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New Psu needed: Budget is $100 tops!

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My Thermaltake has been good to me, however I am searching for a new one that has more amps on the 12v rail to better serve my 1950, and also to allow me to overclock a little more. I am swapping out my Clawhammer for a Venice core this weekend so there will be more room for overclocking. :) I dig blue leds, so a psu with a tad bling would be nice, but it not required as performance and reliability are more important to me. I searched all over newegg and the reviews, but my past experience is mainly with Thermaltake. As the title states, my budget is $100. All suggestions and recommendations are welcomed and appreciated. Thanx in advance. :toast:
 
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I usually say OCZ and Antec are good options as well as FSP.
However, Antec has been less than reliable lately (many of their PSU owners have been having some trouble).
So either go with an OCZ PowerStream (very reliable PSU) or an FSP PSU.
 

GLD

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Never heard of Kingwin.....Never even had anyone on any forum I have visited ever say KingWin as a brand.
I personally would stay away from that.
Also, he said $100 is his budget.
With most of those, w/ shipping, it comes to over $100 (except for the Mushkin one which is pretty good).

Another cheap brand you might want to look at that offers quality PSUs is Sparkle.
Newegg is usually good with prices, also check out ZZF though bc sometimes shipping kills the newegg deals.

PC Power and Cooling is the best brand to buy, but very expensive.

If you want a lot of head room look for a PSU with over 32Amps on the 12V line. The wattage of the PSU never matters, just the amps on the 12v line.
 
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Go with the first one.Hiper psu. I checked many reviews. Very good psu for the price. Icl. toolbox. :D
I will get the black one tomorrow or the day after.
 
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Hiper is a very reliable brand.
I am suprised that their PSUs have become increasingly cheaper (I remember when the prices were much higher a year ago).

dual rail is a must... crossfire could be a future option for linkin...

edit...

nm, you have skt754...so single pcie...

Why do you say dual rail is a must. This is a common misconception. There is only a few differences between dual rail and single rail PSUs. The main difference is that in a dual (or multi) railed PSU it provides a more stable supply of amps to the components of the computer.

However, the thing that kind of draws multi railed PSUs back is that if some amps are not used on a rail then those amps are lost (unlike a single rail system).

So to tell you the truth it doesn't matter at the moment if it is dual rail or single rail.
 
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STAY AWAY FROM ULTRA.
Ktr stop giving some bad advice to our friend please.
Ultra PSUs contain low cost parts.
The first batch of X-Connects got great reviews, however, they blew up after a few months of use due to the parts that were used to make them.
That is why you can usually find them for cheap ($5 or free after rebate).
That just says to stay away.

Here is a list of good/quality PSU brands:
1. PC Power and Cooling
2. OCZ
3. FSP
4. Hiper

Decent PSU makers (have more known issues than the brands listed above:
1. Antec
2. Coolmax
3. Sparkle

Good luck.
 

ktr

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mines is running 3 years with no problems....

and most people i know has ultra lasting much longer than most antecs...
 
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So you are saying that with a card that uses 30 amps on the 12 v rail and 38 amps in crossfire, the single card will not get the power it needs? Because you have lets say 2 x 20 amps on the dual rails.
 
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Then you are the lucky one here.:laugh:
 
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So you are saying that with a card that uses 30 amps on the 12 v rail and 38 amps in crossfire, the single card will not get the power it needs? Because you have lets say 2 x 20 amps on the dual rails.

Correct.
On multi railed PSUs.
Amps cannot be distributed over rails.

For example:
If 2 cards need 25Amps a piece and your PSU has 20A on 12V1 and 30A on 12V2.
The extra 5Amps not being used are wasted and 1 card is not getting enough power.

mines is running 3 years with no problems....

and most people i know has ultra lasting much longer than most antecs...

I didnt say everyones blew up.
But many have.
It was bc Ultra sent their reviewers PSUs with very high quality parts and did the opposite for their consumers.
After all of this happened they changed their ways.
However, their PSUs are still cheap for a reason (I always find their PSUs on sale for like $5- 25 US dollars).
That tells me something, bc you do get what you pay for.

Also, Ultra is not a high quality PSU company like OCZ, PC Power and Cooling, FSP, etc.
I never stated that Antec is the best, they used to be very good, but have lost that position since they are getting cheap as well with parts.
 

AshenSugar

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kingwin is an OLD company, they make/sell good stuff, read some reviews those kingwin psu's are made by one of the top oems.

i say fsp/fortron sorce power or epower(topower oem)

epower has a few nice 20+20amp 12v rail psu's on the egg for 50bucks or less, those are my picks with fortron 400watt and better just behind them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101021
thats my top pick 550watt, 20+20amps on 12v rail, made by one of the top 3 oems same people that make vantech psu's as well as some other top brands of psu.

for FSP i can guarntee this unit is plenty http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104953
its what im using now for my x1900xt@xtx 2gb ddr2(overclocked) 4hdd's, 2 burners, overclocked cpu/mobo, 7 lighted fans and assorted other usb powered devices.
dont worrie as much about the wattege as the acctualy output and quility of the unit!!!!
avoid thermaltake all but 1 of their models is so/so at best!!!!

