PSU Guide

[panchoman]

^^ I'm currently using a Antec SmartPower, and i've had it for about a year (never had the chance to give it back to my friend lol), and it's still solid as a rock.

other smart power units beg to differ.

 

[KennyT772]

3991vhtes this really isn't your place from the posts I am reading. If you have been using these off brand psu's that give no issue unless you overclock that sums up the quality of the units. They are most likely spec'ed at their max output @25c, where normal conditions render it dead at 75% of its spec. Plain and simple non overclocked, non multi-gpu systems don't use a whole lot of power. Hell my p4 rig uses about 200w at full load, and thats the AC side of things. Guess what? I have a thermaltake 420w unit in there just so it stays cool and I'm not worried to death if I over load it by a little overclocking or excessive heat.

The main descriptors of a psu's quality is the reliability at full spec, and the lifetime at that spec. Its fine and dandy if you have a 1000w psu that cost $30, but what good is it if it dies on you at a lanparty when your only asking 400w from it?

 

[Frick]

You can be lucky with off-brand units. I brought a cheapo 350W PSU that was rock solid for 4 years. It's powering my router/firewall now. It couldn't handle my x1950pro though..

But I recommend this guide. I like it.

 

[JC316]

You can be lucky with off-brand units. I brought a cheapo 350W PSU that was rock solid for 4 years. It's powering my router/firewall now. It couldn't handle my x1950pro though..

But I recommend this guide. I like it.

Lol, there is a 300W power supply that came with a $20 case thats STILL powering my XP machine with FX5900 inside. I built that machine in early 2002, so thats 5 years.

 

[KennyT772]

JC316 what are the rest of the specs? Many cheap or low power units work well for quite some time as long as nothing extraordinary is asked of them. If you built a rig that is 5yr old it is probably a <2.0ghz p4 or a64, aka low power. The 5900's don't draw a whole lot of power and im sure the motherboard is of the low end varety too. The system probably draws less than 100w at idle (idle draw divided by rated output is a good descriptor of longevity for a long period of time). This is why many dells, hps, etc have low end psu's. Not much is required, and very few are ever ran hard.

Frick you say your 350w unit couldn't handle your x1950pro? That kind of shows the quality of the unit. I was running a 3200+ at 2.75, on a DFI, with a heavly overclocked x1800xt with no issues on a measily thermaltake 420w. Yeah that wasn't the best but that unit ran that rig flawlessly without overheating or shutting down. The psu is now retired to my girlfriends rig.

Remember guys, just because a cheapo unit ran your rig for a long time it doesn't mean its a good unit. It may work in your situation, and work well, but every rig is different. Recomending a smartpower antec to someone is a horrible idea, even if it does run for you. The only units we should be reccomending are those who live up to their sticker, their warrenty, and run flawlessly for almost anyone. Not just you.

 

[JC316]

JC316 what are the rest of the specs? Many cheap or low power units work well for quite some time as long as nothing extraordinary is asked of them. If you built a rig that is 5yr old it is probably a <2.0ghz p4 or a64, aka low power. The 5900's don't draw a whole lot of power and im sure the motherboard is of the low end varety too. The system probably draws less than 100w at idle (idle draw divided by rated output is a good descriptor of longevity for a long period of time). This is why many dells, hps, etc have low end psu's. Not much is required, and very few are ever ran hard.

Frick you say your 350w unit couldn't handle your x1950pro? That kind of shows the quality of the unit. I was running a 3200+ at 2.75, on a DFI, with a heavly overclocked x1800xt with no issues on a measily thermaltake 420w. Yeah that wasn't the best but that unit ran that rig flawlessly without overheating or shutting down. The psu is now retired to my girlfriends rig.

Remember guys, just because a cheapo unit ran your rig for a long time it doesn't mean its a good unit. It may work in your situation, and work well, but every rig is different. Recomending a smartpower antec to someone is a horrible idea, even if it does run for you. The only units we should be reccomending are those who live up to their sticker, their warrenty, and run flawlessly for almost anyone. Not just you.

Athlon XP 2200 Tbred, DFI Infinity AD77, 1gb pc3200. The FX 5900 draws a bit more power than you think, they were pretty steep at the time, 250W minimum on mine. Plus the CPU draws like 1.5V I think.

It was used heavily back then too, lot of hours with Doom3.

 

[KennyT772]

I'd peg that rig to draw maybe 250w at full load. Hell my dualcore opty etc only pulls 450w @stock speeds. Overclocking is where the draw and heat comes into play.

 

[freeboy]

ok, I hope this is the correct spot to post
I just was at RS looking at Multi meters to test my system that I am building and they all said " tests to 10 Amps... BUT I need to testway overthat for my gpu? I have a his1950pro
that will certainley be in the what 20-30 A range? What am I missing?
Confused.. thanks

 

[KennyT772]

You don't need to test amps for a video card. Do get a multi meter to check voltages though, you want to stay between 12.0 and 12.2 for the best stability. The PSU in your system specs would be fine for a x1950pro.

 

[cdawall]

You don't need to test amps for a video card. Do get a multi meter to check voltages though, you want to stay between 12.0 and 12.2 for the best stability. The PSU in your system specs would be fine for a x1950pro.

really is it an issue my Tt purepower 500watt leaves the 12v @ ~12.4-12.8?

 

[panchoman]

generally kenny, i think its safe to say that you want to stay +/- .5 off the actual voltage (12,5,3.3,etc.)

