Need PSU Recommendation for Upgrade

T

thephatp

New Member
Hi Everyone,

I'm finally upgrading after about 5 years, and man, am I out of the loop. I've done a lot of reading and tried to figure out what I should do, but I'm always up for experts' opinions!

I need a recommendation for a PSU. I'll list my specs below. I plan on OC'ing CPU/Memory, but not too much because I've never done it before. This is what I'm considering:

  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe
  • SAPPHIRE Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775
  • Crucial Ballistix 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
  • PSU ???
  • (Old) Antec Sonata case


So, what would you recommend for this setup?

Oh, and I don't know much about cooling. If I'm slightly OC'ing with this rig, do I need to do anything special for extra cooling? Any extra fans?

I have a budget, but I know the PSU is super important, so I'm not going to set a limit. If I really need more than I can afford, I'll give a little on something else.

Also, I'm not sold on the Gigabyte Mobo or the Crucial Ballistix RAM. I really don't know what would be best here, but I don't want to crowd this category with non-PSU questions. That said, if you have suggestions, please feel free to offer them!


Thanks in advance for your help!!!

thephatp
 
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ThatGuy16 said:
Hi, and welcome
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Thanks!! :D

ThatGuy16 said:
What would be your budget?
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I was hoping for something around $100, but have since upped it to about $150. I'd really like to spend at or under $150 (I'll do rebates if I have to), but I absolutely need to go above $150, I will.

ThatGuy16 said:
Also its not just the wattage you need to look at its the amps and 12v rails
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Yeah, that's what I've read. But I'm not sure what to go by. Most of the specs I've seen on, say, newegg.com, doesn't list the amps. Where can I find this info? Also, according to one of the guides you reference below, I need about 30A for the video card I'm getting. But what does this mean? When you look on the label on the actual PSUs, they have ranges, and usually say something around 18A or 15A. (This is what I'm referring to: Example 1 and Example 2). So where can I find the important information??

ThatGuy16 said:
Heres a good guide for psu's
http://www.computerforum.com/90118-useful-psu-guides.html
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Yeah, I've browsed through those, but the PSU 101 link in that thread is just a broken link. I'll bet that had some good information in it. :rolleyes:

I've also used this list to go by, and I'm looking in Tier 2 (but it still doesn't help with Amps):

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

ThatGuy16 said:
The Corsair 520w is a realy good unit and supplies plenty of juice
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What if I want to upgrade in the future? Say, I want to do a little more with OC'ing and that I want to upgrade to a DX10 card (not any time soon, but sometime in the future). Would this PSU still be a good choice, or should I go with a heavier hitter?

ThatGuy16 said:
I have the OCZ GameXStream 700w and it puts out alot of power but its a little more costly

Corsair 520w
OCZ 700w
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Yeah, I actually had that exact OCZ as my top choice until I read the reviews on newegg. Everything seemed greated about it, but I was REALLY scared off by the number of reported DOA's. There are 8 DOA reports on this PSU in less than one month. I know you get lemon's every once in a while, but not at this rate. I'm just hesitant on this one for that reason. However, the pricepoint (after rebate) is really nice!!
 
Out of 371 Reaviews...lol, thats realy good compared to others and is a good quality unit and also has a 3 year warrenty. That first (example) is the same psu as the ocz 700w just put out by FSP, on the sticker in fine print it says max combined it 50a..i cant find it on the corsair unit though. But for >$150 you can get a realy good one, the Corsair 620w is good also
 
ThatGuy16 said:
Out of 371 Reaviews...lol, thats realy good compared to others and is a good quality unit and also has a 3 year warrenty. That first (example) is the same psu as the ocz 700w just put out by FSP, on the sticker in fine print it says max combined it 50a..i cant find it on the corsair unit though. But for >$150 you can get a realy good one, the Corsair 620w is good also
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Yeah, I noticed the # of reviews right off. That's another big reason why I was strongly considering it. And I know that out of that many you'll have some bad eggs, but I guess I was thinking that if that many were bad in the past week (I think it was 4 or 5), then I might get a bad one as well. Maybe a decent number were shipped bad. On the other hand, I could also look at it as `With that many bad ones, surely I'll be getting a good one`. :D

Thanks for the help!
 
You can take a look at my entire list of recommendations here: http://www.computerforum.com/90117-ceewi1s-psu-recommendations.html

Many of the linked prices are also significantly better than newegg prices.

With regard to the GameXStream, I wouldn't worry about the newegg reviews. As ThatGuy has said, the number of failed units must be viewed in proportion to the total number of reviews. Additionally, a lot of people will RMA a working PSU, because they wrongly suspected it was causing their problems.

The GameXStream is certainly capable of putting out a lot of power for the price. My only real complaint is ripple that exceeds ATX specifications at high load.

The Corsair HX520W is quite sufficient for your system, even if you do upgrade to a single DirectX10 card. If you want to spend ~$150, you can get a PSU that will easily support SLI'd 8800s.

If you're not concerned about SLI/Crossfire, I'd recommend either the Corsair HX520 or Ultra X-Finity EE 600W.
 
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