Silent PSU needed urgently

Trine

I'm badly in need of a PSU by 5pm this evening to have ready for work tomorrow. Most important thing is that it is quiet, and yes, cheap as possible!

Can anybody recommend a readily available silent PSU model I could pick up in Dublin by 5pm today? Or know of anybody selling a silent PSU second hand, 400+W?

Thanks.

joolsveer

I bought a 700 watt PSU in Maplins on Monday. It was about 70 euros. The brand name on the box in CIT. It is very quiet and my PC has been switched on since I installed it.
It replaced a 550 watt PSU which burnt out at the weekend.

Effluo

You mean this one

http://www.maplin.co.uk/750w-cit-atx-power-supply-227870

Which can be bought for this much
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Q8HFEI/ref=asc_df_B002Q8HFEI4423023?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002Q8HFEI

I'd avoid it like the plague!!!


Your best bet if you need it by the end of the day would probably be http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/catalog_v3.cgi?id=5315&type=subcat

Last time I checked they had a retail store somewhere in the center of dublin. If you'd be willing to travel a bit you'd probably get a much better deal with komplett.ie which have a pickup point just west of Dublin

Not sure if you could get one by the end of today with any other companies.

joolsveer

What is the best brand of power supply unit for a mid range desktop PC? What is the likely cost?

The brand that burnt out was Rasurbo. Before it went wallop my PC was misbehaving for a while.

Effluo

Well there are lots of good brands, but really you have to look at specific products because not every PSU a good manufacturer makes is going to be great value.

We won't be able to tell how much power you need until you tell us what components you have in your PC, but you'd probably be looking at something like this.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/29_PSU/productdetails/20088025/Corsair_Builder_Series_CX430_V2_Power_supply_%28/CMPSU_430CXV2EU/default.aspx

Ignore the high wattages ratings on the cheapo brands, often the actual pull can be only half of what it says on the box and even then the poor quality of the power provided can wreak havok with your components

Edit:
If you're buying a PSU, a good handy rule of thumb is to try and get a model with a 80+ badge. That means it's passed tests for efficiency, be careful to ensure that it's a certified 80+ though as some of the cheap brands even fake the 80+ certification and the only way to really tell is to ensure that it's a good brand with the 80+ or check out that it's certification is valid online.

Monotype

Ring up komplett and ask if they have their daybreaker psu in stock. A good quality 650W psu won't make much noise at low load.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/site/daybreaker/cms.aspx

deconduo

Monotype wrote: »

Ring up komplett and ask if they have their daybreaker psu in stock. A good quality 650W psu won't make much noise at low load.

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/site/daybreaker/cms.aspx

+1 to this. Its by far the best value PSU you can get at the moment when you account for shipping costs.

joolsveer

I benchmarked my PC using novabench software. Would this have a bearing on the choice of PSU?

Effluo

The score wouldn't but the fact that it has told us what's in the PC, yes.

The ATi 4600 series cards don't require much power at all, unless you have upwards of 10 hard drives -_-

You should be fine with even a good 350watt PSU. which is probably just about what that (sh)CIT PSU (see what I did thar) is probably only capable of. Of course, if you had gotten a good brand PSU from a good retailer then you would not only have saved €25, but you would have also stand to save a bundle on your electricity bill as well as a giving yourself a bit more piece of mind, considering the extra security features a better PSU would have

uncle_sam_ie

Effluo wrote: »

You mean this one

http://www.maplin.co.uk/750w-cit-atx-power-supply-227870

Which can be bought for this much
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Q8HFEI/ref=asc_df_B002Q8HFEI4423023?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002Q8HFEI

I'd avoid it like the plague!!!

Why? Are they really that bad? They got a good review here http://mas-review.co.uk/2010/07/cit-450w-black-psu-review/

Monotype

That's a terrible review. No detail at all, not even a description or pictures.
They tested it with something and it works. Conclusion = it's good?

They measured 340W - This was probably measured at the wall. Assuming it works at, say 75% efficiency, that's only 255W that the system is using - which is only just over half of the rated 450W. What happens if you actually dared to use it for a 400W system?

Just to be sure: I haven't missed any link to a full review, have I?

uncle_sam_ie

Monotype wrote: »

That's a terrible review. No detail at all, not even a description or pictures.
They tested it with something and it works. Conclusion = it's good?

They measured 340W - This was probably measured at the wall. Assuming it works at, say 75% efficiency, that's only 255W that the system is using - which is only just over half of the rated 450W. What happens if you actually dared to use it for a 400W system?

Just to be sure: I haven't missed any link to a full review, have I?

But, is it all that bad for someone building a low budget gaming PC for a game like WoW? It's also had positive reviews from Amazon users. I'm just wondering is all.

Monotype

Well I don't know much about CIT to say that they're bad; I usually just keep track of good PSUs.
You can't depend on amazon reviews for PSUs - people are just going to say "It looks nice" and "It runs well in my system". You might even get "It's very quiet". People rarely come back 6 months later to say that it wasn't good.
You don't get the information like "all my components have a mysteriously short lifespan of a few months when connected to this PSU" or "this PSU is extremely inefficient, in a year I spent an extra €10 on electricity".

Every component of your system relies on the PSU to provide it with clean electricity. If you're just buying a cheap system that's low power and you wouldn't be that bothered about your components - data is backed up, everything is replaceable, you don't need to upgrade - you just need something that works (and something that you won't leave unattended). Then it would be okay to skimp on a PSU.

Effluo

Johnners linked to this in a different thread yesterday,
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,2862.html

It's not the best example of how bad cheap PSU's are, but it's an example still worth heeding. The cheapo PSU's often can only give out a max about half of what they claim, the reviewers on amazon will no doubt all be using PC's which use that or less.

If the reliability issues don't make up the extra initial cost, then the efficiency levels will. There are just so many reasons to go with a good PSU over a cheap one to ignore and all those guys on amazon may be happy with their product, but in reality they could have done much better with their money and they'll probably be paying for that purchase for the life of their computer

uncle_sam_ie

Effluo wrote: »

It's not the best example of how bad cheap PSU's are, but it's an example still worth heeding. The cheapo PSU's often can only give out a max about half of what they claim

But, those PSU's that they tested were dirt cheap bought off an auction site. Would you put CIT in that class?
Also, would you recommend buying a good second hand PSU that was 3 years old or are you better off just buying a new one?

I ask because I bought a secondhand one of these a few months ago http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-610-eps12v.html

Monotype

They degrade after a while and the technology gets better. It's not a very fast paced market, so it's really the wear that comes into question. It's good to be wary of why a PSU is being sold on, they can get noisy too.

That's a pretty good PSU for a few years ago, still fairly good by today's standards. I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's a high quality seasonic OEM PSU and it's unlikely to do anything bad to your system unless it got a very rough time previously. You'd be much better off with something like this than a cheap PSU.

deconduo

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

But, those PSU's that they tested were dirt cheap bought off an auction site. Would you put CIT in that class?
Also, would you recommend buying a good second hand PSU that was 3 years old or are you better off just buying a new one?

I ask because I bought a secondhand one of these a few months ago http://www.pcpower.com/power-supply/silencer-610-eps12v.html

PC Power and Cooling do decent PSUs. You'll notice that one has the trademarks of a good PSU; amperage on the +12V rail lives up to the advertised wattage, 80+ certification and a decent warranty. While it might be an old model I'd take that any day over the CiT one.