Which PSU would you recomend?

[drifter_888]

I was looking at PC Power and cooling's Silencer 750 or even Thermaltakes Toughpower 750W. Ideally I would like a nice reliable and quiet power supply. Are PC Power's really worth the money. Looking at the specs the Toughpower produces fewer decibles and has a higher MTBF rating 100,000 hrs vs.120,000. I was also a bit concerned that the PC Power warrenty dropped from 5 years to 3 years on this product. Does anyone have any experience with these products, lines or companies? Any suggestions or should I just not worry about the DB and stick to getting good reliable power?

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

PC Power and Cooling makes the best PSUs. Period. No question. Get the Silencer.

 

[sailer]

Either of these psu's should be a good, reliable psu. If the Toughpower is quieter and offers a better warrenty, I'd take it. The only other factor would be price, if that's a concern.

 

[calyn]

The PCP&C is considered the best PSU maker. Can't comment on that PSU as I haven't used it, but the TT Toughpower 750W is a very sloid supply (I use it with no issues at all). And it is very quiet.

 

[flooder]

You really need that much power- 750W? I say save some money and get a lower power one. Like maybe a 550W.

 

[Robovski]

Unless you are planning on running a 2 graphics card video solution you probably won't need that much PSU capacity anytime in the life of the PSU. You could save money by getting a lower-spec PSU - which you can then spend on some other component

 

[drifter_888]

I was thinking I would eventually upgrade it to a DX10 card. I have been reading that they may really be power hogs. More then likely I will have at least 3-4 HD, sound, Video card .... maybe a 7950GX, and who knows what else I may eventually put into it. I would love to get a TV Tuner and Video Capture card as well. Power Power Power .... save 30 - 40 watts on a new CPU (C2D) use 50-60 watts on everything else!

 

[rantonrave]

PC Power & Cooling is fine but not superior to a few others, such as Seasonic, Enhance, Zippy, FSP-prefixed Fortron-Source, Etasis, and Delta.

MTBF should be ignored unless based on actual results (several samples running constantly for years) and not hypothicated. Look for approval by DFI, nVidia, and ATI and power ratings given at 40-50 Celcius rather than 25C.

Toughpower is fine and is Fortron-Source or Channel Well.

 

[rwaritsdario]

OCZ GameXstream 700W, youll be amazed by the specs.

 

[cb62fcni]

I second the OCZ GamerXStream 700W. It's very solid and has good efficiency. FSP is another great one, at considerably less cost than PCP&C.

 

[bliq]

I was thinking I would eventually upgrade it to a DX10 card. I have been reading that they may really be power hogs. More then likely I will have at least 3-4 HD, sound, Video card .... maybe a 7950GX, and who knows what else I may eventually put into it. I would love to get a TV Tuner and Video Capture card as well. Power Power Power .... save 30 - 40 watts on a new CPU (C2D) use 50-60 watts on everything else!

Why on earth (where 750GB HDDs are available) would you need 3-4 hard drives?!?

You won't use 750 watts, even with 20 hard drives (I know, I measured, as in I had a several hundred dollar tool to use, a server with 16 drives as using something like 350 watts at startup) you'll not only waste money, you'll probably also waste power (in the form of heat, which you pay your electricity bill to generate it)

 

[Crashman]

So most of those power supplies on your list are around 30db? Not bad at all!

