Best PSU for $55

[Joseph F]

Hello, I was hoping for a recommendation for a PSU for $55 or under, I am going to be purchasing one this weekend.

It will be powering a Phenom x4 9600 @stock, (like they can oc at all xD)
XFX Radeon 4850-512MB,
2x3.5" 160GB IDE Hard Drives,
1x2.5" 120GB SATA Hard Drive and a SATA DVD Writer.

I was looking at a Thermaltake TR2 500W PSU would this be a good unit?
If not then any and all recommendations are welcome but remember that I can't spend more than $55.

 

[Dasda]

Take a look at Antec PSUs. They are good build quality and you can certainly find some of the ECO and Earthwatts series in the $40-$60.

Also use a PSU wattage calculator to calculate your required wattage. I think with the specs you listed a 450w PSU should be enough. Use the calculator to double check though and include any future updates that you think you would be doing for certain to avoid having to buy a new PSU in another 6 months.

PSU Calculator

 

[VirtualLarry]

Do you already own the Phenom 9600 chip? If not, don't buy it, it has the TLB bug, and will basically halve performance if you use a BIOS with the fix, which is most of them these days.

 

[RavenSEAL]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371007

 

[Joseph F]

Yes, I already own the P.O.S. Phenom... sadly it's the best CPU I've ever owned.

I will ask my mom if she doesn't mind shelling out an extra $10 for that Antec 500W but if not I guess I'll get a 450W.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Thermaltake TR2 PSUs are not very good.

 

[TemjinGold]

No need to spend that much, grab this:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2146943

 

[SparkyJJO]

Do you already own the Phenom 9600 chip? If not, don't buy it, it has the TLB bug, and will basically halve performance if you use a BIOS with the fix, which is most of them these days.

And like every BIOS that has the "fix" also gives you the option to disable said fix.

 

[Joseph F]

It looks like I have convinced my mom to get the Antec Earthwatts. Thanks for the recommendation. What should I do with the "550W" raidmax that I have now? *evil grin

Edit: Found an Antec NEO ECO 520C for the same price with cheaper shipping. I like how it has a single 12v rail and 20W more total power. Is it any good?

 

[SparkyJJO]

The Neo Eco is a good one too.

As for the Raidmax... blow it up

 

[Joseph F]

Ah, good idea. I've got a couple pounds of smokeless powder lying around here somewhere... Then again I can't believe it hasn't blown up already.

BTW the reason I'm replacing my PSU is that when I'm playing high-load games such as FEAR 2, Dead Space 2 etc, My comp will get graphics artifacts and then the whole screen will turn a certain color with bars running horizontal. Is it possible that It's the PSU and not my GPU? *fingers crossed

 

[SparkyJJO]

If the PSU volts go unstable and drop, the video card can get starved for power, and yes it can cause it to then go wonky on you.

Even if it isn't the issue now, you'll still be doing yourself a favor getting rid of the crappy PSU before it does blow up.

Could also try dusting out your video card.

 

[Joseph F]

Thank you all for your help. Soon, I'll be the proud owner of an Antec Neo Eco 520c.

 

[Concillian]

Is it possible that It's the PSU and not my GPU? *fingers crossed

Possible, but not probable.

Check GPU temps (while gaming) with GPU-z or something similar.

4850 was on the hairy edge in terms of the Voltage regulator. If your card has a 3rd party cooler, I'd strongly suggest rigging a fan to blow directly on the VRM circuitry or some kind of heatsink on the VRMs.

As proof of this, my 4850 was an MSI unit with a cooler that didn't do anything for the VRMs. I couldn't OC it at all, or would get freezing. Even 5 MHz would cause issues. I rigged a heatsink for the VRMs and put a fan blowing directly on that heatsink and could then overclock the card ~ 120 MHz over stock running Furmark overnight no issue.

The stock ATi cooler had the squirrel cage fan directly over the VRMs and provided excellent VRM cooling. Most 3rd party coolers completely ignore the VRMs.

 

[Joseph F]

My card is an XFX 485X-YDFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150337
I haven't been able to get the cooler off for some reason (I took all of the screws off but it wouldn't budge) but I would assume that a large dual-slot cooler would cool the VRMs.
IIRC the core never goes above ~75c with furmark. (absolute worst case scenario, fan set to low) but I do remember trying to o/c to 780mhz while running furmark once... so stupid.

 

[Concillian]

That looks like a 4870 cooler. VRMs were in a different place. You can see in this picture where the VRMs are on the 4850 PCB.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2008/05/31/amd-radeon-hd-4850-pictured/1
http://images.bit-tech.net/news_images/2008/05/amd-radeon-hd-4850-pictured/amd4850-2.jpg

That big copper area with the pins sticking up is where the VRMs are on the standard 4850 PCB. Those two screw holes should have something screwed into it if you look at the back of your PCB.

It could also be that xfx used the 4870 PCB and VRMs for that version of the 4850, which would also resolve the issue. If your PCB looks different from whats in those pictures you probably have the 4870 PCB, which doesn't have the same VRM issues.

Core temp didn't even really matter on my 4850. VRMs would overheat way before anything else.

 

[dealmaster00]

I have a similar rig OP. I have an OC'd Phenom II X2 which takes about 30W less power. At about 90% load my computer uses 220W AFTER inefficiencies. I'd doubt you'd ever use much more than 300W. The problem lies in the 12V rail in the power supply. Most of the components will stress this and not the other rails (3.3V, 5V). If you make sure your 12V rail can handle 300W, you'll be fine. In case you don't recall, power = voltage * current. which implies 300W = 12 * x. x = 300W / 12V = 25A.

Power supplies often claim to have dual 12V rails, but the implementation is often a single 12V rail, so just add up the amperages on the 12V rails to see if you're good.

Also, you have to be careful of vendors bending specs. They might claim that a power supply can handle certain amperages at a given voltage, but it might be at a low temperature. Raise the temperature, those stats don't mean anything. Or their stats might not be able to support a continuous load over a long duration of time. This is why you always want to check reviews before making a purchase.

Finally, this power supply got decent reviews, is complete overkill for your system, and is 30 bucks after rebate: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...LvlaegBRt9E2KQ

EDIT: My 4850 runs around 65C at load. Haven't had any problems with it since I got it (1.5 years ago I think)

 

[Joseph F]

I know that my system won't draw anywhere near as much power as the PSU I'm buying but I want room for expandability and I'm getting a good deal on it. ($60 for a Corsair 650W)