Please suggest on a PSU, sparkle 350W or 300W?

[winder]

My computer will have:

P4 2.40B (will OC for sure )
Asus P4pe
512M corsair 3200c2

All in wonder 8500dv
Creative 5.1 sound card

3 harddisks
1 floopy
1 CD-RW
1 DVD-Rom

I hope 300w sparkle can do everything coz seems it's puieter than 350w. But will it overload?

 

[1Time]

Welcome to the Forums!

I hope your 300w Sparkle can handle it too.

 

[AmigoThree]

very good chance it will overload, maybe even with the 350watt too.

 

[larva]

make that zero chance

The 300W sparkle produces 398W max output and the 350W version produces 454W. With a 200W 3.3+5V ouput the 300W is suitable for Athlon and P4 systems, I ran a 2.0a at 2.8Ghz without drama off of one. In my personal system I opted for the 350W model, the fan is noisy. Fortunately there are no warranty stickers to prevent you from removing the cover and replacing the mean NMB fan with the 80mm unit of your choosing. Both of these are very stout supplies, and great values. The 350W version will have an easier load in comparison to its output, lowering output temperatures noticeably.

 

[winder]

Larva,

Any suggestion on the replacement of the NMB 80mm fan?

BTW, what is "NMB"?

 

[Diggrr]

NMB is a fan manufacturer, like panaflo <good quiet fan, L1A version).

I have a Sparkle 300 watter, and ran an ATA100 raid/1G athlon system with it. It works great, but the fan was a tad bit loud, so I modded the psu to add a rheostat to slow the fan down to quiet levels. I also ran a pair of 6" neons, pump relay, and some extra fans on it, and never ran out of power. Good solid voltages reported on all the lines.

I now run a 400 watt one from newegg, and it's very quiet. They have a fan speed controler built into it, and it never runs at top speed, though it stays cool.

Both are very well built power supplies too, I might add.

 

[deathstar13]

for the prices of the sparkles im wondering why you arent buying the 400wt? like diggr said just change the fans. u upgrade much more and u will be spending much more to do it.

 

[larva]

Nippon Miniature Bearing

Larva,

Any suggestion on the replacement of the NMB 80mm fan?

BTW, what is "NMB"?

The fan I used in my 350W sparkle is a "Jamicon" 12V 80mm .15A unit that spins at about 2500 rpm. This is from my vast selection of take outs from other power supplies and is very quiet. The originally fitted NMB fan is model 3110GL-B4W-B54, a 12V .30A unit. It is a bit agressive for my tastes, although solid quality. For refrence the Vantec stealth fan (Nidec unit) is .10A at 2050rpm. As far as proceedure it's a simple remove the cover snip the wires unscrew the original fan, solder new one to existing wire stubs and re-assemble type of thing. Anything in the .15-.20A range should be adequate for this supply. .25A units start to become noticeable and by .30A you can plainly hear it.

NMB stands for Nippon Miniature Bearing. They are a first tier fan manufacturer that makes top quality products, ala Nidec or Panaflo. The fan fitted to the 350w sparkle just spins fast enough to be heard, and is not necessary due to the low thermal stress induced by the low load level this supply encounters powering even substantial loads. At the 450W maximimun output this supply is capable of the stock fan might be necessary, but is simply overkill for anything less than 100% output.

 

[larva]

just isn't necessary

for the prices of the sparkles im wondering why you arent buying the 400wt? like diggr said just change the fans. u upgrade much more and u will be spending much more to do it.

You have to remember, these are FSP power supplies we are talking about. Nearly any other manufacturer you could mention slaps a 400W rating on supplies of this capacity. The 350W Sparkle carries a 3.3+5V rating of 220w, and the 400W version only increases to 235. If I ever found a load that tested the actual 450W max output of the 350W supply, the 400W would be my first choice. This to date has simply been unecessary, and the 300W version (200W 3.3+5V, 398W max total output) equals most supplies rated at 400W total output.

