Have I picked the right PSU??

[rwaritsdario]

I barely know much about power supplies, so as far as my knowledge goes (and my ~$100 budget) ive picked the APEVIA (ASPIRE) 680W. I know some of you might think is is overkill for my system, but I rather having an overkill PSU for some time than having to change it later on. Thats why I would like to keep it on 600W or more.

Ive heard Antec makes good PSUs, but I cant really tell why, if someone could explain to me or tell me where I could find the information on such things as 12v rails, PFC, Power good signal, Hold up time, input frecuency range and so many other things. thanks!

By the way, my system specs are:
Asus Crosshair mobo, AMD X2 4000+ AM2, 7900GT 256mb, 2gigs Corsair DDR2-800, 250GB Barracuda HD, two opticals, one floppy.

 

[waylander]

Sorry but that PSU is not considered very good. It may have a lot of power but it's not the best quality, think yugo. quality wise, I'd say Antec is like Nissan, good but not the best... PC P&C would be like Toyota, widely considered as the best quality in the world.

On the other hand, you don't need more than 600w.. hell I doubt that you even need 450w...

Based on the extreme.outervision psu calculator, your system will draw 277w with everything at 100% all at the same time, which I highly doubt will happen. Most consider this calculator as too conservative, giving higher numbers than actually required.

You have to realize as well that most psu's are the most efficient at 70 to 80% of their max power draw, so if you use a 680w psu at 180w you are really going to get lousy efficiency. Also, the aspire psu is only 70% efficient to begin with, if you run it with only 30% load that will really drop.

Just so you know, I ran an OC'd X2 4800+ with two 7800GTX in sli with a 600w psu (enermax). YOU DON'T NEED 600w.

 

[calyn]

That PSU is really not the best, as has been said. Currently you'd want a PSU with at least two 12V rails, but better 3-4 rails. Active PFC is preferred as well, although not necessary. Efficiency rating is also very low, arounf 80% is standard now.

Each 12V rail provides a separate circuit to power different components. with more rails, you can power CPU/mobo with one although sometimes 2 are used and this is happening more. Graphics froma separate rail, and fans/disks from another.

PFC adds protection from both powersurges and brown-outs, of which Active PFC provides the best. Those PSU don't even have a 115/230V switch, as it's not needed. As it "cleans" the power from the efficiency generally improves.

Efficiency is the rate of how much power it converts into usable power by your computer. With a 70% efficiency, your PSU of 680W actually gives 680x70%=476W of usable power. A 550W PSU with 85% delivers 425W usable power. The rest is lost as heat. note: see correction below

The Enermax 485W or Antec Neo HE would be better choices for your use

 

[waylander]

That PSU is really not the best, as has been said. Currently you'd want a PSU with at least two 12V rails, but better 3-4 rails. Active PFC is preferred as well, although not necessary. Efficiency rating is also very low, arounf 80% is standard now.

Each 12V rail provides a separate circuit to power different components. with more rails, you can power CPU/mobo with one although sometimes 2 are used and this is happening more. Graphics froma separate rail, and fans/disks from another.

PFC adds protection from both powersurges and brown-outs, of which Active PFC provides the best. Those PSU don't even have a 115/230V switch, as it's not needed. As it "cleans" the power from the efficiency generally improves.

Efficiency is the rate of how much power it converts into usable power by your computer. With a 70% efficiency, your PSU of 680W actually gives 680x70%=476W of usable power. A 550W PSU with 85% delivers 425W usable power. The rest is lost as heat.
The Enermax 485W or Antec Neo HE would be better choices for your use

This is not how efficiency works... As an example: with 70% efficiency at full power draw the psu still supplies 680w to the computer but needs 971w from the wall to supply the 680w... in other words 680w/0.7 = 971w.

 

[calyn]

This is not how efficiency works... As an example: with 70% efficiency at full power draw the psu still supplies 680w to the computer but needs 971w from the wall to supply the 680w... in other words 680w/0.7 = 971w.

I stand corrected.

 

[redraider_gamer]

Don't let em get to you here. Everybody has their favorite PSU and everybody has one that died on them they now hate. The PSU you've noted should be fine for the system info you provided. Aspire makes pretty good stuff and for less than $100 your probably fine. If the PSU gives you issues, you can worry then. If you decide your budget can stand a little more, get the latest issue of Maximum PC. They rated the gaming PSU's in the latest issue.

 

[waylander]

Ya, don't worry about it, it's a common misunderstanding and this is not the first time I've had to correct it.

