What Wattage PSU ?

Supercell

Wondering if anyone can advise here as to a recommended size psu i should use with a system i'm building?

Basic specs

4 system fans , plus cpu fan
Athlon64 3000+
Board
512 mb ddr 3200
Gforce 2 (mx something..not building a gaming pc)
Nic
Audigy XP (assume external live drive sucks more juice than a regular card only solution)
Hauppauge WinTV Theater Pci Card
4 HDDS (currently ide)
DVD-r
CDRW
Floppy

Any ballpark recommendations ?

Was thinking along the lines of the Q-Tec PSU ATX 550W Gold PFC Dual Fan PSU , but that is going to hurt the esb bills as i usually leave my main pc running 24/7 so pref smaller wattage if possible.

TIA

Col_Loki

Dont get that PSU, its a dreadfull make and doesent produce within an asses roar of 550w. The brand of PSU is much more important than the rated wattage. The q-tecs are also noisey, less efficient, and have crappy voltage rails when under pressure.

A decent brand 380w PSU will run your system no problems at all. Have a look at this thread for a little more info........ http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=152842

Best makes generally Antec, Fortron, be-quiet, Zalman, thermaltake.... chieftec / tagan also good.....places to pick them up are listed in the link above.

[edit] Actually there not specific PSU retailers listed.

Antec -> www.elara.ie , www.pc-look.com
Zalman -> www.pc-look.com , www.overclockers.com
Be-quiet -> www.hitide.ie
Enermax -> www.overclockers.com
Fortron -> www.pc-look.com

Antec are expensive but are reguarded as one of the best PSU makers. Fortrons produce alot more power than rated so a 350w Fortron will power even more than your system and there nice and cheap. Be-quiets are quiet and have decent outputs.

No budget -> Antec
Mid way -> Be-quite
Budget -> Fortron

Civilian_Target

Seconded. While that QTec PSU is more than suffient for your PC, it's noisy and it guzzles juice, and it will only have the output of a real 400W PSU. The decision to buy a decent PSU will pay off in a few months in ESB bills.

Supercell

Wow that was fast, huge thanks lads, ok Q-Tech out the window then.

Budget isnt really so much of an issue, neither is sound, am well used to the sound my pc's make, in fact cant sleep with them off now sad as that sounds .

So I suppose that leaves the Antec as being the best option.
Thanks for the detailed post COL_LOKI , just reread and see you even include recommended suppliers also, so am off cc in hand

unkel

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
within an asses roar

LOL - you've come to the right place Longfield to look for advice. COL_LOKI knows about PSU's

TacT

That Qtec 550W psu might as well be a 300W psu. Amperage counts more than Watts as does cooling and that psu is woeful quality. Mine struggled to run an xp3000+ 2 case fans, modem, sound card, CDRW, 3 ide drives and a GF4 ti4200.

More info here

My 480W Antec has more power than that 550W Qtec alternative with much more stable voltage lines.

Qtec down in the bad books for me, will never touch them again.

Creamy Goodness

i have a story to tell once upon a time i built a machine consisting of

P4 3ghz
abit ic7-g max2
1gig ram
geforce ti4200
audigy2
q-tec 400w

the psu kept cutting out during the xp install :S

it was faulty right from the start.

remember when u buy something that's cheap you expect it to be of a lesser quality

also as stated above col_loki is the expert in PSU's

i think he adviced me on getting the Antec trueblue 480w

Col_Loki

LOL - you've come to the right place Longfield to look for advice. COL_LOKI knows about PSU's

That Qtec 550W psu might as well be a 300W psu.

also as stated above col_loki is the expert in PSU's
i think he adviced me on getting the Antec trueblue 480w

Ok first off Cr3m0 you have a PSU that will power any system including a dual CPU system. It will also power any single CPU with any GFX card available. I reguard it as the best PSU on the market, i dont think it has ever failed anyone and it lights up blue. Ive had one and it was way too much for me, ran both systems perfectly (rails were amazing) .........best PSU ive ever had without a doubt. Wost comes to worst get a BTX -> ATX adapter and that PSU will be fine ( Its very very hard to stress this PSU) That PSU has run anything ive ever pushed at it with ease and it will run any BTX system with ease .

And cheers for the coments guys...........

Just keep away from Q-Tec ................

[edit] BTW I would prob get a be-quiet 400w myself TBH - ignore if you have bought already!!

AdMMM

I bought a 300w JeanTech in PC World because I was desperate. Any good things I should be hearing about these.... or bad as I fear will be the case?

BabyEater

I agree with the Antec 480W great PSU very good rails even when overclocking a lot.

po0k

What about Fortron 400W?
I'll be running a dual XP2400 off it, along with 6-7 hdds eventually (maybe more), 6x 80mm fans, low-end gfx card, raid5 card, GigE 64-bit card, and maybe another 120mm case fan.

I'm currently running it off the chieftec 360W, 2 cpus, and a hdd.
Stable enough, but I seriously doubt the psu will hold out when I start adding the other bits.

Borderfox

I got a Tagan 380w from www.marx-computers.com and have been very happy with it's performance, very quiet and a good brand.... thouroughly reccomended €72 by the way.....:D

Supercell

I've ordered a TruePower430 after reading many reviews on the web, the advice from COL_LOKI was right on the mark, every single review i've seen highly regards Antec psu's and in this model too, all reviews are good.

PC-Look's order entry online is pretty poor, i did screw up the address..in my case omitted the company name where i work (no-one home during the daytime to sign for it, and work addy is registered on cc)..but cannot cancel or amend the order details on it..even 10 secs after i click submit and think..oh bugger

Have mailed them the corrected addy and corrected on my profile, hope their customer support can fix this on monday..otherwise will be a courier arriving on the industrial estate and no idea which place to deliver to.

Anyone dealt with pc-look before and had to mail them about an order, how was the responce ?

Col_Loki

I bought a 300w JeanTech in PC World because I was desperate. Any good things I should be hearing about these.... or bad as I fear will be the case?

You might be fine. It depends alot on what load you are putting on it. Have a hardware monitor running (like MBM5 or Hardware doctor etc) and then run prime95. This will crash if the PSU isint up to spec and you will see your voltage rails getting very dodgy if its barely handling the system.

What about Fortron 400W?
I'll be running a dual XP2400 off it, along with 6-7 hdds eventually (maybe more), 6x 80mm fans, low-end gfx card, raid5 card, GigE 64-bit card, and

Id be almost 100% sure that the fortron would run your system . The 300w version has run dual CPU systems and likewise the 350w. There really great value i must say. Im using a fortron 300w (fan at 5v) in my system at the min and its perfect even with overclocked CPU , GFX and RAM. That 400w would prob produce 450w mabye more........ link to what the 300w was running -> http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=221503 . The fact that you have a low end GFX card will help and reduce the specs needed, 6 or 7 hard drives, what kinda space are we talkin here?

I got a Tagan 380w from

Yea tagan are a decent PSU (think there re-branded something....cant remember which one :rolleyes: ) how quiet are they? I thought they were more mid level noise decent performers?

I've ordered a TruePower430 after reading many reviews on the web,

Very solid PSU, a little noisier than the 380w and quieter than the 480w........ good choice will run your system without a hitch (and with solid good rails ).

Anyone dealt with pc-look before and had to mail them about an order, how was the responce ?

Ive ordered from them a couple of times, never needed to e-mail them but there a decent company and pretty efficient.