Dependable PSU for brand new A64 S939 OC rig?

[pushmethepot]

Hi, my first time on these forums, looks like you've got a nice, knowledgeable community here.

I'm shipping off to school in a few weeks and I thought I'd spoil myself with a new high-end system. But top of the line parts are way too expensive ($800 for A64 FX53, no thanks) so I've decided that overclocking is the answer. I've never done this before, and my understanding from reading around on forums is that not only wattage, but stable, "clean" power is essential to the stability of any overclocked rig. Anyway, here were the specs I had in mind...

MSI k8n neo2 platinum
A64 3500+ (oc to 2.4+GHz)
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8
2xCrucial Ballistix PC3200 DDR dual channel 512MB sticks (oc to DDR500 or better)
Geforce 6800 GT 256MB (oc to Ultra core/mem speeds)
2x7200RPM ATA/133 IDE hard disks totalling 320GB
DVD-ROM
DVD Rewriter

I really had my mind set on putting this all inside an Aspire X-Superalien case. It comes with a 500W PSU, which sounds like plenty, and which has received rave reviews from several hardware sites for its stability and value. However, I've also read not so great things, like that it has no warranty, and that the voltage tends to be a quarter to a half a volt low along the +12v rail. I'm not sure what that would mean for the stability of my drawing board OC rig, but for $140 shipped, you really can't beat 6x80mm fans, lockable front and side panels, 2 digital temp readouts, and a 500W PSU all in one box, as far as I know. Do any overclockers here have any experiences or thoughts to share as far as modern OC rigs and the kind of PSUs you need to make them stable? Any input would be appreciated, as I'm ready to move out of the research phase and into the buying phase, though if I could avoid having to drop $150 on an OCZ PSU, that would be fantastic.

 

[thelanx]

I don't know how great that aspire PSU is, but a stable 12V rail is important for overclocking your processor and powering all the fans and things in your case. I would suggest an Antec Truepower 430 at the very least for your system, although a PSU from any name brand manufacturer would be okay. Running 6 fans and ocing an Athlon64 is gonna be a big power hog. With PSU's, the total watt is not the only important thing, you also need to look at how many amps it can put out on the 12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. Also brand and weight are big factors too. Generally the heavier the PSU, the better. A name brand 300W psu in many cases will be better and more reliable than a 450W no name PSU.

 

[imported_Aelius]

I'm building an almost exact replica of your system, except for some parts are different.

My PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 425 Deluxe weighs in at aprox 5lbs. It's insanely heavy but the capacitors and other equipment inside is easily 3-5 times larger and heavier than your average PSU.

It's no joke when someone tells you that you can tell quality by weight for a PSU.

Oh and how do you plan to push your RAM to run at DDR500? That mobo only allows up to around 2.8v for RAM and your RAM probably runs at 2.6v. I don't see how you can get an extra 50FSB out of your RAM. Maybe if you had PC3500 RAM that ran at 2.6v.

It seems all motherboards out for socket 939 are anti RAM OCing. The best one only goes up to 2.85v. They really need to make them go to 3-3.2v for OCing RAM.

I'm still trying to figure out what RAM to get to OC to DDR550-560 without getting super slow PC4400 RAM.

Best suggestion I got from OCZ is to use their Gold Rev2 PC4000.

I really perfer the OCZ PC3700EB RAM. Still there's almost no way I can push it from DDR466 to DDR550-560 without pushing it to 3v and that's impossible with the current socket 939 motherboards.

I hate this mess.

 

[DaNorthface]

your psu should be fine