Please help me pick a new power supply.

[bahky]

I bought had a cooler master 380 watt psu about 2 months ago, long story short its dead. My guess is either i need a bigger one ( 500-600 watt) or a better name brand.. anyway heres my build.

ATX coolermaster case
Pentium 4 3.0 prescott
Ati Radeon 256mb agp video card
80 gig hard drive
3 120 mm case fans
5400 rpm 80mm cpu fan (thermaltake polo 375)
4x512mb pc3200 kingston ram

If somone could please help me pick a good psu brand name and size for this build that would be awesome! thank you. I also change things around alot in the case ( add more ram, add a new video cards/ fans ect.. ) i really want a reliable PSU thats not gunna shit the bed within a few months.

 

[bahky]

please somone help me with this i really need to get my pc back up and running soon.

 

[fishmahn]

I would recommend a good quality 400w or so in that case. 350 might cut it close depending on quality. This Fortron Source 450w is good and reasonable. Antec (truepower is best others are ok though), Fortron Source, Sparkle (ones w/FSP in model #), OCZ, Enermax, Seasonic has a great 600w if you want to go overboard, all are good brands. There's others too, but avoid generic-type brands that are extra cheap. Oh, and if you want all out top of the line PC Power & Cooling... but you pay for it...

Mike.

 

[bahky]

Thank you fishman, whats your thoughts on the brand aspire?? I was looking at a 520 watt that was made by them roughly $70 dollars.. also if it has a dual + 12V will i still beable to run this on my known dual core processor?? heres the link to the psu unfourtanly im on a tight budget http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008

 

[bahky]

Sorry forgot to mention this also... All of my other PSU's ive used on my current system use -5 volts... will i need to pick one with that spec too?? for instance will i need to match the specs except wattage.. thank you.

 

[Crashman]

Newegg has a Fortron Source 400W power supply for $40. Best deal you can find on a solid unit. Peak output over 460W.

 

[bahky]

Yeah but the forton source doesnt use -5 volts.. and my past PSUs have used that, will i need that??

 

[Crashman]

-5v is not part of the ATX 2.0 specification, it's a leftover from earlier specs. I don't know of any modern board that uses it.

 

[bahky]

sweet thank you, also can somone please tell me if i can still use a Dual 12 V rail or whatever even tho i dont have dual core??

 

[fishmahn]

Since dual 12v rail isn't required for dual core, and dual core isnt' required for dual 12v rail, its fine.

(the dual duals have different meanings and purposes...)

Mike.

 

[Crashman]

Dual rails is meant to protect you from outputing too much power on one rail in case of a short circuit. As far as actual use goes, it doesn't mean anything.