power supply

**okeee** · 05-19-2006, 02:59 PM

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ OEM S939
Spire CPU Cooler S754/939 tot 4800+
Asus A8N-E
Kingston ValueRam 2x512Mb 400 PC3200 CL3
XFX GF 7800GT 256MB Extreme 2dvi vivo PCI-E
WD SATA II 160Gb 8Mb 7200rpm

I need a new power supply. What brands are good?

Is 400W sufficient, or would I better take one of 450W?

**jnob** · 05-19-2006, 03:27 PM

At the moment the most common PSU recommendations are for 550W+ Enermax and Antec True Power 2 (not Neo series).

Tumbleweed36 · 05-19-2006, 07:06 PM

Hi,

jnob has given you good advice with the suggestion for an Antec or Enermax 550+. While we all know that a 500 watt card of good quality may be able (quite likely IMHO) to carry the mail for you, we also know that the video card you have chosen takes a bunch of power.

If you then choose in the near future to upgrade anything else that takes power and choose a lessor supply, you will be back here asking why your computer won't function properly. Therefore, most of us recommend that you spend the money up front and save the headaches of having difficulties from the lack of power in a year or so.

That is my personal opinion.

SelOt · 05-20-2006, 10:12 AM

There are plenty of cheap, reliable 400w PSUs that will supply far more than what you have... just read reviews/articles and make sure you're not getting one of the many bad ones.

**okeee** · 05-20-2006, 11:40 AM

Is this one ok?

Antec Sonata II EC/MT 450Watt

**jnob** · 05-20-2006, 12:09 PM

As Tumbleweed mentioned, with a video card like that you really need at least 550W. You don't want to burn that thing up! I would personally even get a 600W with that system so that I can at least upgrade to the new generation of video cards in a year or two without shelling out another $100 on a power supply.

**okeee** · 05-22-2006, 05:26 PM

How can I use less Watt for the pc?

05-22-2006, 05:37 PM

Think this way : Would you like to have good food or bad food all your life ?

Thats what you are giving to your computer. Have a good power supply have a good day. :D

**jnob** · 05-22-2006, 09:25 PM

Seriously, if you cannot afford the 550-600W PSU. Get a 7600GT video card and save $100, with that money buy a 600W PSU. Then in a year when the 7600GT is almost too slow you can upgrade to whatever the new shizzle.

Volt-Schwibe · 05-23-2006, 09:07 PM

jnob touches on a really good point.

alot of times people try to cut corners, and they go with a really HUGE processor, big ram, GIGANTIC video card, and a MASSIVE 300 gig hard disk....

and then, they take those nice beautiful peices, and stick them in some garbage motherboard, or worse, they give it a wimpy little third rate power supply.

it's enough to make me cry.

tell you what though, my crappy little Athlon 1700+ will run circles around yours when you under-power it and can't even get off the start line.

why? because i may have a slow little 1700, but, it's not at all underpowered, and it's not sitting in a motherboard that has trouble running it. there is no "weak links" in my chain of hardware that are bringing the others down.

i'm not at all trying to make this sound like an attack, but seriously, if you can't afford a seriously powerful computer, then buy something you can afford.

jnob offers a good suggestion here, since it doesn't matter what vid card you buy, it will be obsolete in 3 weeks anyhow, so you might as well save 100$ on that part this time around, and invest that in a real power supply.

~~whodat~~ · 05-24-2006, 03:52 AM

ATX Power Supplies - Brands from A to Z

*** RATED BY QUALITY ***

Key
H = High Quality (Good Solid Reliable Brand)
L = Low Quality (Cheap Generic)
M = Medium Quality (In-between)
U = Unknown

