Planning a Dually in the near Future.. PSU=Issue

[Elif Tymes]

I am planning a 1.6Ghz Xeon Dually in the near future, and I am having trouble deciding on a PSU. I want something thats not overly expensive, but still pretty good. Anyone have a good place to get a nice PSU that accepts Paypal from a non-confirmed shipping address?

[dicecca112]

check out this thread for your options. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=369866

[Elif Tymes]

yes, I read that, all were in the above 90 dollar range, I was hoping for something cheaper.

[penquissciguy]

The AMS Mercury supplies from Directron are pretty good and inexpensive. I have one in my dually right now. Directron takes PayPal, but I don't know if they do from an unconfirmed address.

Ken

[dicecca112]

yeah Elif, good power is even more important in a duallie than it is in a single cpu rig. You skimp on that you could end up with a dead board and cpus.

pen - the AMS is mentioned in my thread I think

[Elif Tymes]

Durr, sorry Dicecca, I just automatically assumed you were pointing me to the "How to get a cheap Dually" thread :-)

My Brilliance amazes me somehow :-)

So, 28A on the 12v RAIL is fine?

And, hows this one? http://directron.com/fsp40060thnr.html



I notice it doesn't list Rails on it...

EDIT: Never mind, found out its got 2 12v Rails, 14A and 15A respectively, will this be important?

[dicecca112]

yes, avoid the dual rails. You need at least a single 28A 12V rail. 460W is by far a minimum to run a duallie, do not go lower than that, or you'll be in world of problems.

[Elif Tymes]

http://directron.com/eg465pvefm24p.html

Any news on that? I've heard Enermax was a good PSU Supplier...

[dicecca112]

yeah that's good. Just don't order it from ZZF, mine arrived DOA.

[iceage]

I know that $90 + dollars sounds like alot to fork out for a PSU. However, a good PSU is the foundation of a stable dually system. If you don't get a good one, you'll have a hard time troubleshooting problems in your system. If your 12v rail isn't 28a or more (I think 33a + is the way to go) then you're asking for problems, especially if you are thinking of overclocking them. And they are great OCers. (See my sig.)

Believe me, you reward yourself in spades if you shop out a good PSU. Enermax, Antec, Forton are all good manufacturers and I've owned a PSU from each of them. I've heard some good things about the AMS Mercury too, but never owned one.

Good luck!!

[dustybyrd]

i wouldn't recommend an enermax, because they tend to over-rate their psu's power outputs...

i prefer to stick with a company who under rates their psu's, that way i might get something better than what they claim, but i know i will get something as good as they claim ;)

imho (and many other's) the best cheap psu's are the fortron/sparkle lines...

iirc from tomshardware's psu review, that enermax you linked, barely puts out the ~430 watts or so they claim, while the fortron 350 watt models even outperformed those enermax psu's...and they cost even less than the enermax 465...

DaveB, who has built many pc's, including a number of duallies likes the 460 watt AMS mercury....and these are ~$50-60 i believe...

[speed bump]

The Fortron 550 watter would be a great would be a great choice for your dually but its about $110.

Remember your about to drop $250 into a Mobo $300 into CPUs and $300 into a vid card. The difference between a $70 PSU and a $120 PSU is $50 upfront however that could quickly go to hundreds of dollars if that $70 isn't enough.

[dustybyrd]

you can get the fortron / sparkle fsp550-60plg for ~$90 at ewiz.com where i got mine:

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-SP550PG

and you can get the ncch-dl there as well for <$250

[Elif Tymes]

Aight, I'll prolly order Mercury PSU, I definately want a NCCH-DL because I need the SATA RAID, which PC-DL does not support(Boo! Boo!)

Maybe Fishy will sell me his for a good deal when he gets a PC-DL :)

[dicecca112]

fishy sold his to Xaotic/.

[Elif Tymes]

Durr, I knew that.

I'm probably going to have to wait a few months, because I need to get some RAM, and the processors are now about 150+15 shipping for two :-p
still not a bad deal.

[H2]

Elif,
I am running SATA Raid 0 stripping on my PC-DL. I ran it on the Promise controller and now it is running on the Intel controller which works better for me.

[dustybyrd]

Elif,
I am running SATA Raid 0 stripping on my PC-DL. I ran it on the Promise controller and now it is running on the Intel controller which works better for me.


iirc, the intel sata raid controller on the ncch-dl doesn't allow FSB overclocking if you're using two drives in raid-0....the promise raid controller allows up to 4 drives in raid-0 with fsb overclocking (i use two of the ports in raid-0)

however, i use one of the intel sata ports for the 74gb raptor as a boot drive...and it has no problem with fsb overclocking

also, dicecca112 is selling a fortron 550 in the classified's here

[dicecca112]

yeah but it's weird it powered my duallie for a month, and decided nope not gonna do it anymore after that. It works fro anything else though.

[Elif Tymes]

Wait, so PC-DL has onboard RAID? I can dig that then :) I didn't think it had onboard RAID, and it seemed silly to limit my RAIDs speed by putting it on a PCI Card.. Hmm, might go PC-DL now :)

You guys are the greatest :)

I know, about Diceccas FOrtron, and I almost sent him a PM about it, when he replied in this thread and said "Dual RAILS = Fail for duallys"

Well, thats not an exactg quote ;).

[Elif Tymes]

Ordered the mercury, gonna get A PC-DL SOon :-) Can't wait till I get the waterblocks....

Swiftech MCW 6002, :)

[ibilisi]

Wait, so PC-DL has onboard RAID? I can dig that then :) I didn't think it had onboard RAID, and it seemed silly to limit my RAIDs speed by putting it on a PCI Card.. Hmm, might go PC-DL now :)

You guys are the greatest :)

I know, about Diceccas FOrtron, and I almost sent him a PM about it, when he replied in this thread and said "Dual RAILS = Fail for duallys"

Well, thats not an exactg quote ;).

Yup the PC-DL does support sata raid onboard. Also, good catch on the Fortron, there are two models of the Fortron, one with dual rails and one with single rail. The dual rails work great for lower power systems with a lot of disks but don't seem to hold up with higher power oc'ed systems.

[Arkaine23]

A Fortron/Sparkle 400W should be around $60 at newegg. Check the amp ratings on it and you'll find its as good as most 500+W PSU's.