Best bugdet power supply for budget rig?!?!

[neonzion]

Hey guys... i just realized if i want to upgrade my system i might need a new psu... Ok first off, do i realy need a new psu?? i have a Dynex 400 watt power supply wich runs well... its running an old p4 ht on 650i motherboard and a EVGA 9600gso... im soon to upgrade to a e5200 or similar and was wondering if i need a more power psu???
thanks in advance!

 

[megamanx00]

Well if it runs fine then no. Generally P4s suck up more juice, so I think that e5200 will be fine since its a low clocked 45nm CPU. If you overclock the CPU then of course it will use more power, but even then you should be fine. You only have to upgrade your PSU if you want to upgrade your video card or add in another one. Well, even then you might be ok adding another 9600GSO, but then again maybe not , just depends on how much power you're drawing already. If you want a new PSU though I would say go with an Antec Earthwatts 500W.

 

[neonzion]

Well if it runs fine then no. Generally P4s suck up more juice, so I think that e5200 will be fine since its a low clocked 45nm CPU. If you overclock the CPU then of course it will use more power, but even then you should be fine. You only have to upgrade your PSU if you want to upgrade your video card or add in another one. Well, even then you might be ok adding another 9600GSO, but then again maybe not , just depends on how much power you're drawing already. If you want a new PSU though I would say go with an Antec Earthwatts 500W.

THANKS A LOT!!! well i have read the p4s suck up a lot of power and mines clocked at 4.1ghz!!! lol so i guess mine should be fine!
thanks!

 

[delluser1]

Hey guys... i have a Dynex 400 watt power supply wich runs well...

Dynex DX-400WPS


"There are many things that the Dynex DX-400WPS is, of the things a 400w power supply it is not by any stretch of the imagination and this was certainly clear from the beginning given the build quality of this unit. As soon as this unit was opened it was clear that this unit was not nearly as well constructed as other 400w products we have seen. Indeed, in various places the unit was screened for additional and larger components that were excluded from this unit. The components that were included were of poor quality with the best thing we saw in the unit being a few Teapo capacitors as the rest were TL and Fcon. Adding insult to the injury, the unit’s PCB indicates that the power supply is supposed to be a 200-300w unit. This 200w-300w marking turned out to be prophetic as the unit was capable of doing 200w's but was capable of destroying test equipment when 300watts were attempted. Surprisingly though, when running the unit actually demonstrated good voltage regulation with peak changes of less than 0.05v on any of the positive rails through the tests it completed (all two of them that is). However, when running the units efficiency peaked at just 78.82% at 120v input and bottomed out at 73.91% at 100v which is not very good for any unit.


When all these performance metrics are considered, this is an exceptionally poor power supply given that competing products in this class, such as the SilverStone Strider ST400, are capable of doing their full rated output within all ATX12v specifications for a mere $46.99 compared to this units RIDICULOUS $79.99 price tag. Looking back at previous power supplies we have reviewed it would be hard to find a worse value than what we have seen here today as at least when the PowerTek Pro 500w blew up and killed test equipment that unit was only $20."

From the review here;
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQ5MSwsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0

The Antec EA500 mentioned by Megamanx00 is a much better unit and can be found for as low as $40;

http://www.pcboost.com/store/viewitem.asp?IDProduct=13928