A-Power................L
A-Top..................L
A+GPB..................L
AcBel..................L
AC Ryan (Ryanpower)....L
Aerocool...............U
AG.....................L
Ahanix.................L
Akasa..................L
Allied.................L
Antec..................M/H
AOpen..................L
APC....................L
Apex Allied............L
Aspire.................L/M
Astec..................L
Athena.................L
BFG....................L
Broadway Gaming........U
Channel Well...........L
CHAS...................L
Chenbro................U
Chieftec...............L
Coba...................L
Codegen................L
Conrad.................M
CoolerMaster...........M
CoolMax................M
Crystal................L
Dell...................L
Delta..................L
Diablo.................L
Eagle..................L
Echo Star..............L
Enermax................H
Engleking..............M
Enlight................M
Epson..................L
FDK....................L
Fortron (FSP)..........H
Gateway................L
Gazelle Multimedia.....L
Global Marketing.......L
GPower.................L
Guardian...............L
Herolchi...............M
Hipro..................L
HP/Compaq..............L
HPC International......L
Huntkey................L
I-Star.................L
IBM Redundant..........U (expensive)
Intel Redundant........U (expensive)
In Win.................L
Jaguar.................U
Kensington.............L
Kingwin................L
L&C....................L
Leadman................L
Levicom................L
LiteOn.................U
Logisys................U
Mad Dog................L/M
Maxtron................L
MGE....................L
MGE Vortec.............M
MorningStar............L
NEC....................L
Newton.................L
Nexus..................L
Noise Magic............L
NorthQ.................M
Nspire.................L
OCZ....................H
Omega..................L
Packard Bell...........L
PC Power & Cooling.....H
PC-World (PCW).........L
PCMCIS.................U
Power..................L
PowerStream............L
PowerTek...............L
PowerUp................L
PowMax.................L
PowMax XPower..........L
Premium................L
Pyramid................L
Q-Tec..................L
Q-Technology...........L
RaidMax................U
Real Power.............L
Rosewill...............L
SCS....................L
SeaSonic...............H
Shuttle................L
Silent Purepower.......U
SilenX.................L
Silverstone............H
Sky Hawk (Eagle Tech)..L
Sparkle................H
Star Micronics.........L
StarTech...............L
Sun....................L
SuperFlower............L
Supermicro.............L
Tagan..................H
Task...................L
ThermalTake............M
Topower................L
Tri-Mag................L
TSP....................L
Tyan Tiger.............L
TTGI...................L
Ultra-Power Computer...L
Ultra..................M
Ultra X-Connect........L
Vantec.................H
Verax..................H
Vigor..................U
Xion...................L
xPCgear................L
Zalman.................H
Zippy..................m

**okeee** · 05-25-2006, 01:39 PM

so a lower power utilization is not possible?

Volt-Schwibe · 05-25-2006, 11:04 PM

well, i will try to answer best i can.

there is ways to reduce the amount of power you need, so that using a smaller power supply is possible.

for one, make sure and get a big enough hard disk that you don't need more than one. each hard disk uses between 25-35 watts, some might use even more.

make sure to get one cd drive that meets all your needs so that you only need one. each cd drive can use 25-50 watts, depending on if it's a burner, dvd, dvd burner, etc....

make sure you can get all the ram you want in one one stick. each stick of ram draws 15-25 watts.

use a non-powerfule video card, something like a ti4400 or something small like that.

the result, should be a machine that survives just fine on a 350-400 watt supply.

**okeee** · 05-26-2006, 07:04 PM

How is it possible to find out how much ur system really needs?

Volt-Schwibe · 05-26-2006, 07:12 PM

there is many sites that offer calculators to determine your power needs...

here is one:
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

**okeee** · 05-27-2006, 05:18 AM

I meant, is there any prog that can detect ur components, how much watt ur comp needs?

**blackduck30** · 05-27-2006, 06:03 AM

I am just wondering why it is so important to get the smallest possible power supply ? Considering the facts that have been given to you it is obvious that your power supply is the most important part of your computer in terms of reliabilty and is something that should not be overlooked.
Buying a power supply that has some headroom is not going to hurt your system at all, in fact it is a better option as it will put less strain on the power supply and ensures that you have ample room to upgrade your system.
When you consider the cost difference between a good 450w PSU and a good 550w PSU it is really not that much compared to the investment you make in the rest of your computer.If that little extra investment in a 550W PSU ensures you have hassle free supply of power to all your components i am sold every time

Tumbleweed36 · 05-27-2006, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by okeee

I meant, is there any prog that can detect ur components, how much watt ur comp needs?

Hi,

I just want to interject that you best heed the advice of Blackduck30. I would take a cheaper video card, cheaper CPU, cheaper motherboard, cheaper hard drive, than save 25 bucks with a cheaper power supply, if this were my unit. The power supplly is probably the MOST important part of your computer components.

I am not an atta-boy person when it comes to posting, but this is so important, I needed to say that.

**okeee** · 06-11-2006, 01:22 PM

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor S939
Thermal Design Power 67 to 89W

What is meant by this?

~~whodat~~ · 06-11-2006, 02:26 PM

thats your cpu power consumption depending on the load

05-19-2006, 02:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	power supply AMD Athlon 64 3500+ OEM S939 Spire CPU Cooler S754/939 tot 4800+ Asus A8N-E Kingston ValueRam 2x512Mb 400 PC3200 CL3 XFX GF 7800GT 256MB Extreme 2dvi vivo PCI-E WD SATA II 160Gb 8Mb 7200rpm I need a new power supply. What brands are good? Is 400W sufficient, or would I better take one of 450W?

