Forum Topic

The PSU Thread: New Products and Reviews

  • With 2000MHz AMD\'s and 2800MHz Prescotts beocming mainstream and video cards sucking a lot more juice than ever before the 12v rating has become rather important in determining system stability.

    Even when a generic or low cost power supply runs he systems stable, it overworked PSU will stress the mosfets and cause capacitors to bulge.

    I don\'t think it is feasible to build a mid end system with the generic bundled PSU anymore.

    So I am starting this thread as a guide.
  • For the Athlon XP, the recommendation was at least 16A on the 12v rail. Basically with modern motherboardsand video cards, they now draw their power from the 12V rail (and so does anything connected to a 4 pin moles). I ma not sure what the recommendation is for a Prescott or a AMD64, but I have been told that an A64 draws 12A for the motherboard a CPU alone.

    In my own case, my 12V rail reading with a A7V600, AXP @ 2100MHz and a ATI 9100 would average 12.09. Swapping the ATI 9100 to a FX5700 drop my 12v rail down to 12.03. Notable neither of this cards are particularly powerful or power hungry. So a 9600XT or 9800SE/Pro/XT would probably have drp my 12v rail readings to below 12v.
  • A 12v rail reading below 12v is fine. Up to 11.4v on the 12v rail should still result in a stable system, although you will be shortening the lfie of your motherboard and most likekly your video card and cpu too.

    Bascially, I am recommending that you get a PSU with the highest 12v rating that you can afford. None of them are really cheap, often times costing two to five times more than a case with a bundled PSU.

    In reconition of te fact that a good case often costs less than a good PSU, most high end cases do not inclide PSU\'s.
  • sir question po: i have an HEC 475VD-T with a 12V rating of 15A and a peak rating of 18A. im running a P4 2.8A Prescott and my vidcard is the fx5200 value ed, which i plan to upgrade to a high end video card by the christmas season at the earliest. will i need to upgrade my psu? or is its ratings ggod enough?
  • which is better..hec or task?
    plan to use it with my northwood and asus mobo
  • Sir may i recommend the Task PSUs, even the mid low 350W of Task psu has a quite high 12V currrent rating compared to HEC, since HEC\'s 335W and 385W psu has only 15A current rating and quite more costly than Task. By th way Task PSU has a 22 A current rating. :)


    ***** edited by rbpates on Oct 29 2004 11:57 AM
  • Herochi/HEC

    HEC PSU\'s are very well built. They have a high beuild quality and HEC spedns most it tie time building PSU\'s sold under other more well know brand names rather than selling its own boxed PSU\'s.

    Unfortunately none of the current HEC\'s are particulalry strong on the 12v rail. Only the 525W VTD has a +12v rating over 20A\'s.

    350 VTD +12v - 15A
    385W SilentOP +12v - 15A
    475W PowerOP +12v - 18A
    475W VTD +12v - 19A
    575W VTD +12v - 21A
  • Task

    Unlike the HEC, the task does not appear to have as good a fit and finnish, but with PSU it is what is inside that counts the most. Task does state that it has a 3 tear warranty on the box.

    Another confusign thing about the Task the specs on their webisde vary fron those printed on the box. But in any even they have higher 12v rails.

    350W TX-DF 12V - 20A
    450W TX-DF 12V - 24A (26A as per box)
    550W TX-DF 12V - 26A

    A good thing about the task is that they do post their peak load figures, so you are pretty sure that you are not buying a overrated PSU.

    350W TX-DF - 420W Peak load
    450W TX-DF - 550W Peak load
    550W TX-DF 12V - 550W Peak load

    The TASK psu and HEC PSU are found at the same price ranges (P2200 to P41,00). The 450W task at about P2,700 seems to be the best deal among the lower end of the branded PSU\'s.


    ***** edited by ral on Oct 29 2004 12:04 PM
  • Enermax - Entry level to the Elite

    No need to say anything about Enermax PSU\'s. They are among the best.

    EG301P-VE (300W) 12V - 22A
    EG365P-VE (350W) 12V - 26A
    EG465P-VE (460W) 12V - 35A

    These are Enermax entry level series with a price starting from P2900 to P4100. The 350W Enermax cost a few hundred more than the 450W Task though.

    There are the more expensive Noisetakers and Coolergiants. I am particularly fond of the Noisetakers =)

    Can someone research the specs of the locally available Antecs


    ***** edited by ral on Oct 29 2004 12:16 PM
  • I hope the current Task PSUs are durable. Dati kasi hindi. Iniiwasan pa nga noon yan sa US. Kasi mahina yung 300W nila noon, eh yun yung minimum required for Thunderbirds. Task PSUs were, however, officially certified by AMD (included in the list at www.amd.com in 2000) during the early days of the K7 Athlon Thunderbird.

