inexpensive PSU recommendations?

[ekÆsine]

f50 i wouldn't even consider purchasing that power supply. even though it states 550 watts you don't need to do math to figure out that $33 for 550 watts does not compute. the fake shiny gold plating on it reminds me of those hydraulic lowrider cars

that power supply is probably the equivalent of a good 300 watt or less power supply, not to mention you risk having the low quality power supply fry all your components if it has a bad protection system on it should it fail. you should plan on spending at least $50 on a 400 watt power supply.

f50 can you please list all of the components you will be hooking up into the new machine? i think yo may have done your math wrong, that sounds much too high. list using make/ model/ size/ speed/ ect. example:

Pioneer DRU-A06UA 8x DVD-RW
Maxtor 1200BB UDMA133 8MB cache hard disk

 

[f50]

f50 can you please list all of the components you will be hooking up into the new machine? i think yo may have done your math wrong, that sounds much too high. list using make/ model/ size/ speed/ ect.

i didn't do any math wrong, since it wasn't me who did the calculating. you might wanna read my post above again if you didn't catch that, and i also already posted my likely upgrades. nothing too specific since it's still in the future, but it's the current range of things i'll be happy with.

go here: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
these were the components i entered in:

cpu: P4 800Mhz FSB with Hyperthreading (not sure which clock i'd go with, depends on pricing later on)
GFX: Radeon 9800pro
Ram: 2 sticks DDR (to utilize the Dual channel capabilities of the P4)
2 HDD's (80GB WesternDigital w/ 8mb cache, 40GB Maxtor, both 7200rpm)
DVD-Rom (good ol' cheap Antec 16x)
CDRW (Digital Research 24x10x40x)
2 Additional PCI cards (2 port firewire, sound card)
1 USB device (PSX controller)
1 firewire device (miniDV video camera)
2 80mm lighted system fans (come with my new case)

Total Watts= 409

so basically the 418 i quoted was wrong, but not by much considering i just grabbed that off the top of my head without double checking.

it just comes back to me wanting headroom with the PSU, and being able to use it for upgrades even further into the future.

maybe that $30 one isn't all that great, but i've still got lots of time to decide on one.
those Aspire PSU's that i mentioned in the 1st post have been getting good reviews over at Newegg.com, though. they're about $66 i think for a 500W with windows & LED fans & all that cool stuff.

 

[ekÆsine]

thanks for listing your components, that clears it up a lot. sorry if that i sounded like i was accusing you of doing bad math, it's just that a 400+ watt total system rating is extremely high for a system that doesn't have multiple processors or a massive raid array.

well, to my point: i don't care what that calculator told you but it is flat out wrong. by my estimate a good 350watt power supply would run that system fine.

to give yourself some room i would go for a 400 watt or better power supply excluding cheapo low-quality no-name brands at ridiculous prices (and with chrome or gold plating on them ) . you get what you pay for literally most times.

well i'll say it a third time anything less than about $50-100 for 400 watts is usually garbage. I just hope you don't end up with a bad PSU, even with a warranty they probably will not honor a full system replacement for fried parts (antec).