05-19-2006, 03:27 PM	#2 (permalink)
jnob TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: CA Valley Posts: 692 OS: XP Pro, SP2 My System	At the moment the most common PSU recommendations are for 550W+ Enermax and Antec True Power 2 (not Neo series). __________________ Everest Memtest86

05-19-2006, 07:06 PM	#3 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 19,672 OS: XP Professional	Hi, jnob has given you good advice with the suggestion for an Antec or Enermax 550+. While we all know that a 500 watt card of good quality may be able (quite likely IMHO) to carry the mail for you, we also know that the video card you have chosen takes a bunch of power. If you then choose in the near future to upgrade anything else that takes power and choose a lessor supply, you will be back here asking why your computer won't function properly. Therefore, most of us recommend that you spend the money up front and save the headaches of having difficulties from the lack of power in a year or so. That is my personal opinion. __________________ ---------- I don't receive email notifications of replies to subscribed threads. (Internet provider policy) Therefore, if I don't respond to your post within 24 hours, please send me a reminder PM and include the link to your thread.

05-20-2006, 12:09 PM	#6 (permalink)
jnob TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: CA Valley Posts: 692 OS: XP Pro, SP2 My System	As Tumbleweed mentioned, with a video card like that you really need at least 550W. You don't want to burn that thing up! I would personally even get a 600W with that system so that I can at least upgrade to the new generation of video cards in a year or two without shelling out another $100 on a power supply. __________________ Everest Memtest86

05-22-2006, 09:25 PM	#9 (permalink)
jnob TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: CA Valley Posts: 692 OS: XP Pro, SP2 My System	Seriously, if you cannot afford the 550-600W PSU. Get a 7600GT video card and save $100, with that money buy a 600W PSU. Then in a year when the 7600GT is almost too slow you can upgrade to whatever the new shizzle. __________________ Everest Memtest86

05-20-2006, 10:12 AM	#4 (permalink)
SelOt Registered User Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 1 OS: Windows XP Professional SP2	There are plenty of cheap, reliable 400w PSUs that will supply far more than what you have... just read reviews/articles and make sure you're not getting one of the many bad ones.

05-20-2006, 11:40 AM	#5 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	Is this one ok? Antec Sonata II EC/MT 450Watt

05-22-2006, 05:26 PM	#7 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	How can I use less Watt for the pc?

05-22-2006, 05:37 PM	#8 (permalink)
PurpleSky Guest Posts: n/a OS:	Think this way : Would you like to have good food or bad food all your life ? Thats what you are giving to your computer. Have a good power supply have a good day. :D

05-23-2006, 09:07 PM	#10 (permalink)
Volt-Schwibe Asst. Manager, Automotive Forums; HJT Trainee Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Behind you, watching you as you type. Posts: 7,372 OS: Click "My System" to view details My System	jnob touches on a really good point. alot of times people try to cut corners, and they go with a really HUGE processor, big ram, GIGANTIC video card, and a MASSIVE 300 gig hard disk.... and then, they take those nice beautiful peices, and stick them in some garbage motherboard, or worse, they give it a wimpy little third rate power supply. it's enough to make me cry. tell you what though, my crappy little Athlon 1700+ will run circles around yours when you under-power it and can't even get off the start line. why? because i may have a slow little 1700, but, it's not at all underpowered, and it's not sitting in a motherboard that has trouble running it. there is no "weak links" in my chain of hardware that are bringing the others down. i'm not at all trying to make this sound like an attack, but seriously, if you can't afford a seriously powerful computer, then buy something you can afford. jnob offers a good suggestion here, since it doesn't matter what vid card you buy, it will be obsolete in 3 weeks anyhow, so you might as well save 100$ on that part this time around, and invest that in a real power supply. __________________ <signature> TSF is funded by our Admin's pocket, care to help? Power Tip: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. New Members: Creating a single new thread in the correct section is the best way to assure your thread will receive a reply. </signature>