 

[winder]

Re: Nippon Miniature Bearing

Larva,

Is the 80mm fan to replace the stock one in PSU same as those "80 case fan"?

I browsed through newegg.com, is this one any good?

Enermax 8cm manual adjustable fan speed 1000-3000rpm

Anyother recommendation?

BTW: to OC my p4 2.4B, I will go for the Zalman CNPS6500B-AlCu,
Seems you are in favor at AX-478, but I can't find it from newegg...where do you think it's still available?

Thanks very much for all your help@!

 

[winder]

NMB is a fan manufacturer, like panaflo <good quiet fan, L1A version).

I have a Sparkle 300 watter, and ran an ATA100 raid/1G athlon system with it. It works great, but the fan was a tad bit loud, so I modded the psu to add a rheostat to slow the fan down to quiet levels. I also ran a pair of 6" neons, pump relay, and some extra fans on it, and never ran out of power. Good solid voltages reported on all the lines.

I now run a 400 watt one from newegg, and it's very quiet. They have a fan speed controler built into it, and it never runs at top speed, though it stays cool.

Both are very well built power supplies too, I might add.

Could you point me where I can buy the rheostat for the mod? Better have a step by step "how to do" on this job....

 

[larva]

http://www.plycon.com/

Yes, it's just an 80mm case fan. I don't have any experience with the enermax unit (or any adjustables for that matter) as there are so many fixed speed fans laying about the house to choose from. Any 80mm case fan of .15A-.20A is fine, or you can go the adjustable route if you desire.

I do love my AX-478. I bought it from svc compucycle. but it was a troubled transaction. They first sent me the AX-7 in error, and then took their time getting me the correct AX-478 part. I will not deal with them in the future. I use the AX-478 with a Thermaltake TT-8025 fan, a 2900rpm/37cfm unit for nearly silent operation. I had to buy a new fan because I needed the rpm monitoring feature to keep my Asus motherboard happy. Otherwise I would have chosen another of my take-out 80mm units for this application as well. The rpm sensor is a fairly new feature, and my collection of fans is generally older.

I see www.plycon.com still has AX-478's albeit at poor (for an AX478) price of 32.99. Still cheap compared to the Zalman. I paid 25.99 for my AX-478, you may still be able to find one at that price if you look around. Go to www.thermalright.com and use the "where to buy" feature to see who has some left.

Until recently I used my Intel HSF. It ran 45C max and did not limit my overclock. The AX-478 dropped it to 40C max. The Swiftech units are the only others I desire, but are more costly and require motherboard removal for removal/installation. The fact that the AX-478 uses the same 80mm case/PS fan is a bonus in addition to its low cost and high performance.

 

[Diggrr]

Let the brand new one "break in" for a while, to make sure you're going to keep it before modifying it. It just bites when you mod one just before finding out it has other problems and you need to return it.

After that, I'd change fans to one that produced 25 decibels or so. I put in a rheostat because I had one, I'd have prefered to use a quieter fan, but was broke at the time.

Almost any case mod site on the net carries rheostats for fans, caseetc.com, crazypc.com, etc..., and Radio Shack locally (5-10 watt, 100 ohms).

Enermax has fans with both thermal auto-adjusting and manual speed adjusting features. I didn't look to see if they're quiet enough though, but should be. The thermal one's sensor should be placed in contact with one of the heatsinks inside the unit.


And one note, I bought the 400 watter because my new Abit Max AT7 motherboard supports 8 drives in ATA133 raid (0+1), and 8 USB devices. If I'm to upgrade again, it's probably gonna be by adding drives to my raid instead of playing the everchanging motherboard /cpu /socket catch-up game they think I'm going to. One of the main performance bottlenecks in a computer these days is the harddrives. When all your drives kick in simultaneously, you need that wattage the 400 can kick out. It should be the last one I buy.

 

[Dark Disciple]

As the OC'er saying goes... You can never have too much POWER!!!