Which brand, the better?

[red_star]

Im planning to buy a 550W power supply although a 450w would do but i'd like to have the extra head room.Originally i decided to get an Corsair Vx 550 but due to availability problems here in the middle east im down to 4 Brands here. Those are OCZ, Thermal Take, Cooler Master and Gigabyte.
The OCZ Stealth 600w costs about 500SAR(200$) roughly - three years
Cooler Master Extreme Power 550w 350SAR(88$) one year
Gigabyte 550w 200SAR(50$) no warranty

err im kinda short of allowance although i can afford the OCZ but then i'd have to cut down on my other upgrades.i havent really checked out the thermal take models.I'd like to know which one of the above is advisable or other better ones.


System Specs : Athlon X2 4400, Asus M2n Sli Deluxe, Sapphire 4850, X-fi(xtreme audio),160Gb HDD, 2Gb ram.

 

[invisik]

thermal take is a very good brand. look at the tough power series.

 

[huron]

I like OCZ. I have had excellent luck with all of their levels (Gamer, Stealth, etc).

 

[Winly]

OCZ and Thermal Take, are really good brands, either one wil do the job.

 

[xringx]

If the Gigabyte is an Odin series, its a quality PSU

 

[mtyermom]

You shouldn't have to spend the money on the OCZ, the thermaltake should suffice.

 

[englandr753]

I would hate to see you overpay for the OCZ. Is there any other brands you have available to you?

List as many as you can so we can hopefully find something else better qualilty and price friendly...

 

[rockyjohn]

Thermaltake makes several brands - the Toughpower series is top of the line - the others average to above average.
Antec is another good brand to consider - especially their Earthwatts series.
I assume you don't plan to use two cards since you have an SLI board but are buying an AMD card. Since that limits the power you need, have you cconsidered getting a better quality 450w PSU over a lower quality 550w PSU if budget constrained?
If you have not already done so - you might want to check requirements of your system with the power caclulator. Here is the link to the free site:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

The free site calculates only total power requirements. IF you can afford a few dollars they have another site that calculated the power requirement for each power level.

Here is a link to a list of recommended PSU's for under $150 with high efficiency - the list is from a very well regarded site:

http://www.jonnyguru.com//forums/showthread.php?t=1460

 

[teh_boxzor]

cooler master real power is good and if its the gigabyte ODIN series i would definitely get that.

 

[red_star]

yea well i like the cooler master too but its efficiency is only 70% nd besides its atx 2.0 compliant nd its two years old since its release so i guess in a way ill be paying to get a outdated inefficient product and their other psu product lines arent made available here yet..as for the gigabyte yes its a odin series but it has no warranty but its quite tempting cause it more than comfortably fits my bill. As for the thermal take ill go check it out tonight
but wats the deal with multiple 12v rails..i mean i noticed only a single 12v input present on my board..so wat if i need to draw 20A from a single line but the 12V1 line is rated only for 16A.(i really donno much about psu)

 

[xringx]

you add all the 12v rails to get the total Amps... so if you got 2 12v rails that are 12A each,, thats a total of 24A, which would cover the 16A for what ever it is you got...


The Gigabyte is the best deal you have shown, provided its the Odin Series...I wouldnt worry about the warranty provided it works out of the box. If it didnt work out of the box then I am sure you could return it to the store your purchased it from.

 

[teh_boxzor]

+1 for the gigabyte

 

[teh_boxzor]

also if they carry it over there look into Antec PSU's they're some of the best ones made. that Antec Earthwatts 500W is only $50 and some have rebates which drop the price to around $30-$40

 

[rockyjohn]

you add all the 12v rails to get the total Amps... so if you got 2 12v rails that are 12A each,, thats a total of 24A,

That is usually not true. If you look at the PSU, the watts on the 12v is often not equal to the sum of the watts for each individual rail - and if you can't add the watts you can't add the amps. In some builds, the maximum watts (amps) available to the 12v side is affect by 5v usage as well.

Red - you may have only one 12v connector on your mobo but I bet you have another on your video cards. But don't get too carried away with the concept of multiple rails as many PSU's that advertise multiple rails only have one and there are arguments both ways as to whether a single or multiple rails are better.

Also if you might want to consider other PSUs - the link below ranks a lot of different models. Scroll down several pages till you see "Old List" in large letters and then read the list - I have not seen the new list. I would have provided this the other data but it would not open for me then.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088