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Powersupply

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by VGenscher, Dec 13, 2012.

  1. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    I had a xenta 700watt power supply unit in my new PC and 2 days ago the whole street had a power cut, now after the lights came back on my PC would not turn on.
    When pressing the power button the green light would light for a second and the fans would start but then instantly stop, I have no clue what this means.

    Anyhow I removed the power supply unit and grabbed my brothers PC and then used his power supply unit(450watt) to test my components(cpu+gpu+usb2.0) and lucky the pc boots and works under a stress test showing both gpu and cpu is working fine.

    So am I am to fix my power supply ? or do I need to buy a new one, I'm short on cash so really i can only afford around £30 so what would you recommend ?.
    I live in the country side so I believe we will have more power cuts to come this Christmas(first year here,other people in area say there will be more power cuts), how can I make sure I don't end up with a dead motherboard if happens again.

    I'm unsure on how much watts I need as well, so my specs below, I would say around 450.

    CPU - i3-2120
    GPU - GTX650 Super clocked edition NOT ti
    motherboard - mini-itx Gigabyte GA-H61N-USB3
    2 slots of 2gb ram making 4gb intotal
    Case has 2 120mm fans but I can install 5 120mm in total and I may do so soon.
    1 sata hdd drive
    1 sata dvd drive
    4 usb slots in use(1 supply's its own power)
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2012
  2. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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  3. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    I think I agree, the one I used was the link below. I have noticed that the Reliability score has dropped to 5.5 sense I bought it, died after about 29 days of use thanks to the power cut. The manual shows it has all the basic over volt protection etc but it did not save it self is that normal ?.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/219541-xenta-700w-12cm-fan-psu-1x-pci-e-2x-sata-kk9966-750p

    The psu you show me has a few extras i don't really need such as the extra pci express 6 pin and 3 satas more then my motherboard supports being that it is mini itx ;).
    It would be nice to drop just a few more pounds, maybe I can by a surge protector that way.
     
  4. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Inherently not; maybe you got a crappy one. £31 for a 700W PSU is far too cheap and I've never heard of Xenta before now, so I'm not going to say anything else.

    I was going to mention, but forgot to, that a surge protector built into your multi-plug whatever is a good idea.

    This is an equally solid (well, better) alternative, but still over budget.

    http://www.ebuyer.com/200489-coolermaster-gx-550w-psu-rs-550-acaae3-uk

    Corsair's CX range (first link) is budget, but Corsair are a generally reputable brand. I don't think you're going to get a reasonable 500W PSU for cheaper than that; not that I would be willing to recommend anyway.

    450W might be okay but I think you're probably cutting it fine given your GPU and I'm not 100%. Anyway, you can look through this list if you'd like (I think the Coolermaster features) and see if any come in on budget:
    http://www.overclock.net/t/183810/faq-recommended-power-supplies
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2012
  5. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Looks like it will be the Corsair for me, I see it's got a 3Year Warranty will that cover power-cuts ?;)
    Will it survive a power cut ?, really scared of another power-cut blowing my new PC(I use it for work and hobbies which will be used at 100% load on and off).

    Could some one explain the 80 plus bronze icon to me ?, whats its meaning ?.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2012
  6. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    If it fries then it will be covered under warranty. I'd like to suggest that Corsair will stand up better to a power shortage than your original PSU did.

    Bronze icon thing is an efficiency rating:

     
  7. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Well thanks for all the help, its more then likely that Ill buy the one you suggested in first post.

    With the paging I'm looking at around£50, but I do know that ebuyer ships free at £50+ so If I buy a maybe a usb stick aswell making it worth more to me ;)
     
  8. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Update I just found there is a maplin store near me tomorrow when I travel and maybe able to pick one up.

