Antec true power 430,480 or 550?

[napalm747]

I'm new to the overclocking world and would appreciate some advise. I am upgrading my PSU from a stock antec 350 to either a truepower 430,480 or 550. I am overclocking the below system and want some advise on which one would be best and also good for future upgrades over the next couple of years (don't want something that works now but won't be enough in a year or two). Thanks


A7n8X Del. MOBO
mobile 2500 at 3200+ speeds sp-97 heatsink
Radeon 9800 Pro at 410/375 vga silencer
1 gig pc 2700 mem
80 gig HD
cd-rom/cd-rw

 

[napalm747]

I have researched over threads and get such a variety of information on all these PSU's. Some advise specifically about these PSU's would be appreciated. Thanks for you help for the new guy.

 

[snvpa]

In your case the 480 would probably be a good choice. the 550 is alot of power but I never use all the power my 480 gives me. I have a similar setup to you with the addition of a couple of hard drives and bout 300 mhz more on the cpu. The true control series allows you to adjust the voltage rails individually, I believe its only on the 550. The true power has active voltage regulation which is a plus along with tighter specs for the rails. 3% tolerence as opposed to the typical 5%. The smart power series has 5% tolerence and is generally viwed to be inferior to the true power series. Like I said I'd go for the 480 True power series, it will fit your needs for a long time to come.

edit: WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!

 

[napalm747]

Thanks a lot for the advise. I really appreciate your insight. It helps me out alot. Thanks again

 

[Bobtod]

I've been running the 430w TruePower for a while with the following:

P4 Prescott @ 3.8ghz 1.6v
XMS3500 @ 220mhz 2-2-2-6 Dual Channel @ 3.2v
9800pro @ 520/420mhz 1.9v/3.2v
VapoXE plus 3x120mm 3x80mm fans

All running great until I tried runing my 172w pelt off it as well for a quick benching session and after and hour it popped and died, stupid me!
Apart from that I think these antec psu's are great and the 430w really needed to be abused by me before it died.

In comparison I had a spare Q-tec Gold 550w PSU that blew in less than 5 mins running the same kit but no 172w pelt and less fans, so this shows you the reason why we overclockers don't buy crap PSUs.

I think as snvpa has said, the 480TP would be a great buy for you, giving you plenty of futureproofing. These are quality PSUs at reasonable prices, with the next step up being a $200 PC Power & Cooling 510 Deluxe which I want badly

Also they are pretty quiet as PSUs go.

bt

 

[h8tulooze]

Im looking for a "true" PSU also...
My current turd is some off name brand 650W...but true maybe at 350...lol
I think my PSU is keeping me from hitting the 3 gig mark with my 2500M
The 12V on my Abit sensor says 11.1 i believe this is very low..
I was thinking of a true 500 or 550..Suggestions would be great

Thx

 

[Bobtod]

hey h8tulooze, my Antec 12v dropped to 11.3v before it died and my Q-tec dropped to 11.2v before killing itself. I would be very cautious letting yours run at 11.1v, I think my prescott had a lot to do with my failures due to it being rather power hungry on the 12v line though.

GL on breaking 3Ghz

bt

 

[h8tulooze]

ahhh thx bobtod for the info...im looking online today to find a good one to buy...

 

[galois427]

if you have the money, get the 550.

 

[Bobtod]

if you have the money, get the 550.

I'll ditto that

Forgot to mention earlier that my 430w TP was also powering my raid setup, cold cathodes, dvd burner, ext firewire disk and loads of usb stuff as well.
In summary, these PSUs are amesome, just buy the one you can afford, you cant really go wrong.

bt

 

[Radical]

I just switched from a TrueControl 550w to a Seasonic 400w, and I can't really tell the difference. I'm running a 2500+ at 3200+, 4 case fans, 9800np at stock, 512MB Mushikin DDR400 at 2225, 2 optical drives, a 40GB HDD, and an A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2. I think that even the 430w TruePower would be fine, although I never had any problems with my 550w, so a 550w TruePower would probably be fine, too.