    I\'ve been buying Enermax and HEC PSUs since early 2001, from 300W to 550W and have bought dozens of them for heavy-duty workstations and light-medium duty servers. I noticed that HEC PSUs are more durable. I had lots of 431W and 550W Enermax PSUs fail in just over a year, and when they fail, tumba talaga, pero hindi naman pumuputok like the cheap generics. Enermax PSUs do deliver more power than an HEC with the same rating.
  • If you are a serious OCer, do not get anything below 20A on the +12V rail. You need stable +12V rails when OCing your proc and your videocard. I noticed this with my old HEC 350 watter before. +12v rails were quite low and CPU/videocard OCs would fail for no reason. Had it modded by Tony to increase the amp rating on the +5 and +12v rail. After that it was fine. Ran a 1700+ @ 2 gig, NF7-S Rev. 2, 2 80 gig 7200 RPM HDs, 2 optical drives, a 5900XT, 6 fans and lights and other misc stuff. Who would thunk a modded 350 watter could do that?
  • @Satch

    With the Task PSU\'s they come in a wide range. Task manufactures a lot of generic PSU\'s for the OEM market which do not appear to be very impressive. The TX-DF series is the only one they had targeted at the high end desktop market.
  • I had lots of 431W and 550W Enermax PSUs fail in just over a year, and when they fail, tumba talaga, pero hindi naman pumuputok like the cheap generics


    eto cgro sinasabi sakin ng reliable technical sa pcoptions name Ricky, sa record nila ng branded psu, mataas rma rate ng enermax compared to Task HEC and Antec. according to him Task daw ok sa feedbacks nila ksi ng mataas yung current rating nila sa 12V rail at cheaper price compared to Antec and Enermax
  • Actually a combintation of both. Low watts and a high 12v rail means that they give it up somewhere else.

    Between the Task 350W and your HEC 385W, you will notice that the Task has lower +3.3v rails and +5v rails. The HEC\'s noticebly has very high +5v railswhich use to be the most important back in PIII/Athlon days.


    ***** edited by ral on Oct 29 2004 12:34 PM
  • The HEC\'s are not bad PSU\'s it is just the product life cycle. The hewly realsed HEC 400W Windmill has a 20A rating on the +12v rail and the HEC 450W Windmill has a 22A rating on the +12v rail.


    ***** edited by ral on Oct 29 2004 12:34 PM
  • eto cgro sinasabi sakin ng reliable technical sa pcoptions name Ricky, sa record nila ng branded psu, mataas rma rate ng enermax compared to Task HEC and Antec. according to him Task daw ok sa feedbacks nila ksi ng mataas yung current rating nila sa 12V rail at cheaper price compared to Antec and Enermax


    Totoo yan. I have friends who have small companies and are system integrators of custom servers that cater to many medium to large offices nationwide. Galit na galit na sila sa Enermax. Pero bad batch lang siguro, kaso ang dami talaga eh.

    Ewan ko na lang yung mga 2004 Enermax. Elan Vital and Antec na lang kami. With the proper budget, PC Power & Cooling.

    Now for home desktops, I like HEC and I will try the better Task models. Ang kagandahan sa HEC ay yung overload protection mechanism niya. It will perform an internal safety shutdown. I\'ve seen one HEC perform that. Kaunting pahinga lang, ayus na, buhay na ulit. I\'m not sure if all HEC models do that, but my old HEC 475 did. That was also featured in Tom\'s Hardware years ago. Enermax will just force itself and die with the strain.
  • color is also whatt i like in Task, 350 w nila is black while yung higher watt psu is royal blue in color. parang moded tuloy kulay.Also yung Atx plug connector nila has a wire covering to minimize electromagnetic emmision yata yun


    ***** edited by rbpates on Oct 29 2004 12:42 PM
  • Not doubting Ricky but PCOptions and the local HEC distributor have a special arrangment (exclusivity), which is you dont find HEC\'s in many of the shops in Gilmore. Notably you wont find HEC for sale in PCX. So PCOptions may have good reasons for pushing the HEC.

    But they do have good build quality. But I find it hard to recommend them. Even the generic 350W single fan found in the Coolermaster Centurion 5, already has a 16v rail.

