Thermaltake 430W Power Supply 23.99 AMIR Free Ship

[mitchafi]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153023

 

[Zap]

This is a great value for older computers, however it is not suitable for a modern gaming PC. Why?

+12v 18A

This is basically a cheap, older design that Thermaltake keeps milking. Besides a weak +12v rail, it is only 65% efficient. On the flip side, this PSU is beefier on the +5v than most modern units, making it great for older rigs.

Antec EarthWatts 430W has been almost this cheap when on sale, and it is 80% efficient and has 30A of +12v power. This is a more modern power supply designed for a modern rig that needs more +12v and less of the other voltages.

So, if you want a cheap PSU for an older AGP rig, this is the PSU for you. If you want a cheap PSU for a new PCIe rig with a decent video card, this is not the PSU for you.

 

[mitchafi]

interesting, thanks.

 

[evilsaint]

I agree with you, Zap, but I actually used a similar TTake PSU (same wattage, possibly a weaker 12v rail) in a previous rig with zero issues whatsoever. Pulled off some rather impressive benchmarks too, I might add, and it ran Prime95 stable for days on end... For reference, ** takes a deep breath ** the rig had a heavily OC'd X1900XT 512MB, heavily OC'd Opty 165, 2GB of OC'd, tight-timing RAM, four fans (three 80s and a 120) off a controller, two IDE HDs, two IDE opticals, two SATA2 drives in RAID with a PCI controller, PCI soundcard and myriad USB peripherals to boot.

I know that this probably sounds like a post just to puff my chest out (and it is, a tiny bit ), but all I mean with it is this - the rig was rock solid, and it was using an *older* version of this PSU. I wouldn't knock it too much

 

[Schmide]

Considering most graphic cards are less than 150w and except for the really high end stuff and the total system power of an average system comes in at well below 250w, 18a on the 12v is more than enough for the average system.

18a x 12v = 216w

Still it could be better, I'd rather run an Ultra FAR PSU any day.