How to tell a good psu from bad

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
P

prometheas

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2005
61
0
18,630
Well how do i check to see how "good" my psu is... i m having some issues (games not running as well as they should) but am not sure where they are coming from... i dont reall understand all this talk of amps in the rail... any1 care to explain how i go about measuring it and how many amps is good? My system specs are in my sig... thx...
 
alright think u can list your psu model? you normally want around 18 amps on the 12v rail (atleast you probably want more) Thats pretty much a requirement. Also poor performance could be the result of viruses/adware/spyware.. make sure your pc is clean.
 
ok i did some research on your power supply, its not great.. it only has 12A in your 12v rail... time to swap it out before it blows on you. i recommend an rosewill or an antec. neither have given me any problems and ive gotten like 5 of each already.
 
well im a cheapskate and is there really any serious consequences having a bad psu? like what are symtoms of my comp not getting enough juice?
 
well lets just say that a potential shortage of power could result in a power supply frying... now if ur power supply is "protected" it will only commit suicide.. not homicide & suicide.. i had raidmax psu a while ago.. when it blew on me (it had 13amps on the 12v rail... ) it took my motherboard and hard drive with it... so ya.. its not a good thing...
 
um if you have a 6600gt and an socket 939 board.. its rather likely... Todays video cards draw power like there's no tomorrow.. i seriously recommend fixing it by getting a better one.

protected is like a "surge protector" so that hwen the psu dies.. it only kills itself.. nothing else in the pc will fry with it.. PSU's tend to kinda send a surge of power when they die frying everything that cant take the extra voltage.. the protected ones will trip a circuit breaker to protect the rest of your components.. i learned hte hard way..

Buget: (depending if u require the 24pin atx connector)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182008
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817182018

Performance:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103928
 
well i dont have that much- (check my sig... )... and my pc is surge protected so ill just keep my psu till it fires and then get a new one i think... if it fires itll only kill itself rite???
 
oh im sorry iwas using the "surge protector" as a analogy. there is a protector built into the power supply that keeps the other components in the comptuer functional in the event hte power supply goes.. thats not a standard feature. not all power supplies do that. I dont know if yours does it or not but its not something i want to test.
 
well im not sure what im gonna do cuz i dont ahve any current problems with my psu as of now and i check the 12c rail and its 18A which aint bad... so ill just stay with this guy till he kills himself....
 
well lets just say that a potential shortage of power could result in a power supply frying... now if ur power supply is "protected" it will only commit suicide.. not homicide & suicide.. i had raidmax psu a while ago.. when it blew on me (it had 13amps on the 12v rail... ) it took my motherboard and hard drive with it... so ya.. its not a good thing...
Click to expand...

promethas, you not read this ^^^

If your psu dies, chances are the rest of your hardware will go with it

For the money that you spent on your hardware, is it really worth powering it with a pos psu?

Its sort of like buying a Ferrari 360 and putting Diesel in it, okey fine it may work for a bit, but its going to be slow, and you just know that the engine isnt going to hold up.

I live in the Uk, and we pay in £ whatr you guys pay in $ for power supplys, my Enermax Noisetaker 485W cost me £70, its like $69.99 on Newegg (anyone up for the conversion? But i paid almost double for it). C'mon guys, there is no excuse for using shite to power your pc 😛
 
Your video card is probably throttleing itself down . This is caused by overheating or not getting enough power.
Why would you chance blowing your whole system by using a cheap power supply.

I have had one blow. It took the motherboard,modem, video card and memory with it. Only thing it did'nt kill was the cpu.
Do yourself a favor and follow Crashmans advice.
 
Ok im gonna buy a new psu.... but besides the one u recomeded what is one with good expandibility i dont want to buy this one and be forced to buy another one when i do my next build... i have 60 bucks to spend...
 
Watts don't mean everything. Tagan has more amps on the +12v rail, supports SLI, uses the 20+4 pin configuration, can have split +12v rails or you can make them become 1 +12v rail, and has more molex connectors than you would know what to do with.
 
The "surge protector" is actually a little device called an MOV. It can only blow once. Also, for your information, watts should me everything. Watts are the product of volts times amps. 18amps x 12v = 216 watts. It just matters which rails they chose to distribute those watts. Any decent power supply will have individually fused rails, aswell as an mov. Spend the money! Go get a good powersupply
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom