Looking to buy a new psu and a new heatsink

[Stonesour767]

as the title suggests, im looking for new parts, a new psu and a new cpu heatsink. im looking to buy a psu thats about 650w as my current one is only 465w. I was thinking about a Corsair 650w one but at the moment im open to other suggestions and should preferably be under £100. The heatsink im looking for should be able to do AM2 and AM3 as that means I would be able to use it on my current cpu and the I will be able to use it when I to upgrade to AM3. I haven't actually seen many am2 and am3 heatsinks but the ones i did see i didn't really take a liking to.

 

[BumbleBee]

Xigmatek 650 Watt Modular Power Supply it's made by the same manufacturer Corsair uses except there is a trade off OEM Parts for Modular Cables however for only a couple more pounds you can get the Corsair 620HX which is considered the best Power Supply they ever made. any heatsink is fine Xigmatek, Thermalright, Sunbeam.

 

[JATownes]

Corsair or PCP&C...IMHO. For a cooler...I use a Mugen 2 from Scythe and love it, but there is better out there. I was looking for a cooler that could mount in any direction on an AM2 socket and the Scythe Mugen 2 was the only one I could find. My 2 cents

 

[n-ster]

Heatsink... a s1283, s1283V, s1284EE or something of the sort (from Xigmatek)... 620HX from Corsair as a PSU, or a 650W from Xigmatek or a EarthWatt from Antec or PCP&C is also good

 

[Stonesour767]

that corsair 620w one is modular isnt it? and i've never heard of xigmatek, any links for there heatsinks?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigm...80mm-Rad-x2Tank-12v-Pump-80m-Fan-Copper-Block)
i found that but it looks horrible and apparently its liquid cooling?

 

[n-ster]

you'll have to search S1283 or S1284 or S1284EE from where you prefer to buy Idk at all about UK sites...

HX 620 is Modular and one of the best power supplies ever

 

[BumbleBee]

that corsair 620w one is modular isnt it? and i've never heard of xigmatek, any links for there heatsinks?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigm...80mm-Rad-x2Tank-12v-Pump-80m-Fan-Copper-Block)
i found that but it looks horrible and apparently its liquid cooling?

yes it's modular. review of the Xigmatek HDT-S1283. here are some links to stores in the UK that carry them, Xigmatek HDT-S1283 Dark Knight and Xigmatek HDT-S1283 Red Scorpion.

 

[Stonesour767]

i like the look of that red scorpion one, can it do both am2 and am3.

 

[n-ster]

no dark knight is better

 

[Stonesour767]

whys that?

 

[Mussels]

Corsair is a great PSU brand because they tend to underrate their products.

They call mine a 750W PSU, but if you add up the wattages listed on the side of the PSU, it comes to just under 925W. a 750W PSU with 720W on the 12V rail? sounds nice to me!

Xigmatek are the heatsink underdog. they came out of nowhere with HDT (heatpipe direct touch), and its let their products fight for king of the hill for some time. Most of the time when you see a heatsink that outperforms it, its either thermalright (far more expensive) or a rebranded xigmatek with a louder fan.

 

[BumbleBee]

i like the look of that red scorpion one, can it do both am2 and am3.

yes.

 

[Stonesour767]

nice, i think i may go for the red scorp. when i get the money. but ill get the psu first.

 

[BumbleBee]

you can pull 650 watts on the 12 volts alone on the 620HX. another nice feature is it has only one OCP (over current protection) circuit, normally a Power Supply has one OCP circuit for each virtual rail, each virtual rail on the 620HX is capable of 18 amps so if you have a device pulling 19 Amps the Power Supply should shut off but it doesn't because it has one OCP circuit monitoring all three in essence making it a single rail Power Supply at 54 Amps.

 

[Stonesour767]

no offense, but i really dont understand that. I've never really looked in-depth at psu's.

 

[Mussels]

what bumblebee is fumbling there is that while the corsair 620's specs claim its a multi rail PSU (Due to that being an ATX requirement at the time) its really a single rail PSU, which is preferred these days.

if you had a PSU with two 12V rails, say 200W each - things would go bad if it drew 250W off one rail and nothing off the other, whereas a single 400W rail PSU would have no worries.

 

[Stonesour767]

ah, ok.

 

[Mussels]

oh, no one mentions it cause its "common knowledge" but 12V rails are the most important in a PSU - CPU, video cards, hard drives, and fans all draw their power from that one rail. so its the one people focus on.

 

[BumbleBee]

he still doesn't understand but thats ok just buy it.

 

[Stonesour767]

i'll get there eventually.

 

[Mussels]

well if theres any parts you want cleared up just ask - i'll be around for another 30 minutes or so before bed.

Oh another reason we like corsair, is the fans are quiet and a 5 year warranty

 

[Stonesour767]

you dont think my 4870 will be under powered cause i have an enermax 465w psu atm do you? some games i'v enoticed a solid improvement over the 3870 such as crysis, but in other games not really much of an improvement, ArmA.

I also have 2 hdd's an amd athlon x2 and 2 gig o' ram running from the psu as well as 4 120mm fans and a 200mm and two cathodes. if that helps in anyway.

 

[Mussels]

enermax are a good brand, so a 465W should be fine.

My entire PC (measured at the wall) uses 550W in extreme testing, around 400W when gaming. I think with a video card less, you'll be just fine.

 

[Stonesour767]

good good. thanks. So sooner or later when I have enough money I'm gonna get the psu and then the heatsink.

 

[kurosagi01]

corsair psu ftw