The Power Supply Thread

[mikeford]

I would worry less about hot garage than "dirty" garage, but I live near the ocean so HOT to me is 85. Beyond dirt you need to be carefull to avoid hot spots like direct sunlight, heaters, and machinery. Best to find a spot in the house and run longer cables to the garage.

Buy a premium PS to move it to new system later, not very true lately is it due to changes in both capacity and wiring. I see no reason to suspect that 3 years from now a current PS won't also be obsolete.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: mikeford
I would worry less about hot garage than "dirty" garage, but I live near the ocean so HOT to me is 85. Beyond dirt you need to be carefull to avoid hot spots like direct sunlight, heaters, and machinery. Best to find a spot in the house and run longer cables to the garage.

Buy a premium PS to move it to new system later, not very true lately is it due to changes in both capacity and wiring. I see no reason to suspect that 3 years from now a current PS won't also be obsolete.

By a hot garage, I mean south Texas, on the coast hot. So 105 degrees with 90% humidity. And the metal garage door doesn't help. It get's hot. I'm going to have to get something to measure the ambient temp in the garage. I'll ask the wife what she thinks about building this in the living room though. I'll be able to explain more later.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
Howard states--Besides the fact that there might have been some questionable refrences to a certain product(s). The article(s) are very informative to those who may be needing to know. So a thank you for the (possibly) unpaid comunity service is not a smart ass comment; but a complemnt in case he did this on his own free will. Thanks.


The article may or may not have been a paid endosement, I did not know and neither do you.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2006/2/6/2778
*********************************************
Howard several things come to mind.....

Becuase this site Anand tech takes advertising dollars from companies whose product they ewview does that meake Anand tech any less honest??
Same applies to Johnny!

Does it matter who might pay somebody else as long as those people desire the truth be printed concerning there products?

Think about it for a minute.
In the buisness world a truly progressive company wants to know the truth and would rather pay for the truth-- even if the truth is bad than to put out a crappy product based on some reviewers loyalty due to monetary considerations!!
makes sense huh?


Please drop it dood!!
All your doing is reinforcing what others have said about you on other threads.

Thank You!!

Stop saying my name. It's not me.

 

[JEDIYoda]

My apologies Howard!! I went back and edited that post!!

Again!! My appologies!!

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
My apologies Howard!! I went back and edited that post!!

Again!! My appologies!!

No problem.

 

[mbesto]

I am trying to put my buddy's newly bought bag of parts together for a new box. I am a beginner at putting computers together but know how to do it none-the-less. He has the following specs:

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard
eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz HT Socket 939

I have tried booting up with only these 3 things on an old 300-watt power supply i had laying around and cant get the BIOS to bootup, but the fans and everthing work. (basically when i hit the power switch everything sounds like it is working but nothing shows up on the screen) Does something of this nature need a 350-watt or 400-watt power supply?

help!!

 

[JEDIYoda]

you would be better of starting your own thread.

becuase this threads so long peeps who might want to help you will have an easier time!!

Thx

 

[mbesto]

thanks will do, disregard posting new here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1843047&enterthread=y

 

[jonnyGURU]

Bump!

Muwhahaha!!!!

 

[Bakwetu]

Very informative thread, thanks.

It made me realize my old Zalman apf 400 isn't cutting it anymore. I just did a cheap upgrade on my work computer and replaced my old socket A system with an 805D on Asus p5p800se, cooled by a waterchill watercooling setup. I could overclock to 3.6 ghz and get into windows, but when putting both cores under load it croaks and I actually can't overclock this setup at all if I want to have it stable (which I do as I need long term stability 24/7 due to the analyses I'm performing).

The strange thing is that all rails seem to be perfectly stable measured in Asus probe (+12V, +5 and +3.3), but the vcore goes down to 1.144-1.2V at full load on both cores regardless of vcore and regardless of what speed the cpu runs at.

So finally I took a look at my psu, which once was considered a quite good psu and it is marked:
+3.3V 28A
+5V 40A together 235 W
+12V 15A 180W
all three together 380W

I also have a geforce 3 ti200 card, a realtec nic, three 120 mm fans running at slow speed, one 80 mm fan, two mice, a drawing board, a cdrw and the pump so 15 A probably isn't enough, right?

I'm ordering a Hiper type R 580W with 20+18A, combined 360W on the +12V rail today. It is decently priced and seems to be fairly quiet.

 

[dBTelos]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
So...uh...is this psu good enough for a 6800gs video card?? 2x18amps???

http://www.enermax.com/english/product_Display1.asp?PrID=20

Yes.

 

[Hari Seldon]

Excellent thread. Made me realize I needed to replace my Antec TruePower 380 which was totally inadequate. Got the new OCZ GameXStream 700 Watt ATX Power Supply.
The OCZ came without any installation instructions whatsoever. Now I'm not a complete novice, but I've never replaced a psu with a new psu. The available connections are different. And one 3pin connection (for the ASUS A8N-SLI) isn't even there. Someone should do an informative thread, like this one, on how to replace a power supply when the manufacturer fails to provide any instructions.
That's just my opinion.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: Hari Seldon
Excellent thread. Made me realize I needed to replace my Antec TruePower 380 which was totally inadequate. Got the new OCZ GameXStream 700 Watt ATX Power Supply.
The OCZ came without any installation instructions whatsoever. Now I'm not a complete novice, but I've never replaced a psu with a new psu. The available connections are different. And one 3pin connection (for the ASUS A8N-SLI) isn't even there. Someone should do an informative thread, like this one, on how to replace a power supply when the manufacturer fails to provide any instructions.
That's just my opinion.