for more info then you could imagin about psu's and how they work and how to choose a good one try this link
a quote from it about who makes what psu:
TheGlassMan said:
#1a
Topower
(some TTGI - Super-Flower, OCZ, EPower/Tagan, RaidMax, Vantec, ACI)
#1b
FSP - Fortron Source Power
(Fortron, Zalman, Aopen)
#1c
CWT - Channel Well Technology
(Antec, , Enermax, Xclio, Turbolink)
While these top three encompass more than the re-badges I've named, you can usually bet on a solid performer if you pick one of them. It's highly debatable which are better than others, of course. But all in all, everyone has had pretty good experiences. Not suprisingly, they are priced accordingly. None of them in the 400W range are going to be under $40(price revised by ashen/prophet). If your power supply is one of the above, chances are you can trust both the unit itself and it's claims on wattage per line.
#2a
Sea Sonic

antech and Lead Power have gone way down hill, not due to cwt but due to them ordering alot of units from other makers to save$ and trade on their name to keep selling units, its dirty, they have done it b4, and im sure its not the last time.
i had 2 antech units that where good, got 2 more same model(about 9 months later) that where far lighter, and when i checked the part number was diffrent but the model was the same, turned out after a little research that the units where made by the same people that make powerup cheezy psu's u get with cases!!!!

bruins004: sparkle is fortron, same oem learn what ur talking about, and pcpower and cooling is at best 2nd best, they make good stuff, but seasonic is better, but again price restrictive(over priced)

ocz is made by topower, Topower sells its own psu's as Epower or Tagen hence you get the exect same quility unit for a lower price because ur not paying for a name like ocz/zalman/aopen/antech/vantech/exct

stick with the ones listed in my quote and you will be happy and get something thats above spec.
avoid modular units, all but the nicest kingwin (and like units) are far lower quility and less reliable over time then a good solid wired psu.(solid connections=better then loose ones for starters)
 

AshenSugar

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Correct.
On multi railed PSUs.
Amps cannot be distributed over rails.

For example:
If 2 cards need 25Amps a piece and your PSU has 20A on 12V1 and 30A on 12V2.
The extra 5Amps not being used are wasted and 1 card is not getting enough power.

um, thats true in normal dual rail psu's but some can uncap the rails allowing amps to be distributed under load, cant remmber what its called but the 20+20amp epowers can do it.

the problem with singel rail psu's is that to much power over 1 rail will heat/melt the connectors, thats why we had to move to 24pin atx from 20 pin, the extra pins where added to distribute the power, not add more power, just distro what was already avalable to avoid overheat/meltdown in use.

i love all the the miss information that flys around forums/the net in genral.

first off amps/watts draw are intentionaly rated higher on things like high end video cards to keep people from using shitty low end power supplys, ati/nvidia hope that by posting high requierments that people will buy something adiquit, this isnt alwase the case tho because so many shitty psu's over rate their acctual power output(they rate it as it it where being used in a vat of LN not at room temp)

as anybody whos got a high end video card can proove you dont need 450-550-650+ watts to power an x19*0 card or x8*0xt/xt pe card, the box and papers may say you do but a good 300watt psu will normaly cover the x8*0 cards no problem even in a heavy loaded system( i have 2 systems with 4 hdds each and x800xt pe cards in them, enermax 300watt old skool psu's still rock solid after like 4-5years constant over use)
400watt@18+16amps is plenty for an x1900xtx even with a system thats got 4hdd's,2burners, and the rest of the crap this box has in it.

and FYI pci-e connector uses 1/2 its connections from each rail so your not waisting amps/power anyway the card can/does draw from both rails, at least on a good psu, cheep ones i know sometimes cheat, but who uses a cheap psu with a kickass card?
 
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Wow..lots of good constructive feedback, and advice. I still have a week or so before I order, but the suggestions so far are GREATLY appreciated. If anything catches your eye, plz continue to let me know. :D
 

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Hell, I ran a highly overclocked AMD64 3200+ system with 7800GTX SLI and a ton of other crap off an OCZ 520W Modstream for almost a year and never had an issue. Only the 8800 series cards can actually suck over 20A and 200W and you gotta remember that they draw like 110W of power out of the mobo too so the PCI-E Power connector isn't as strained as PSU makers like us to believe. I also firmly believe that people far overpower their systems and a smaller unit does the same job. I have a 400W PSU for my system and a 250W PSU for my videocards (the Thermaltake 0099 PCI-E dedicated unit) so I won't even come close to underpowering my system.
 

GLD

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@ ashensugar

Why do you talk down to people in the forums here? You know rude people suck.
 
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AshenSugar

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@ ashensugar

Why do you talk down to people in the forums here? You know rude people suck.

i "talk down" because i hate people dissiminating faulse information, "know what your talking about before you open your mouth" is something my great grandfather use to say ALL THE DAMN TIME, and it stuck with me, he use to get so mad about miss information, i think mainly because of all the trouble it can cause, he was in construction, they once had to take down/pullup a foundation for a very large building because they where given faulse info about the new type of cement they used, turned out that if done the way that the person MISS informed them to do it the cement would be brittle and breat easly(not something you want in a house let alone large papermill.

i have been personaly hit with miss information bugg a few times, and people advising brands like hiper powersupplys or ultra psu's who havent got a real clue about how they perform long term EN LARGE but pimp them as the best anyway can endup causing others alot of trouble, say the psu blows up and takes out ur 300+$ video card, mobo,ram,cpu,hdd,optical drives, and even fans, are you going to be happy, oh and YES THAT CAN HAPPEN its happened to me thanks to thermaltake(a highely rated unit by testers to boot!!!!)

if you think im rude you should see what some of the posts here would have gotten on neowin or even pcper for responces, and those are 2 pretty mellow forums really.
 
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