Tired of waiting. Recommend a decent $50 PSU.

[tortnotes]

So, I've had the system in my sig for some time now, but the power supply was DOA.

Despite the warranty, Cooler Master seems to be giving me the runaround and they have not approved my RMA (for the second time).

I'm looking to buy a $50 or less 500w-ish PSU to get me through until I can get my nicer PSU replaced. So far, this is looking mighty attractive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182199

My system has an i7 920, an EVGA MicroATX mobo, and an Asus 4890. I'm going to hold off on any overclocking until I can get a higher capacity PSU and it's not the summer months (or I acquire better CPU cooling).

Can anyone recommend a better temporary PSU for this system at $50 or below? I'm not planning on torture-testing it--I just want to have a mostly usable rig for the time being.

Thanks

 

[saaiello]

Yea that Roswell isnt a bad unit I wouldnt normally recommend it but it will be a good temporary unit and will be a great backup PSU until you get a better one.

 

[FALC0N]

CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

Best power supply in that price range. I would trust 400 corsair watts before I would trust 500 rosewill watts.

Not to say the rosewill is always bad, but their quality is on and off. I cant tell you which one this particular unit is. But the corsair is a quality unit.

 

[shubham1401]

Get OCZ 550W Falat1ty PSU for $45 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022

Its a nice PSU

 

[tortnotes]

The Corsair is nice, but would 400w be enough to use this system? I do plan to play games and do a little bit of rendering with it, but not for extended periods of time.

The OCZ PSU looks good, but I don't want to take a chance on the mail-in rebate and $50 is all I have at the moment. :/

Thanks for the replies!

 

[shubham1401]

I wouldn't use a 400W Corsair unit with a 4890!(Its a great PSU and I own it but it is not made for that kind of a card)


@OP: Looks like that Rosewill PSU is all you can get in that budget. 41Amps on single 12V rail is pretty decent!

 

[tortnotes]

Best answer selected by tortnotes.

 

[tortnotes]

I'm going with the Rosewill then. Should hold up for a bit. Thanks for all of the replies!

 

[FALC0N]

The Corsair is nice, but would 400w be enough to use this system?

Yes it will.

Your forgetting that some manufacturers overrate their units and some underrate. Corsair underrates. Thats why they have a shinny reputation. This unit can kick out close to 500 watts.

 

[FALC0N]

I wouldn't use a 400W Corsair unit with a 4890!(Its a great PSU and I own it but it is not made for that kind of a card)


@OP: Looks like that Rosewill PSU is all you can get in that budget. 41Amps on single 12V rail is pretty decent!

I wouldn't use a 4890 with a Rosewill either. Thats the problem, budget. Are you confidant that the rosewill will produce its claimed specs? Im not. Manufacturers can and do claim whatever specs they want. There are 500 and 600 watt units all over the market that cant hang with that corsair.

If it were my choice, I would go with quality over quantity. You can count on the corsair delivering 450 quality watts despite its modest rating. No clue on the rosewill.

No OC or crossfire, it should hold up just fine.

Here is the power draw of a sample 4890 system:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4890,2262-13.html

And this is load power at the AC source. About 15% higher than the PSU actual output.

 

[arterius2]

to be honest, i wouldnt use anything under 600W for ur system, I just recently fried a system with 4890 in it on a 500W PSU.

in this case a Seasonic 620W would be great for this setup

 

[shubham1401]

Budget is the main problem.
The closest to his Budget is OCZ Fatal1ty

 

[FALC0N]

Truth is there are no really good choices at $50 there is some sort of trade off for all of them. If it were me, I would dig up another $25 and he would have a longer term solution.

arterius2, what PSU was that and what else did you have on that machine?

 

[arterius2]

was on a co-worker's machine when i was trying to install new cooling system for him. it was a huntkey 500, chinese brand, partially my fault, he wanted to OC, and told me to do it for him. i underestimated his system in terms of power consumption, i estimated 400+W then it turns out to be over 500W.

he was running an AMD X4 955 OC'd to 3.6ghz, 8GB DDR2 Memory, couple of LED fans, and a 4890. the system was stable until we tried to do 3D Rendering in 3DS Max, and the motherboard was fried within minutes.

 

[FALC0N]

The few huntkey units I have seen tested don't shut down when overloaded and will blow. Thats what killed the MB. Once overloaded, the power feed became unstable and bye bye MB. The OC didn't help either. Phenoms can be power hungry when overclocked. Also, Huntkeys are often overrated. They rarely deliver their rated power.

I think the corsair would hold, but if it didn't it would just shut down. I think thats true of the rosewill as well.

 

[arterius2]

The few huntkey units I have seen tested don't shut down when overloaded and will blow. Thats what killed the MB. Once overloaded, the power feed became unstable and bye bye MB.

yes, you are right on the money on that