Antec Earthwatts 500w - Good enough PSU?

[mkonjibhu]

I'm looking for a PSU for my new build which consists of:

E6600
GA-P35C-DS3R
4GB Ballistix 6400
XFX 8800GTS XXX
2 IDE HD's
DVD Burner

I know this is made by Seasonic and has a really nice efficiency rating, but will it be enough or even future proof? Also, the lack of a second fan makes me worry a bit.


Newegg.com - Antec earthwatts EA500 ATX12V v2.0 500W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, CB, C-tick, CCC - Retail

 

[b1gapl]

Looks pretty good, but I'd recommend the XClio GREATPOWER 550w, instead. It's the same price as the Antec, has more power, and I think 18 more amps, on it's +12v rails.

 

[Invisible]

the second fan won't make that much of a difference if you have plenty of case fans
:EDIT: oh and that board is a bit buggy in the RAM department
try this one
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

and what is the main usage of this build going to be
if it is a home, or low-moderate gaming then you only need 2 gb of DDR2 800 RAM

and SATA hdds are better than IDE, they're a tad faster for about the same price

are you getting this 8800gts from NEWEGG?
because the EVGA one is cheaper there with the MIR
Newegg.com - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
and don't get the 640mb version its a $100 waste for 1% performance increase

 

[mkonjibhu]

Well, I already bought 2x 2x1GB kits of Ballistix for $60 AR from Newegg (for that price, figured why not go for 4GB. Worse case scenario, I can sell the extra 2GB) Already bought my XFX 8800GTS 320 XXX for $225 from Newegg as well, and got the P35C-DS3R for $105.

The PSU is on sale for $45 on Buy.com I believe, that's why I'm looking into it, and I hear it is a good one, just wondering if it is good enough.

As for the Harddrives, I have 2 7200RPM 160GB IDE Hard drives at the moment, so I don't really feel a need to replace them yet.

Aren't the P35 and P35C the same besides for the DDR3 support? So shouldn't the DDR2 slots have the same compatibility? I'm pretty sure Ballistix work without any issue on those (well, it might not boot at first due to Ballistix needing 2.2v and most motherboards booting at 1.8v, but I'll just borrow a stick of 1.8v to up the voltage in BIOS).

As for case fans, I should have 4-5 80mm fans in there. Hope that should be enough.

 

[kobe24]

yeah i will be enough but i good better just incase of upgrades

 

[Sora]

The PSU is good enough however that PSU is for people who want a very high efficiency as they figure it will save them money in a year or something. There are better with more 12v amps though for you PSU around the same price.

 

[mkonjibhu]

The same price being the Newegg price (~$90) or the AR price of $45? For $90, I would probably go for an OCZ or Corsair, but if the Antec is more than enough for me, than paying $45 would be nice.

 

[phucng_10]

The PSU is great. But as b1gapl said, it's better to go with the Xclio.

 

[OnlyCurious]

Well, I already bought 2x 2x1GB kits of Ballistix for $60 AR from Newegg (for that price, figured why not go for 4GB. Worse case scenario, I can sell the extra 2GB) Already bought my XFX 8800GTS 320 XXX for $225 from Newegg as well, and got the P35C-DS3R for $105.

HOW did you get everything for so cheap....??? especially the MOBO??? I'm going to buy the p35-ds3r soon and I want to pay something like $100 too... but it's never going on sale and it's selling at $129.99...

 

[phucng_10]

HOW did you get everything for so cheap....??? especially the MOBO??? I'm going to buy the p35-ds3r soon and I want to pay something like $100 too... but it's never going on sale and it's selling at $129.99...

I wanted a P35-DS3R motherboard, but then the one Newegg has at the moment only supports DDR2 800 and DDR2 1066. I saw one a few days ago where they supports DDR2 667's as well. Bummer!