Power supply (PSU) concerns

My PSU has just messed up for some reason and i am now searching for a new one. I have very low money though ($30). Can anyone tell me a PSU that can withstand my computer w/o messing up and is $30 or less? It will be greatly appreciated. =)

Here are my Specs:
CPU: Amd Athlon 64, 1800 MHz 2800+
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-K8NS
Motherboard Chipset: nVIDIA nForce3 250, AMD Hammer
Ram Speed, size and #sticks: dual 512mb (total 1024mb) (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
GPU: nVIDIA GeForce FX 5700LE (256 mb)
Case: Scorpio 868W case
OS: Windows Xp Home Edition w/ Service pack 2
fans: i have whatever fans that came with all that i bought which i think is 3 regular fans, 1 cpu fan

I have a very limited supply of money so which of these would be best for my money. All im really looking for one that will just work and is most reliable for my system specs posted above. Here are a few that have came across my eyes and would like to get it under 30$ but if the $44 one is a must out of these three then i might just have to save a little. Also if you have any other suggestions on reliable PSU's for $20-$35, please tell me. Thank you.


Sparkle Power (FSP350-60BT) 350-Watt Power Supply [$29]

Antec (SL250S) 250-Watt Power Supply [$28]

Enermax (EG365P-VD) (EG365PVD) 350-Watt Power Supply [$44]

450 Watt PC/Computer Dual Fan PSU Power Supply Unit [$35] (something on ebay)

Antec Smartblue 350 Watt power supply

Antec Smart Power SP-350 Watt Power Supply

PSU review: I highly recommend all read it

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/01/22/getting_the_right_power/

Hi, all:

I'd be very grateful if someone would clarify this for me. I'm upgrading to a new video card that requires a 350W PSU. I contacted the support site for my PC (it's an HP, P4) to find out about the compatability issues and recommendations, and was very surprised when the tech told me that since my current PSU is only 200W, the 350W one would damage my pc components. I always thought that the components only take whatever power they need and cannot be damaged by a more powerful PSU. Cause we're talking watts here, not voltage, right? Who's correct and is there anything else I should watch out for when getting a more potent PSU? Thanx a bunch!

Must have been a level one drone in customer service .... a little learing is a dangerous thing.... and technical illiterates in tech service are a hazard to the unwarry.

What he said was a technical foot in mouth statement.
What he should have said was that your new video card, barring slot / driver issues, would overload your systems power supply.

Have you done a power usage inventory of your system?

How much power does the card actually need.

The 350Watt recomendation is just that, a recomendation.

If you have enough overhead on the old supply then I see no issues keeping things as they are BUT if everything you use now plus the video card add up to more than 80% of capacity then its time to upgrade the supply with something that fits the HP case and has at least 20% EXTRA WATTAGE available, just in case or you will have issues when adding anything else in the future.

I don't know how much power the card actually needs. How do I find out the actual power usage of a component? And I haven't done the power usage inventory which is clear from my question. I should do this. Are there any tricks to it? Like I read somewhere on this forum that simply adding each component's usage doesn't give you an accurate figure. I also stumbled upon another problem that you mentioned in your post - finding a PSU that fits my HP. The dimensions of my HP PSU are really weird - Width is 5.875"(150mm), Height is 3.375"(85.7mm), Depth is OK - 5 inches. Now, why would anyone make a PSU this size? The worst part is that the bracket is actually permanently stapled to the case, so I can't remove it. I have a feeling that I'm SOL. Any suggestions?

How do I find out the actual power usage of a component?
It is usually in the back of the manual or may be available on the manufacturers website
There is also some good articles/references by some of the old timers here on guesstimating values. :grinthumb
And I haven't done the power usage inventory which is clear from my question. I should do this. Are there any tricks to it? Like I read somewhere on this forum that simply adding each component's usage doesn't give you an accurate figure.
Guesstimates are usually good enough if you leave wide margins for error but if you want better numbers you will need to inventory not only total power consumption but also the current draws (measured in Amps) from each of the voltage supplies as well. This is because you could be under the power limit but still be out of specification on one of the voltage supplies = problems.
I also stumbled upon another problem that you mentioned in your post - finding a PSU that fits my HP. The dimensions of my HP PSU are really weird - Width is 5.875"(150mm), Height is 3.375"(85.7mm), Depth is OK - 5 inches. Now, why would anyone make a PSU this size? The worst part is that the bracket is actually permanently stapled to the case, so I can't remove it. I have a feeling that I'm SOL. Any suggestions?
Some of the brand name guys still do this - :suspiciou it used to be exclisively a COMPAQ issue ages ago - where proprietary parts made things difficult if not impossible for repair/upgrade. :evil:
As to fitting a replacement in - :knock: if it can be made to fit into the case then the only thing needed is some nibbling/fileing/drilling of the back panel otherwise you may have to resort to a hacksaw or bolting the thing to the outside of the case :knock: (as long as the MB power cable reaches - no issues) and add some extensions to the power cables. It may not be pretty but will keep you up and running without having to get a new case and dealing with the MB mounting issues (may also be non-standard)