    I think their 15A~21A ratings are fine for the average PC user. But for the typical TPC user (who is prone to overclock), all that this will mean is busted caps.


    ***** edited by ral on Oct 29 2004 12:44 PM
  • im using HEC 475 and happy naman me. he.. buti nalang HEC binili ko hindi Enermax. :)
  • Generic PSU\'s

    Built a lot of low cost machines (30-40) using low costs casings and thier bundled 300W PSU\'s.

    For the most part these systems have a low end video card (or on board video) and ran fine.

    I encountered my first problem with a Asus NForce board (A7N266-VM) and an XP2200+. Random reboots. The problem was fixe by putting in a 300W PSU from a boka case.

    So even among the generics, some are better than others. The Enlights are nice. BUT I HAVE HAD TWO 300W ENLIGHTS BLOW UP ON ME. Both were still within warranty, and no damage though to anything else.
  • @ral
    actually sir hindi HEC kaagad inintroduce nya, yung Task kaagad sinabi nya and Task w/ jumbo fans are also sold in pcx. 250 pesos nga diffrence nila eh compared sa dual fun. Sa pcx ako sana bibili ka si nabsa ko sa website nila
    2A difference nila but as I observe the Task dual fan ng pcoptions parehas na nakasulat 22A na katulad ng task w/ jumbo fan sa pcx. Nakatipid pako ng 250 w/ same specs, pro ok jumbo fan ng task may leds pa.:)
  • The Enlights are nice. BUT I HAVE HAD TWO 300W ENLIGHTS BLOW UP ON


    I have aslo bad exprience with enlight psu. Thats the psu i bought prior to Task that iam using right now. pagkasaksak ko ng power cable nagkaroon kagad ng current surge. Umilaw crt ko at umandar sandali fans ko tapos may narinig ako spark sa psu at as I read the voltage reading using USDM sa Epox ang baba ng 12V rail nasa 11.5 or 11.4 lng then connct ako sa internet nghang na pc ko. :(
  • I encountered my first problem with a Asus NForce board (A7N266-VM) and an XP2200+. Random reboots. The problem was fixe by putting in a 300W PSU from a boka case.


    Asus boards have a reputation for being power hogs. Former Asus forum moderator Klondikekit (a.k.a. Asus god) of the old 2001 www.amdmb.com wrote an FAQ about that. I almost exclusively build systems using Asus boards. In the old Thunderbird days I remember seeing generic 300 watters able to sufficiently power Epox and ECS but would be problematic when an Asus board is put in.




    ***** edited by Satch on Oct 29 2004 01:06 PM
  • I lot of the Enlights here are really really old stocks. I am having a hard time finding the +12v specs of the Enlight but am guessing they are pretty low.

    One of the Enlights blew up in 10 seconds. The other one (revieved via RMA) in 4-5 days, and the last is still alive. This was with only a XP1700+ PC with a TNT2 card.
  • @Satch

    I think that is because of their power supply solution. Even last year they were using a powerful 2 phase solution versus the 3 phase phase solutions found on other boards. Not sure what they are using on their newer boards.

    The 12v rails on my A7V600 (2 phase) seem healthy though and was stable for 12 hours StessPrime even at 2400MHz/1.8v.
  • Continuing. The next time I envountered similar problems (random reboots) was with the 8K9A + XP2400+ combo. This was fixed by using a 350W HEC PSU instead of the generic.

    My guess is that if you are running a XP2200+~XP2400+, even with a cut down system (single drive and low end video card), a generic PSU becomes as iffy proposition.
  • @ral

    according doon sa sticker sa Enlightt nabili ko is 15A current rating ng 12V rail nya pero duda ko mas mababa pa. Mas ok pa nga yung dati kong budled P4 psu hindi nagkakaroon current surge. Yun nga lng kapag ngsasabay na dvdrom at cdwriter ko nghahang na due to insufficient 12V rail current
  • @patnoy slim

    I would think the barbones cut down board might use a few less amps but I am not sure. Yes, 15A does not seem like much especially if you put in a high end video card.

    I guess the only way to find out is to see if anybody at the lunchbox thread has been able to sustian a 2300-2500MHz @ 1.7v-1.9v overclock on a barebone.
  • im @ 2200Mhz on my ideq 200n 10x220@ 1.70 vcore

    specs
    Mobile 2400+
    Radeon 9800se >> 9800Pro
    160gig Hitachi SATA
    Floppy drive
    DVD/CDRW Combo
  • Have you tried pushing the IDEQ + XP 2400-M a bit harder?