gaming rig

[arbol99]

anyone know how crappy viomax is? i used to have a decent power supply but it was a lower wattage and when my computer was rebooting like 6 months ago the local tech figured it was a power supply problem and put in a viomax 550 w and chaged me like 70 bucks for parts and labor after holding onto my comp for a week and a half.


not to hijac the thread but i was curious since you were talkinga obut decent PSU companies.

 

[TriEclipse]

Like I said, all of the ones I listed are excellent Power Supplies. And saying that ThermalTake is a bad maker of PSUs is amusing to me, as its an area that they specialize in. Just don't let the wattage on any of them influence your decision, even the lowest wattage PSU on that list is quite surely overkill for whatever system you may have.

anyone know how crappy viomax is?

Not something I'd want in my computer. However, if you throw enough watts at something, it'll still work. Point is that you paid $70 for a 550W PSU but you probably could've supplied the same power with a $40 400W Forton.

 

[Phrantic]

Like I said, all of the ones I listed are excellent Power Supplies. And saying that ThermalTake is a bad maker of PSUs is amusing to me, as its an area that they specialize in. Just don't let the wattage on any of them influence your decision, even the lowest wattage PSU on that list is quite surely overkill for whatever system you may have

I'm really not quite sure how much watt I should have, the system specs are on the first page, I had a 560W in it and someone said that I needed more wattage.

Are there any considerably cheaper (like half the price) 400-500W'ish ones out there?

 

[TriEclipse]

I'm really not quite sure how much watt I should have, the system specs are on the first page, I had a 560W in it and someone said that I needed more wattage.

Are there any considerably cheaper (like half the price) 400-500W'ish ones out there?

Read this for an explanation of why you don't need a 560W PSU. I really recommend you read that before even clicking on the links below.

That said, here are some cheaper ones; again, in order.

Seasonic 430W - €75 - I've heard good things about this one.
Hiper 435W - €60.
OCZ ModStream 450W - €69.
Enermax 460W - €79.

See, 560W from Chieftec probably isn't the same overall output as 560W from Hiper. Like I said, Watts are a nice measure, but it's the Amps on the +12v rail(s) that matter most when comparing PSUs.

 

[Phrantic]

I was shocked to find out that a system with an 8800 card runs at only 273W! The Seasonic looks interesting and has good reviews. It might not look as flashy as the OCZ PSUs but hey, how often do you look at them?

Cheers a bunch!

 

[TriEclipse]

Indeed. I've had the 400W Forton in my PC for about a year now and I can't say I look at it much. I'm thankful for the rock-solid power it supplies though.

On the Seasonic, one of my [H]ardForum friends once commented, "I feel safer with my 430W Seasonic than I would with a 600W off-brand PSU." So you'll be in good hands with that one.

 

[Phrantic]

In follow up to cutting in on my PSU cost, I might want to cut in on the harddrive size although there's not much to gain here to be fair. Currently going for the Western Digital Caviar SE16 (250GB) but the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 (160GB) also looks pretty good. However, the site I'm ordering from says it only has a 2MB cache, although one or two reviews insisted it has an 8MB cache. Who speaks the truth, and would a 2MB cache bother me much?

 

[TriEclipse]

Yes, a 2MB cache would be horrible, lol. I know that most of the Seagate Barracudas have 8MB caches, with some of the higher end ones going into 16MB. No 2MBs that I know of though. Hopefully the website is wrong. The Seagate Barracudas are the best 7200RPM drives though. If you don't think that you'll need 250GB of storage, the 160GB should be fine as well.

 

[Phrantic]

Apparently they've got some 2MB ones out there that will save you a whopping $4. I know Alternate did and I picked the 8MB one instead.

 

[Ste]

Noone said TT makes Bad power supplies, all I said is that there are better choices out there.