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Is a 500W Smartpower 2.0 good enough for my new rig?

A

arfows

Junior Member
Hey all,
I am buying a new rig with the following specs:

Gigabyte EP45-UD3P

E8500

Aftermarket cooler (particulars yet to be decided)

MSI 4850 512M video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127370

G.Skill PI 4 black 4GB DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231209

2 DVD-RW drives

3 case fans

2 Seagate HD's.

I plan on doing some mid to higher level OC'ing.

Will my current Antec Smartpower 2.0 500W be able to handle the load? I really like it...its modular and quiet.
http://www.newegg.com/product/...x?Item=N82E16817103937

If not, what ones would you recommend? My budget would be ~$90

Thanks in advance!
 
An Antec SP2 isn't even good enough for an old rig. Get rid of that time bomb pronto. First and for most the PSU have a bad history of dieing. On top of that they like to kill other system components when they do die. You have been lucky the PSU has lasted this long. Secondly the PSU only offers at most 22A on the 12V rails. Considering age it may only be 20A now. The system your looking at needs about 26A to 28A or better on the combined 12V rails.

If you want a good PSU then have a look at the Corsair PSUs. There 450W or high PSUs will be perfect for your system. I would suggest getting the VX550 since you want to OC.
 
What mpilchfamily said is right: that PSU is well known for its above average failure rate. If that PSU is making a sort of squealing noise, you can still RMA it back to Antec. No need for the receipt either. They'll just ask for the serial code on the PSU to determine whether or not that PSU is within the 3 year warranty. If your RMA is approved, they'll sen you back the Earthwatts EA500D, which is a good a choice for your system
 
I must be one of the lucky ones...haven't had anything but great performance from it....but what you are saying is that 500W should cover my new system and that if the PSU fails it can destroy other parts of the system as well???
 
A good QUALITY 450W to 500W PSU with at least 30A on the +12V rail is more than enough for your system. But that SP-500 is NOT a quality PSU. And yes if a PSU fails, there's a possibility that it can kill parts or all of the PC. However there's a chance that the PSU will only kill itself and not the rest of the system.
 
Originally posted by: arfows
I must be one of the lucky ones...haven't had anything but great performance from it....but what you are saying is that 500W should cover my new system and that if the PSU fails it can destroy other parts of the system as well???
Click to expand...

What we are saying is that a good quality new 500W PSU should be more then enough to support the above mentioned system. Your old PSU can destroy parts when it fails. It has a history of doing so. But most PSUs have built in fail safes to prevent system damage if the unit does fail.
 
ok...you guys have effectively convinced me to buy a new PSU...unlike advice from another site I won't mention that starts with a T and ends with ware.

Anyway, given the fact that I am probably in the market for ~550 watt PSU - are there ones that are modular and would fit my need for a better price than the $80 I am seeing for the Antec 650 Blue?

Thanks again for steering me straight.
 
I also have a Smartpower 2 500w, and the first one I had blew up, had an electrical burning smell for a couple of days before going BANG!. Fortunately it was the only thing that died
and I got another one back a couple of weeks later.
That was about 18 months ago now and I have had no problems with this one.
As I am in the electronics repair industry I can tell You that Respectable Manufacturers issue newer revisions of their products to fix problems that are costing
them lots of $$$$. It is likely that Antec did exactly that with the Smartpower 2 Power supply models, as this one has had no probs so far, also Voltages are good and
stable and above spec.

I wouldn't however use it with A hd4850/4870 and E8500 Cpu as I don't think it would be capable of running that for an extended amount of time,and it's not worth
taking the risk. Make sure whatever You get is modular, as Earthwatts are not and You will have half a million cables everywhere to try to hide.
 
Yea a while after it was discoved that the SP2's had a rash of bad capacitors they updated the specs on that unit. But the fail rate was still a bit high.
 
My antec PS just died too. It was the smartpower 2.0 450watt. It ran well for nearly 2.5 years mostly 24/7.

My processor started getting hotter which I thought it was the heatsink so I adjusted it and tried to start the computer again. Then my motherboard diagnosis light started blinking and then eventually wouldn't power up. :*(
 
Just an FYI, if your Smartpower or Truepower II PSU is still within its three warranty, you can RMA it back to Antec and get the quality Earthwatts 500W PSU.
 
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