Unbelievable! Hunk O' junk Compusa 4 yr old 300w PSU powering my main rig?!

[krag]

What? I didn't think it could do it. I am in-between PSU's and had this old H.O.J. laying in my closet. I had to ship my Antec 550w off to get fixed yesterday and went ahead and ordered a PCpower & cooling 510w Deluxe but was without either. I almost went and bought a $60 antec 350w at a local shop but thought it was too much of a rip-off. I knew I had the old boat anchor in my closet so I dug it out...and about dropped a load in my pants when I saw on the label that the 12v+ line only had 10amps.....I thought there is no way this thing is gonna power my rig. I though, OK lets give it a shot. I poped it in a "beep" it boots and all is good. I did however bump ny cpu & vid card OCs back to default and unhooked my 4 UV tubes. But I am really impressed, I didn't think it would handle my rig.

This is what its pushing so far:
P4 3.0c cpu
1 Abit IC7
1 gig A-data @ pc3200 speed
2 Raptor 74gigers in Raid O
1 120gig WD IDE
1 256mb USB thumb drive
1 9800 XT
1 SVC Arctic VGA Cooler
1 SMC NIC
1 Audigy 2 sound card
1 52X CD burner
1 floppy
1 Nexus 4 Rehobus "blue LEDS" 3 1/2 fan controller



My 12v & 3.3v lines are a little low but it'll do me until my PCP&C gets here.


4 80mm fans
1 92mm High Speed panaflo

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Is it sweating yet?:p

[rogerdugans]

For a dirt cheap psu those things are tough to beat!

I bought quite a few at one point when needing supplies for dc farm machines (good mobo, cpu, decent ram and everything else bottom-barrel prices!) and they do surprisingly well!
They do run pretty hot when powering up a power-hungry computer but I have had some in operation for two years with only ONE failure.

Since I bought all mine on sale for $20/$25 I am happy. (Mine are both 300w and 350w units.)

[dorimon81]

This one may surprise you guys even more. I am currently running a crappo 250Watt PSU until I can get enough cash to buy a new one. It's powering...

-FIC AM37 mobo
-Athlon XP 2100+
-Nvidia GeForce FX5200
-256MB PC133
-Thermaltake Volcano 9
-3 other case fans
-60 GB hard drive
-16x DVD-ROM
-48x CD-RW
-a Floppy

I think that's a lot for a 250Watt. So far, I haven't had any problems with the system so I wont replace it just yet. It's funny because my 12 volt line is running almost 12.5 and the 3 and 5 lines are just a little bit less than their specified voltages.

[krag]

Originally posted by rogerdugans
For a dirt cheap psu those things are tough to beat!

I bought quite a few at one point when needing supplies for dc farm machines (good mobo, cpu, decent ram and everything else bottom-barrel prices!) and they do surprisingly well!
They do run pretty hot when powering up a power-hungry computer but I have had some in operation for two years with only ONE failure.

Since I bought all mine on sale for $20/$25 I am happy. (Mine are both 300w and 350w units.)

I got mine for free. I pulled it out of a rig I was upgrading for a friend. They let me have all the old parts, Athlon 800 slot, pc100, FIC mobo and H.O.J.....I kept the psu but traded the other stuff for some yard work. A kid I know wanted to get into computers so i let him slave in my yard for the parts. :D He loved it!
I had this PSU for sale in the classifieds awhile back for $15 and nobody wanted it!
I am totally impressed with this PSU...I think I'll keep it around for a backup psu. Especially now that I know it can handle a descent power load.



Is it sweating yet?

If this PSU were the warp core of the Enterprise:

Capt. Krik: "Scotty! I need more power!"
Scotty: "Capen, I'm given er all I've got righ now!!" *scottish accent*
Capt. Kirk: "We need more power or we all gonna die!"
Scotty: "I'll see whaa I can dooo. I can turrn up the anti-matter injectors. But we are a wee bit over the red line as it is."
****dramatic background music as the warp core whines louder & louder*****
Sulu: "We have just cleared the power sucking P4 nebula."
Kirk: "Scotty! *slaps hoaky plastic intercom* You've done it again!

Heh!:D

[Remove]

Originally posted by krag
If this PSU were the warp core of the Enterprise:

Capt. Krik: "Scotty! I need more power!"
Scotty: "Capen, I'm given er all I've got righ now!!" *scottish accent*
Capt. Kirk: "We need more power or we all gonna die!"
Scotty: "I'll see whaa I can dooo. I can turrn up the anti-matter injectors. But we are a wee bit over the red line as it is."
****dramatic background music as the warp core whines louder & louder*****
Sulu: "We have just cleared the power sucking P4 nebula."
Kirk: "Scotty! *slaps hoaky plastic intercom* You've done it again!

Heh!:D



LOL:cool:

[rogerdugans]

rofl!!!!

Yeah, it's surprising what we can get from power supplies that conventional ocing wisdom says shouldn't work. ;)

I will say that I have a much better (and more costly!) supply in my main rig, and I replaced the CompUSA that died (fan died=overheated and smoked psu) with a Fortron, but the other 4 rigs all have el cheapos that do ok.
Even under fairly heavy overclocking.

[sixshot666]

Originally posted by krag
ordered a PCpower & cooling 510w Deluxe
pics ive seen do them no justice.much better in person
and heavier:attn:
im glad i returned my antec true 430 watt.its rails were just a
little better than my cheap 550 watter i have layin in my floor now.

[krag]

Originally posted by sixshot666

pics ive seen do them no justice.much better in person
and heavier:attn:
im glad i returned my antec true 430 watt.its rails were just a
little better than my cheap 550 watter i have layin in my floor now.

Yeah, I am way stoked about it! I am gonna ship it to performance-pc.com (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61&products_id=254&osCsid=7864090b499e966b79fc5423cc67da18) for UV sleeving and modularization. This is gonna be the mother of all PSU's!:D I still can't believe it has 38amps on the 12+v line. Man! why did I ever get a Antec??:-/