PSU rant

[QueBert]

So I'm building a friend a HTPC, it'll only have 1 HD and 1 optical drive plus the few case fans. So I order a low price 300 watt Sparkle, I know it's not a great PSU but 10 years ago Sparkle was a great brand. And he doesn't need a monster PSU for this setup.

I'm putting it all together today and the PSU has NO SATA power plugs. I don't expect it to have 4 of them, but I thought now a days SATA connectors on a PSU were the norm. Am I mistake here or did I just get unlucky with this one? I suppose I could have looked at the specs lol. Now I have this PC together and no way to power the drives.

my stupidity for not reading the specs, well having to order stupid adapters on-line and wait at least 4 more days + shell out the shipping for them is a lesson learned.

one question, the PSU is rated at 18a, if I'm using the onboard HDMI for graphics and the case only has 1 HD (1 gig Spinpoint) and a Blue-Ray drive it should be fine right?

 

[MarcVenice]

What did you pay ?

Funny thing is, your attempt at 'skimping' on the PSU is an epic fail. Not only did you have to order adapters, but you also ended up with some 65% efficiency psu. Had you bought a 80% plsu psu, which should be doable for $30-40, you would get back your investment in no time due to better efficiency *htpc runs like all day, doesn't it?* and you'd have a far better psu, with at least 2 sata connectors or more.

 

[HOOfan 1]

Hopefully this is the only price you pay for failure to research.

Many SATA drives have the option to use Molex power too....guess his don't

It is probably an OLD ATX design.

 

[QueBert]

HOOfan 1 most newer SATA drives I see all have the molex removed.

MarcVenice the case uses MATX PSU's and there wasn't exactly a big selection of them on Newegg. Of the 17 or so they have I didn't see any that were rated 80%+ and none of them had outstanding specs. This one was $35, about the middle ground for MATX ones, even the ones that were twice as much didn't seem to have anything better except more watts, which he doesn't need. I went with the one that had the most/best reviews overall, and this was it.

*EDIT* Ok, I'm blind they do have one MATX model that's 80plus, I sure didn't see it when I was ordering though lol. Oh well, too little too late.

 

[QueBert]

Well, not all is lost, appears the MB came with a double Molex to SATA adapter. Going back on Newegg it would seem there isn't much of a market for Micro ATX PSU's though. Even the best looking one they have doesn't seem close to even a slightly above mid range regular ATX PSU.

 

[Zap]

18A is just fine, but if the PSU is old enough to not have any SATA plugs, then it is probably pretty inefficient.

Didn't the motherboard come with SATA power adapters? < oh yeah, saw that you found -em.

By micro ATX do you mean "SFX?" The 300W and 350W Seasonic SFX PSUs are 80+ certified and are pretty nice. I have the 350W version and was able to run a GTX 260 with it, though I had to use adapters because they don't have PCIe 6 pin plugs. The FSP 300W unit is also 80+ and decent. The 350W Seasonic has two SATA while the other ones will have at least one (but not sure on more).

 

[Rifter]

Be careful with that mobo supplied adapter. I just built a new computer 2 weeks ago and did not realize that my PS had SATA power connectors(been 5 years since i built a comp so i wasnt looking for them) and i used the mobo supplied power connector(found it first) for my HDD and burner. All was fine for a few days to a week then i had all kinds of read/write errors while installing programs and problems with crashing on bootup and horrid speeds when transfering files(like under 2MB/s). I Contacted seagate to RMA the drive and the tech told me to make sure the drive was connected to the PS directly not with a extra connector and when i did that it completly fixed the problems. Maybe it was just a bad connector but the first thing the seagate tech said was to remove it so it has to be a common problem. hopefully you dont have the same problem.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: Zap
18A is just fine, but if the PSU is old enough to not have any SATA plugs, then it is probably pretty inefficient.

Didn't the motherboard come with SATA power adapters? < oh yeah, saw that you found -em.

By micro ATX do you mean "SFX?" The 300W and 350W Seasonic SFX PSUs are 80+ certified and are pretty nice. I have the 350W version and was able to run a GTX 260 with it, though I had to use adapters because they don't have PCIe 6 pin plugs. The FSP 300W unit is also 80+ and decent. The 350W Seasonic has two SATA while the other ones will have at least one (but not sure on more).

Hummm, I'm not sure what SFX is, by micro I mean small, this PSU is a lot smaller than a normal ATX. The case is a HTPC one and generally you can't fit a full sized PSU in them. If SFX is another term for small ass PSU, then yes that's what this is. I did not see these Seasonics you talked about. According to newegg they only have 17 PSU's that will fit in this case, and most seemed pretty blah.

to Rifterut I would hope what you experienced was a rare occurrence. I know I've gotten bad components before. I have assembled the PC but I'm still deciding on what OS to tell him to buy for it, so I won't be testing it out until we get that figured out.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: QueBert
Hummm, I'm not sure what SFX is, by micro I mean small, this PSU is a lot smaller than a normal ATX. The case is a HTPC one and generally you can't fit a full sized PSU in them. If SFX is another term for small ass PSU, then yes that's what this is. I did not see these Seasonics you talked about.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1131310143&name=SFX12V

The Seasonic units aren't cheap but they're the best for SFX (at this time). What case did you use?

 

[Zepper]

And there are at least two variants of the SFX: one puts the exhaust on the wider side, the other on the narrower side. The key is to not buy a case that can't take a standard ATX/PS2 form factor PSU. More for your money all around... Though the Seasonics look good and not too much more expensive for those stuck with the SFX form. Glad to see the Egg is carrying them as they have been very hard to find.

re. SATA pwr connectors: it figured that the SATA drive makers would eventually start using some of the features of the SATA pwr connector that are unavailable on an adapter (e.g the 3.3V line). Again, up to you to know what your parts need and to provide same.

.bh.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Though the Seasonics look good and not too much more expensive for those stuck with the SFX form. Glad to see the Egg is carrying them as they have been very hard to find.

Haven't paid attention to the 300W (not much savings) but the 350W has been in/out of stock. The 300W would probably be quieter due to use of an 80mm fan, but the 350W has pretty much all of the extra wattage on the +12v.

This is opposite of the FSP/Sparkle 300W & 350W SFX units. While they are the same way in that the 300W uses an (slimline) 80mm fan and the 350W uses 60mm fans, the extra wattage is all on the 3.3/5v rails AFAIK.

For a 300W choice the FSP is cheaper, probably just as quiet and probably puts out similar power to the 300W Seasonic. However, the 350W Seasonic is definately superior to the 350W FSP/Sparkle (which is tough to find too). The 350W Seasonic with 60mm fans is reasonably quiet while the same-sized fans in the FSP/Sparkle were really noisy.

FWIW I've owned all of them (and many other SFX units) except for the 300W Seasonic.