PSU Questions

[Anaxibius]

I recently built a new PC for the first time in over 3 years. I thought I had kept up to date, but I was wrong 🙂 MY PC was zapped by lightning and my PSU and mobo were fried. I replaced the mobo and went to order the new PSU to find out it was out of stock from where I like to order, so I started shopping around to find out if there was another PSU that would do the trick. Well I started to notice that there are several different bells and whistles that I was not familiar with.

First my blown PSU was a KingWin KWI-450WS. By all accounts that I could find it is a quality PSU for the price. It had the requisite SATA line, so no need for the adapter, which looks crappy IMO (I like a sleek and organized case and I use sheathing on all of my cables.) It was very stable and seemed to be doing the trick. But when I really started to dig I saw that the MTBF was only 30,000 hours at 25 C, compared to 100K or even 130K from some other similarly priced products. Other products had higher surge tolerance and I started to wonder how to make my decision. I have always put stock into reader reviews assuming there are enough to get a good baseline, but some of the products rated highest by readers were the Thermaltake lines and they don't even have MTBF listings. Which makes me think it is the name and the look that is drawing the good reviews.

My question is simple...what do I look for? I want a PSU with the SATA connector running directly from the PSU (no adapter) and I want at least 400 to 450W of power for future expansion and stability. Are there things to look out for in terms of the basics I might be missing? Help me out here. I know memory, Processors, video cards, etc...but I completely overlooked researching PSU's. Any advice is appreciated.

EDIT: My current config is...
KT-424-BK-WM KingWin Aluminum Case (1 exhaust 2 intake fans)
P4 2.8 Extreme
2gb PC3200 DDR
ATI 9600 (soon to be replaced with one of the new ATI or GeForce cards...still deciding)
HD 80GB|SEAGATE ST380013AS SATA
Lite-On DVD/RW

 

[FiberoN]

If you want quality go with Antec or PC Power and Cooling. They make the best power supplies in my opinion. I use a Antec SmartPower 400W, awesome.

 

[dudeman007]

Originally posted by: FiberoN
If you want quality go with Antec or PC Power and Cooling. They make the best power supplies in my opinion. I use a Antec SmartPower 400W, awesome.

Honestly I haven't had experiance with PC Power and Cooling, but Antec are know are just awesome. I've also had good experiances with Thermaltake, but Antec is the top.

btw...
Can't help you with the sata thing, I've never heard of a psu with a straight sata cord, but that's just me. What's wrong with the adapter? Same thing?

 

[oldfart]

I just got a Fortron 400w. Very highly rated. It has a super quiet 120mm adjustable fan. The 12v rail is 11.98. My Antec True330 was 11.68.
It has a SATA power plug.

 

[Cerb]

And don't forget Enermax, particularly their new Noisetaker line!

 

[Anaxibius]

btw...
Can't help you with the sata thing, I've never heard of a psu with a straight sata cord, but that's just me. What's wrong with the adapter? Same thing?

My KingWin PSU had the SATA cord straight off the PSU. It isn't about quality. Like I said I like a very clean look inside my case and using the sleaving over the top of an adapter (where the two cords plug into each other) looks bad to me. But, I am weird like that.

 

[FiberoN]

Some power supplies like the PC Power and Cooling ones and some Antec's (not mine) come with the SATA cord right off the psu. Some like mine don't come with it, so I use the adapter from my motherboard, which really doesn't matter to me because I tuck it all away behind and out of the way.

 

[Anaxibius]

Originally posted by: oldfart
I just got a Fortron 400w. Very highly rated. It has a super quiet 120mm adjustable fan. The 12v rail is 11.98. My Antec True330 was 11.68.

I looked at the fortron and it looks like a quality product, but isn't it helpful to have two fans (one for pulling air in from the case and one for expelling it out the back.)?

 

[Matthias99]

Seasonic Super Tornado all the way, baby. Quiet, efficient, and rock-solid. A tad more expensive, though.

Antec (at least the "TruePower" line) is very well regarded, as are Fortron, Enermax, and ThermalTake. PC P&C, I believe, are rebranded ThermalTakes (and so are also pretty good).

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: Anaxibius

Originally posted by: oldfart
I just got a Fortron 400w. Very highly rated. It has a super quiet 120mm adjustable fan. The 12v rail is 11.98. My Antec True330 was 11.68.

I looked at the fortron and it looks like a quality product, but isn't it helpful to have two fans (one for pulling air in from the case and one for expelling it out the back.)?

No. Two fans is purely for cooling redundancy.

 

[oldfart]

Originally posted by: Anaxibius

Originally posted by: oldfart
I just got a Fortron 400w. Very highly rated. It has a super quiet 120mm adjustable fan. The 12v rail is 11.98. My Antec True330 was 11.68.

I looked at the fortron and it looks like a quality product, but isn't it helpful to have two fans (one for pulling air in from the case and one for expelling it out the back.)?

No. My Antec was like that with 2 fans. The 120mm fan will move all the air you want it to. If the fan intakes air, it has to exit, right? You dont need an intake and exhaust fan. The back is very well perforated and airflow is very good.

 

[RossGr]

Recently a 1 year old, light loaded, 350W Enermax went belly up for no apparent reason.


Just another data point.

Antec is my perfered PS.

 

[Anaxibius]

Well after much hand wringing I went with the Antec TruePower 430. I will give you guys my impressions when I get it installed and test it out.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Chaotic42]

My PC Power and Cooling 510W Deluxe has those SATA power cables.

PC Power and Cooling is top of the line. It's hard to get higher quality. They're also pretty expensive.