Instinctively when you think % efficiency you want to multiply something by the stated efficiency so the way this works is a little backwards...

Based on the efficiency, you can see that my 750w silverstone (80% efficient) will pull only 750/0.8 = 937.5w from the wall socket. This means that my 750w will use less power than the 680w at full draw (971w).

 

[blackened144]

Sorry but that PSU is not considered very good. It may have a lot of power but it's not the best quality, think yugo. quality wise, I'd say Antec is like Nissan, good but not the best... PC P&C would be like Toyota, widely considered as the best quality in the world.

I could barely stop laughing long enough to create a forum ID to respond to "Toyota, widely considered as the best quality in the world".

I agree that PC P&C are among the few psu makers I would consider "the best in the business", but I think a better comparison would be made to something like a Maybach or Bentley, not a Toyota. But thats just my $.02.

 

[waylander]

Sorry but that PSU is not considered very good. It may have a lot of power but it's not the best quality, think yugo. quality wise, I'd say Antec is like Nissan, good but not the best... PC P&C would be like Toyota, widely considered as the best quality in the world.

I could barely stop laughing long enough to create a forum ID to respond to "Toyota, widely considered as the best quality in the world".

I agree that PC P&C are among the few psu makers I would consider "the best in the business", but I think a better comparison would be made to something like a Maybach or Bentley, not a Toyota. But thats just my $.02.

Are you retarded? I didn't say best cars in the world, I SAID BEST QUALITY... check any consumer magazine or car magazine and Toyota has been rated as the highest quality (in manufacturing) for the last 10 years...

 

[muffins]

there ya go manufacturing. True thats a big part but dont you think preformance is just as if not more important(for cars and PSU).

the whole thing could be made of titanium and gold but that dont mean it puts out the best preformance, even though itll last eleventy billion years(much like toyotas)

 

[waylander]

there ya go manufacturing. True thats a big part but dont you think preformance is just as if not more important(for cars and PSU).

the whole thing could be made of titanium and gold but that dont mean it puts out the best preformance, even though itll last eleventy billion years(much like toyotas)

You do realize that Toyota also puts out some nice Cart and F1 engines as well right? Plus the IS350 I think performs pretty well...

Anyway, the whole point here is that I don't consider Aspire, Ultra, Rosewill, Hiper, Raidmax, Dynapower, Logisys... etc to be good psu's.

I do like Enermax, Antec, Seasonic, Silverstone, OCZ, Tagan, PC P&C.. etc.

 

[rwaritsdario]

First thing I noticed is that I do need PFC since the lights flicker occasionally at my house when it rains... so ive considered the OCZ GameXStream 600W. I know 600W is over kill but I really rather paying $20 more today than upgrading to a whole other PSU tomorrow.

What kind of things go connected to the 4-pin peripheral connectors??Because im running two optical drives, a front I/O panel from a sound card, two case fans, liquid cooling and dual UV lights. I'm not sure if ill be able to plug it all.

And also, I did some research but I couldnt find out anything about modular cable support. Could anyone explain this to me?

 

[Mondoman]

For lights flickering/unstable power, what you need is a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply), for example from APC. You can get a quite decent one for your system for $40-60.
Modular cabling refers to a fairly recent design innovation. A designer finally realized that nobody ends up using every single power cable that the PS supplies, and the extras (different for each person) clutter up the inside of the case and can obstruct cooling airflow. Thus, a PS w/modular cabling comes with NO cables (or just the main power cable(s)) builtin. The PS does have many power sockets on it, and an assortment of cables where one end of the cable plugs into a socket on the PS, and the other end plugs into you MB, drive, video card, etc. You only plug in and use the cables you need; the others stay in the box.

 

[rwaritsdario]

yes, im getting a UPS too as a safety measure, how much wattage would you recommend for my system??
Do you if my 4-pin peripheral connectors will be enough for all the stuff I wanna put in the computer??
thanks for the modular cable support explantion!

 

[PaCanc]

hey, man.

you can get splitters, if the cables provided are not enough.

 

[calyn]

The OCZ GameXStream 600W is a very good choice.

A UPS is a wise investment but can be expensive depending on what you want to protect. UPS's are rated VA not Watts, a very rough estimate is 1.5 VA per Watt. Which one you need depends on what you want to protect. If you want to protect a PC only (without peripherals) just mulitply the PSU max draw with 1.5. For example, the OZC 600W would require a UPS with a capacity at around 1100VA or the next one above it (just in case you actually reach full draw).