noob ?

[mrgoodkat]

My current -cheap piece of crap- 580w PSU is dying, the fan is grinding and its only a matter of time before it goes.

Im running an Asus A8n sli deluxe MB. Im planning on doing the sli thing in the future when cards support dx10.

Problem is I have heard my motherboard can be problematic when paired with some PSU's (antec, which of course I really like). It also needs a 24 pin connector.

Could you guys help me find a sli PSU suitable for my motherboard? Ive been through newegg and Im just confused. Ive also done some searching(google) and now Im even more confused. The closer to $100 the better.

I would greatly appreciate it. cheers.

[MVC]

I'd stay away from Antec. The last 3-4 years they've had one problem after another. To be honest, some folks have had good luck with them, but I've heard of so many crapping out one way or the other that I wouldn't risk it.

As for a recommendation, the Silverstone Zeus SST-ST56ZF is an excellent PSU for ~$115 (at Performance-PCs the last time I looked). My only question is what cards are you going to be running in SLI?

[mrgoodkat]

thanks for the reply.

Again Ive tried to do the research on my own but I just get confused. I built my first PC a year ago, my first PC ever, and Im learning on the go here.

I have no idea at this point what cards Ill be running but I can assure you they wont be the heavy hitters on the market. When Vista has been out for awhile and Nvidia starts releasing their dx10 cards Ill have a better idea of what I can afford. Im planning on waiting a bit even then while they iron out the wrinkles that Im sure will follow.

I have to at this point buy a new power supply though, so I might as well future proof if I can. When I bulit the PC the one thing everybody told me was to not skimp on the PSU, but I did to save money and have been putting off the upgrade.

The silverstone looks great. In the end Im just worried about compatibility with the fussy Asus board. Every review of any silverstone PSU Ive seen is very favorable, the price is good too.

Let me ask you though. Does a PSU have to be sli certified for it to run sli, or does it just come down to which units nvidia has tested with the sli setup thus they get the sli cert? Or is it something else altogether?

again, thanks MVC (nice avatar)

[MVC]

A PSU doesn't have to be SLI Certified to be capable of running SLI, but if you're buying new current stock it probably will be. For example, my first OCZ Powerstream 520 was not SLI certified (the PSU only came with one PCI-E connector). But, I had to RMA the unit so OCZ replaced it with the then current version which was SLI Certified. Internally the two PSUs were identical, but the newer version had two PCI-E connectors.

You have to be careful in how you apply "SLI Certified" in the real world. The PSU could be certified but still not be capable of what you need it to do. Think of it this way: you've got a 580w PSU that's crap (your own words) and I suggested a 560w PSU as a replacement. If one were to "judge" the two units on wattage your crap one would win, but if one looked at quality it would be a different story--the wattage isn't the determining factor. At this point, however, just about any good quality PSU can run SLI with at least some cards. It all depends which cards are going to going to be used. The ST56ZF I recommended would be fine with two 7900s but wouldn't be sufficient with two 8800s--the "certification" wouldn't be the determining factor.

As for the ST56ZF and Asus boards, I don't have an A8N, but I've got three ST56ZF PSUs and two of them are powering Asus boards, a P5B in my new C2D system and a P5AD2-E in an old P4 system. The third is in my server with a DFI Expert board. Your motherboard shouldn't be an issue.

[Rsgunter]

Move your budget to <200$

Silverstone, Zippy, Flower Power, OCZ all my great PSUs.

I absolutely love my Corsair hx620, but in hindsight I should've bought a Silverstone 1kw that would have more longevity. Probably my next upgrade will mean I either 1) need a new PSU or 2) I'll be installing a 2nd PSU.

What I'm saying is go ahead and get a really nice PSU.

[MVC]

Move your budget to <200$

Silverstone, Zippy, Flower Power, OCZ all my great PSUs.

I absolutely love my Corsair hx620, but in hindsight I should've bought a Silverstone 1kw that would have more longevity. Probably my next upgrade will mean I either 1) need a new PSU or 2) I'll be installing a 2nd PSU.

What I'm saying is go ahead and get a really nice PSU.
The main problem with this perspective is that we don't know what the future holds. You say that you should have bought a 1Kw PSU, but how soon will you really need it, how long will a significant portion of the PSU's potential go unused, how much will it cost you now to have all that unused potential, how much will a 1Kw PSU cost when you actually need that much power (compared to what it costs now?). I could go on. Unless you have a specific upgrade planed for some time in the near future that will require substantially more power than what you can buy economically now I don't think spending more than you need to makes sense.

