I know these boards are frequented by people infinitely more knowledgible than myself so I figured I'd toss this one out and see if I get some input...

I'm in the market for a new power supply with the following specifications...

1. 480 to 550 watts
2. Low noise (I have a water cooled system)
3. Modular connections
4. Preferably high efficiency (75% or higher)
5. Around $100
6. No flashy lights

I'm definitely open to sugguestions/recommendations.

Thanks in advance for your reply and input.

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT $117 shipped, w/ a $15 MIR so it is just outside your budget if you count the MIR and don't mind waiting months to get your $ back...

I don't really have a set budget... I'm just trying to remaing realistic. I'm sure if I bought a $300 power supply it'd do everything but make me a sandwich... but that's not really what I'm looking for.

I'm already looking up the supply you recommended to see if I can find some reviews.

Seeing lots of negative things dealing with cable management on that particular unit... grr...

Antec NeoHe 550watt for only $97.55 @ pricegrabber.com

I've used the Enermax Liberty in serveral builds for customers, and I liked them so much that I now have one on my own system.

The cable management could be better, but it is not bad by any stretch of the word.

It's silent (smart fan), nice looking (no LEDs), modular (you wanted that), and has rock-solid voltages. It also has the best efficiency I've seen in any PSU before (>80% if memory serves). You really can't go wrong, IMO.

Christ that Antec gets good reviews. Sounds like an excellent graduation present to ask for

Did you check out the Hiper R moduar cable psu. It looks pretty cool if that is what you want in a psu.

Are you sure you need something that powerful?

What components are you running?

Presently I have an OC'd 7800 GTX as well as an OC'd X2-4400 (2.6 GHz) along with an X-Fi, WD Raptor, a wireless card and a DVD burner... as well as a water cooling kit (no clue what the pump draws)

AeroCool ZeroDBa 620W Modular PSU. It's in my rig, and got a very respectable review or two. Plus at 620W its easily SLi ready. No fancy lights, modular cables are very nicely packaged.

dont buy a modular PSU, they arnt as godo as normal PSU's, OCZ Powerstream 520w

review here

best PSU for ~100 bucks, i dunno about the Forton quad rail but this si very good


edit: forton has 15A on each 12v rail, thats crap, get the OCZ powerstream, much better

actually while I agree that modular cables CAN be worse than a straight cable, the AeroCool was shown in review to hold very good effeciency with its system. The AeroCool is 20A 18A on its 12V rails as well, which isn't fantastic, but since its dual-railed its not bad.

Since it's a 12V pump, I'd expect you to have either the Swiftech or DD D4/D5. All other 12V pumps are absolute junk.

Read the watercooling guide.

Okay here are my estimates for your power need if your system was to run at 100% load:

A normal 7800GTX consumes 81 watts of power. Not sure how high your's is clocked so I'll add 15w assuming it's OCed very high. That's 96 watts.

Not sure how much power a X2 4000+ consumes, but a X2 4800+ is measured at 96 watts. Lets add another 15w to be on the safe side. That's 111 watts.

I believe the Raptor peaks at about 38 watts from an article I've a while ago. Let's round that up to 50 watts to be safe.

I'll say the Soundblaster X-Fi uses about 15 watts, which is a high estimate.

For the DVD-Burner I would say 20 watts while burning.

Wireless card? 15 watts, pretty high in my opinion.

Motherboard is another 20 watts.

2 Case Fans - 1 intake, 1 exhaust = 12 watts

That's a total high estimate of 339 watts. That's assuming you are somehow playing a game that maxes out both CPU & GPU and the soundcard, and you are burning DVD and surfing the net all at the same time.

My suggestion:

Seasonic S12 380

It is over 80% efficient. I have the 500w version.
It is damn quiet.
It is $86 shipped.
But it is not modular.

Here's a review of the 500w/600w versions.

Want a little more headroom just in case? Seasonic S12 430w - $106 shipped

Since it's a 12V pump, I'd expect you to have either the Swiftech or DD D4/D5. All other 12V pumps are absolute junk.

Read the watercooling guide.

I got the Thermaltake Big Water 745 kit

Based on its liters/hour rate, it's a strong little pump. Everything I read prior to purchase was positive.