wrote earlier, there are some boards that use 12V for the CPU, perhaps the Firing Squad author has one, and jumped to conclusions. Another possibility is that he read another article incorrectly or the prior article was incorrect... this is a very common way that urban myths and other falsehoods spread the 'net.

Take a look at your board, for example (if you have an Athlon system, of course)... I have never seen an Athlon board that uses 12V for the CPU but doesn't have the ATX12V 4-pin connector. To say that it would be such a poor design that no manufacturers would leave out the 4-pin connector is an understatement, quite a few of the systems based on that design wouldn't work properly, would have only a single 12V lead from the primary ATX connector going to a single trace an on to the onboard power supply section of the board.

There is a 5V power plane layer on the motherboard, but not a 12V except for a brief distance from an ATX12V 4-pin connector to the mosfets. The rest of the 12V circuits are using very small traces because the handle very little current. In other words, if you don't have that power connector fairly near to the mosfets, you don't have a board that uses 12V for the CPU. Don't believe me, it's your choice. However, if you are making any important decisions based on this, you ought to do a bit more research or get out a multimeter and test a motherboard lacking the ATX12V 4-pin connector to see for yourself.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

any1 else have a favor of allied or fortron?

 

[tbrooks40]

the way i understood this when i looked a while ago was that amd ran primarily on the 5v rail and p4's on the 12v rail. of course my source could be wrong. not that big of a deal to me really so i accepted it as they seem to have researched it pretty good.

also, the TTGI's and older Sentron psu's are top of the line as well - so add them to the list. I cant find the Sentrons anymore accept for very high end applications. the TTGI's can be had at Directron and a few other places. i believe the TTGI's were focused at MP setups. good post Humble.

 

[dxpaap]

good thread here, should be over in the "case & cooling" section

 

[gwlam12]

what does it mean by 8 large and 2 small leads?

i ran out of plugs for my drives. my psu has four of them (i dont know what these plugs are called).

i have four drives, but can only power 3 of them since the fourth plug goes into my volcano 7+ heatsink.

so does 8 large mean i can power by drives?

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: dxpaap
good thread here, should be over in the "case & cooling" section

I disagree, since this has prices and hot deals for the PSUs.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

so if im reading this toms hardware article correctly:
it says that the fortran 300 w unit (verax) is alittle bit quieter than the 350w fortran unit (conrad)

and its $15 cheaper,maybe i should just get that then? cause i think the 300w one should be ok with my system...

http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/powersupplies-08.html

 

[HumblePie]

Heh, this thread debate got blown way out of proportion. The whole point of this thread in the HOT DEAL forums was to show a hot deal for those wanting to buy a NEW power supply. If you already own one and it runs your X cpu, on Y mobo, with Z devices, great, good for you. I'm a firm beleiver in the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I was merely providing useful information along with WHY this was such a hot deal so those that don't really know how to tell the difference between a good PSU and a bad one won't throw their money away on a $50 paper weight. IMHO, and those of many others, if you are looking to power a NEW system with a NEW power supply, and want to get the best with no hassles, and without having to spend and arm and a leg; then the Fortron 350w from directron is the best buy.

Why? Because it's the cheapest, most well made, and will power ANY PERSONAL COMPUTER. I'm not talking server racks or such I'm talking strictly garden variety personcal computer, even if it overclocked, running a bazzillion fans, harddrives, optical drivers, and full pci slots. Okay, maybe a slight exxageration but I'm hoping you get the point. There isn't anything you can put in your personal computer that this will falter at. PERIOD. It's quiet, efficient, and produces less heat because of it's well made design. I've already explained in detail about the specs and why it is good.

 

[compudog]

Originally posted by: Mangos
I go to this PSU.

Now that's funny!

 

[Cybordolphin]

Gee...

So the neat color PS from Directron are all junk eh?
Would look SO cool in my new moded case!

Cmon.... it says they are AMD approved!? Want it in RED!

 

[gwlam12]

Originally posted by: gwlam12
what does it mean by 8 large and 2 small leads?

i ran out of plugs for my drives. my psu has four of them (i dont know what these plugs are called).

i have four drives, but can only power 3 of them since the fourth plug goes into my volcano 7+ heatsink.

so does 8 large mean i can power my drives?

 

[FreakyGuy]

Originally posted by: dxpaap
nice post - and of course I just saw it after I picked up a no name (turbolink) from a computer show this afternoon.

anyone heard of this one - 420 watts, two fans, 40A on the +5v, 18A on the +12V, and 28A on the +3.3v

thats 292.4w on the +3.3v/+5v lines combined ? I think ? V * A = W ?

Seems decent ? I have no idea what the variance is - anyone know how I could tell ?

oh yea - cost $35

thx

I have this exact PSU. Been running it over a year now and only had to replace one fan due to dusty conditions here where I live. I have 5 normal fans and 2 high speed fans, 3 hard drives, a DVD-Rom, CDRW and a floppy all running of this PSU. Also I can confirm that this is made by Channel Well Technologies who makes some Antec models.

It's a good PSU for the price IMO, it's somewhat light but has dual fans which helps on cooling.

Oh rest of specs:
AMD Athlon XP 1700(1.47mhz) OC'd to 1704 mhz Air Cooled
BFG Geforce 4200 TI 128mb newest revision
768 (3x256) megs of Crucial DDR 2100
I-Will XP333-R Mobo Rev 2.1
Soundblaster Live! X-Gamer
Generic network adapter with 384/384 DSL