PSU upgrade needed...

[RichPLS]

I am fixing to upgrade my PSU, an Antec 430 watt, since I have a Prescott 3200, 2-gig Ram, X800XT PE, TV Wonder, and 3 hard drives.
I am also going to add 2 other drives, plus a RAID card, so I want to be sure of stability.

<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=17-104-155&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Power+Supply+for+Cas" target="_new"> This is what I am considering, 520 watt...$120 </A>

It looks like the best drive for the money, both specs and price.
Does anyone have any first hand experience with these?

Are there any others better quality PSU's without costing more than 25% or so?

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[RichPLS]

Or do you think that my current <b>Antec 430 watt </b>would handle the load of 3-SATA Raptors and 2 PATA 250gig Maxtors, plus RAID card, and I will be using the on-board RAID 1 for redundancy backup, with X800XT and TV card plus PCMCIA reader, 2-gigs PC3200 RAM, DVD-burner, and 2 powered USB devices???


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[folken]

Hm... That might be pushin it with only 430watts but it might take it. I'd say give it a shot.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[mozzartusm]

Ive always heard good things about those PSU's but never had any expereince myself.

This is going to be out of the price range that you are wanting to stay within but I just bought the new Thermaltake
680W PSU and it holds the Rails steadier than anything that I have ever seen. All the rails are slightly over specs, but the best thing is that they dont budge. It has 3 seperate 12V Rails. The 5V has 50 AMPS the 3V 28 AMPS and the 12V has a total of 38AMPS. Its expensive at around $170.00 but look at what you get. And its quite.

How have you been Rich? Long time no see!

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:

 

[RichPLS]

Man, busy...
About time to get some good paying jobs at the slow time of the season!

I'll take a look at that Thermatake...About $50 more, but you get over 100 watts to spare, and I figure roughly I will need approximately 550 watts at peak power...Of course idleing should be less than 200 watts...

I will continue to search,,,for I have about a week to decide...

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[over_c]

<A HREF="http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=PS-FS500A&c=pw#" target="_new">500 W Fortron PSU w/ ATX v2.0 and dual 12v rails for $72, free shipping</A>

 

[RichPLS]

I'd take that in a minute, if it was rated at 550 watts or greater.

I know Fortron makes em better for the money, but I don't want to risk reaching the peak limits of the PSU either.

I think it will draw up to 530 to 550 watts at peak performance with all drives hitting, and would like a little overhead.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[mozzartusm]

Since your considering it, here is some more food for thought. Im running a P4 3.4 socket 775 6 HD's 2 DVD Burners and an X700 PCIe video card. I just stressed the system as hard as I knew how to and here were my readings.

12V - 12.46 - 12.41
5V - 5.196 - 5.171
3.3V - 3.344 - no change
V-Core- 1.384 - 1.376

This is looking back at the recorded history over 2 hours of folding and other various tasks. At times I attempted to use all the parts that I could at one time. Thats as solid as I have seen yet.

+5V 50AMPS
+3.3V 28AMPS
+12V(1) 15AMPS
+12V(2) 15AMPS
+12V(3) 8AMPS

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:

 

[RichPLS]

Thanks for the details, this does look more and more where I am heading...

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>