Mrgoodkat says that he's not going bleeding edge, at least not for the next few years, so why should he spend more than he needs to? The ST56ZF will easily power his current system and his planned upgrades for several years to come. If at some point he needs a more powerful PSU he can buy one then (probably at a price that's half of what that power would cost now). Also, keep in mind that, except for graphics cards, manufacturers are actually trying to reduce the amount of power their components require, the amount of heat they produce, what they cost to run, etc. It's quite possible that a high quality PSU like the ST56ZF, or your Corsair, will be long out of warranty before they're functionally obsolete.

Overbuying a PSU is a good idea when limited to reasonable levels of "over", but like most other things it just becomes silly when taken to extremes.

[RollingThunder]

My current -cheap piece of crap- 580w PSU is dying, the fan is grinding and its only a matter of time before it goes.

Im running an Asus A8n sli deluxe MB. Im planning on doing the sli thing in the future when cards support dx10.

Problem is I have heard my motherboard can be problematic when paired with some PSU's (antec, which of course I really like). It also needs a 24 pin connector.

Could you guys help me find a sli PSU suitable for my motherboard? Ive been through newegg and Im just confused. Ive also done some searching(google) and now Im even more confused. The closer to $100 the better.

I would greatly appreciate it. cheers.

MVC gave some good advice. Here is a link to look at:

http://jonnyguru.com/reviews.php

It should help with your confusion. Better you should know your future plans ahead of time now to know the contingencies for power supplies to plan for. When you have one or two picked out, ask the guys here specifically for opinions.

Most of us have "overbought" power supply needs and have a misconception that "huge" is better. What I have is much more than I need for power requirements for my mild system. I could go SLI easily with it.

[Rsgunter]

The main problem with this perspective is that we don't know what the future holds. You say that you should have bought a 1Kw PSU, but how soon will you really need it, how long will a significant portion of the PSU's potential go unused, how much will it cost you now to have all that unused potential, how much will a 1Kw PSU cost when you actually need that much power (compared to what it costs now?). I could go on. Unless you have a specific upgrade planed for some time in the near future that will require substantially more power than what you can buy economically now I don't think spending more than you need to makes sense.

Mrgoodkat says that he's not going bleeding edge, at least not for the next few years, so why should he spend more than he needs to? The ST56ZF will easily power his current system and his planned upgrades for several years to come. If at some point he needs a more powerful PSU he can buy one then (probably at a price that's half of what that power would cost now). Also, keep in mind that, except for graphics cards, manufacturers are actually trying to reduce the amount of power their components require, the amount of heat they produce, what they cost to run, etc. It's quite possible that a high quality PSU like the ST56ZF, or your Corsair, will be long out of warranty before they're functionally obsolete.

Overbuying a PSU is a good idea when limited to reasonable levels of "over", but like most other things it just becomes silly when taken to extremes.

I'm not going to doubt your correctness on this issue.

It seems GPUs and Motherboards are wanting more and more power, and companies like Silverstone are trying to do their best to stay ahead of the curve based on given information.

I suppose theirs different perspectives for "Bleeding Edge". I don't consider my box to be such, so I sorta look at my setup to be mediocre.

Buying a nicer power supply will give some future hope so that when a computer is upgraded, the power supply can still hold true. I'll be the first to at admit that will be a quite a while before my power supply or some of the other beasts will be -=truly=- obsolete.

Btw, I wasn't telling him to go buy something that can power his refrigerator in conjunction with his computer.

But yes, you're right.

[RollingThunder]

RS,

Those Corsairs are nice. Very pleased with mine too.

[MVC]

Well, my current workstation is basically the same as yours--P5B, E6600, Crucial 6400 CL4, though I went with an X1950XTX so I could run the GPU folding client. And, while I don't think it's "top of the line" I do think it's better than mediocre :)

I used a ST56ZF in this system for a couple reasons. First, I already owned two of them and they've been excellent--if something works I'm not going to try to fix it. Second, I'm not that fond of "modular" PSUs. There's nothing wrong with them, but I tend to use all (or at least most) of the cables so modular doesn't buy me anything except another possible point failure. And, third, I really couldn't think of any upgrades I'd want to do in the next year or two that the ST56ZF couldn't handle. If I do wind up doing a substantial upgrade I'll probably just bite the bullet and build a new machine and buy another PSU appropriate for that build.

