PSu Failing... Causing crashes

Discussion in 'Power Supplies and UPS's' started by rimmer, Aug 3, 2006.

  1. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    Hi all. This is my 1st thread, and well, here goes...

    I have a 1 year old power supply that cost me £15 off ebay. its RATED as a 500Watt and the brand is SUMVISION. A few mates have told me how bad the make is, but that was 3 months after i bought it, anyhoo, this is the 3rd PC its been in. The 1st was a 1333MHz Athlon thunderbird with not much in at all, then a Athlon XP 1800+, had a fair amount in. Now im on my nice souped up budget gaming PC, my specs will be in a pic below.

    I have 4 Optical Drives, 2 Hard drives, one SATA one IDE, a fairly powerful graphic card, a floppy drive and a PCI IDE Controller card and ever since i added the extra optical drive ( A Multi DVD Writer from Liteon ) it started crashing and restarting, basically playing up. After a week of living with the PC, I unplugged the IDE HDD, and 2 of the optical drives and the PC went back to normal state, no crashing or anything, and its been fine for 2 months ever since, so I sorted that problem,

    anyhoo, I am requesting advice on a good power supply, one that I can use in a high end PC in the next 2-3 years, and I am prepared to spend up to £130 ( 245 US $ ) on a high end power supply, probably one between 600 and 700 watts. I am keeping my eye on two, what do you all think?

    Both Enermax, one 620Watts, an enermax liberty or something.

    The other, 660Watts, an enermax "temperature controlled PSu"

    Eclipse Computers - Products

    Both on eclipse computers, in the Cases>High end power Supplies
    section

    Could anyone recommend a decent power supply, decent brands, probably good specs like these supplies? thanks
     
  2. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    The Liberty series are modular power supplies, which means you leave off the cables you don't need. Enermax is a great brand, but you may want to consider OCZ, Hiper, Antec, or Fortron units as well.

    I've got an entire dissertation on PSU's in my sig, but here's the cliffs for what you want in a PSU:

    -Heavy
    -Dual 12V rails
    -30A+ on said 12V rail or via combination of
    -24-pin native ATX connector

    While nothing's wrong with that motherboard, it's going to make upgrading your video card a little easier down the road if you get a board with PCI Express instead of AGP.
     
  3. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    hmmmm, OCZ and Hiper ring a bell, I want the best, most efficient, and does not go any lower than what my PC needs, liek this power supply does
     
  4. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    well ive got a antec neo he 500watt and it is up to 85% efficient (most psu's are about 70-78% efficient range) and it is very quiet. its got 3 12 rails with 51 amps on them and is sli certified, i think it is more than enough for a system like that becoz nowadays components mostly use the 12v rail eather than 5 or 3.3v so this is very future proof
     
  5. max12590

    max12590 Masterful Geek

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  6. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    i think the one that is supposedly future prrof is a bit too future proof, $483 LOL
    the liberty one is good and at pretty reasonable price
     
  7. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    this may be a silly question, because im thick on PSu's, but what are 12v RAILS?
     
  8. max12590

    max12590 Masterful Geek

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    The 12 V rail is basically the 12 V power source. If it has 2 12 V rails then it has 2 separate 12 V power sources which lowers temperature and stress on the PSU. The more 12 V rails the better. I think the highest I have seen is 3. 2 is common now.
     
  9. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    ideally u wud want the 12v rails to have a lot of amps on them for example the neo he i told u about earlier which has 51amps beco nowadayz most components use the 12v rail for example, cpu, pci-e graphics cards, hard drives, cd/dvd roms wich needs alot of power so it is better to get a unit that has more amps on the 12v rail rather than the others. 500watt may not seem a lot but it is better than others that may have good 550 units becoz its got higher amps on the 12v than the others
     
  10. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    right, I took the PSu calculator, and got 447Watts, and that was adding a few things that i intend to get in the near future, I have decided if I sell this PC, the supply goes with it, so ADVICE FOR A 450Watt power supply or better at a reasonable price, don't bother telling me to look for "heavy, dual 12V rails with 1000000000 jigga watts or amps" just tell me a good power supply, noise is not a problem for me, so noisy, quiet, not bothered. 450 watts or higher, preferably a 480/500 watt, but I need it to be affordable (under £60 or $114.34 US dollars for those of you in the US of A) and has all the features that you expect in a decent power supply

    My pc is single core, will have 2 IDE HDDs, 1 SATA, 4 IDE optical drives, a fairly powerful, yet SINGLE graphic card (GF6600) 4 sticks of DDR 512s
    and a few LED and regualr fans lol
     
  11. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    my choice wud be either an enermax e565 ax 535watt:ebuyer.com - Components » Power Supplies » Enermax » Product details

    or antec truepower: ebuyer.com - Components » Power Supplies » Antec » Product details

    or hiper type m 580watt: ebuyer.com - Components » Power Supplies » Hiper » Product details

    My choice wud be the enermax as its 12v rails are stronger and it has got an adjustable rear fan and overall becoz its just a good psu.
     
  12. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    cheers, I may consider the enermax, i deeply trust that brand, at around £60 inc P&P and VAT, i cant argue,i doubt mine has dual 12V rails or anything, it cost me £15 off ebay >< and i jus started avin problems with this new-ish PC as i was adding more prepherials
     
  13. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    my advice wud be, not to use ur computer att all until u get a new psu or try to use it with less components (just the essentials and maybe 1 dvdrw drive) and less stressing on the cpu. i wudnt trust that psu especially since ur starting to have problems with it. im not trying to scare u, just giving sum advice as u wudnt want ur rig to get fu**ed up especially since its a crap branded psu and it may take other components with it if it blows up or sumthing. u mite aswell wait for a new psu, it'll only be about 3 working days.
     
  14. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    Yea izzy is right, dont even think about using your computer with that crappy power supply.

    Anyway, if you want a power supply with excellent looks and decent performance, get the Hiper Typer-R 580w, that should be more than enough for your system, but if you want super excellent power supply with higher even higher amps and a little better quality, then get the enermax or the antec truepower listed above in izzy's other power, when i say with better quality and higher amps etc.. i dont mean the hiper is crap, its an awsome psu, one of the few thats a good performer and actually has really decent looks! also is modular, really good when you want ot keep your case tidy and dont need all the power cable's on the psu :good:
     
  15. rimmer

    rimmer Geek

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    rite, well i have seen a antec that I want, its £70, 500 watts very efficient and has 3 12V rails, what you all say 2 that? and can anyone find it cheaper, even tho i think £70 is a gd price, but i`ll av to w8 till november, my birthday, lol.

    yes its the same one that one of ya recommended earlier

    I have unplugged unesseary things, so now i have 1 HDD, 1DVD Writer plugged in, basically im minimalising power consumption. Since im 15, 16 in november, I wont be able to afford a power supply till then, but NOT USING MY PC AT ALL lol, how would I live?

    Thanks guys for the reccomendations
     

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