overclocked prescott system. which PSU?

[GST-97]

OK, I had posted up a question in the power supply forum, but really haven't been getting any responses to it, so I figured I would ask here.

I currently have an Antec SL350 Smartpower power supply.
The higher up I go with my Vcore, the lower the 12V rail goes. Stock Vcore, it sits at 11.82V, now that I have it at 1.42V, it's at 11.76V.

I am looking at a new power supply, and the 2 that seem to stand out are the Antec 550W and Sparkle 550W.
Both appear to come with 24 pin and 8 pin connectors, the sparkle I hear comes with the adapters to go to 20pin/4pin however.

The Sparkle has active PFC which is nice, the Antec does not.

For a power hungry prescott, which of these 2 would you recommend? Or are there others I should look at?
I am looking to spend no more than around $100 which is the price that both of these are at.

-Chris

 

[Sophisticated]

Well then i guess i cant recommend a Pc & Powercooling Turbo-Cool 510w Deluxe(pfc)(650w max) with built in adjustable rails..for the amazing price of $197.10...P.S. there are more features!!

 

[GST-97]

Ya, that is the reason I put the $100 in there, haha.
I would love the PC power and cooling thing, but 200 for a damn power supply is kind of ridiculous if you ask me.

The Antec Truecontrol 550W has a thing that comes with it for adjustable rails also, externally even.

Both seem to have features that are better, but when spending a decent amount of money on something, I'd like to make the right decision the first time

-Chris

 

[Sophisticated]

i can understand that money is an issue but you know sometimes if you get the best you can expect ONLY the best results...

 

[gregs45s]

I just installed the truecontrol last nite in my system. No voltage drop when I run Prime95 now. Make sure you use a DVM(volt meter) to measure and adjust the rails. MBM5 is far from accurate as well as otehr software monitoring systems. Mine says 4.08v where Im really pushing 5.01v, and 11.49v vs 12.00v. I paid 103 plus shipping thru excaliber.com. They ship cheaper then newegg.com.

 

[Sophisticated]

Hit up www.pricegrabber.com and get compared prices from there

 

[Maxvla]

i'd go with the fortron/sparkle 530w for 70 bucks its hard to beat. i have 2 of them and can't find any reason to get anything better. it has adjustable rails for all 3 rails and for the speed of the 2 fans inside. its virtually silent and never gets hot. the push/pull fan setup is the best i've seen. the inefficiency of the fan on bottom and fan on back is really staggering. the bottom fan just blows onto the back of the power pcb which is like cooling off someone by pointing a waterhose at the wall thats between you.

PFC is only good if you are moving from country to country using different power inputs. Thats all it does is Correct the Power Factor. It has no bearing on psu performance.

 

[GST-97]

true, always getting the best would be nice, but there are times where the best is complete overkill

gregs45s: Did you have to buy an adapter for the truecontrol 550? And the pot adjuster... is that piece part of the housing, or could it be removed and mounted elsewhere? as all 3 of my 5.25" bays are full

I tested my power supply with my DMM and it idles bouncing from 11.89-11.91, full load it bounces around from 11.86-11.91
my 5V stays at 5.06 no matter what I do.
Not sure where to test the 3.3V at.

The Abit EQ program is the only program I can use to read voltages since MBM still doesnt support UGURU boards.
It reads 11.76V on the +12v, 5.01 on the 5V, 3.29 on 3.3V

The only thing I question about the Sparkle 550 is its ratings.
Output: +3.3V@27A,+5V@29A,[email protected],+12V@36A,[email protected],+5VSB@2A

Why is its 3.3 and 5V so much lower than others (rated at only 150W 3.3 + 5V combined), yet have a superhigh 36A +12V ?

At first I thought this was a newegg typo, but I checked sparklepower.com and it has the same specs.

