Dell Case + Power Supply Issues

Aurora

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Well....I knew it would happen one day. Buying a dell bit me in the butt. This is my first post, by the way, so I wanted to say hi to everybody :)

Anyway...my Dell 250watt (which came with the computer) power supply stunk, and it finally died on me. I was desperately in search for another power supply. Turns out that the newest computers from dell (8200 and above) don't really require a special power supply in regaurds to the connectors which go to the motherboard, etc. The problem has a lot to do with the case, though. The case is, obviously, proprietary, and allows very few power supplies to fit in the hole which they provided...

I found one which works, the PC Power and Cooling power supply. I bought it, but I think it's defective and I'm pretty upset about that. I think that's the only power supply that will fit with the computer.

So I guess my options are, at the moment, to cut the back of the case a little so that I can fit a power supply (probably a VERY bad idea, b/c then nothing will support the power supply and it'll come crashing down on my MB)...or to just get another PC Power and Cooling power supply.

Have y'all heard anything about PC Power and Cooling PSUs? I guess it was a little inexpensive...$90 for a 350watt... It also had a thermasensor inside which regulated fan speed. I really wanted to get the Enermax power supply, and it WOULD fit with the exception of the contorl knob for the fan and the switch which it has to turn the power off and on...

What makes the power supply weird is the position of the power socket and the position of the fan. If you lay the power supply down on a table (just the power supply, nothing connected to it) so that the fan is on the right, the power socket has to be on the upper left hand corner. Antect's power supplies aren't like this (the power socket is on the BOTTOM left is you lay the PSU down with the fan on the right), along with several other PSUs from other manufacturers...

And also, the Enermax has two fans, and the fan which is on the bottom of the unit would probably end up causing more problems -- the CPU fan is a huge green plastic pipe that leads straight out of the case, and that would sit about .5 inches from the fan at the bottom of Antec's and Enermax's power supply units...

Does anybody have any ideas? I'm not really interested in switching out my case, either. :'( That would be a huge hassle. I guess my being too lazy to build myself a computer was a bad idea and now it's biting my rear end.

<sigh>

"My downfall raises me to infinite heights."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
I have a PowerMan power supply with the plug on the upper left. It's the same as the Aopen and Sparkle supplies with the same model number. <A HREF="http://www.aopen.com/PRODUCTS/power/Pfsp250-60gta.htm" target="_new">Here's mine</A>, laying on it's top in this pic. A complete list of their supplies can be found at <A HREF="http://www.aopen.com/PRODUCTS/power/" target="_new">http://www.aopen.com/PRODUCTS/power/</A>

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
 

Aurora

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Good power supply? Never given you problems?

"My downfall raises me to infinite heights."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
 

Crashman

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Former Staff
Nope, none of my PowerMan supplies have. I think PowerMan is an OEM lable for the Aopen power supply, which is a U.S. brand for the Sparkle power supply. They seem to be the same thing.

You'll want something with a bit more capacity I think.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
 

Aurora

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By more capacity, you think I'll need more than 350 watts?

It's either that or PC Powrer and Cooling... How would they stand up against each other?

I have a 1.9ghz P4, 512mb RAM, and two hard drives (80 and 120 gb)...

Is 350 not enough?

I am now wondering which is better, pc power and cooling or powerman.

"My downfall raises me to infinite heights."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
 

Aurora

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Also...

Do all enermax's have the little "on off" switch on the back? And the knob to change speeds? I've looked at their (cool but very slow) website, and I can't find one that doesn't...that'd be great if there was one that didn't have that knob...then I'd be able to get an enermax (which everybody says is good).

"My downfall raises me to infinite heights."
-Napoleon Bonaparte
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
I meant you'll want something with a bit more capacity than mine. I only see Power Man power supplies as an OEM brand, meaning I find them only in cases, or complete systems. I believe it's an OEM lable for the Aopen/Sparkle power supply. So I'm recommending Aopen or Sparkle.

You probably don't need more than 250W, if 250W got you this far. But as a precaution, I'm recomending 300W. Anything larger is realy up to you. A 500W unit would work, but would be a waste of money.

Oh, and please don't confuse Power Man with PowMax! PowMax is a brand of low quality power supplies.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>