hot deals on a PSU

[gwlam12]

so how many 12V plugs are there?

 

[mindless1]

Originally posted by: 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!

Well, I suppose you could gut the PSU and fill with whatever you like

Here's another example of a junk PSU... 450W rating, gold grills, gold (colored) anodized heatsinks, cable sheath, even two clear fans... to the untrained eye I suppose it looks like a real dandy, but the inside reveals undersized regulators that would be considered inferior on even a 250W PSU.

 

[dxpaap]

Originally posted by: FreakyGuy

Originally posted by: dxpaap

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

FreakyGuy, thx for the response - since my system is not as "full bodied" as yours, I'm confident that this turbolink will meet my needs

 

[ralphhorn]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I ordered the Fortron / Verax FSP300-60ATV mentioned in the Tom's Hardware Guide article for $27 at Directron.

I received the PS today and I am very happy with it.

Its very quiet.

It has large heatsinks inside the PS to keep it cool without running a fan at high speed.

I can now hear the noise from my HD which I could not hear previously.

For $27 plus $6 shipping, this seems like an excellent deal.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

just ordered the 350w one from directron.. 45 shipped!

 

[Orunitia]

Originally posted by: 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

I also like to give my feedback on this PSU. I'm currently using the same 420watt turbolink PSU they're describing here that came with the chieftec case that was on sale for $55 quite a while ago. Here's the specs on the system it's powering:

Athlon XP1800+ @ 11.5*138 (1600)
Abit KX7-333r w/ 3x256meg PC2700 running at aggressive timings
2xMaxtor 80gig in RAID0
1xMaxtor 13.6gig
VisionTek Geforce3 Ti200 64megs
Acoustic Edge Sound Card
Plextor 24x burner
Liteon 16xDVD reader
Netgeat NIC
5-port USB2.0 card
Powering 4 80mm fans(2 exhaust & 2 intake)

So far no problems with this PSU and it's been running for at least 6 months now. The 12v rail is a little low though at 11.85-11.95

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

i actually have the turbolink 420w psu right now as well.. it came with my chieftec case from newegg too
it seems very very loud to me... thats why i wanted a new one

 

[Cybordolphin]

Ok ... I'm in for the Fortron 350 watter from Directron.
But... if it does not push the faster AMD XP CPUs (2200+) I am gonna come knockin on your door!

 

[rootaxs]

Originally posted by: Cybordolphin
Ok ... I'm in for the Fortron 350 watter from Directron.
But... if it does not push the faster AMD XP CPUs (2200+) I am gonna come knockin on your door!

No guarantee's from me, but if i can OC an XP 1700+ (Palomino) to effective XP2100/2200 speeds on a 300w Fortron and you have a newer XP core (lower voltage requirements) then chances are you'll be fine on a 350w Directron.

 

[Lister]

That "test" on Tom's Hardware isn't very thourough(sp). All they really test is how much power each supply actually puts out. I guess that's very important for someone who's putting together a RAID setup, but in that case wtf are you buying a 300/350W PS? You shouldn't touch anything less than 450W. If you check this review: Tech-Report's PSU Comparo you can see they don't even go into acutal wattage, but instead test the actual power occurring at each rail (3.3, 5, 12). This to me is a much more important measure of how good a power supply is. Also, how about electric noise? I've yet to ever see a review test this, and yet how many times do you hear people whine about how they can hear "buzzes" when they turn up the volume in their PC's? Finally, Tom's Hardware doesn't note that the Tru power had DEDICATED output circuitry for 3.3V and 5V! This is very important, and I can't see how they fail to mention this. Can you show me tests where the Fortron has it's rails tested under high loads? That's the kind of proof I need to warrant a PSU switch.

 

[Miramonti]

What timing on this thread. My psu just died for no good reason (except that it has 150 max watts and its loaded to the hilt!...so now I know ). Unfortunately this thread helped newegg sell out of humbliepies rec's.

 

[SpacemanSpiffVT]

get the fortron off directron.com
its cheaper plus has the noise killer apparently

 

[Bonesdad]

TechDepot has Antec TruePower 330 for 55.95 with free shipping. Coupons are often out there too. Not hot, but warm for a great PSU.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: SpacemanSpiffVT
get the fortron off directron.com its cheaper plus has the noise killer apparently

thx., cant beat $38, "$75 for two" (not a major volume discount there...). I'm going to get two just in case.

 

[rootaxs]

To make the deal better check out their discounts page. Btw, they also have coupons for discounts off $60 purchases and more.

