Which Power Supply ?

[Talal Itani]

Hello,

I need to buy a power supply for the PC I am building. Thermaltake, OCZ,
Corsair, and Rosewill, have very good ratings and Newegg. Which one should
I get?

Thanks,
T.I.

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I need to buy a power supply for the PC I am building. Thermaltake, OCZ,
Corsair, and Rosewill, have very good ratings and Newegg. Which one should
I get?

www.JonnyGuru.com can tell you. This is one of the very few websites
that does legitimate testing of PSUs and loads them down to their full
rated power rather than just 200-300W by using only a computer as the
load. Never trust positive reviews that don't include watt or amp
measurements.

Thermaltakes vary in quality because they're made by more than one
company. However I believe that their GamePower and ToughPower models
are made by Fortron-Source, a very good company.

Rosewill isn't that good but also not completely awful.

OCZ and Corsair are very good because they're made by top
manufacturers, Fortron-Source and Seasonic, respectively, except for
some of OCZ's PC Power & Cooling models, which are Seasonic or Win-
tact. Seasonic also makes some Antec models, including the Neos,
Quattros, Trios, and Earthwatts.

 

[Talal Itani]

an $11.99 power supply? I would not even touch it.

 

[Calab]

Unless you were resurrecting an old P3, etc...

Personally, I like my Corsair PSU... Of course its 750watts, so should
handle just about anything.

an $11.99 power supply? I would not even touch it.

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[w_tom]

Well I have good luck with Chiefmax and El Cheapo power supplies.

Meanwhile, others suffered motherboard or hard drive damage when
that same power supply failed. Sure, it worked fine until a missing
function causes damage to other components.

How many failures did you attribute to something else such as heat
or software? Any minimally sufficient power supply can fail
catastrophically and never cause damage to any other computer
component. Never. Just another function ‘forgotten’ to sell for
less.

Another implied 750 watts was sufficient. When selling to the
naive, hype more watts and forget to include other essential functions
that all power supplies are required to contain. How to sell the
defective 750 watt supply to the naive? Include no numeric
specifications. Then other required functions can be 'forgotten' to
increase manufacturer profits while lowering the retail price. Any
power supply even 35 years ago would power a computer even when
incandescent lamps are at less than 40% intensity. When a defective
but 'big watt' supply does not do that, then the naive also recommend
a $100 UPS. $100 to fix a defect in that 750 watt cheapo supply.

Most any computer will work just fine with 350 watts. Why hype 750
watts? Because the naive think (for no apparent reason) that more
watts means better.

Power supplies that provide minimally required functions can also
provide a long list of numeric specs. Supplies that are missing
required functions are selling to people who don't demand and would
not understand those specifications. Another benchmark for
identifying a best supply for the buck. That $11 power supply will
not provide numeric specs for obvious reasons.

 

[Talal Itani]

Actually, Hummer is bad, and a $11.99 power supply is bad too.

Oh, the Hummer mentality.

 

[Ed Medlin]

Also look at PC Power & Cooling Power Supplies.
http://www.pcpower.com/index.html

I would second PC Power and Cooling PSUs. I have used them for many years
with no issues. They just work very well.


Ed

 

[Ed Medlin]

The only problem I find is lack of maintenance. I have replaced bad power

supply fans. I have found systems with stuck fans and so full of dirt that
even if the fan was working there would be inadequate cooling.
The dust and dirt acts like insulation, where you don't want it.
The components do fail if overheated. A computer should be opened up and
blown out once a year especially the processor heat sink and power supply
box. Bad or noisy fans should be lubricated or replaced.
Maintenance will never happen though, people pay their boxes no mind until
there is a problem.

While I agree with the above about maintainence, there is a lot of
difference between components used in a lot of 'generic' PSUs and
high-quality ones. Most brand name PSUs, like the PC P&C ones I use, have
excellent quality fans and other components that tend to have more tolerance
for some abuse than budget PSUs. The Silencer 750 in this system has 2 120mm
fans that are absolutely silent...nada noise....ever. It is also a true
750w....not a 750w "peak" power like most budget PSUs are listed at. I look
at the PSU as about the most important component in my box, and don't skimp
there. Lots of folks get by fine with no-name PSUs and a lot don't. There
have been many instances of problems in the "homebuilt" and "overclocking"
groups over the years if you search back. I do agree with your reasoning as
far as cooling and maintainence inside the box though.....many folks just
don't take the few minutes a year to take care of it.


