Power Supply Selection

[yusrie]

I m building my new C2D rig but cant decide how much power should i need..

This is my spec

C2D 6400

OCZ 1GBx2 PC2-6400

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4

ASUS EN7600GT 256MB x1

Creative X-Fi Platinum

Maxtor 320GB SATAII x1

LiteOn LightScribe DVD Writer

FDD with card reader

Case with 2x12cm 1x8cm fans

I am planning to OC a bit my CPU to 3.2~3.5

Use the PC to edit movies and some gaming..

Im looking to this affordable Gouriki 400W ATX ver2.03,ATX12V ver2.2 SSI-EPS12V ver2.8

http://www.scythe.co.jp/images/kama/gourik...uriki-400ra.jpg

Could this be enough for my system?

Thank you for suggesting..

[puntoMX]

Hello yusrie,

Welcome to the MSFN forums.

The powersupply will be enough for your setup. Never had I seen that brand before so I don’t know about the quality. It has a double rail 12V ad that is nice. Do you have some reviews of that powersupply that all of us can read?

Still I would go with an Antec or Enermax powersupply, but that’s just me...

[CoffeeFiend]

That's a rather weak PSU, just check the 12v bus. A 42$ Fortron Sparkle PSU can nearly deliver twice that. Never heard of the brand either, and the ratings don't speak for it either. If you can afford nice parts like that for the rest of your PC, surely you can afford a nicer PSU than that.

[dirtwarrior]

The sparkle goes for much more than you stated. Show me a link for that price.

[Jeremy]

Whatever PuntoMX says, is pretty much the way to go. He knows what he is talking about. I put my trust in his ability to walk the sheep around.

[CoffeeFiend]

The sparkle goes for much more than you stated. Show me a link for that price.

I'm sorry, that was rather 45$ (Canadian), it's gone up 3$ since last time I've checked: link

32 amps on both 12v buses (which is pretty much the double as the one he posted pics of). And it does have all the plugs you need (20/24 pin, SATA, PCI-e and all). Nice 120mm fan too.

BTW, these guys make the PCU's for OCZ.

Personally, I wouldn't buy anything with less than 30 amps on the 12v buses.

[ripken204]

as punto said, antec of enermax. the enermax liberty psu's have proven themeselves lately.

[yusrie]

Thanks everybody for replying...

This power supply is Japanese brand PSU and now im studying in japan..

It has 13.5cm fan and from what ive read from reviews,they said this PSU was really quiet and has all the neccessary cables..Its price also affordable for 400W,about 5000yen..Antec and Enermax PSU were quite pricey here in japan..

This is the link for this product..

http://www.scythe.co.jp/power/gouriki.html

And the link of homepage..

http://www.scythe.co.jp/

Both are japanese lang so to change lang,please select the flag on top right of the homepage..

But from what Ive looked,this PSU only shown on the japanese vers website...So this is Google translated Eng vers..

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=ht...Flanguage_tools

So how much watt should i need to power up my system..??

[CoffeeFiend]

5000 Yen is just as expensive as the Fortron Sparkle, but then again, only half the amps where it counts most. There are very good reasons to get as much as you can there, especially if your system is always on and such (capacitor aging leading to loss of how much power it can deliver namely), combined with some headroom for expansion, and not running your system too near your PSU's max capacity (think about things like drive spinup - about 2 amps per HD). And again, Fortron Sparkle is known to make quality PSUs (just like OCZ is). That's pretty much the best you can get around that price point. (Even the 350w Fortron has beefier 12v buses, and it's like 2/3 of the price)

But if you'd rather spend as much on a generic PSU with only half the umph, have it become unstable, making your system crash or reboot without warning as the voltages "drifted" or will drop under heavy load, until you finally have to buy another one next year when it's totally broke... Be my guest, ain't my money

Buying a PSU by wattage alone is much like buying a camera by it's number of megapixels alone, or buying a CPU based on it's MHz (disregarding IPC or number of cores and such)...

