View Full Version : PSU rating
I have just been reading issies problems re PSU power and thought... hmm what speed is mine.
I have just ordered a 9800 pro. My psu was replaced by a repair shop after it blew a few months back. I have no idea what power it is. I can imagine it being cheap shit.
Any way I can check?
What psu power would i need for a p4 2.4 / 9800 pro ?
IF i am gonna have to buy a new one, what one is relatively quiet and cheap :)
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 10:46
rip the side off your case and go look at the metal plate on it. It will profess to its wattage. You'll be needing 300+ Watts. However bear in mind that all PSU's are not created equal and the only way to truely know its capabilities is the short it out (so it'll turn on without being connected to a motherboard and use a multimeter to check the various power outputs.
TheBuZZard
14-Nov-2003, 10:49
320W or better Id say.
like this:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&pro duct_uid=43172
for less cash...
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&pro duct_uid=51095
Although since your a scotsman.....
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&pro duct_uid=30288 :P
i put money on it being 250 or something :/
cheers for the quick reply EG.
Can you recommend a 300+ psu thats quiet ?
TheBuZZard
14-Nov-2003, 10:51
The Q-tec and antec are about as quiet as youll get for less than 50 quid, the really quiet ones cost more like 50-100.
lol buzz u cheeky beggar.
That one for a tenner may do the job but i dont fancy the "heathrow terminal" effect in my bedroom :)
TheBuZZard
14-Nov-2003, 10:53
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/web/product?product=601931&
How about that. Super Silent. :P
Just wait til Russ turns up and tells you to buy 5500000W PSU with 40 gold fans that also makes the tea.
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 10:56
All the power you'll ever need (http://www.bit-tech.net/review/123/). I just got one because of my Radeon sucking too much off the +5v rails. I've also modded it a little as described here (http://www.bit-tech.net/article/91/) with the exception that I used a tempreture based fan speed controller instead of a manual one. (I did not like the idea of having a fan speed controller stuck round the back of my case out of reach.)
hehe
Damn right he will, and only the one with a 876fsb rating!
ok, so would a 550 make a difference over a 330watt psu on my rig
p4 2.4
9800 pr0
1gb ram
dvdr
cdr
audigy 2 platinum
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 11:05
you could get away with something lesser, say 400watts. However 550Watts for 30 quid? Why bother with a lower wattage?
:lol:
if i performed that modding i would be hospitalised for at least a month.... :)
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 11:10
My brothers an electrical engineer. He did all the fiddly things. I just did the hole drilling and cable braiding. :) (The only reason I did it was to get the extra cable length, I have a full tower case, however I got a bit carried away ;))
Best price I found for the QTEC 550W was at overclockers.co.uk (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Q_Tec_139.html) btw :)
cheers.
I will order that now then :)
Jennifer
14-Nov-2003, 11:19
Remember Munk the more wattage you have the more scope you have for adding more drives etc.
Oops I shouldn't say scope to you, you sniper dog. :P
Everyone was recommending QTec a few month back as a good cheap PSU, and I was thinking of getting one myself. But ALOT of them are starting to fail now and people are complaining about them all over the place. I would stay away from QTec.
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 11:25
for 30 quid, I don't care if it only last 6 months.
You would care if it blows up and takes your motherboard and hard drives with it ;)
They are supposed to be quite loud too.
Jennifer
14-Nov-2003, 11:32
I have a QTec 400watt dual fan psu. I've had no probs with it at all. Like I said in my earlier post, it has built in protection circuits and it's failsafe system protected it's self from blowing through my faulty hdd's.
I have had my Q-tec 550 for a year now...cost me 29 quid bought locally, does a fine job
and it delivers power strongly across all the voltages which is more important than just saying "oh its 550w" it needs to deliver on the individual voltage rails....which the q-tec does
and like evilgrin says for 30 quid who cares...it has all the bells and whistles of a more expensive unit...