Ed

 

[Andrew]

The only problem I find is lack of maintenance. I have replaced bad
power supply fans. I have found systems with stuck fans and so full of
dirt that even if the fan was working there would be inadequate cooling.
The dust and dirt acts like insulation, where you don't want it.
The components do fail if overheated. A computer should be opened up and
blown out once a year especially the processor heat sink and power
supply box. Bad or noisy fans should be lubricated or replaced.
Maintenance will never happen though, people pay their boxes no mind
until there is a problem.

Opinions vary on this. Personally I don't see much point in opening
up machines for this kind of regular maintenance. I alot of the
rationale for dusting machines is of the form "Look! Isn't that
dusty! All that dust must be doing some kind of harm..." without any
rational thought going into whether the dust is really causing a
problem or not.

It takes a _lot_ of dust to have any significant effect. A thin
layer, just enough to make things look a bit grubby, does no harm
whatsoever. Look at where the dust gathers - it doesn't gather at
random, in the main it gathers where there is poor airflow anyway
because cooling isn't such a big deal - between the expansion slot
sockets for instance. The dust you inevitably get on fans doesn't
usually amount to very much - it gets blown away when it gets thicker
than the boundary layer.

Yes, you do sometimes see PSUs in particular absolutely full of dust,
but these tend to be on older machines and even then are the exception
rather than the rule. Over the weekend I opened up a 12 year old
sparc I still have in daily use and the PSU was certainly full of
dust, but I didn't bother cleaning it out and it isn't causing a
problem. There should be sufficient margin built in that even a lot
of dust like in this instance doesn't cause a problem. If that isn't
the case you have problems long before you consider dust.

You have to consider the time and expense of performing the
maintenance, which in a commercial setting is not insignificant,
against the chances of a computer failing as a result of not beign
dusted. It isn't just an enginner opening up the case and squirting
an airduster about - the engineer has to be on site, and it is usually
demanded that the user completely clears their desk before the
engineer even looks at a machine. Additionally there is always the
risk of inadvertently damaging something or simply wearing things out
- machine threads in aluminium cases come to mind immediately here.
There always seems to be a finite number of times you can screw/
unscrew them before they are completely shot.

So yes, in extreme cases dust build up can cause problems, but those
cases are few and far between. On balance I don't think it is worth
the hassle. If you want a cleaner computer don't smoke around your
machines - that's a good source of dust and airborne tar is one of the
best things going for clogging up machines.

 

[w_tom]

It takes a _lot_ of dust to have any significant effect. A thin
layer, just enough to make things look a bit grubby, does no harm
whatsoever.

Andrew is quite correct about dust. For example, air holes on a
heatsink must be completely blocked to create a dust problem.
Computers are designed to be chock full of dust and still remain cool.

Too many chassis fans are another reason for dust problems. And
example of problems created by improper design. Most every computer
is sufficiently cooled even in a 100 degree room with only one chassis
fan. The second fan only results in single digit degree reductions.
But the second and additional fans can create massive dust buildups.
Too often, claims of 'too much dust' come from a feeling that dust is
dirty - therefore it must be bad. A properly constructed computer
should work just fine in a 100 degree F room with years of dust.

 

[w_tom]

I've seen plenty of systems with generic little heatsinks
that were running too hot onto the point of crashing because
of dust buildup.  Buildup not bad enough to have completely
clogged them yet.  That's no reason to clean out a system as
often as one cleans most things, but dust should be removed
periodically.

So heat has again identified a defective part. If a heatsink was so
poor (and small), then its degree C per watt number was probably too
high - another indication of defective hardware.

Of course, computers are not intended for dusty environments. That
is why industrial computers are marketed. If running a retail
computer in a dusty environment, then holes between heatsink fins will
clog over. Now we have a heat problem created by dust. Who knows what
environment that computer was operated in until opening it up? But
retail computers are not intended for industrial environments. Dust
becomes a problem when too much air is pushed through a system or if
operating in a harsh (unacceptable) environment.