Power supply went bang

For the PSU I suggest the RAIDMAX Blackstone series (700 watt) for $64.99

Here is a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

For the case I suggest this Coolermaster case for $59.99

Here is a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Hope this helps

Raidmax, also known as Chokemax. Not the best suggestion.

I would at least get this OCZ PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

But preferably this more expensive Corsair unit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That way, you won't have another PSU going bang anytime soon.

  I'm disappointed.

What are you trying to power?

Yikes, i didn't know raidmax had that bad of a rep. My bad. Most of the time I use Corsair, I used a raidmax in a pc once and had no problems with it though.

+1 Do you really NEED a 700W PSU?

Besides wasting money, is there are any harm to using a PSU with more power than needed?

No there is no harm in it, it's just as you said though, it's a waste of money.

Really? There's this one guy making posts about "way too powerful" PSUs shortening the life-span of GPUs and CPUs  

That will not be a problem. A PC only draws as much power as it needs from the PSU. Really if you want to you could put a 1500 watt PSU in a system that only needs 500 watts and there would be no problem

^ This.

Components only draw as much as they need.

Also avoid Raidmax. Stick with Corsair, Seasonic, PC Power and Cooling, XFX, Silverstone, Enermax, OCZ and Antec for quality.

Here is a very accurate list of how much power you need with what graphics card. This is for the whole system and assumes a generic brand. The brands I listed are all high quality.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

I'm assuming you mean £'s by quids, so you'd want a UK supplier:

Coolermaster GX 750W PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/200490-coolermaster-gx-750w-psu-r...

XFX Pro 750W Core Edition PSU - Single Rail 9x SATA 4x PCI-E
http://www.ebuyer.com/241552-xfx-pro-750w-core-edition-...

Corsair 700W GS Series PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/263996-corsair-700w-gs-series-psu...

Corsair GS 700W Gaming Series PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/390263-corsair-gaming-series-700-...

OCZ ZS Series 750W 80+ Bronze PSU with 135mm Fan & single +12V Rail
http://www.ebuyer.com/264510-ocz-zs-series-750w-80-bron...

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular PSU Single 12V Rail 135mm Fan
http://www.ebuyer.com/152008-ocz-mxsp-series-700w-80-ps...

Coolermaster 700W GX Lite PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/352622-coolermaster-700w-gx-lite-...

Fixed.

^ Ummm no.

Nothing at all wrong with either of the OCZ units. I do agree with the crapmaster being deleted though.

2 bucks difference between the ZS and the XFX, I think it's worth the 2 bucks.

Still crossing them off the list implies they are bad when in fact they are good units unlike the Coolermasters.

a gtx 580 and a fx 8120 2 hdd' and a cd drive had a 650w before so was thinking that that wasnt enough

Unfortunately when a power supply goes bang it has a tendency to also damage the motherboard, all other components are normally OK. I hope that you are lucky.

amuffin nailed this thread.

This is my recommendation

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Good enough for what you need now, almost 600 watts on the 12 volt rail alone. Can use it for your next PC too. Highly unlikely to ever give you any problems. Seasonic manufactures most of the units for XFX and Corsair so you'll be getting a quality item no matter what.

The only issue with putting a massively large PSU in a small PC is that PSUs tend to be most efficient at 50% load so an oversized PSU might be a little less efficient than one which is sized properly. Big whoop, screw the whales.

in the end i went for 700w ocz modxtreme amd a cooler master enforcer

yea i had a look at it nothing looks damaged so fingers crossed

That is NOT correct. If the PSU is too powerful, it will usually be at very low load levels. PSUs are most efficient around 50% load, and least efficient at very low load levels. So your PSU will be using a lot more power than necessary, and generating tons of waste heat. So it's better to pick a PSU that fits the power requirements of the system.

Honestly, most PSU efficiency curves are fairly flat Sakkura, a good 1500 W PSU running at only 150 W(10% load) is still close to 80% efficient so it isn't generating tons of waste heat, just a bit more than something that has it at the peak of its load curve.

Take the Lepa G1600 for example, at 150 W it would be generating less waste heat than a 500 W bronze rated unit even though it is massively oversized for the system. Modern units are quite efficient across the spectrum and while they are most efficient around 50% load they do not have miserable efficiency at the ends of the spectrums
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=...