Several years ago I was building a "show" machine for fun and I bought an OCZ Powerstream 600 when they first came out. At that time it was very highly rated, though we've learned better since. It was complete overkill for the system it was going to power, and it was very expensive (in the neighborhood of $240), but it looked good :) I've still got the PSU, it still works, and it can still power any of the 5 computers in my living room. I could have saved somewhere around $150 by buying a PSU more appropriate to the system I was building. And, that $150 today could buy me an even more powerful PSU, assuming I had need of one. Moral of the story: buy quality, but don't spend more on a PSU than you need to and the money you save today will finance the upgrade you need tomorrow.

[Rsgunter]

Well, my current workstation is basically the same as yours--P5B, E6600, Crucial 6400 CL4, though I went with an X1950XTX so I could run the GPU folding client. And, while I don't think it's "top of the line" I do think it's better than mediocre :)

I used a ST56ZF in this system for a couple reasons. First, I already owned two of them and they've been excellent--if something works I'm not going to try to fix it. Second, I'm not that fond of "modular" PSUs. There's nothing wrong with them, but I tend to use all (or at least most) of the cables so modular doesn't buy me anything except another possible point failure. And, third, I really couldn't think of any upgrades I'd want to do in the next year or two that the ST56ZF couldn't handle. If I do wind up doing a substantial upgrade I'll probably just bite the bullet and build a new machine and buy another PSU appropriate for that build.

Several years ago I was building a "show" machine for fun and I bought an OCZ Powerstream 600 when they first came out. At that time it was very highly rated, though we've learned better since. It was complete overkill for the system it was going to power, and it was very expensive (in the neighborhood of $240), but it looked good :) I've still got the PSU, it still works, and it can still power any of the 5 computers in my living room. I could have saved somewhere around $150 by buying a PSU more appropriate to the system I was building. And, that $150 today could buy me an even more powerful PSU, assuming I had need of one. Moral of the story: buy quality, but don't spend more on a PSU than you need to and the money you save today will finance the upgrade you need tomorrow.

Thanks Socrates!!! ;)

That's a very good outlook.

Due to the original post, I'll have to agree here. Until you buy a top of the line system, don't buy a top of the line PSU. However, buy quality!

I've lost an entire system in my early computer building days when a cheapo that came with a case went haywire for no reason. My friend also had one catch on fire on him because he bought a cheapo.

My vote: Corsair HX520

[mrgoodkat]

Thanks gents. I truly appreciate it.

Thanks for the sli schooling. Thanks for the link RollingThunder.

I also have to buy a new monitor, I'm going the the VX922. I say that because I would have bought the PSU already if I didn't have to factor in the cost of the monitor as well.

Im planning on buying both tomorrow or Wednesday. I have a bit more research to do before I decide on the PSU, but the silverstone looks nice considering the reviews Ive found, and the price. Im also looking at the Corsair HX520 and the OCZ-600GX since Im running their ram and have been quite happy with it. All are around the same price.

Since it was my first build I obviously made some mistakes with components. I would have also chose a different board too. I'm planning on trying to keep this thing going for around 2 years, then I will do some serious research and build a rock solid gaming machine. For now though a PSU over 500w and of good quality should keep me going for some time.

Hopefully this thread wont get buried to badly and I can let you know which way I go. Im sure your all dying to know. :) *sarcasm*

Thank you guys so much, truly.

[RollingThunder]

Since it was my first build I obviously made some mistakes with components.

Hey, so did I. :)

My first build in 10 years, like starting over............

[Clockwork_Apple]

RS,

Those Corsairs are nice. Very pleased with mine too.
I second the Corsair vote, very nice PSUs and quite friendly on the wallet ;)

[Springbok]

Another vote for Corsair, I picked one up last week and couldn't be happier! They're made by Seasonic and come with a 5 year warranty which can't be beat.

[mrgoodkat]

Well I went with the Corsair 620HX. This ought to be fairly future proof and as said, the 5 year warranty seems to be the best out there. It was pricey, but Im happy I finally got it over with. I held off on the monitor for now. My old 17" LCD is starting to have some serious dead pixel issues but she seems to be holding on.

I went with the 620 over the 520 because in the end they are the same price when taking into account the $20 mail in rebate and the free shipping. At $169 I was grimacing while placing the order and I kept telling myself to go with the 520 for $129, but like I said with shipping it would have been close to the $149 the 620 will eventually cost. Not much of a difference anyhow even without the rebate/free shipping.

As you can see Im still trying to justify spending $169.

Now its time to learn how to squeeze the most out of my processor and memory. :)

thanks again.