Cheap PSU Help

[Daveburt714]

Hi Folks,

I'm building a machine out of spare parts for a guy at work. I'm doing it really cheap but I'd like to get the best PSU $35 can buy...

I'll be buying the parts tommorow @ MicroCenter. They have an Antec 350w for $25 and a CoolerMaster eXtreme Power+ 550w for $35. I trust Antec over CoolerMaster but I'm not sure 350w would be enough.

Here is what the system will consist of:
AMD 4800 X2
Biostar 790GX A2+
1 250 Gb Harddrive
1 DVD writer
1 ATI 3870 512k
1 USB card reader with USB hub

Heres a link showing whats available.
http://www.microcenter.com/search/se...bcategory=HB5F

Would I be better off to spend the extra $5 and go for the 430w Thermaltake?

Suggestions would be gratly appreciated!

[RejZoR]

Bunch of weird manufacturers i never heard of. Personally i'd go with this one:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0276315

...or this one:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0290030

I just wonder why they don't have any LC Power or Corsair units. LC's are cheap and quite decent units while Corsair's are very reliable with still decent price tag (TX and VX series). Though you may pick something else, i just wouldn't go below 400W rating for your rig. It's still a dual core with HD3870...

[Daveburt714]

RejZoR: Thanks for the advice! Like you I'm leary about the Antec 350w myself, I get the feeling it won't be enough....

BTW, they do sell Corsair and PCP&C, I bought my TX750 there. I just don't have that kind of money to spend on this build, I'm doing the whole thing for $250 and I have to buy a case as well...

[Humminn55]

I just built a cheapo computer for a friend.....AMD Athlon X2 7850 cpu, Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 740G motherboard, 2GB RAM, WD 250GB SATA hd, Samsung SATA optical drive, and an HIS 4650 PCI-e video card, all purchased at a MicroCenter in ATL....and used that Antec Basiq 350 to power it and it hasn't missed a beat in three weeks so far. Working quite well and doesn't seem stressed in the least....its exhaust isn't particularly warm at all.

While the Basiq is a very basic power supply, it certainly isn't a junk ps, like a lot of others are, like CoolMax or Deer or a host of others. I honestly wouldn't worry about using it.....and since you have a MC nearby, you can always try it out and if it doesn't cut it, just return it for something stronger. But I doubt you'd have to return it.

[Daveburt714]

Thanks for the help guys, I appriciate the input!

If anyone is interested, I wound up going for the Thermaltake 430w...
I got it for $40 with a $10 rebate...

It seemed like the best choice, hopefully I won't regret it...

[Sliced Cheese]

Not sure if the board will fit but tx-381 is a nice little case and comes with a psu that should work fine, i use it in most of my cheap builds

[topdog5050]

im glad you found out buddy.

[davidhammock200]

Newegg has Corsair 400W & Enermax 405W for $30 AMIR.

[Humminn55]

RejZoR: Thanks for the advice! Like you I'm leary about the Antec 350w myself, I get the feeling it won't be enough....

If anyone is interested, I wound up going for the Thermaltake 430w...
I got it for $40 with a $10 rebate...

It seemed like the best choice, hopefully I won't regret it...

I cannot believe you said the first thing and then bought the one you mentioned in the second quote.

As the Thermaltake 430W power supply was tested, it could only produce 355W without either shutting down or going way out of ATX spec with ripple/noise and voltage regulation.

As the review said, at Hardware Secrets:

The first impression we had when opening this power supply was that we were in front of a very low-end (“generic”) unit that was put inside a nice housing as the printed circuit board was too small for the size of the housing...

This power supply uses a mix between new and obsolete designs, showing us that the manufacturer instead of creating a new design from scratch, adapted an old design.

The main difference between this power supply and newer (and better) models is how power is distributed. This power supply was created when most of the power drawn by the computer was concentrated on the +5 V line and not on the +12 V line like it is today. We can say this because it uses a rectifier with lower specs for the +12 V line and the rectifier with higher specs for the +5 V line.

When we tried increasing one amp (from 16A to 17A) at +12 V, noise jumped to 190 mV and skyrocket to 680 mV when we tried pulling 18 A from it – and, remember, according to the power supply label +12 V could deliver 18 A.

The conclusion is that according to our methodology Thermaltake Purepower 430 W NP isn’t a 430 W power supply, but a 350 W model! We also could only pull 16 A from its +12 V output, while the label says the limit is 18 A.

This is an old ATX power supply where the manufacturer added a 24-pin motherboard connector, SATA power cables and a PCI Express auxiliary power cable to make it compatible with computers available today. Simply updating the cables doesn’t make this power supply an updated product. This is so true that this power supply is listed as ATX12V 1.03 by Thermaltake, and not as ATX12V 2.x, despite the presence of the 24-pin motherboard connector and the 6-pin PCI Express auxiliary power cable for video cards.

The main problem with this power supply is that it can’t deliver its labeled power. It is, in fact, a 350 W power supply.

You could buy it as if it were a 350 W unit, but when we pulled 355 W from this power supply noise level was touching the maximum admissible limit and efficiency was at 69.6%. With other load patterns the maximum efficiency we saw was 76.9%.

Our conclusion is pretty simple: don’t buy this power supply.

Taken from here: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/332/1



The Antec Basiq, on the other hand, was recently on sale at Fry's for $19.99 + shipping, is ATX 2.01, far beyond the ATX 1.03 spec the Tt meets, is much stronger on the +12V rail than the Tt can ever do (can put out 23A on the +12V rail, something the Tt 430 can only wish about......)

In short, you made a horrid purchase.

[davidhammock200]

Thanks for the help guys, I appriciate the input!

If anyone is interested, I wound up going for the Thermaltake 430w...
I got it for $40 with a $10 rebate...

It seemed like the best choice, hopefully I won't regret it...

Take it back!