But check some of the other threads here and bug the old timers as well for some geek wisdom. :grinthumb

I would stay away from the Chinese Cooling PSU's I have a 450W in a custom system that I built, and it started having problems (intermittent shutoff) after only 2 years. It has a 5 year warranty, but I haven't researched into how to get that warranty honored.

I bought a 400 watter Antec with the dual fans and it fixed my problem immediately.

Lesson: You get what you pay for

Lesson: You get what you pay for.

A good lesson but not always true - there are bargains to be had IF you know exactly what you are looking for.
You can just as easilly overpay for Name/Bling/Pimp and get the same mediocre product. It just looks nicer.

Lesson: Buyer Beware.

Lesson: Be Informed.

Lesson: Know what you need and what you want and what you can afford.

A 350W PSU will NOT burn out a motherboard that only uses 200W. However, it will waste electricity. If you're upgrading your video card and it uses more than 200 and less than 350W - you're ok also. Bear in mind, ALL power supplies do not provide their rated power. Much power is lost due to heat. In some el cheapo PSUs this can be as much as 50%. Buy a quality, HIGH-EFFICIENCY PSU that meets your power requirements and add 30% for cushion and aging. The older a PSU gets, the more more inefficient in becomes. A computer running 24/7 for 2 years will have a PSU operating at 30 to 40% of original ratings on average. This is because capacitors degrade over time.

compaq proprietary issues w/psu

Thrudd wrote in an earlier post of proprietary issues w/ compaq. I've ran into such a problem. I have an old 2001 presario 5000 series and was wanting to upgrade my video card from the 64mb that is has now to a 128, so I ordered, received but b4 I could install I read in the requirements that I must have a 300 Watt PSU or better. I checked out my PSU and it was too small. Even though I'm loath to spend much money on this dinosaur I do want a better video card, so I ordered a 400 Watt PSU, installed, applied power and nothing, great I think, I got a dud, returned received another (same kind) from newegg.com. Installed w/ same results. Now I'm thinking I have some kind of compatibility issue. So I do some research (I'm no computer guru) and find out about this proprietary business and ppl specifically talking about Presario 5000 series. Then I figured if this is not uncommon then I can buy an adapter (I guess none exist) I couldn't find one. So I tried to find a 300 Watt+ PSU specifically for compaq, no luck there either. So now I'm stuck w/ my teeth in this thing not wanting to let go but in need of some advice from folks who are more knowledgeable then I am. I would be tempted to, if I could find a pinout of my 24 pin compaq mobo socket and pinout of a 24 pin standard ATX connector to do some cutting, splicing and soldering, bad idea? or if maybe I should go ahead and install video card w/ existing PSU, worse idea? or should I just crawl off, lick my wounds and forget it all. Want to upgrade to a e-Geforce 6200 128mb video card
My existing PSU is a 250W says china (compaq sticker says PS235W)
have 1.6mhz pent 4 processor 512ram 80gig HD
dvd rom cdr/rw floppy

EDIT: Nevermind. I found this PSU too bad, when I looked into it. Thanks though.

Hello everyone.

My system is:
P4 Northwood 3,2GHz
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
2x512 Kingston Valueram PC3200

As I need to get a new PSU, I've looked at this one.
http://www.edbpriser.dk/Products/Listprices.asp?ID=218962

Would the PSU above be fine for my computer, and how is the quality of that PSU doing? It's pretty cheap, and I wouldn't want to pay too much, if it's not necessary.
Just for the sake of it; Price: 386kr = around 65 USD with shipping.

Thanks in advance.

BTW: My computer is brand new and i have just put it together from all brand new parts.

