Power supplies

gt123

I just found out my Dell 4600's crappy 250W ps was what was wrong with my computer's performance in games, or at least i'm pretty sure it is. Anyways, what kind of power supply should i get to replace it? i've got an

ATI radeon 9800 pro 128
2.6ghz p4
512 pc3200 dual channel ddr ram
audigy 2
one 80gb ATX hd.

I'm not an overclocker or a huge tweaker or anything like that, the computer's just like i bought it. Pretty basic. I just want a model that'll get the best performance out of my comp, and, not too expensive if its possible.

Any reccomendations?

Necrosis

Go here and check out the supply for Dell. However, does your Dell have a regular ATX supply?

gt123

yeah, i think so. it doesn't have the special dell connectore thing

toddsmack2k

What Necrosis recomended are some excellent PSUs. I would go at least for a 400w to keep everything nice and happy.

TwistedMetal

Find out how much power you need with what hardware you have, from the link below.

PSW Calculator

Judas

I myself am saving up to get 2 550 watt PSU's... (run dual PSU)

craig588

er.....why? I cant even max out my one 510 watt PSU.

Judas

....cause i plan on keeping them for over 5 years....

and plan on moving to Dual CPU (opterums)... and 4+ hardrives.... or maybe 8....

I plan on making a dream machine...

Necrosis

That'll save you some money then.

Pretty much the wattage that has been sugguest hear & I say

Enermax
Antec
Sparkle
TTGI (Spelling?)
Allied is bad either.

Necrosis

Two..so why not go dual PSU with a monster case? I used to have an Enlight Server Case with Dual 350's..boy that was big heavy white bitch!!

Judas

.....man.... i know what you mean for heavy.... having a APC BX1000 strapped to the side of a computer like mine already weighs in at a hefy 150 pounds it feels like...

gt123

thanks necrosis...i did that calculator thing and it says my minimum is 358 watts. Thats 108 over what i have...but could you give me some specific models i might want to buy? I'm looking more for models here, not just brand names.

And i just want to say Dell's site's tech help SUCKS. I never get anywhere on that site - if anyone knows where i can make sure i have the ATX thing for PSUs, please tell me...dell doesn't say crap about it.

Asmoday

I'm using this rather unknown psu brand [color=yellow]Levicom[/color] ...but its rails are really stabile...so far my experience with it has been better then with any of my previous Antec Psu's...and thats no joke....
this is how it looks like..

Asmoday

And here's a roundup including the Levicom Psu.... PSU roundup @ NordicHardware

TwistedMetal

Is it the big black case or the small silver and black case?

Asmoday

not sure if you adressed me now... ..but i have the SPS-VP500S.BL PSU...found here ...its the same as this one except i have the one with the plexi casing and blue-led fans..

Necrosis

Hmm if you're thinking about a PC@C supply let me know but overall anything over 400 watts should do the job but I would at least go for 450 to be on the safe side.

BTW, Cartman I haven' heard of half of those supplies mentioned in that thread...there is a similar PSU to your's by Aerocool which also seems to be pretty good.

gt123

alright i've looked at a fiew reviews, a few of those enermax's have gotten bad reviews and are alittle too expensive for me...so i narrowed it down to a Thermaltake Purepower 480W, a fortron 400W, or the other Thermaltake Purepower 480W butterfly. What do you guys think

Necrosis

I had a 400 Fortron quite awhile ago and it did me quite well. Hmm...Thermaltake is pretty good as well...okay other than their heatsinks.

Fortron is more generic so I would have to say Thermaltake.

What are the difference in the Butterfly & the Pure Power?

gt123

I'm not really sure...from what i've seen they're about the same. I think the butterfly might cost a little more, and the non-butterfly's are usually called ThermalTake Silent PurePower. I'm thinking about just going for the cheaper one now...but i'm not sure if this is overkill or not. I'm not doing overclocking or anything, its just going to be running a radeon 9800 and audigy 2, and with everything else the wattage i NEED is gonna be 358W like i said earlier...

Is a 480W thermaltake overkill? Its pretty expensive, if there's somethin that'll work better for my system...the fortron is only 400W, i was hoping for a 450W. Would it matter? I would like to keep the price around $60, but i'd go as high as $70.

Necrosis

Nah it's not over kill...what if you decide to add another HD or get a dvd burner? I'd go with one of the 480's.

gt123

One last thing - I need to make sure i can even buy a PSU to go with the Dell. I know since 1998 Dell made all their computers with proprietary connectors for their PSUs. They freakin rewired the damn connectors so that you can't use anything but a Dell-specific PSU bought by them, that costs a lot more. I think it was something like $50 for a 250W PSU. And if you do try to Install a standard ATX one, it fries your PCU and motherboard. That, and the connectors are even shaped the same, so you can install an ATX one fine, its just when you turn it on...fried.

But, i remember reading somewhere that they stopped and went back to standard ATX sometime in 2002, i want to make sure this is right. Bought my comp Dec 11 2003, its 2 months old. A guy on another forum said he thinks my model (4600) uses the ATX, but i need to make sure before i buy this thermaltake thing.

And i'd just like to say that Dell is horsesh*t for pulling that scam in the first place...they had no reason to rewire other than to make upgrading by anyone other than them impossible. And if they were giving people PSUs that ran 100W less than what their system actually needed back in 2002, which i'm sure they were, they need to get sued. I know there's some kind of law against pulling crap like that.

I'm never buying anything from Dell again, even if my model does work with the ATX PSUs. Dell has no morals or standards if they're decieving their customers like this, what's going to stop them from doing it again

I'm just gonna post this here and make a new thread, i wanna hear if anyone else is dealing with this

Arsh

Does your computer run fine with the 250W PS? does it lock up? does it randomly shut down, or restart?


If not, you dont really need a new/bigger one.

Your computer WONT run any faster with more watts!!!! the only diff will be that your power bill will be a little higher with a 450w PS from a 250watt one.

A 300watt PS is fine if you have 2 cdroms and 2 hard drives.. that powercalc site is way off when telling you how much or big of PS you need... Dell has been making computers for years, and im sure they know how much power your computer needs....


If you wana do some math and figure it out for your self... take your computer apart and read on how many amps/watts everything draws at max load(hard drives/cdroms/cpu..... )and then go from there... Watts=amps*volts, or amps=watts/volts..


ITs like saying... your microwave will work better if we put a 30amp breaker for it at the pannel... doesnt make much sence does it..

swimtech

gt123,

Look here:

www.thetechboard.com/tutorials/atx.php

for information on the arrangement and wire colors for a standard ATX connector, the Aux power connector, and the extra 12v connector, and compare your wire colors with the proprietary Dell connector specified here:

http://165.193.123.52/articles/upgrade3_01_01.asp


Note the physical dimensions of your present Dell supply carefully to match the replacement.

Hope this helps...

Crash Override

Complete total utter bull.

Its obvious you know less than nothing about how a computer works.

Of course W has nothing to do with running faster. It has to do with how well each component will work and how long the PSU will last under stress conditions.

Look at it this way.

When you boot a computer it uses more power than under standard running conditions. Therefore, you always need to factor in quite a bit more power than just the running mode of the machine.

Also factor in that most people nowadays run multiple HD's, Multiple Fans, Multiple CD/DVD Drives, Lots of other options like high end video cards (ATi specifies that for a good card you need at least a 300/350 PSU as a minimum) require more power.

Once you factor it all in you really do need quite a bit of power.