    I was wondering how the XFX brand ?, I have in fact heard good things from the brand before and it has the 80 bronze thing. It cost £44.99 which is reasonable yes ?.
    I found this link below which also shows XFX to be on recommend gaming list, and maplin is selling a 450 watts model which I put on reserve(just in case) http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f210/power-supply-information-and-selection-192217.html

    Using this link below I have calculated my system with 100% load and 30% capacitor age with 100% TDP. I put the motherboard down as regular because it cost me £60 but remember it is a mini-itx so really it would be less power.
    I could not find gtx650 on the list so I put it down as a 550ti which is equal to the card in speed as shown in many benchmarks(google 550ti vs gtx650), however the gpu I have uses architecture called Kepler so it uses less power.
    The calculator/webpage shows 448 watts but as I said it is a mini-itx not regular and the gtx650 uses less power then the 550ti I should be good with 450watt(when marked as mini-itx along with 85% TDP recommended it drops to 424)

    http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/Power
    It is a bit fine but really considering the way I write it down it could be slightly lower then 424 and secretly I dont have a dvd drive as stated(not a sure if i want one internal or external, I installed windows with a 8gb usb stick)
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2012
  9. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Well like with every brand, there are individual items which are better than others. What model is it? Link to the maplin page if you want, but I'm inclined to say it's going to be on par with the Corsair CX line to be honest.

    You probably will be alright with 450W, then. Unless you are into burning DVDs/Blu-ray then you really don't need an optical drive anymore IMHO.
     
  10. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    The link is http://www.maplin.co.uk/450w-xfx-pro-series-atx-psu-with-easyrail-technology-587552
    Thank you for your time mate , your been very useful and now i won't cheap on future systems ;).

    Apparently the gt650 is the gtx650 on the website which I used to calculate my watts. So i put in all my details again with that card instead of gtx550ti and including a dvddrive with 2 120mm fans and the total was 353 watts with a mini itx board and it was 364 with normal motherboard. It had 100% TDP,100% load, and 30% Power Consumption.
    Also the website shows below shows that i was right about the Power Consumption in gtx650 being far less that of 550ti http://www.hwcompare.com/13482/geforce-gtx-550-ti-vs-geforce-gtx-650/

    I copy all my dvds and games to harddrive using a laptop ;), I play them with a 8gb memory stick but planing to buy a mkv player to play them back on tv.
    Also maybe possible to use raspberrypi instead of a mkv player to play it on tv, I saw there is raspberrypi cases online and that way my tv gets internet too ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2012
  11. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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  12. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Well thank you very much, ill give it a shot tomorrow ;)
    As tomorrow I'm out I might as well pay the extra bit in store and get it the same day and install when I get home ;).

    As for the price I always find Maplin stores to overcharge a bit, its one reason I stopped buying from them(staff is also rude in essex stores) , this time its only because I need it up and running asap.

    Just noticed it on the last after you said , how did I miss that :D

    I don't know much about the raspberry pi myself, I'm looking into it as it sounds good to me;)

    Thanks again, 5 year warranty aswell with that 80 icon for cheap makes me happy.
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2012
  13. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Got the XFX 450 watt power supply yesterday and installed it.
    It's going fine which is good, at one point I had both cpu and gpu at full loads and had it running for about between 30mins towards an hour with out noticing(close it but it still ran in the background), the only thinh what happened was my system got a little warm.
    Normally I don't have both at full load and only one 120 fan was plugged in so I should be fine.

    I'm happy
     
  14. Ripper

    Ripper Active member

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    Sounds pretty standard and a good test for your new PSU anyway.

    Glad you're sorted; now perhaps look into getting a surge protector, just in case!
     
  15. VGenscher

    VGenscher Member

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    Yeah I saw some in maplin(this store seemed friendly compared to essex), there was one for £12, I might pick one up in a few days.
    Anyhow my friend bought one when I mentioned it ill see how it goes tomorrow ;)
     
  16. emugamer

    emugamer Regular member

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    I purchased this in 2009 for my new build:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171031

    It has been great until recently. It started making a humming noise that became overbearing. I didn't have time to research new PS's, so I just went to my newegg cart, found the link to the PS I bought in 2009 and bought it again.

    I shouldn't be surprised, but Coolermaster stripped it down. Reduced the number of power connectors drastically. I was able to get by with some molex-to-sata adapters.

    My only issue now is that the new PS seems like it normally runs loud. I am thinking of replacing it. I'm doing some research on quieter 500W PS's. Any suggestions from experience?

    Thanks!
     
  17. ddp

    ddp Moderator Staff Member

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    emugamer, start your own thread about your problem as hijacking another member's thread is a forum rule no no.
     
  18. john179

    john179 Active member

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    500W Corsair Builder Series 500CX 80PLUS Bronze Power Supply

    Very quiet and really good psu
     
  19. emugamer

    emugamer Regular member

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    My bad...sorry about that.
     

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