A Power Supply Unit -- Help With The Specs !!!

As my system config. is my sig., i won't repeat it anymore. To say the least that I was a little miser in spending over a PSU and currently, I am having problems during playing of heavy games like Q4 or NFS:MW, when the nvidia pop-up comes notifying that my graphics card isn't receiving sufficient power
supply and has been down-clocked to safe it.

So, I have been thinking of getting a good PSU (don't yell @ me when I say that I have been using a Frontech 450 W PSU with my config).

Please suggest me a good price-to-performance ratio PSU which satisfies my config. I would expect the prices to be on the lower side but the performance should be rock-solid and stable. Better if the prices are in Kolkata.

A

Not fully sure but hopefully a power safe 400 for 1500 may do it. Better still get cooler master 430/400 for 2k

Thanx for the reply. Do you know from where can I get the price list and specs of good quality PSUs. ?

Antec is too costly.....so out of the frame but must say that those r the best. Next would be Powersafe as akshayt has said lastly there is Colorsit 450W which costs around 1.3K, a very good product(I have one) but get the model M-400U it has 25amps on 12v rail *www.colors-it.com.cn/03_products/pro_show.asp?pro_id_search=87&max_id_search=5&min_id_search=21.
Other good brands being coolermaser,zebronics and they r in range of 1.5-3K for 450W.

A

1)Antec or Coolermaster
After this there is a huge difference between the other brands, it is like comparing a 7900GT to a 7300GT

2)Zebronics(oem Skyhawk), Powersafe etc

3)Crappy brands like colorsit and all

Well i have both Antec and colorsit in two seperate machine but as I said Antec is the best and Colorsit is a good performer in the lower budget section, much better than IBALL, MERCURY, INTEX etc.

Well .. to be very honest .. get a Antec SP2.0 400W+ psu .. it's quite some performer .. the investment is slightly high initially , but then u won't have to think about a new psu for a long long time ... specially with the more power efficient parts coming out lately ...

Look at my config .. i have it running on a SP2.0 350W psu .. and have never faced any stability issue ...

Zebronics platinum 450w is the way to go or u can also look at the platinum 500w. 450w plat if for 1600/- nd is roch solin nd has 2x80mm LED fans nd looks funky too.
The 500w plat costs around 2.3k nd has got a 120mm LED fan nd looks like a high end one.

Antec is very expensive,go for Collermaster 400W.Correct me if i am telling wrong.

Is "Iball" a better power supply ?

I had to replace three Iball PSUs (350W) in two months (came with the iball cabinet which I had bought around two years ago) since that day no IBALL smps. Even frontech PSU r much better.

iBall is horrible (I'm using one since I don't have GFx card.) Blows up components and such. Might go in for a coolermaster 400 when I get a 7900GS (is 400w enough for 7900GS?)

A

Antec SP acc to me is not great. With a max of 25A @ 25C on 500watts model, it just doesn't cut it.

@goobimama
400w good brand is enough for these cards as brands like CM is reliable nd a 400w could actually deliver 400w.
As far a single 7900GS is concerned 400w is enough as GF7 series need much less power than GF6 nd 5.
A 7900GS needs less power than a 6600GT nd a 6600GT needs less power than a 5700Ultra. thats how technology goes.
[DDR3 in 7900GS needs least power compared to a normal DDR].

J

akshayt said:
Antec SP acc to me is not great. With a max of 25A @ 25C on 500watts model, it just doesn't cut it.

It is not correct. SP 500 has 36 A on the 12 V rails.(17+19)
I am using it. (But as others have said, it is not cheap and I myself doubt whether it is worth the cost) But one plus point is that the cables are modular.
You may see the link below.
*www.antec.com/specs/SP500_spe.html

thanx a lot guys .. for all of ur helpful replies....
after all this discussion seems that I'll eithr go 4 a COOLERMASTER 400+ or a POWERSAFE 500 +...

hey ppl which brand gives the quietest psu?

A

In a dual rail power supply you can't add the wattage of each rail. This is a wrong concept and a way to mislead a customer.
19A + 17A != 36A

The total combined power that Antec SP500 can supply on 12Va lines combined is 300watts. 300watts/12Va = 25A
This means that it supplies 25A @ 25C(mentioned there about temp) and not 36A

Quietest PSU: AFAIK Antec Phantom and after that Antec NeoHE

In a dual rail power supply you can't add the wattage of each rail. This is a wrong concept and a way to mislead a customer.
19A + 17A != 36A

The total combined power that Antec SP500 can supply on 12Va lines combined is 300watts. 300watts/12Va = 25A
This means that it supplies 25A @ 25C(mentioned there about temp) and not 36A

U got it wrong again ... get back to basics .. u can't compare a single rail and a dual (or higher) rail psu .. coz the dual rail has dedicated supplies .. more or less like two psu's in one .. calculations are not that easy as u put it ...

J

@Askshayt

Do you assume that the 3.3 and 5V rails will consume 180W leaving aside only 300 W for the 12V rails. Neverthless, you are correct that we will not get the exact ampereage by adding up the rails. As Deathvirus_me said, it is not as simple as that.
Secondly the 12V Rail 1 is for the Mobo and peripherals and which system will require 204W for that. Then the 12V rail 2 is for the processor only and can you name a desktop processor on earth which will consume 228W.

Antec Phantom may be quietest (i personally prefer quiet ones) but members in forums like tomshardware swear against it due to inherent problems but most prefer Neo He.

A

You are just not getting it.

Antec SP500 has clearly mentioned in the specs that the maximum it will allow on the 12Va lines combined is 300watts, that is mentioned over there.

This means 300watts/12Va = 25A. This is also at 25C. So actually you barely get 25A, maybe a little less.

Then you have Antec NeoHE 500 which has 3 rails of 17A each. So do you think it provides 51A or 51 X 12watts = 612 watts on a 500watts PSU!

No, it has a maximum of 456watts continously @ 50C mentioned in the specs which corresponds to 38A.

Also, rail 1 is for CPU and mobo while rail 2 is for GPU, drives etc.
__________
also lat gen Intel CPUs would take up around 228watts if overclocked.

Also, Radeon X1900XTX does take 240-250watts at max even at stock.

J

Quote

"Also, rail 1 is for CPU and mobo while rail 2 is for GPU, drives etc."

Quote from Antec site
" Dual 12V output circuitry provides added system stability and meets 240VA UL requirements and safety purpose: 12V1 for Motherboard and peripherals; 12V2 for processor"