 

[breakfromyou]

Channelwell is pretty good. Just avoid the Non-PFC units.

Apevia, and everything they sell, is trash. I can't believe you can say they're good...

The only bad thing about the XClio power supplies is that they have terrible support. Good units though. Very good bang for the buck.

 

[KennyT772]

General range is 5% which is 11.4-12.6. Higher voltage leads to increased heat output and possibly fried components, while lower voltage leads to malfunction and unstability. 12.0-12.2 is the goal, but you just want to make sure you don't drop much below 12v especially when overclocking.

 

[panchoman]

Channelwell is pretty good. Just avoid the Non-PFC units.

Apevia, and everything they sell, is trash. I can't believe you can say they're good...

The only bad thing about the XClio power supplies is that they have terrible support. Good units though. Very good bang for the buck.

i own an apevia case and its excellent. as for apevia psu's there have been loads and loads of good reviews about their psu's so thats why i put it in there, i'll recheck apevia psu's again.

also kenny, would you like to work on this guide? i can send you the transcript and you can work on it. i really dont have time to update this guide while i have so much on the to do list for this guide. if anyone would like to work on it, please pm me remember, this is YOUR guide, its written for you, and so its really you guys who should maintain this guide.

 

[georges]

can't find efficiency specs for epower zu 550

You guys know if this is enough power for my system
<-------------- sys specs
Can't find the efficiency on my psu, and what are the signs of not enough power?
thankz

 

[panchoman]

check your 12 volt lead, it should be between 11.5-12.5 for a healthly system. tell us what you get.

 

[georges]

11.97 on 12v
but -5v is showing -8.5
and the turbo fan button only gives extra voltage to the fan for a few secs, once windows starts loading the fan voltage decreases back
and Vcore 1 volt is 1.45
Vcore 2 volt is 2.11???
even though normal and BIOS set the cpu core at 1.4v

 

[panchoman]

11.97 is very good, -5 shouldn't be -8.5. you want stay +- .5 im sure its a mistake or something, maybe wile e keakar, kenny, know more on the -5v rail.. the turbo fan only boosts the internal psu fan i believe. vcore 1 is probably your cpu, a little voltage boost is okay on amd platforms, and vcore 2, im going to guess thats your memory voltage.

 

[keakar]

11.97 on 12v
but -5v is showing -8.5
and the turbo fan button only gives extra voltage to the fan for a few secs, once windows starts loading the fan voltage decreases back
and Vcore 1 volt is 1.45
Vcore 2 volt is 2.11???
even though normal and BIOS set the cpu core at 1.4v

the turbo fan button just bypasses the voltage regulator on the psu fan so it gets full 12v power.
it has no other function but to give max cooling for heavy power consumption usage.

the 12v to the fan should stay on as long as the button is on so im not sure why it is only running momentarily unless something is not right somewhere with the psu.

you said the "-5v is showing -8.5" where are you reading this voltage from?

 

[KennyT772]

Apevia - Shite psu's.

Plastic casings do nothing for EMI/EFI absorption. Usually grossly underpowered, poor quality.

The demise of HardOCP's 500w Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL

Geroges what are you using to display these voltages?

 

[freeboy]

fyi, I found all my volts way off in all the places where they where read or estimated by software.. the multi meter showed really accurate for me.. not sure how to test the component power.. on the board, but you can easily plug into the main power with a multi, just know what you are doing or you will end up trying to melt yours like I tried to LOL

 

[georges]

wow u guys rock.... any of u this good with taxes??

ok.. the Apevia did not come with the psu, its a epower zu 550w
the -8.5 is -.85 i think... vcore 2 you are right, my mem was boosted to to 2.1v from 1.8v in bios because they are crucials. i used bios for some readings, but that can't be accurate because the only computer that will consider BIOS a load are about 20 yrs old, so i used speedfan while inside windows, and Easytune5. And the turbo fan gives extra juice to 2 sets of 12v wires that say fan and only contain a yellow 12v, and black grnd going to a four pin MOLEX or 3 point fan controllers. Before windows loads, u can press the button and see the LEDs on the fans and the rpm rev up, and slow as u press or release the button. But once there is a load u press all u want, but they don't receive any extra juice.
i am running this system
<-------------------- off that psu.

I reformatted, and added another dvd/rw and now Windows will not load until the blue bar has skipped on the screen 12times. just wondering the efficiency of this thing cause if it's less than 500 w then i think i need a PSU.

 

[panchoman]

what exactly do mean about efficency? like the max wattage, or actual efficency percentage?

 

[georges]

the wattage that continously flows from that PSU... i thought that's what they meant by efficiency when they listed them in PSU specs.... but i couldn't find the efficiency specs for this model... and i don't know the telltale signs of too little wattage going through the system. I just can't seem to fix the load in times for windows... and i ahve formatted, changed out drives, drivers, changed from RAID 0 to independent drives same thing. and it just happened when i added another optical drive. i don't want to load in all my progs and games and have to erase it again... right now that's about the highest load on my comp is loading windows and it's reallllly slow. the wattage calculators are telling me between 500-550.

 

[panchoman]

psu efficency is how much of the power that it draws from your wall outlet that it can convert into usable power for your system. the wattage that it supplies should be 550w if the label is correct,

look up the 12v lead from the psu and let me what it is, thats how we'll able be able to tell if your psu is really close to the wattage limit, etc.