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Power Source?

S

smorrow27

Junior Member
Had an el cheapo PS that came free with my case die out on a F@H box I was running. Just wondering what you guys suggest for a cheap power source replacement. All my instincts as a DIY computer builder are saying "don't buy a cheap PS" but this is just an Athlon XP 2500 and all it does is crunches. I've always had spare parts lying around before, and this is the first time I'll have to actually buy a PS. What do you guys suggest?
 
Personally I either get them off FS/FT or the cheapo 250/300W ones from Compusa. You can catch those on slae for $10-20.

Some People have even been known to run two crunchers off of 1 PSU. 😀
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Actually, Geoff's question is a good one I might appreciate some help on. I'm running an Athlon XP 2500 on an MSI board with a VIA K8T800 chipset, a real old 20GB HD, and a nvidida 5200FX which I could even swap out for a 4-year-old el cheapo video card. So how many watts do you guys think I need? I actually struggle with this question everytime I put together a box, and I know all PS's are not created equal, even if they have the same wattage. And you guys that are splitting PS's among more than one box, what are your rules for how much wattage?
 
I have a 2500+ on an ASUS A7N8X-VM with a 40gb hdd and a Radeon 9200 running off a Compusa 300w PSU with no problems. My son uses it for playing WOW and when not doing that it crunches R@H. So $300 should do just fine.
 
My gaming rig is an XP2500+ on a Gigabyte - VT600(I think), with a 120gig hd, 9600XT ATI video card, 52x CDR, 16x DVDRW, and a floppy drive. The Antec 250 I mentioned earlier has been working fine. Were I to add another hard drive though, I'd probably want to go to a 300 watt supply.
 
Originally posted by: smorrow27
Thanks for the suggestions guys. Actually, Geoff's question is a good one I might appreciate some help on. I'm running an Athlon XP 2500 on an MSI board with a VIA K8T800 chipset, a real old 20GB HD, and a nvidida 5200FX which I could even swap out for a 4-year-old el cheapo video card. So how many watts do you guys think I need? I actually struggle with this question everytime I put together a box, and I know all PS's are not created equal, even if they have the same wattage. And you guys that are splitting PS's among more than one box, what are your rules for how much wattage?
Click to expand...

thats less than what my old compaq pos had running and iirc it had 8a on the 12v :Q i'll have to double check, its in the attic.

another good place to check is svc.com. they usually have some great refurbed sparkles for ~ $10.

btw, this calculator may help a bit but as a rule, all these calculators way over estimate your needs.

edit- heres the sparkles i speak of but they only have two in stock options.
 
Originally posted by: networkman
My gaming rig is an XP2500+ on a Gigabyte - VT600(I think), with a 120gig hd, 9600XT ATI video card, 52x CDR, 16x DVDRW, and a floppy drive. The Antec 250 I mentioned earlier has been working fine. Were I to add another hard drive though, I'd probably want to go to a 300 watt supply.
Click to expand...

I've powered serveral Athlon XP crunchers on very old Channel Well 250W PS's with no issues. 🙂
 
I would accually recommend to you getting a bit more expensive PSU... but not for the same reasons most of the "hardcore" building tards over in GH sing praises over


For all my new PSU's i'm getting only Active PFC models. These will save you money big time in the long run w/ energy costs... especially since you'll be running this thing 24/7 for most days of the year. They have a good one one sale at newegg right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103062

I have two and am thinking about getting more to stock up 🙂 Its 40 bucks shipped and you'll make the money back in energy costs over a cheapie 15 dollar PSU in probably less than 1 year.... definately less than two.

I'm not knocking sparkle and the others... 6 of my boxes have them and are running wonderfully but just for cost savings in the long run, go for the PFC.

Also, if you ever decide to upgrade mobo's and whatnot, that one I linked you to as all the connectors you'll ever need... even for 24pin server if you'd like to go dually 😉


//edit
whoops forgot the link :x
 
Originally posted by: CupCak3
For all my new PSU's i'm getting only Active PFC models. These will save you money big time in the long run w/ energy costs...
Click to expand...

80-85%(or more if possible) efficiency would be nice to have as well. Any more would probably cost a good penny.
 
Fortrons are cheap and stable. I had horrible PSU problems for the longest time, so I'm running dual Seasonics now. Might be overboard, but I don't have to worry about power for anything I put in the machine, so it is definitely worth it.
 
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