Does having a decent PSU really make a difference?

quantumsheep

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I'm just wondering whether to order a decent PSU, but what are the advantages of having a better PSU?

Any help would be much appreciated.

QuantumSheep
 
Yep.

Really good PSU are efficient, quiet, and stable.

Here my rather long post regarding getting an overpowered PSU. It's also about efficiency as well.

Most people don't care how loud their PC is, but a quiet PSU is makes the PC less annoying. I doesn't help if the rest of your PC is loud though.

Stability is important cause if the voltages drops too low or spikes to high it can cause your PC to crash. Plus/minus 5% is considered good.

My prefered PSU is a Seasonic S12 series. Not the cheapest (in price) but I'm glad I bought mine.
 

quantumsheep

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Thanks for that, i really appreciate the help. I just have one more quick question however. Will having a decent PSU affect my overclocking potential?
 
Thanks for that, i really appreciate the help. I just have one more quick question however. Will having a decent PSU affect my overclocking potential?

Yep, like I said in my previous post about stability, if the power coming off of the 3.3v 5v, and 12v fluctuates buy more than 5% that is a sign of an unstable PSU, which can cause your system to crash.

Also come PSU are not true to their specs. A 400w PSU may only deliver 350w. OC'ing means you're using more power so you may be pushing the PSU beyond the actual power it can deliver.

It's good to get options about what others think are good PSUs. I, for example, recommended any of the Seasonic S12 PSUs ranging from 330w to 600w. But are you simply going to take my word that these relatively expensive are efficient, quiet and stable at face value?

It's best to read hardware reviews of PSU to determine if it is actually good or not. Towards the bottom of my post from the link above are links to hardware sites that have PSU reviews.

If you are looking for 450w PSU at a decent price that is good then check out the XClio 450BL 450W PSU. It's not a major brand, but it has a good review.
 

linux_0

Splendid
Thanks for all the help!

I'll check out some reviews now!

Thanks again.

QuantumSheep


I agree with jaguarskx a good PSU is very important.

Generic PSUs are generally terrible and are usually overrated by 100W or more.

They tend to last 0-365 days and sometimes fry your parts when they die.

Quality PSUs usually deliver what they claim they can deliver.
They typically last a lot longer and usually do not destroy the rest of your parts when they fail.

Antec, Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, OCZ and Silverstone usually make great PSUs.

Fortron Source / FSP Group is pretty good too.


You can't go wrong with an Antec TPII PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=antec+TPII&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

pretty much 5 out of 5 eggs across the board.
 

rantonrave

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I'm just wondering whether to order a decent PSU, but what are the advantages of having a better PSU?
Reliability can be worse and output capacity lower. Bad reliability can be from undersized components (ligher heatsinks let power diodes run hotter, diodes not rated for enough power are more likely to short out, smaller transformers saturate more easily, smaller capacitors allow more ripple in the output voltages), inferior components (bad fans and electrolytic capacitors are common), bad design (unstable under certain conditions, more ground loops, bigger inductive surges, overload protection circuitry doesn't shut down the supply before damage occurs).

It's not a coincidence that many cheaply made 500W supplies resemble better supplies rated for less than half the power. It's also no coincidence that many cheaply made 500W supplies can't reliably sustain more than half their rated power, but this is often unnoticed because few computers consume more than 200-300W.

There is no reason to buy an inferior supply when Fortron-Source produces high quality supplies that cost only slightly more money.