Ultra 1000 W in new build

[roadkill2]

Building a new computer with a few old parts my Ultra is listed as a tier 2 PSU. This PSU is no longer considered for new builds per comments from forum members. As I have the "New" RMA Ultra - the last one worked for 3 years, do you all have strong concerns in reuseing the PSU? Don't want to burn up $1,500 in parts.

Thank you all in advance!

Roadkill2

 

[bavman]

Building a new computer with a few old parts my Ultra is listed as a tier 2 PSU. This PSU is no longer considered for new builds per comments from forum members. As I have the "New" RMA Ultra - the last one worked for 3 years, do you all have strong concerns in reuseing the PSU? Don't want to burn up $1,500 in parts.

Thank you all in advance!

Roadkill2

If it still works good why replace it? Just make sure it can handle what your throwing at it.

 

[kureme]

Using old parts for a new PC is fine, but old PSUs are genereally not recommended because they have been worn down a bit and reliability becomes questionable. Having an old PSU fail on you in a system with new parts can ultimately take the whole system down with it costing you much more than you saved by not investing in a new high quality PSU.

Knowing that, if you're confident the PSU won't choke on you in the lifetime of the new system, then there is no problem reusing the old PSU. You mentioned {"New" RMA Ultra}, can you elaborate? I assume it failed on you and you had it replaced? So.. its a brand new PSU?

 

[roadkill2]

Yep - The original PSU failed after 3-years +. Never quite got the old rig to run correctly after installing the new PSU so it's new. I was having issues with the vidio card driver installing and am assuming the Striker Extreem MB is shot (which I sent to Asus and they returned saying it was good but when they sent it back there was no test info of what they did). The computer works but can't run the 8800 GTX as every time I install the nivida driver I can only open in safe mode. I will be testing the 8800 GTX in a friends computer but just decided to get either a nivida 460 or 480 (ouch). Tested the ram and it should be ok but the Bios in the Striker is acting funny and the MB clock always needs to be reset.

 

[kureme]

The PSU probably did a number on your old system when it died although not completely destroying it, but enough to permanently mess something up.

This is the reason why I always recommend people to shell out the extra cash for a quality brand like Seasonic or Corsair as opposed to a cheap PSU of questionable quality. You pay the premium not for how much power it can provide, but for its reliability, and in the case of a failure, the safety measures it has in.

If you get a new GPU, of the two go with the GTX 460. If you have to get the 480, consider dual 460s in SLI instead. It performs much better than the 480 alone and is much cheaper as well. Also the HD 6850 that just came out is comparable to the 460 and more HD 69xx are to be release later this month. Just something to consider.

If your MB clock needs to be reset all the time, it might be time to replace the coin battery.