Enough Power?

LordDarik · Nov 6, 2005

I'm looking at a power supply for around $30 that will power this system:
ASRock Dual SATA2
AMD 3200+ (Venice)
1x1GB G.Skill Extreme
Radeon x800 Pro
Maxtor DiamondMax10 200GB

I won't be overclocking or anything with it, so far I am thinking on this Enermax:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103463

It almost seems to good to be true.

fordman · Nov 6, 2005

Hello

Without overclocking it sould do ok. Save up and buy an ocz powerstream 520 it has rock solid voltages and a five year warranty. Just my opion.

Fordman

LordDarik · Nov 6, 2005

That will probably be my next power supply, but I'd have to save up $100 if I wanted to get it now. For right now I just need a cheap but reliable one that will get the job done.

R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3 · Nov 6, 2005

300w seems on the low side, i'd get the $50 Fortron AX450 for value

LordDarik · Nov 6, 2005

R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3 said:
300w seems on the low side, i'd get the $50 Fortron AX450 for value

I'd like to keep it under $40, but I do like the 400w version of that model. Watts aren't everything though with PSU's. I'd like to get some feedback on the one I mentioned, for only $26.50 it has some really nice rails .

nikhsub1 · Nov 6, 2005

I will NEVER use enermax again, I find them to be utter garbage... with that said, look at FSP Group (Fortron Source) or Sparkle (same mfgr) for a 350W in your price range...

perfectturmoil · Nov 6, 2005

I second (or third) the Fortron Source / Sparkle power supplies.. They have great performance for a great price. I've heard good AND bad things about enermax.. But I don't think I've ever heard bad things (well.. substantiated bad things) about FSP.

MrSeanKon · Nov 6, 2005

fordman said:
buy an ocz powerstream 520 it has rock solid voltages

and adjustable.

nikhsub1 my Enermax 465 is 2 years old and supplies 6 12X12 cm fans + 2 10X10 cm Venice works with teravolts hard disks etc....
Tagans went for RMA here..
I am fine with my PSU but the next will be OCZ 600 Watts. :santa:

LordDarik:
In my opinion you should buy a qualified PSU at least 450 Watts.
300 Watts are not enough.
Keep in mind that PSU is the most important peripheral and you don't upgrade it every 4-6 months.
Fortrons are OK also.

R4z0r4mu5 Pr|m3 · Nov 6, 2005

yes, watts isn't everything for a psu but 300w really is low for a modern system any way you put it especially with enermax always maxing out before hitting the rated wattage, not that enermax is bad, both fortron and enermax are good brands imo but fortron ALWAYS does better than it's rated so i am sure for psus of the same wattage from the two brands, the fortron will be the more capable one, with your budget a 350w fortron is the way to go as others have said

ckj · Nov 6, 2005

He's got an AMD proc and a not too power hungry videocard with only 1 hd, he can get away with a 300w powersupply but as an alternative you may want to look into a sparkle. He certainly doesn't need an OCZ powerstream or anything of the like. As for the psu you linked, the rails look good as long as they produce what they say they do. An alternative would be a sparkle with a 18a 12v rail. I saw a few of those.

nikhsub1 · Nov 6, 2005

MrSeanKon said:
and adjustable.
nikhsub1 my Enermax 465 is 2 years old and supplies 6 12X12 cm fans + 2 10X10 cm Venice works with teravolts hard disks etc....

I am glad it is working well for ya

I can only speak to MY experience with them and I will not use or recommend them to anyone.

LordDarik · Nov 6, 2005

Doesn't sound like you had a very good time with Enermax, did it burn your house down or something?

nikhsub1 · Nov 6, 2005

LordDarik said:
Doesn't sound like you had a very good time with Enermax, did it burn your house down or something?

No, although I have killed 2 of them

I have had 5 of them, not one served me well... Go figure why I had to go through 5 to figure that out.

Inositle · Nov 6, 2005

I figured I'd post this here instead of making a new thread. I just ordered a 3200 Venice, 7800gt, and evga nforce4 mobo. I currently have a Fortron 350W power supply. Is this going to be enough for me to run this setup in stock form? I'll probably get a new 450W+ PSU later, but I want to make sure I'll have enough power to even run my system.

Thanks

nikhsub1 · Nov 6, 2005

Inositle said:
I figured I'd post this here instead of making a new thread. I just ordered a 3200 Venice, 7800gt, and evga nforce4 mobo. I currently have a Fortron 350W power supply. Is this going to be enough for me to run this setup in stock form? I'll probably get a new 450W+ PSU later, but I want to make sure I'll have enough power to even run my system.

Thanks

Yeah you should be OK without OC'ing...

LordDarik · Nov 6, 2005

Inositle said:
I figured I'd post this here instead of making a new thread. I just ordered a 3200 Venice, 7800gt, and evga nforce4 mobo. I currently have a Fortron 350W power supply. Is this going to be enough for me to run this setup in stock form? I'll probably get a new 450W+ PSU later, but I want to make sure I'll have enough power to even run my system.

Thanks

The thread is all yours, I'm going with the Fortron 400w in my sig. Also, that should be fine for now, depending on how many hard drives you are running.

xAndrA · Nov 6, 2005

nikhsub1 said:
I will NEVER use enermax again, I find them to be utter garbage...

I'm finding this out as well. As it is, my 12V rail likes to sit at 11,25V when running idle... Any overclock over 220fsb isn't stable, and my Vcore doesn't want to go above 1,40 no matter which wires I plug to my board molexes either. I'm going out to buy a multimeter tomorrow and seeing how exact the 12V readings actually are. If they turn out to be that low, let this be the proof that wattage is not everything.

LordDarik · Nov 7, 2005

Another option just came up, I can buy my friends Seasonic S-12 330w for $35.

Stewie · Nov 7, 2005

nikhsub1 said:
I will NEVER use enermax again, I find them to be utter garbage... with that said, look at FSP Group (Fortron Source) or Sparkle (same mfgr) for a 350W in your price range...

I beg to differ; Enermax's are the best power supply I've ever owned. Personally, I've had 4 (including my current 535W SLi) and they work beautifully; quiet, solid voltages, and I haven't had one die (and my very oldest one is going on I believe 7 years now).

On the contrary, I loathe Sparkle. The NOC where I work used to buy them left and right because they were cheap, but little did we know they failed like crazy. There's nothing like going into the NOC at 3 AM to replace the PSU in a downed server that the PSU has not been in there a day over 3 months. We have since switched to Enermax and haven't looked back.

Enough Power?

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