Power Supply Recommendation

[athlon]

I'm putting together yet another system. I need suggestions for a CHEAP, RELIABLE, QUIET Power supply. Cheaping being under $25 shipped. 400-450 watts.
So far the best i can find are from anamax.com:
http://www.amamax.com/psspecialaxpm450atx.html
http://www.amamax.com/pshvsb001axamdp4400.html

ANY SUGGESTIONS or Comments greatly appreciated!!

AMD 2400+ 266 (new chip)
Thermaltake Silent Boost(new fan)

Everything else old:
Epox 8KHA+
Maxtor 160GB ATA133 & 80GB ATA133
ATI 9000 Pro 128DDR
52x CD-RW
4x DVD-+R/RW
Firewire card
ATA133 card
Network card
Video Capture Card

[Gollo]

reliable? under 25 bucks? no way.

Spend the 50 on an antec.

[Outcoded]

Hmmm, cheap power supplies, probably the greatest false economy in I.T.

You've got a nice computer there, I wouldn't risk poor reliability, and possibly fu..., errr fried components for the sake of a few bucks. Look at it this way, would you buy a Jaguar and run it on part-worn premould tyres (tires) and cheap 3rd party spare parts?

Spend a few quid extra and get an Antec as my first choice, or Enermax or Sparkle if you must.

[Ferrit]

I am with the rest of them cheap and power supply dont go to gether. As they said Antec or Enermax

[BIGGS]

the words CHEAP and RELIABLE dont go together when it comes to power supplys, you either get one or the other, if it was up to me id definatly go with a name brand one enermax but thats just me.

[meatwad]

Another log on the don't skimp fire.

[TripleRLtd]

Another log on the don't skimp fire.

Ditto!!!! But Sparkle, in my neck of the woods has been having a whole bunch of problems lately! Powmax is a name now and a little cheaper, so, you may consider that. Antec is NOT necessarily the best, although it is usually the most expensive. Geesh. PSU's are getting like hard drives...please: noooooo. But yeah, name brands are most important!!!

[athlon]

Does a 400 Watt Power supply really mean it continously gobbles up 400watts an hour? So if I swap a 400watt supply with a 500watt of the same brand in the same PC configuration, will I be using more electricty? Every watt counts! Could amount to $50+ more per year possibly?

[rgharper]

Does a 400 Watt Power supply really mean it continously gobbles up 400watts an hour? So if I swap a 400watt supply with a 500watt of the same brand in the same PC configuration, will I be using more electricty? Every watt counts! Could amount to $50+ more per year possibly?

No. The power rating describes the maximum combined output available from the power supply, not the actual power consumption. In any given PC, a 400-watt power supply and a 500-watt power supply will pretty much use the same number of watts in operation. Minor variations are possible due to the fact that not all power supplies are equally efficient.

The advantages you get with a bigger power supply are:

1. Expandability - All other things being equal, the larger the power supply the better it will handle any added hardware you throw at it.

2. Start-up survivability - Your computer uses far more power at start-up than when it's actually up and running. A larger power supply will handle this start-up demand better.

3. Reliability - The larger the power supply, the nearer the center-curve you are with the running draw. A 275-watt load on a 300-watt power supply puts you near the edge of the envelope and the power supplied to the system may not be as clean as it should be. But a 400-watt power supply with the same load will provide a cleaner feed to the computer.

[Roark_B]

Great explanation rgharper ........

[confus-ed]

Great explanation rgharper ........

What are you his 'fan club' ? ... Well yeah except he forgot to mention that an awful lot of supposedly 300w+ supplies just had a little sticker put on 'em to make 'em 'better' ... & except he's talking pants !

Wattage ratings on psu's are all but meaningless - what you need to look for is its ability to maintain supply on the 12v,5v & 3.3v feeds - your average pc needs a peak of about 225w (& that's if we've got multiple drives firing) - nearly every motherboard now has circuitry to prevent everything starting at once & blowing up your psu with peak load

Quality psu's have quality components in them so taking your psu near its peak loading shouldn't make any difference at all to a quality psu - it will though with a 'crappy' one & does ! ...

[Ruslan]

... here you go - a link with pictures !

From another topic, but very good link...

Every manufacturer specifies max peak power consumption (during power-on surge), which is three times more than regular...
Hewlett Packard uses just only 250W PSUs for their multi-media desktop P4-3,2 Gig /AMD XP3000+ systems, and everything is working fine...

Just only beware of well-known "Nonames" - they are mostly nothing but cheap re-marked 200-230W PSU models ("Deer" clones,for example)... good PSUs are usually at least two times heavier because of larger heatsinks, bigger capacitors, additional filters,more powerful components...

[ilovetheusers]

I have this one:
http://www.amamax.com/pshvsb001axamdp4400.html

And I happen to have all the same components in the system running with it. It's ability to actually provide power is fairly solid from what mine has done so far but the cables are short and the molex connectors are few and the fans are loud and one crapped out already (I had a spare I was able to splice in). It's worth all $14 I paid for it.

[athlon]

I have this one:
http://www.amamax.com/pshvsb001axamdp4400.html

And I happen to have all the same components in the system running with it. It's ability to actually provide power is fairly solid from what mine has done so far but the cables are short and the molex connectors are few and the fans are loud and one crapped out already (I had a spare I was able to splice in). It's worth all $14 I paid for it.

Phew. Thanks man. I finally got some confidence in my already made decision, even though it is no where near the confidence a $70 antec would provide.

I already ordered the http://www.amamax.com/pspmcb001axpm465atx.html , on its way home.