inexpensive power supplies?

Sureshot324

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2003
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I know antec and enermax make the best quality power supplies, but they are really expensive. Are there any other brands that make good quality power supplies for less?
 

dnoyeb

Senior member
Nov 7, 2001
283
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I had NEVER had any problems with any PSU I even bought, right down the the red stripe generic brands. As far as I am concerned, maybe some are not rated as properly, but they all seem to work fine for me.

Maybe if you have lots of drives in a server you need a bigger PSU, but for me, they have all worked equally as well. antec and enermax have not performed especially well.

The only thing that has happened is the Fan eventually wears out on my older PSUs.

I now buy a PSU for the silence it can provide mostly. Which does lead me to antec and enermax...(but not the power)
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
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71
Don't scrimp on power supplies man, they're the most vital element of your system.

I recently bought a 400W Antec PS w/2 fans for a mere $59. It's worth the price, believe me. (although I think that's a relatively low cost, considering a 400W Enermax would cost you $80.)

Read this article on power supplies if you're curious: http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20021021/index.html

It recommends Verax (can't seem to find a price on a 400W Verax) and Fortron (400W from newegg: $71) along with Antec as "good" power supplies. Enermax received a "satisfactory."
 

Occifer

Golden Member
Mar 27, 2002
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Originally posted by: dnoyeb
I had NEVER had any problems with any PSU I even bought, right down the the red stripe generic brands. As far as I am concerned, maybe some are not rated as properly, but they all seem to work fine for me.

Maybe if you have lots of drives in a server you need a bigger PSU, but for me, they have all worked equally as well. antec and enermax have not performed especially well.

The only thing that has happened is the Fan eventually wears out on my older PSUs.

I now buy a PSU for the silence it can provide mostly. Which does lead me to antec and enermax...(but not the power)

I have replaced so many generic power supplys that I hang them from a tree in the back yard to scare other ones away. IMO it is better to pay for a name brand power supply than buy 3 generic ones. I'm just about to go pick one up right now actually.
 

viper118

Member
Feb 26, 2003
104
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0
Sureshot, can you post your computer specs so that we can recommend the best possible psu for your system??

anyways, i suggest that you go for an enermax even though the price is a bit high... it's cheaper than the antec psu's, and does a very nice job.. i have the 365 model and i haven't had any problems at all using it.. it's nice and quiet...

 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
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71
Cheaper than Antec? Where this? On average I've seen it the other way around.
 

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
I would go with a quality PSU,however Chieftec make some good power supplies that are very reasonable in price,I would look at brands from Enermax,Antec,Sparkle,Enhance etc as well, you should be able to find one that`s in your price range.

 

WobbleWobble

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2001
4,867
1
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I've also never had any problems with no-name power supplies. I had to replace my 300W generic because one of my rails were getting low but that's because I had a 1.2GHz Thunderbird with 2 optical and 3 HDDs. I've never had one of those no-name ones fail though and find them good enough until you try to max it out.

And I agree, Enermaxs are generally cheaper than Antec. At least up here locally my city, it's a good average 20% cheaper than Antec.
 

Texun

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2001
2,058
1
81
I guess I was lucky for a long time. Used the generic PS's that came with whatever case I bought. The last time I tried this I ended up spending about $200 on power supplies before I finally got it right. Started with a 340W Enlight - lasted 3 months. Got a generic CompUSA 500W - lasted about 5 months. Replaced it with an Antec 430 and have not had any trouble after a year of use. Maybe I just had a run of bad luck, but I stopped playing with dice and got one that I felt would do it once and for all. So far so good.

Hope this helps.
 

GnomeCop

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2002
3,863
0
76
I dunno why... but I've only had good luck with enermax PSUs @ 350 (or 365, cant remember) watt or less, the higher ones seem to crap out more. The lower ones are awesome though
 

McCarthy

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,567
0
76
I like Enlights. Never had a problem with voltages varying and the connectors make good contact.

Running a 2700+ with 3HDs, Radeon 9700, burner, etc parts on a 300w without a problem. Newegg has them for $24, great deal if you ask me.

Not fancy, no gold grills or overhyped claims, just a basic, reliable power supply.
 

onelin

Senior member
Dec 11, 2001
874
0
0
I'll second the Enlight recommendation. I've had a ton of them (6+?) and none has ever had issues.

However, you can't go wrong with Antec, and it's what I currently have for all my >=300W PSU's.

Like Malladine said, don't skimp on your PSUs. I got a 'cheap' PSU and it fried my Geforce (the week after I got it...the fall they originally came out) and my burner. Another time I thought I'd try a generic 350W over my Antec 300W... bad idea. My Antec (under a larger load than it could deal with) booted fine...the 350W generic? didn't even post properly! My fans didn't even spin, and that was quite scary. I now have an Antec 430W.
 

cmf21

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
977
1
81
I also like the Enlights. We have a couple hundred at work which have been running for a few years 24x7 and never had one fail yet. Had to replace a few fans but's that's normal as well as making sure they stay dust free.
 

AtomicDude512

Golden Member
Feb 10, 2003
1,067
0
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Two rules for building a computer:

1) Never skimp on the motherboard
2) Never skimp on the power supply

If you do that and put some decent RAM in it and run Windows XP or Linux you can have a very stable system.