Replacement should be one-to-one. What is this three-pin you speak of? I have an A8N-SLI myself and I'm not aware of a 3-pin power connector on the board.

In fact, threre ARE no 3-pin power connectors. Connectors are always an even number (except for SATA.) Fan headers are 3-pin, but that's a hot, ground and signal.

 

[fredhe12]

Johnny,

Thanks for all the great info on this PSU thread! It came in handy when deciding on my next PSU. I ended up going with the Ultra X-Connect X2. Most of threads on AT were down on Ultra, but I found your review of the X-Connect and a few other favorable ones online, so I went for it. The unit was on sale for $60 at my local Fry's and having just come across this thread earlier in the day, I was quickly able to do some research on it.

So far so good. It's quiet and does what it's supposed to do. Install was a snap; modular is very clean indeed.

So, thanks!

 

[skooma]

:beer:

 

[Hari Seldon]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Replacement should be one-to-one. What is this three-pin you speak of? I have an A8N-SLI myself and I'm not aware of a 3-pin power connector on the board.

In fact, threre ARE no 3-pin power connectors. Connectors are always an even number (except for SATA.) Fan headers are 3-pin, but that's a hot, ground and signal.

Yes there is Johnny. Got your A8N-SLI Deluxe owner's manual handy? Page 2-3 has the section 2.2.3 Motherboard layout, showing a b/w sketch of the mobo. Over on the left, just above the LED warning light, is the 3 pin connection, marked PWR FAN.
The Antec TruePower380 that came with this Sonata 1 case, uses this connection for god knows what reason.
The OCZ GameXStream 700 Monster Rocket Launcher doesn't give a crap about whatever the Antec PSU was worried about and doesn't come with this three pin plug, which coincidently the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe welcomed. (It's as if the boys at Antec and Asus agreed to provide this option, again for whatever reason, but the boys at OCZ are not interested in it, for whatever reason.)
Guess I should have read my manual more carefully.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Originally posted by: Hari Seldon

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
Replacement should be one-to-one. What is this three-pin you speak of? I have an A8N-SLI myself and I'm not aware of a 3-pin power connector on the board.

In fact, threre ARE no 3-pin power connectors. Connectors are always an even number (except for SATA.) Fan headers are 3-pin, but that's a hot, ground and signal.

Yes there is Johnny. Got your A8N-SLI Deluxe owner's manual handy? Page 2-3 has the section 2.2.3 Motherboard layout, showing a b/w sketch of the mobo. Over on the left, just above the LED warning light, is the 3 pin connection, marked PWR FAN.
The Antec TruePower380 that came with this Sonata 1 case, uses this connection for god knows what reason.
The OCZ GameXStream 700 Monster Rocket Launcher doesn't give a crap about whatever the Antec PSU was worried about and doesn't come with this three pin plug, which coincidently the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe welcomed. (It's as if the boys at Antec and Asus agreed to provide this option, again for whatever reason, but the boys at OCZ are not interested in it, for whatever reason.)
Guess I should have read my manual more carefully.

Like I said... Fan headers are three pin, but that's hot, ground and RPM. The PWR FAN header on the motherboard is so you can plug a power supply w/ fan RPM monitoring into the motherboard and monitor the RPM's of the PSU fan.

 

[ktritz]

I have kind of an odd configuration that I would like some suggestions for.

I've put together a massive file server for serving TV shows, movies, etc... which contains a DVD drive and 13 hard drives (from 160G-500G). I'm using the Coolermaster stacker case which allows 2 power supplies. I am using an Atlon XP 3200+ (Barton) on the NF7-S 2.0 motherboard which has the 2x2 CPU power connector. I'm using a GeforceMX2 AGP video card that should take very little power.

Right now I'm using power supplies I've scrounged from other computers, an Antec Truepower2.0 380W and a no-name 350W power supply. I've seen some evidence that I don't have enough power with all the drives connected (freezes, etc...) and I think I should at least replace the no-name power supply.

Would I be best off using the dual 12V rail of the Antec to feed the CPU and a few of the hard drives, and then finding a quality, single 12V rail PS to feed the rest of the hard drives?

Any suggestions on power supply strategy would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: greyeyezz
So this isn't a very accurate guideline for figuring 12V amps?

personally none of those are very accurate.

 

[skooma]

 

[mikepaul]

So, is there a reason why some power supplies have side fans to suck air IN while others (my original for example) blow air OUT? Is it just to use a bigger fan that only fits on the side?

I now read where a CoolerMaster 550W PSU is sucking the air out of the case, so the fan pointing at the motherboard is the way it's supposed to be. I thought I'd bought the wrong model for the job...

 

[rise]

just an fyi mike, there is no "side fan" in an atx psu. for orientation, that coolermaster has it's fan on the "bottom". where it exhausts is the "rear" and where the cabling leads into the case is the "front".

 

[rise]

 

[rise]

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: rise