Please, more opinions everybody

 

[GST-97]

Maxvla: Are Sparkle/Fortron PSU's underrated? The 530W only has 18A 12V, but high 3.3 and 5V

I didnt realize that it also had adjustable rails.... maybe I will just grab a 530W, as the systems you have running are somewhat comparable to mine

-Chris

 

[gregs45s]

No adapters were needed. I yanked out my pos supply, and dropped it in. Cables are nice and long, left plenty of room to route the wires as needed. The control panel, Ive yet to mount it in a bay. I have it stashed behind the fan controller right now, its out of sight. Once set, shouldnt need to go in and tinker again with it. You could prolly pull off the circuit board with the pots and mount them as you like. I havent decided what I will do. What I did to measure the 3.3 rail, is find the com ground wires in the atx plug, and slide one lead of the dmm in the back of it, and the other in the back of the 3.3v line. Thats how I checked all of them. MBM5 was dead on with the 3.3v rail oddly enough. Only thin with the fortron is you have to open the case to reach the pots. Once opened, adios warranty. I can say this, its very quiet. Far better then what I had.

 

[Maxvla]

Maxvla: Are Sparkle/Fortron PSU's underrated? The 530W only has 18A 12V, but high 3.3 and 5V

I didnt realize that it also had adjustable rails.... maybe I will just grab a 530W, as the systems you have running are somewhat comparable to mine

-Chris

yes these 530's are great power supplies. almost all fortron psu's have adjustable rails. my 400 does as well.

the reason for the huge spike for 36a on the 550 is that it is designed to run duallies. meaning its got basically 18 amps for each chip. thats also why the power connector is different.

the fortron units are very underrated. most 300-350 sparkles normally test up to 50-100w more than their rating. i haven't seen any tests on the 530 but can assume the same. its built extremely well. here is a pic of my 400w fortron. its basically the same as my 530 except its only got one fan.

 

[GST-97]

I decided to go for the Sparkle 530W unit, just ordered it from Newegg

I am sure that I will be happy with it

Thanks Maxvla for the recommendation.

-Chris

 

[Maxvla]

I decided to go for the Sparkle 530W unit, just ordered it from Newegg

I am sure that I will be happy with it

Thanks Maxvla for the recommendation.

-Chris

you will be.

 

[GST-97]

Well, my new power supply should be here tomorrow

I did notice today... when doing a prime95 run, I could hear my radiator fan change tone a little bit (my tiny 130CFM 120mm fan ). This is bringing back my thoughts that my PSU just isn't cutting it. We shall see tommorow I guess!

-Chris

 

[InvisGreenMan]

I'm on my second Fortron 530W unit, and it is crapping out. It's rails have dropped to 10.70V (read with multimeter). This all happens a handy three weeks after I sleeve the damn thing... I don't know if i'm going to give Fortron another chance. For more details, read my thread about it in the PSU section.

 

[Maxvla]

I'm on my second Fortron 530W unit, and it is crapping out. It's rails have dropped to 10.70V (read with multimeter). This all happens a handy three weeks after I sleeve the damn thing... I don't know if i'm going to give Fortron another chance. For more details, read my thread about it in the PSU section.

wow this is the first time i've ever seen a problem with this psu. 15 pages on xtremesystems didn't turn any problems up at all. i have 2 of them myself and couldn't be any happier.

 

[GST-97]

I just got the PSU, going to put it in after I post here.... I was amazed, it has no "WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED" stickers on it
So adjusting the pots if needbe is no big deal
PS... this thing is a beast.

-Chris

 

[GST-97]

I just got the PSU in... I took a look inside it before I did, found the adjustable pots, looks almost identical to that 400W unit, except it has 2 clear fans using push/pull.

now Abit EQ reads 12V at 11.99-12.01V, actual measured voltage with DVM is 12.08V Antec was at 11.91 w/ DVM

Now running prime, the fan does not change tone whatsoever and when I upped the voltage in the BIOS this time, I could actually get it to read 1.5V if I wanted to... before it never seemed to go over 1.49V

Will do some testing tonight and see if the PSU helped my overclocking

-Chris