 

[3lfk1ng]

Best Power supplies for the price

OCZ GameXStream 700watt $149 (4 12v rails @ 18amps ea., 3 year guarentee)
http://tinyurl.com/glnun

Nanopoint tagan 900watt $299 (4 12v rails @ 20amps ea. Dual transformer quad sli compatible, 3 year guarentee)
http://tinyurl.com/hhfs2

Nanopoint tagan 1100watt $259 (4 12v rails @ 20amps ea. Dual transformer quad sli compatible, 3 year guarentee)
http://tinyurl.com/zvkhp

Enermax 1000watt $349 (5 12v rails @ 17amps ea. quad sli compatible, quad core ready, 3 year guarentee)
http://tinyurl.com/jfv86

 

[cb62fcni]

I was thinking I would eventually upgrade it to a DX10 card. I have been reading that they may really be power hogs. More then likely I will have at least 3-4 HD, sound, Video card .... maybe a 7950GX, and who knows what else I may eventually put into it. I would love to get a TV Tuner and Video Capture card as well. Power Power Power .... save 30 - 40 watts on a new CPU (C2D) use 50-60 watts on everything else!

Why on earth (where 750GB HDDs are available) would you need 3-4 hard drives?!?

You won't use 750 watts, even with 20 hard drives (I know, I measured, as in I had a several hundred dollar tool to use, a server with 16 drives as using something like 350 watts at startup) you'll not only waste money, you'll probably also waste power (in the form of heat, which you pay your electricity bill to generate it)

They also use a thing called a RAID array on earth, perhaps that's what he's thinking. DX10 cards are going to be power hogs, and a powerful, well-made PSU will be a must. I've heard rumors as high as 250W. Servers are designed to be power-efficient, as companies have to pay power bills too, and may have hundreds of them. Desktops, not so efficient. Besides, even if he only uses, say 400W, that doesn't mean the other 300W are still being used, or charged for. Don't need a several hundred dollar tool to tell me that, just basic electricity theory.

 

[haywood]

Well I know I wont need that much power. Any thoughts on the Hiper R580?

 

[rwaritsdario]

If you feel that 700W is too much (that I dont for future-proofability because you never know how much things will ask and the PSU is supposed to last A WHILE) the OCZ GameXstream comes in 600W too.
Antec NeoHE series can proove to be cheaper but consider my statement above.

Antec, Raidmax, OCZ, Sharkoon, among others, use Fortron hardware. Thats why theyre all very reliable brands that perform almost the same.

 

[drifter_888]

Sorry, yes I was thinking of playing with a Raid 5 or 6 set up. Just to see what all the "headaches" are when a drive has to rebuild. I also might use is a test server trying differnt OS or progames before I integrate it into an office envoironment.

As for 700 watts. I agree I feel it will be overkill. But then the PSU should run a lot cooler. I don't think the waste (heat) in a PSU that isn't at full load will be that grate. The board, drives, assories will only pull the power they need to run. Even if my PSU supplies 1000 watts it is only potential not actual usage.

Or am I wrong? I doubt myself but I would have a hard time being convinced otherwise.

 

[cb62fcni]

Sorry, yes I was thinking of playing with a Raid 5 or 6 set up. Just to see what all the "headaches" are when a drive has to rebuild. I also might use is a test server trying differnt OS or progames before I integrate it into an office envoironment.

As for 700 watts. I agree I feel it will be overkill. But then the PSU should run a lot cooler. I don't think the waste (heat) in a PSU that isn't at full load will be that grate. The board, drives, assories will only pull the power they need to run. Even if my PSU supplies 1000 watts it is only potential not actual usage.

Or am I wrong? I doubt myself but I would have a hard time being convinced otherwise.

No, you're quite right, the Wattage your PSU produces is based on the amps your components pull. A 700W PS that's only providing 1A on 12V and 1A on 5V is only producing 17W...and so forth. The wattage that it is providing to the components is directly proportional -though not equal!- to the amount it is pulling from the wall, minus heat and copper loss. I don't think 700W is overkill if you're planning on OCing and getting a DX10 card. 1000W? That's probably a bit of an overkill. There's a few PSU calculators around where you can select what components you're going to install and it''ll give you a pretty close estimate of what your power needs will be. Efficiency is key!!!

 

[Robovski]

Well I know I wont need that much power. Any thoughts on the Hiper R580?