Edited September 27, 2006 by crahak

[yusrie]

But there is no such Fortron PSU sold here in japan...So how about you post one here and I'll pay for $55 (incl shipping..)

I just need to know how much amps or any other power spec that i need to power up my system...oc to around 3.5 and of coz leave the system 24/7 ON for dls and streams..have fibre optic 100MB/s internet here..

So please tell me what spec should I get for 12v1/12v2 or any other rails that should be enough...

[puntoMX]

32 amps on both 12v buses (which is pretty much the double as the one he posted pics of). And it does have all the plugs you need (20/24 pin, SATA, PCI-e and all). Nice 120mm fan too.

That PSU doesn´t have 2 12v lines, and 32A on just 1 line looks overdone to me too. Check the specs on there site as 12*32 already is 384Watts on the 12v line .

So please tell me what spec should I get for 12v1/12v2 or any other rails that should be enough...

It’s way enough for you, believe me, and it’s made in Japan so I’m not surprised that they also use Japanese capacitors in them witch are known for longer lifetime .

[yusrie]

thanks puntoMX and everybody for replying..

It's good if I could get some more money but my budget was tight so I will buy the 400W first and test it with OCing my system..

When it gets unstable soon,I might sell it in auction and buy another higher one..

Just try and see it soon....

[Randy Rhoads]

Alot of Antec PSU's are being shipped with cheap Fuhjyyu capacitors. I just recapped my 2 year old SL350, which was full of these, and most all were swollen and leaking. A total recap with quality caps is fairly cheap (around $10 or less):

Some quality caps to use to recap:

Chemicon: LXZ, LXY, LXJ, KY, KZE

Rubycon: ZL, YXG, YXF, YXH

Nichicon: PL, PM, PW, HE

Panasonic: FC, FM, FK

Sanyo: WX, WG

Whats a bad cap?

Read here:

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/index.php

Power Supply Section: http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

Picture of a failing Fuhjyyu cap inside an Antec. Mine looked almost identical when i cracked open the housing:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/images/deadAntec/IMG_1099.jpg

The other 90% of your Antec psu are usually good quality, but should be recapped along with the best quality fans you can buy after 1 year, especially if you plan to OC or have alot of stress/load from mulitple drives along with OC'ing. This will void your Antec warranty, but your warranty wont cover the other parts it takes out by ignoring it and after a recap and fan replacments it should outlive the warranty many times over.

If you have any psu/motherboard, that is over a year old you may want to check your caps for bulging (domed) tops and/or leaking (brown substance on the main top or under the caps) before they take down the hardware. Strange smells from your case is a sign of failing caps as well.

Recapping a motherboard is alot more expensive because they are more caps. Its cheaper to just buy an Asus or newer Abit board which come with quality caps already.

Watt ratings can be misleading on some PSU's as well. If its rated at 500 watts, but the 2 large input side caps have a UF rating smaller than at 680 its most likley a cheap and overratted value.

Edited September 29, 2006 by Randy Rhoads

[puntoMX]

Randy Rhoads,

Thanx for this nice information!

If a computer comes in for repairs with us the 1st thing we do is check the caps of "doming" and leaking, 20% of those computers that are older then 2 years have those problems. Even I saw it with iNTEL motherboards (and I thought they used good quality ones) used in Gateway computers and that wasn’t just one cap, no, a whole row of them in one time. So many companies that still use bad caps, and like you stated it’s only a few bucks to put in better ones. I know the marketing part behind it but still I’m sure people would pay 10% more for a power supply if it’s lasting longer and with that not taking other computer parts with it.

Fuhjyyu is from Taiwan, and they are known a little for having leaking caps; I know that the caps from Japan (and electronics in general) are from better quality.

Never saw Antec using those caps but I used the European version of them witch are only for 230v at that time.

[Randy Rhoads]

Welcome. A buddies pc case (MGE Cobra) came with a 500 watt MGE powersupply and was full of Rubycons. May be a good one to look into as just the psu isnt to expensive (under $60 shipped).

Edited October 1, 2006 by Randy Rhoads