05-24-2006, 03:52 AM	#11 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	ATX Power Supplies - Brands from A to Z * RATED BY QUALITY * Key H = High Quality (Good Solid Reliable Brand) L = Low Quality (Cheap Generic) M = Medium Quality (In-between) U = Unknown A-Power................L A-Top..................L A+GPB..................L AcBel..................L AC Ryan (Ryanpower)....L Aerocool...............U AG.....................L Ahanix.................L Akasa..................L Allied.................L Antec..................M/H AOpen..................L APC....................L Apex Allied............L Aspire.................L/M Astec..................L Athena.................L BFG....................L Broadway Gaming........U Channel Well...........L CHAS...................L Chenbro................U Chieftec...............L Coba...................L Codegen................L Conrad.................M CoolerMaster...........M CoolMax................M Crystal................L Dell...................L Delta..................L Diablo.................L Eagle..................L Echo Star..............L Enermax................H Engleking..............M Enlight................M Epson..................L FDK....................L Fortron (FSP)..........H Gateway................L Gazelle Multimedia.....L Global Marketing.......L GPower.................L Guardian...............L Herolchi...............M Hipro..................L HP/Compaq..............L HPC International......L Huntkey................L I-Star.................L IBM Redundant..........U (expensive) Intel Redundant........U (expensive) In Win.................L Jaguar.................U Kensington.............L Kingwin................L L&C....................L Leadman................L Levicom................L LiteOn.................U Logisys................U Mad Dog................L/M Maxtron................L MGE....................L MGE Vortec.............M MorningStar............L NEC....................L Newton.................L Nexus..................L Noise Magic............L NorthQ.................M Nspire.................L OCZ....................H Omega..................L Packard Bell...........L PC Power & Cooling.....H PC-World (PCW).........L PCMCIS.................U Power..................L PowerStream............L PowerTek...............L PowerUp................L PowMax.................L PowMax XPower..........L Premium................L Pyramid................L Q-Tec..................L Q-Technology...........L RaidMax................U Real Power.............L Rosewill...............L SCS....................L SeaSonic...............H Shuttle................L Silent Purepower.......U SilenX.................L Silverstone............H Sky Hawk (Eagle Tech)..L Sparkle................H Star Micronics.........L StarTech...............L Sun....................L SuperFlower............L Supermicro.............L Tagan..................H Task...................L ThermalTake............M Topower................L Tri-Mag................L TSP....................L Tyan Tiger.............L TTGI...................L Ultra-Power Computer...L Ultra..................M Ultra X-Connect........L Vantec.................H Verax..................H Vigor..................U Xion...................L xPCgear................L Zalman.................H Zippy..................m

05-25-2006, 01:39 PM	#12 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	so a lower power utilization is not possible?

05-25-2006, 11:04 PM	#13 (permalink)
Volt-Schwibe Asst. Manager, Automotive Forums; HJT Trainee Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Behind you, watching you as you type. Posts: 7,372 OS: Click "My System" to view details My System	well, i will try to answer best i can. there is ways to reduce the amount of power you need, so that using a smaller power supply is possible. for one, make sure and get a big enough hard disk that you don't need more than one. each hard disk uses between 25-35 watts, some might use even more. make sure to get one cd drive that meets all your needs so that you only need one. each cd drive can use 25-50 watts, depending on if it's a burner, dvd, dvd burner, etc.... make sure you can get all the ram you want in one one stick. each stick of ram draws 15-25 watts. use a non-powerfule video card, something like a ti4400 or something small like that. the result, should be a machine that survives just fine on a 350-400 watt supply. __________________ <signature> TSF is funded by our Admin's pocket, care to help? Power Tip: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. New Members: Creating a single new thread in the correct section is the best way to assure your thread will receive a reply. </signature>

05-26-2006, 07:04 PM	#14 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	How is it possible to find out how much ur system really needs?

05-26-2006, 07:12 PM	#15 (permalink)
Volt-Schwibe Asst. Manager, Automotive Forums; HJT Trainee Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Behind you, watching you as you type. Posts: 7,372 OS: Click "My System" to view details My System	there is many sites that offer calculators to determine your power needs... here is one: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ __________________ <signature> TSF is funded by our Admin's pocket, care to help? Power Tip: Subscribe to your thread (Thread Tools) to receive an instant email notification when you get a reply. New Members: Creating a single new thread in the correct section is the best way to assure your thread will receive a reply. </signature>

05-27-2006, 05:18 AM	#16 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	I meant, is there any prog that can detect ur components, how much watt ur comp needs?

05-27-2006, 06:03 AM	#17 (permalink)
blackduck30 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Wollongong/Australia Posts: 4,230 OS: XP pro SP3/Vista Ultimate My System	I am just wondering why it is so important to get the smallest possible power supply ? Considering the facts that have been given to you it is obvious that your power supply is the most important part of your computer in terms of reliabilty and is something that should not be overlooked. Buying a power supply that has some headroom is not going to hurt your system at all, in fact it is a better option as it will put less strain on the power supply and ensures that you have ample room to upgrade your system. When you consider the cost difference between a good 450w PSU and a good 550w PSU it is really not that much compared to the investment you make in the rest of your computer.If that little extra investment in a 550W PSU ensures you have hassle free supply of power to all your components i am sold every time __________________ Blackduck30 Time is like money and milk, It's always running out Any Donations Help Keep TSF Free For All Last edited by blackduck30; 05-27-2006 at 06:04 AM.

06-11-2006, 01:22 PM	#19 (permalink)
okeee TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 547 OS: win me	AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor S939 Thermal Design Power 67 to 89W What is meant by this?

06-11-2006, 02:26 PM	#20 (permalink)
~~whodat~~ Register user Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 5,931 OS: XP	thats your cpu power consumption depending on the load