Is this what you call flat?



... and that's with an 80 Plus Silver-rated 900W PSU.

That curve also does not start at 0. Only 17 points of a scale from 0 - 90 are represented. And between roughly 200 and 900 watts efficiency is 85% or better. And notice anything over 150 watts is 80% efficient just like Hunter315 alluded to. So yes if you look at the graph as a whole it is fairly flat. You just proved his point with your graph.

That's an unusually efficient PSU though, and it's rated 900W rather than 1500W. Take a basic 80 Plus-rated (or completely unrated) 1500W PSU and results would be much worse.

Interesting comments.

I maintain a list of recommended power supplies. The list is based on technical reviews by web sites that have the appropriate equipment and personnel to perform rigorous testing and in-depth analysis of components. The list includes links to the technical reviews and the manufacturer's product page. It is up to date as of yesterday morning. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/power-supplies/psu-recommend...

I also maintain a PSU Lemon List:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/power-supplies/psu-lemon-lis...

Yesyerday I discovered several references to what appeared to be UK specific psu's that might qualify for the lemon list. I plan to do a little research and add those to the lemon list within the next couple of days.

I realize this is long but just humor me, i tried to keep this informative and threw in some examples, sorry for the length!

Lets be honest with our graphs now, find one that starts at 0% and goes to 100% rather than truncating the Y axis(great way to lie with stats btw)

On 120 V AC the efficiency on that one varies from a minimum of 73% to 88%, that is a 15 percentage point difference which isn't that much.

Also, what PSU is that? Using charts without linking is cheating, i realize it makes it easier to make your point unquestionable, but it also makes it impossible to have a factual discussion. If you let me choose which PSU i pick numbers from I can find you some that are extraordinarily efficient at low loads and some that are hyper efficient at low loads, but the fact is the majority of the ones I have seen reviews for lately have been around 80% or better at 10% load. The Lepa G1600 i selected as my example was the first unit bigger than 1500 W i found on the jonnyguru page, I had not read it's review previously so it was not cherry picked for this purpose.


If we want to see a nice sample lets take a look at the 10% efficiency of the units on the first page of the jonnyguru power supply list
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=...
83.4%, 78.3%, lowest test was 20%, 81.4% 85%, 75.9%, 78.3%, 81.1%, 78.4%, 83.4%
That is an average efficiency of 80.6% at 10% load, granted most of these are newer gold rated units, but most of them don't even drop to 73% on standby power only tests and that is a low power circuit that wasn't meant for efficiency.



Also, if we want to play a numbers game here, lets pretend we are using a 1500 W unit at a 10% load that would give the 73% efficiency your chart claims it should have there. That means it is providing 150 W but pulling 205.5 W of power from the wall for 55.5 W of waste heat, a small gold rated unit operating at peak efficiency at 150 W has an efficiency of 90% so it would be pulling 166.6 W from the wall or 16.6 W of waste heat, meaning that our massively oversized power supply is drawing a whole 38.9 W of power more than our unit operating at peak efficiency, that isn't a ton of waste heat, the lightbulb in your room is dumping out significantly more than that.

Interesting stuff. Reminds me of a couple articles I read.

Found the article you took that graph out of Sakkura, if we look at the one immediately above your selection we get one with a much larger Y axis scale which looks remarkably flatter than your selection which is merely a zoomed in version with the lines smoothed out

I will however give you credit for knowing how to select and omit stats to better prove your point
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2577/7

@JohnnyLucky, i think the above may be a start to a write up on PSU efficiency similar to my one on 12 V rails but we shall see how motivated I am to work on it over the next few days.

The graph had the efficiency numbers clearly displayed, so I don't see how that's manipulating anything. In fact I went with an unusually efficient PSU, with a lower power rating than was being discussed (making it less susceptible to low load efficiency drop-off), and the graph didn't go all the way to 0% load.

But heck, let's ask Tom's Hardware if you don't believe me.



Or in words:



Note that last sentence.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supply-psu-review,r...



http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supply-psu-review,r...

By the way, you only have to hover your cursor over the image to see what PSU it is...