 

[sleefer]

I'm suprised that nobody has mentioned this before, the FSP-350's at Newegg and Directron are not the same models. The Newegg Sparkle unit is an FSP350-60BTS and the Directron is an FST350-60BN(S), I believe, even thought they don't show the "S" or 12V on the end of the model number. If you check Sparkles' website you'll see that they list more than one FSP350 model, in fact they have two FSP350-60BN models listed. The Directron unit appears to be a variant of this FSP350-60BNS. since they list it as a P4 power supply even though they do not include the "S"(not a Sparkle branded unit). But, Sparkle also list's this FSP350-60BN on their site. The Newegg model was this FSP350-BTS(12V). Be sure if you are ordering anywhere else besides these two places that you are getting the correct "BNS" model ("S" = +12V) because the FSP350-60BN (without the "S") is an older ATX 2.01 non +12V power supply lacking the 4-pin aux. connector and only providing 10A on the +12V rail. Both the FSP350-60BNS and FSP350-BTS have 15A on the 12V rail. The FSP350-60BNS (12V) is the newer model, but not the one tested in the toms hardware article. All three have the TCO of 220W so you can't go by that. An easy way to tell is the -BNS and -BTS sparkle models have an on/off switch, the older -BN model does not as seen here.

EDIT: The Fortron Source at Directron may not have a switch and still be the "S" model. It's not a Sparkle branded unit as far as I can tell.

 

[x94blair3]

Okay, extreme stupid question...

Assuming I want something heavy duty....but for my AMD athlonxp (not pentium4) machine will this work?

fsp40060pfn

How about this one?

fsp35060bn

And what's the frickin difference between the first one, and this one?!?!

Another 400w sparkle

*edit* Just clarifying on this last link I'm referring to the one on the bottom. Thanks!

All very confusing....I don't remember being this confused when I did a buttload of research on my cpu heatsink.

Thanks for the help from someone in the "know"

-Nick

 

[sleefer]

x94blair3- The first and the third (400W) are the same basic unit, but the -PFN appears to be the model that has an active PFC circuit (power factor correction). The -GN does not have this. The Directron one's are not the Sparkle brand the Newegg one is. I'd take the Directron one myself. The second one (350W) is the one that I was referring to in my post, it is also a Fortron branded unit. They all three appear to be the newer (+12V) models, so any of the three should be okay.

 

[rootaxs]

Here's the specs on each one you asked about:

http://www.sparklepower.com/pdf/FSP400-60PFN(12V).pdf
http://www.sparklepower.com/pdf/FSP400-60GN(12V).pdf

 

[sleefer]

I guess I should've explained that PFC is preferred. It converts current into power at a more efficient rate compared to the same unit without it...

EDIT: Dang, I can't spell today.

 

[x94blair3]

Okay, so we're all agreed (between the PDF's & opinion) that the directron version is a better one.

These will run on my AMD system right? I know how kooky some pentium stuff is. Just making sure that I don't need some special "AMD version". I couldn't find anything that seemed to indicate that there is some "other version" on sparkles site, but wanted to make sure. I know I had to be careful when evaluating heatsinks.

Thanks for the help...

-Nick

 

[sleefer]

You should be fine with the Athlon as long as not running a system that would require more power than it can provide for other devices attached to it. The fact that it's an Athlon CPU and not a P4 won't matter.

 

[BentValve]

I hate to have to hand you a piece of humble pie there Humble Pie but your information is wrong.

Nice post yes but you are way ,way off one very major point and I cannot believe nobody has said anything.
The CPU does not use the 3.3 and 5v lines AT ALL!!!! It uses the 12V rail buddy. The 12V rail is as important as the 3.3 and 5v lines.
And it also just so happens that the CPU uses more power than anything else in your computer , an Athlon XP can use more than 8amps!!
It is very important that you have a very sturdy 12V rail since the hoggish CPU feeds from it.

What to look for in a psu... total +3.3v and +5v COMBINED wattage. In the above example my old 300w sparkle had a rating of 180. More then enough for anything less then the new p4's and xp chips and systems but finally falters at the new system requirements. My new 400w (brand name I won't mention) was a measly 160w. The reason this is important is because the motherboard, cpu, agp/pci, and usb devices all run off this part of the power supply. Your HDD's, optical drives, and a few case fans/lights run off the 12v lines which make up the rest of the wattage. These devices don't draw nearly as much wattage usually as compared with everything running off the 3.3v/5v lines. The new XP's and P4 systems really require a minimum of 220 watts total for the +3.3v/+5v lines combined wattage. Many of the newer 450+w psu's provide just that 220w minimun but cost an arm and a leg. There are however a couple psu's that won't and I consider VERY hot deals for the quality you get out of them

 

[dxpaap]

 

[render]

The CPU does not use the 3.3 and 5v lines AT ALL!!!!

Wrong. Most Athlon MBs use 3.3 and 5v for CPU. Intel started to use 12V for their cpu with 4-pin 12V connector.