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What are your go-to not-garbage budget PSUs?

G

Gigantopithecus

Diamond Member
By budget, I mean less than $50. Preferably less than $40. By not garbage, I mean a unit that produces the wattage on its label, and is constructed well enough to reasonably expect it to last many years.
 
The PSU is one of the most important components in a computer...I don't look for cheap, I look for quality.
That said, Antec offers some good units in the "budget" category, as does Corsair.

What wattage range are you looking for?
 
corsair's 430 watt power supply can often be had for under $20 AR. it's basically unbeatable in the under $50 category. some of the antec greens can also go pretty low and are good units.
 
I've had an Antec Earthwatts 380 running in my file server for nigh on 2 years now, constantly. Under $50, low power, what's not to love?
 
Gigantopithecus said:
Which models in particular do you have in mind?
Click to expand...

There's several units you can get for under $50 that are very decent. The ones I'd recommend you look at is the Antec NEO ECO 400C, the Antec EA-380D, the Corsair CX430 V2, and the Xigmatek NRP-PC402 (in that particular order). The Antec NEO ECO is very well balanced and is based on a Seasonic design with decent efficiency and very good ripple suppression and power output. The EA-380D has a bit higher efficiency, but you do give a little bit on the ripple suppression and power output--it's not by any means bad in these aspects, though. The CX430 V2 is like the 380D, except it has a bit lower efficiency and is less reliable (more DOA units and failures, according to reviews). The NRP-PC402 has good power output and efficiency, but ripple is kinda bad.

The NEO ECO 400C comes with free shipping and is at $45, so I highly recommend you go that route.
 
Id say Corsair, Antec are my two. They are the only brands ive ever owned actually. All you have to do is try to wait for deals to come around and you can get some pretty quality psu's for dirt cheap.
 
I have an Antec 430 Basiq and its been running fine with no issues for 1.5 years. Although I will be replacing it soon as I am upgrading my video card which would put me at like 90% output under load.
 
I used to run a couple of TT TR2-430 PSUs, even though people said they were crap, they ran fine for me, I think it's a fairly reliable low-power PSU. I replaced them with Antec Basiq 500W units, which I picked up for $30 ea upon introduction at Microcenter. Seemed fine to me as well, although one of them developed severe bearing whine after a year. Not good. I replaced it with another identical model.

When I upgraded my desktops to quad-cores, and added GTX460 1GB cards to them, I upgraded my PSUs to Antec EarthWatts 650W PSUs that I had around. They cost me around $70-75 each.

I second the recommendation on the Antec Neo Eco units, they go on sale fairly regularly.

I also picked up some EarthWatts 430W and 500W units at Staples on clearance, for a few bucks less than Newegg.
 
VirtualLarry said:
I used to run a couple of TT TR2-430 PSUs, even though people said they were crap, they ran fine for me, I think it's a fairly reliable low-power PSU.
Click to expand...

There is a reason why people say it is crap. Yes, it is "better" than most of the true crap. However, it is a mediocre, inefficient and old (ATX 1.3) 300W HEC PSU being labeled 430W by Thermaltake. These only have 18A on the +12v, but Thermaltake went through pains to hide that info. Used to be in their specs on their web site even for the supposed dual rail version, but they've since removed that information.
 
Everybody keeps ragging on my Enhanced PSU, but it's been powering the rig in my sig for nearly three years. I think I paid about $50 for it.
 
Antec Earthwatts 650w, just checked my gmail history and found the NCIX order. Paid $59 for it two years ago. No problems with it so far and I'm sure it'll be good for when I upgrade this system too.
 
Ya ive been debating over the Antec earthwatts 650 which is like $45AR right now with free shipping and a free card reader on newegg, vs a corsair 650 which is about $63AR/AC/Tax on newegg vs an xfx 550 for about $55ish. I even have a $10 off code so that would put the earthwatts at about $40AR and tax shipped.
 
BoomerD said:
Don't forget to add about $10 to that for a power cord...unless you have one from a different unit...Antec no longer includes them with their PSUs...:shrug:
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Why pay $10 for a power cord? Doesn't everyone have like a million of those things lying around by now? 😛
 
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