Help with Power Supply <$100, Stable Power

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: Praxis1452
Originally posted by: Beachboy
Here's a nice PC&P P/S for $99. Text

My next P/S is definitely gonna be one from this company.
Your paying for the name when wintech doesn't even manufacture it. It's made by seasonic. and you can get Seasonic for much less.
Win-tact makes the TurboCool line, not Wintech.
 

Praxis1452

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2006
2,197
0
0
Originally posted by: Howard
Originally posted by: Praxis1452
Originally posted by: Beachboy
Here's a nice PC&P P/S for $99. Text

My next P/S is definitely gonna be one from this company.
Your paying for the name when wintech doesn't even manufacture it. It's made by seasonic. and you can get Seasonic for much less.
Win-tact makes the TurboCool line, not Wintech.

bleh confused them =(
 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
4,869
1
81
www.lenon.com
Heh! Zipper has brought it to my attention that I can get (basically) the same PSU as the Silverstone, for less money, with an Enhance badge. That makes the dual PSU an even more interesting and attractive proposition... :)

Fours rails & a full KW for $134 (2 x Enhance ENP-5150GH)
 

Zepper

Elite Member
May 1, 2001
18,998
0
0
I often recommend "dual" PSUs for folks that want to run a large number of drives or whatever. Rig up a little startup relay and you don't have to have two separate power switches or other such twaddle. Having a case that's built to handle such (like the Stacker STC-T01) makes it super easy. Very cost-effective too. I might recommend for the second drive one with a single +12V rail so you don't have to rig up a bunch of adapters. You could get the 5140 to run your mobo and let the second run most everything else.

.bh.
 

Zap

Elite Member
Oct 13, 1999
22,377
7
81
Originally posted by: Praxis1452
500W psu's aren't really necessary. People buy them because it makes them feel better.

Nah, they're just being American - home to the ever larger SUVs (before gas hit $3/gal though).

Here's something for people to chew on...

Zap's current gaming rig

The PSU is an Enermax SFX 270W unit with 16A on the +12v line. With the Radeon X850XT card, something in the system was making a high pitched noise - ran stable, but irritating. Since these pics, I swapped out the card with a Geforce 7900GT and the noise went away. I can run my Opteron 144 at 2.7GHz and my 7900GT at, oh, somewhere around 580/1600, and the system is stable. I go to at least one LAN party a weekend with this, and have been since I built it earlier this year.

For higher end systems with dual graphics and cores, sure, it'll need much more power. However, I think all these new kilowatt PSUs have crossed the line. I don't think I'd consider anything over 500W even for a top end system, as long as the PSU is +12v sufficient (not like older units with more 3.3v/5v) and is of sufficient quality.
 

VinDSL

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2006
4,869
1
81
www.lenon.com
Originally posted by: Zepper
I often recommend "dual" PSUs for folks that want to run a large number of drives or whatever...
Maybe you should have played it safe and rendered a dismissive one-liner, like Howie... :)

What I'm mostly worried about is load balance, and shut-down. Let's forget load balance for now, 'cause nobody even knows what I'm talking about, or how it relates to PSU performance -- and I don't feel like explaining it.

However, let's just go with the relay scenario for right now. Shorting pin #14 momentarily to ground will start the 2nd PSU, but what do you do about shutting it down? Will Windows, for instance, shut down two PSU's? Assuming you have to power down the second PSU manually, and the HDs are shut down independently of the mobo PSU, won't that 'cause data corruption, as Mountain Mods said?

Please explain!