Old School question: 235W Sparkle FSP235 vs. 300W Antec SL300S

[c627627]

235W power supply Sparkle FSP235-60GT
vs
300W power supply Antec SL300S


(For nForce2 - Athlon XP Barton system.)

[repo man11]

Not really an answer, but I thought I'd share some recent experience. A neighbor gave me a flaky NForce2 motherboard, an Epox 8RGMI. I realized it had a bad cap after a little testing. I replaced it, but apparently the voltage spikes (or whatever happens) with the bad cap took out the onboard audio and video. But with an AGP FX5200, and a sound card, it is up and running just fine, and has been running FAH for over a week.

I have an XP 2100 in it, running at 10x200. PSU is an HEC 350LD-T I had laying around. 5V & 3.3 combined = 180 watts. If I push the CPU any higher than this, I begin to get random restarts, indicative (in my experience) of an overstressed PSU. I think this combination is good for 2.2 GHz even with modest cooling, but not with this PSU

Both Sparkle and Antec PSUs have been good in my experience. I guess I'd go with the one that has the highest combined rating. Also, I've an Antec 350 that began to get flaky - I took it apart, and it had a bulgy cap. I replaced that cap, and it worked great again. It's the only PSU I've ever been able to repair.

[Oklahoma Wolf]

The Antec will be full of Fuhjyyu capacitors - they may be ok, but if the unit's been in use for a while they are just as likely to be not ok. I would go with the FSP.