I need a new power supply unit - what should I get

Ardent

Hi all

I currently have a 350W PSU that is part of the PC case I bought. I recently installed a second HDD and soundcard and I've noticed since that during games my graphics card (Radeon 9800 pro) claps out for a bit and sometimes my PC reboots.

I assuming I now need more power. Can anyone recommend a good, relatively cheap PSU that I can replace the old one with. Something that's in around 500W perhaps and not too noisy.

Thanks,
Ardent

SwampThing

That's a bit of a leap to go straight for a new PSU without a bit more diagnosis.

I've had games that caused GPU errors and reboots, not because of power, but because there were driver issues with the card. In particular, Doom3 on a 128MB Radeon 9600.

We'd need to see the spec of your machine before advising on wheter it's under powered or not.

lomb

Ardent wrote:

Hi all

I currently have a 350W PSU that is part of the PC case I bought. I recently installed a second HDD and soundcard and I've noticed since that during games my graphics card (Radeon 9800 pro) claps out for a bit and sometimes my PC reboots.

I assuming I now need more power. Can anyone recommend a good, relatively cheap PSU that I can replace the old one with. Something that's in around 500W perhaps and not too noisy.

Thanks,
Ardent

unless its a very good brand psu its way underpowered. to c if its being stressed put ur hand on the back to check exaust temperatures on full cpu use. our 9800 froze the pc under hard use with a fortron 300watter. upgrading to a thermaltake butterfly solved that. the 9800 uses ALOT of power, ensure it has a dedicated feed line from the psu.

WizZard

There is a good 500W Antec for sale on the FS forum at the moment. FYI

stevenmu

Peats do the Thermaltake Butterfly for about €90 iirc. It's a good 480w psu and it comes bundled with an extra case fan and a basic controller that sits in a free 5 1/4" bay. The cables are all sleeved on it and I think there's about 12 molex connectors on it. Looks pretty good too, and theirs a panel at the side you can take off that lets you see the insides lit up in different colours. The only problem with it really is that it has so many cables they take up a good bit of space, but a few cables ties to keep them to the top of the case takes care of that.

Ardent

SwampThing wrote:

We'd need to see the spec of your machine before advising on wheter it's under powered or not.

Ok, this is what I have:

P4 2.8 Ghz Precott
2 x 512 MB RAM
DVD-RW drive
200 GB Segate Baracua
185 GB Hitachi Deskstar
Powercolour Radeon 9800
Onboard Realtek AC'97 sound
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (with 1 firewire port on it I think)
Floppy drive
2 front and 4 back USB ports
1 firewire on motherboard

Can't think of any thing else that could use power.

(I haven't changed the graphics card drivers in months)

Ardent

WizZard wrote:

There is a good 500W Antec for sale on the FS forum at the moment. FYI

Thanks for the heads up Wizzard, I'll monitor that thread.

Ardent

stevenmu wrote:

Peats do the Thermaltake Butterfly for about €90 iirc. It's a good 480w psu and it comes bundled with an extra case fan and a basic controller that sits in a free 5 1/4" bay. The cables are all sleeved on it and I think there's about 12 molex connectors on it. Looks pretty good too, and theirs a panel at the side you can take off that lets you see the insides lit up in different colours. The only problem with it really is that it has so many cables they take up a good bit of space, but a few cables ties to keep them to the top of the case takes care of that.

Sounds good. 90 is not too bad considering we're talking about a high street store. 480W would probably do the trick...

Ciaran500

You wouldn't need anything over good quality 400W PSU. A high quality 350W PSU would probably be more than enough.

lomb

Ardent wrote:

Ok, this is what I have:

P4 2.8 Ghz Precott
2 x 512 MB RAM
DVD-RW drive
200 GB Segate Baracua
185 GB Hitachi Deskstar
Powercolour Radeon 9800
Onboard Realtek AC'97 sound
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS (with 1 firewire port on it I think)
Floppy drive
2 front and 4 back USB ports
1 firewire on motherboard

Can't think of any thing else that could use power.

(I haven't changed the graphics card drivers in months)

way underpowered if on a crap no name psu, the butterfly is great value @90 go with that not some dodgy second hand job.

Khannie

If you're looking for a quiet, high quality psu, I recommend you check out the "be quiet" range on http://www.hitide.ie

Think mine was around 90 euro for the 450w version and before you ask, yes, it is very quiet I got it over the butterfly for noise reasons. My machine was like a feckin' jumbo jet before hand. Quiet as a mouse now.

After sales service was excellent. The first one I got was bogey (rarity...Have a search for the thread I posted here) and I got a replacement the next day, no questions asked.