I use the Hiper Type-R 580W. It's a very nice piece of kit - very nice modular system and rather quiet. Watch out to make sure you get one with AFPC, it seems not to be in all of the US models. If you are into that kind of thing, very flash looking options available too.

 

[drifter_888]

What is the difference between a modular PSU and just a normal one?

 

[Crashman]

Modular power supplies have removable cables, so you can disconnect those you aren't using and clean up the inside of your case. The connection adds resistance however, so they tend to be less efficient.

 

[drifter_888]

I see- thank you. I would think we could just cut and tape it if we weren't using it but then for expansion purposes we just screwed it up.

 

[Crashman]

Let me invalidate your arguments:

1.) The resistance is measurable, and by doubling the connectors you double the resistance of connectors.

2.) Cables are often too long, no need to add more resistance.

3.) Disconnecting unused cables has no measurable affect on power draw.

As for the added resistance, I never said it was huge, but it does have an effect on power supply efficiency. You should PM bum_jcrules for more information.

 

[bliq]

They also use a thing called a RAID array on earth, perhaps that's what he's thinking. DX10 cards are going to be power hogs, and a powerful, well-made PSU will be a must. I've heard rumors as high as 250W. Servers are designed to be power-efficient, as companies have to pay power bills too, and may have hundreds of them. Desktops, not so efficient. Besides, even if he only uses, say 400W, that doesn't mean the other 300W are still being used, or charged for. Don't need a several hundred dollar tool to tell me that, just basic electricity theory.

Be that as it may but RAID isn't a be all end all for storage. You really should have a good reason to use RAID to make up for the headaches, real, potential and financial, that it poses.

I'll soften my stance- I suppose 3 drives (RAID 0 and a storage drive) or even 4 (RAID 0 and a RAID 1 for storage if you've got something to protect, think home business), but I won't soften my stance that 750W is ridiculous for anything smaller than a minicompiuter class machine (and PCs are not in that class, in case you were wondering).

 

[cb62fcni]

They also use a thing called a RAID array on earth, perhaps that's what he's thinking. DX10 cards are going to be power hogs, and a powerful, well-made PSU will be a must. I've heard rumors as high as 250W. Servers are designed to be power-efficient, as companies have to pay power bills too, and may have hundreds of them. Desktops, not so efficient. Besides, even if he only uses, say 400W, that doesn't mean the other 300W are still being used, or charged for. Don't need a several hundred dollar tool to tell me that, just basic electricity theory.

Be that as it may but RAID isn't a be all end all for storage. You really should have a good reason to use RAID to make up for the headaches, real, potential and financial, that it poses.

I'll soften my stance- I suppose 3 drives (RAID 0 and a storage drive) or even 4 (RAID 0 and a RAID 1 for storage if you've got something to protect, think home business), but I won't soften my stance that 750W is ridiculous for anything smaller than a minicompiuter class machine (and PCs are not in that class, in case you were wondering).

Well, I'll grant you that RAID certainly isn't the be all end all for storage, however, it does add either security and/or speed, and with hard drives being as cheap as they are, why not? But that's beside the point; completely irrelevant to this forum post. Hard drives simply don't draw enough power for it to be relevant. I made my reccommendation based on the poster's stated intention of upgrading to a DX10 GPU. All reports state that these are going to consume prodigious amounts of 12V power. The poster also may want to overclock, neccesitating Vcore up to 1.5V and Vmem up to 2.3 or 2.4V. We'll take a moderate estimate of DX10 GPU power consumption; 200W, and suddenly we have a system drawing close to 500W. True, this is not close to 750W, however, if a 750W PSU is only providing 500W it is operating in the middle of its thermal envelope, whereas a 550W PSU would be operating near the very top of its respective envelope. Guess which will suffer more from capacitive break-down and other thermal effects? Which will add more heat to an already warm chassis? And the price difference is not so much ~$50. Your argument just doesn't hold up. 700W OCZ or FSP, and that's my final answer.