My spec is

Intel Pentium D 820 Socket775 , Smithfield Core, 2x2.8 GHz , 2MB Cache

Asrock 775I945GZ, i945GZ, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533, SATA II, uATX, On Board VGA (motherboard)

1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15

350w Silverpower SP-350P1B thermal controlled cooling fans

256MB Gigabyte 7600GS PCI-E(x16), Mem 800MHz, GPU 450MHz, 12Pipes, D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV SLi Silent-Pipe (dedicated graphics card)

And i have a large and a small fan that come with the case, the smaller one isnt plugged because its attached to the side pannel which i have removed in order to build my system.

And my computer starts for about 3-5 seconds then shuts down, when it starts the lights on the case work, the fans and heatsinks work, but there is no beeps when it starts and the motherboard doesnt display any lights. Is it possible that my motherboard is fried which causes the system to shut down and dispaly no lights from the mobo. Someone else told me that a smudged processor/heatsink could cause the system not to beep. And most people tell me my 350watt power supply isnt enough but couls that cause the system not to beep and could it cause the motherboard to display no lights?
And this may sound incredibly stupid (ive never built a computer before), is it suposed beep on startup if there are no speakers plugged in?

ALSO: could this component have anything to do with it; it is like a small black sylinder conected by 1 red and 1 black wire to a 4 socket connector, what does it do? there are a several 4 pin connectors on my motherboard but i dont wanna connect it to the wrong one.

hi i am facing a problem with my custom build unit, the casing came with a 350 watt power supply and the system ran fine for around 6 months but little glitches which could be ignored, the spec i have is Pentium 4 3GHZ HT, 2048mb ram, 2 hard drives 120 GB and 80 GB, geforce 6800 GS, DVD ROM and a DVD writer now what happened was the i shut down the pc and a blue screen error appears with some IRQ mismatch and it starts dumping physical memory, i turn off pc with the power button, after some hours i turn it on and nothing on the monitor, the fans are working ie, cpu, power supply, chasis and graphics card, but nothing else is happening, DVD roms are not oepning, no activity on the hard drives, the system is not going up to the bios setup on the screen infact monitor says no signal, tried a friends graphics card same thing so thought power supply acting up, remove dvd roms and one hard drive same thing, concerned a friend who is a techi said change power supply so i get a 150$ OCZ 600W power supply with surge protection n stuff put it in and same thing fans work lights come on, but no activity on the ROMS, hard drives or on screen can any body help me out plzzzzz......

Hi, newbie here
I'm facing a similar problem, my custom system is blue screening, randomly reboots etc.. and I have systematically been through every software/driver issue i can think of, but with no luck. I have basically replaced everything in my computer, except the PSU, I think this might be the problem, it's a 550w but its being used by a core 2 duo 2.40Ghz CPU, 2 X1950 PRO GPUs, MSI 975x MoBo, 2 HDs a DVD rom drive and 4 fans.
I've tried removing a graphics card to lighten the load, but I'm still having frequent problems, mainly randomly rebooting. It seems fine unless my computers been on for more than 3 hours or until I play a full screen game like Oblivion or Rome:Total War, which leads me to believe that its and overheating problem, or too much strain on the PSU, I'm willing to replace any parts necessary to fix this problem, any thoughts?

Btw Idle temps seem fine, so how can I see the temps of my CPU etc.. while I'm playing a game?

How does a Hipro H-11-1010 rate for quality?

How does Hopro 300 watt rate?

cant find schematic for dell w2600

Can anyone tell me were I can find a schematic for a dell w2600? It has the problem that every one has been talking about. You turn it off and it does not want to come back on unless you unplug it and play around with it untill it comes back on

I purchase a 400W Coolmax last month and used it to power:

Dell Dimension 3000:
Nvidia Geforec 6200 128MB
8 x USB items

It worked fine until I installed a 200GB WD 7200rpm as a second hard drive, along with a HDD cooling fan. I believe my 400W couldn't support all of these items because things like my graphics card cut out, then my mouse, etc. Today, I bought a 680W A Power PSU (I beieve it's generic) and everything is running fine.

Is it possible to have so much wattage that I burn components to my computer? This is what I have in my setup now, and I thought 400W would suffice, but obviously not:

Dell Dimension 3000:
Nvidia Geforec 6200 128MB
8 x USB items
Maxtor 80G HDD
WD 200G HDD
1.2G RAM
HDD Cooling fan
(soon to come, Multimedia internal card reader)

Thanks.