ned new psu for new build

[imported_armada]

im building a new rig (well two of them but im re-using my old psu a older thermaltake 550watt that has been stable as hell) but the system im building for my cousin needs a psu to go with it.. either a e2180 or e2200 oc'ed of course as far as stable will allow, abit or gigabyte mobo (the usual ones lol), 4 gb of ddr2800 ram, three wd 320gb's drives (we got a killer local deal so we bought the last 6 they had and were splitting them up) so three hd's total in each system, cooler master 600 series case (dont remember exact number), dual cd/dvd burners (undecided yet brand wise), and prob a 8600gt to start unless i can get a deal on a 8800 instead. i think thats it and fans of course..

thing is after everything he bought he has no more than 50$ to spend.. i know he should buy a (prob) better psu than that will allow. but would the likes of cooler master xtreme 650 watt psu (34$ at new egg), or the thermaltake 500watt psu 35$ newegg, or something else 50$ or under normal or after rebates.. he is limited by his parents as to what he can spend and doesnt have much of anything to add he is a full time student and they are paying for his stuff.

any other ideas would be great or would one of these two be great for him?? thanks

this is the thermaltake :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817153052

this is the coolermaster:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817171014

thanks again

 

[imported_armada]

this is the case it will be going in also couldnt resist for the price we got 2 of them:

http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA1306233

 

[mpilchfamily]

If you have too drop one of the Optical and one of the HDDs to get the money for a good quality PSU. If your looking to go 8800 in the near future you will want a better PSU then waht $50 will get you. Now either one if fine as long as you stick with the 8600 but if gaming is the goal then you should pick a better card as well. One of the 1900 or 7900 series cards will well out perform the 8600. Yes there is no DX10 support on those cards but if you try to play DX10 games the 8600 will crawl at a snails pace even with all settings on low. At which point you have to ask yourself whats the point. I'd rather have high settings in DX9 then low settings on DX10.

But a really good PSU you may want to consider would be a the Corsair VX450.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...03&Tpk=corsair%2b450vx

Its over $80 after shipping but thats the target you want to shoot for with regards to Quality and the amount of power the system will need.

 

[imported_armada]

he already ordered everything else this morning after i posted here.. so yeah he's stuck with a cheaper psu... maybe 60$ my aunt said but they will not go any higher..


also ive had many thermaltake psu's before i never saw anything wtrong with them and they were rock solid never went below 12v.. and i ran them hard... ??

 

[imported_armada]

how about this one?? dual 20amp rails seems to get good reviews??:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817226002

a pic of the specs from the box:

http://www.overclockersclub.co...shark_635/images/7.htm

and a review of it:

http://www.overclockersclub.co.../sigma_shark_635/2.htm

 

[mpilchfamily]

Your looking at a $100 PSU. Thought there was a tight budget. Is you can afford that much then you really need to go with the Corsair. Its one of the best PSU in the 400W to 500W range on the market. I don't know anything about those Sigma units. Its nice that it has 20A current limiters on each of the rails but that doesn't tell you the max amount of amperage available on the +12v rails. It may only be able to offer a max of 30A for all we know. Now thats plenty of power for that system with a 8600 but the Corsair is better quality and cheaper. I get the feeling the Sigma has more flash then quality power. It seams like its a $40 psu with about $60 in paint, lights, and pointless aluminum casing. Many flashy PSUs like that tend to be fairly poor ones.

 

[mpilchfamily]

BTW the PSU reviews over at Overclockerclub are pointless and don't show you any useful information. Dropping a PSU into a high end system, running some applications and benches and then only taking voltage readings doesn't tell you anything about how well that unit performed. Almost no PSU will show a drop outside the +/-5% tolerance on each rail. The times a PSU would drop is the split second after a major change in the load on the system. That split second between the load hitting and the PSU seeing a voltage drop due to the load and then correcting the voltage accordingly. Its there that a problem can arise. But this is hard to really monitor and test for no matter what the testing methods are. One of the biggest hits against a PSU is the amount of ripple on the lines. Basically how much of the AC frequency is able to bleed over to the voltage rails. Excessive ripple will cause system problems and possible damage. Cheaper and poor quality PSU use cheaper parts that do not filter out the ripple very well. Reviewing PSUs takes allot of pricy equipment to do properly. Just ask the people here how much they spent to get the equipment for there test lab. The load tester alone cost nearly $10K. Thats why i'm building my own which will cost about $700 for the parts. I actually start receiveing the parts next week for the build.

 

[imported_armada]

well the sigma has a 50$ rebate making it 50$ in his budget the reason he was looking at the sigma

 

[imported_armada]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817256037

any idea on that one??

 

[chuckm]

This is the best PSU for the money right now;

http://www.buy.com/prod/Corsai...loc/101/205466485.html