I cant comment on noise as I have 5 case fans and my cpu fan is quite loud as well...so I cant tell if its noisy or not as my volcano HSF drowns out everything
Just done a quick search on ocuk
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141865&perpage=30&highl ight=qtec&pagenumber=2
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=128772&highlight=qtec
There is at least another 3 Pages of search results of people complaining about low voltage lines and noise on the PSU.
Search the forum in General hardware and overclocking, there is a load of posts about them. I wouldn't risk it personally.
Buy cheap, buy twice :P
Jennifer
14-Nov-2003, 11:43
Well I have a Gigabyte motherboard with a built on fan and that fan is louder than my psu.
if you still dont fancy the Q-tec and still want something that wont cost the earth you can get a Thermaltake 420w silent dual fan for the princely sum of 41.61 including VAT and delivery from Dabs
aieeee !!!
Thermaltake are worse !!
Get Qtec over Thermaltake
EvilGrin
14-Nov-2003, 11:50
They are supposed to be quiet loud too.
Yes, I did notice the fans were a little noisy (one of the draw backs of a watercooling rig, you notice noisy components) so as I said, I've followed that modding article I linked to earlier. I replaced the stock fans with a couple of spare Zalman fans I had and its perfect now.
I doubt anyone with the usual air cooling racket would notice the noise from the PSU though.
TheBuZZard
14-Nov-2003, 11:57
They are supposed to be quiet loud too.
quiet loud??? clever trick :P
TheBuZZard
14-Nov-2003, 13:47
scan have HiperPower ones on special http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/
Ive had the 320 and a 520W in my PCs for ages. No problems, not too loud either.
Synbios
14-Nov-2003, 19:55
if you still dont fancy the Q-tec and still want something that wont cost the earth you can get a Thermaltake 420w silent dual fan for the princely sum of 41.61 including VAT and delivery from Dabs
That is, if they give you a standard UK cable with it too. I got the 300W one about 9 months ago and it came with a foreign cable. Dabs apologised and sent me a free 13A cable that I just put a 3A fuse in.
terroristteddy
14-Nov-2003, 20:35
i too have the q-tec 400w dual fan, much quieter than my old psu (which was very old :P)
dunno how much it matters, but there is one voltage that is a bit far off, the -12V is at -13V
Randell
14-Nov-2003, 21:58
I'm very happy with my Hiper 420W, variable speed unit, my 9700Pro and XP2100@2800 speed have been running fine for over a year. At low settings the fan is very quiet.
Build quality easily matches my Antec 330W in my sons system.
Scan sell my model for £37, I can't link to it because of the way the Scan webbie works.
Please dont buy Q-tec power supplys, had two blow out on me and countless other people have had problems with them on the ocuk forums, a quick search would tell you that.
Bear in mind that wattage is NOT the be all and end all, build quality and line ampage is what you need to look for, most cheap PSU's combine certain power lines, while other (Antec etc) have dedicated lines that are not shared. Antec are currently the best PSU's, a 300Watt Antec is much better than a 300Watt Q-tec and would probably have better voltages even though they are the same wattage. Dont skimp on something thats powering your system, if it goes, who knows what damage it could do to your system?
EDIT: Just found this review: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1774
Damn good !
TruePower psus' - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Antec_103.html
Flossie
15-Nov-2003, 19:54
I recently bought an Antec 450W (true-blue cos I was feeling mad and got a windowed Antec case to go in) and it really is superb.
Its even got some dedicated fan lines which drop in voltage if it isn't too hot to keep some of the noise down - although I now have a seperate fan controller anyway...
Had all sorts of PSU's in the past, but if you are spending more than a couple of hundred quid on the rest of the system, especially with modern CPU/GPU/Memory running at LudicrousMhz (tm) its stupid to bother with a dodgy low-power/high-noise bit of junk...
And I'm about to buy another for the Server. The external Molex output will be useful for the cupboard fans, too! Another nice touch from Antec...
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