Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Author Topic: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?  (Read 2663 times)

Description:

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline redrumloaTopic starter

  • Original Omega User
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 10126
    • Show only replies by redrumloa
Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« on: October 13, 2006, 03:37:47 AM »
Time to buy a real PS. This cheapo so called 500Watt no name generic is total crap. Double click to launch something and you can hear the CPU fan slow down :-x Stability has been crap, CPU is running hot. Time for a real PS.

I want higher end PS, but I am not filthy rich. I really don't wanna pay $200.. Suggestions?
Someone has to state the obvious and that someone is me!
 

Offline kzin

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Sep 2002
  • Posts: 65
    • Show only replies by kzin
    • http://202.78.156.93
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2006, 05:34:44 AM »
I have found "Enermax" good
 

Offline redrumloaTopic starter

  • Original Omega User
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 10126
    • Show only replies by redrumloa
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2006, 01:04:48 AM »
 :bump:

@kzin

Any specific model?
Someone has to state the obvious and that someone is me!
 

Online amigakit

Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2006, 01:07:13 AM »
Using OCZ 500w here on A1200 tower- IMHO a good quality BTX PSU

3x independent power lines with adjustable pots and indicator lights to signify poor/moderate/good power beign supplied.

PSU is supplied with an ATX adapter.
www.AmigaKit.com - Amiga Reseller | Manufacturer | Developer

New Products  --   Customer Help & Support -- @amigakit
 

Offline kzin

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Join Date: Sep 2002
  • Posts: 65
    • Show only replies by kzin
    • http://202.78.156.93
 

Offline miles

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 263
    • Show only replies by miles
    • http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~miles.j
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2006, 12:07:19 PM »
It's not really the wattage but the amperage to look for esp. on the 12 volt line.  You need to look at the power requirements of each component and make sure the supply you use can meet them.  My PC has 9 drives (IDE & SCSI drives Mac and Amiga emulation) etc. and my 450W copes with ease.
I went to a local PC builder shop and brought what they use in their OEM machines, inexpensive ($69NZ) 1 year warranty, a good supply.  If you want I can open the case and report the Amp specs and manufacturer.  
AMIGA 3000dT 060~66mhz RAM: *128*Mb/CyberVision64: *4*Mb/*18*Gb SCSI HDDs CD ROM CD-RW
Scanjet 5p/ZIP *100*/Canon BJC3000/Casio QV100 camera/Multiface 3/A2065/Toccata  
Operating system AMiGA Workbench 3.5.2
 

Offline orange

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Dec 2003
  • Posts: 2794
    • Show only replies by orange
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2006, 12:33:47 PM »
wattage=amperes*volts (approx)
so it is important..
I have used Chieftec PSU in A2000, no problems so far
Better sorry than worry.
 

  • Guest
 

Offline adz

  • Knight of the Sock
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Aug 2003
  • Posts: 2961
    • Show only replies by adz
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2006, 02:10:41 PM »
Quote

redrumloa wrote:
Time to buy a real PS. This cheapo so called 500Watt no name generic is total crap. Double click to launch something and you can hear the CPU fan slow down :-x Stability has been crap, CPU is running hot. Time for a real PS.

I want higher end PS, but I am not filthy rich. I really don't wanna pay $200.. Suggestions?


Antec all the way for me, I've been running this 430W PSU for at least three years now, not skipped a single heartbeat.
 

Offline Hyperspeed

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Jun 2004
  • Posts: 1749
    • Show only replies by Hyperspeed
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #9 on: October 15, 2006, 04:14:16 AM »
Even cooler - get a UPS!

Some have battery backup for 2hrs should your power go out and they have noise and surge filtering!

Some Belkin UPS are less than $100 USD!

With power what I can't work out is how a standard A1200 brick runs on 1 amp and still manages to power a mouse, joystick, hard disk, ram expansion and all the video/audio ports....

:inquisitive:
 

Offline DrDekker

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Mar 2006
  • Posts: 325
    • Show only replies by DrDekker
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2006, 10:25:06 AM »
@ Miles - totally right - it's the current on the +12V (and +5V to a smaller degree) line that's important.

Massive overall wattage is a misnomer.  If you've got a bog standard, or even a reasonably expanded system - then forget an expensive ATX PSU - get a good quality secondhand(i.e. from an old Dell, HP, IBM, WHY) AT or ATX at a fraction of the price.

I use an AT PSU that's over ten years old and 'only' 200W.

Let's compare that to a brick:

Brick              
Rating @ 60W      
+12V @ 1.0A      
+5V @ 4.3A        
-12V @ 0.1A

AT
Rating @ 200W
+12V @ 8.0A
+5V @ 20A
-12V @ 0.5A

For big tower systems then a bigger PSU may well be needed, but again a good quality 400W (i.e. Enermax) PSU will prove better than a cheap 500+ watt jobby.
A1200, M-Tec 1230 @28MHz, FPU, MMU, 8Mb fast ram, SCSI card, 512Mb HD, Power CDROM drive, PS2 optical mouse
 

Offline HellCoder

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Join Date: Jun 2004
  • Posts: 279
    • Show only replies by HellCoder
    • http://elasticore.nl
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #11 on: March 09, 2007, 09:48:13 AM »
Probably not 100% related to this subject, but I just made myself feel stupid. I had problems with my powersupply, machine would reboot when going online. Tipical powersupply problem, so I bought a new one. 400W powersupply. Did all the modifications and all my amiga's would work with it. Except the one I bought it for. (PPC) It just didn't boot. This turns out to be a problem with the voltage level. 5V isn't really 5V but 4.7. Ai... So the 400W supply turns out to be crap.

I read somewere that older supplys (ATX) are much better because they are more stable and better voltage levels. So I bought a 2nd hand 230W supply and did the modifications. Quess what, my amiga boots!!, but when the BVision creates a screen,. Reboot!!.. Damn.

This was my own fault though, I used the 5V line from a HD powerline. This line cannot provide the current load the amiga needs. Eventhough this is a 5V red line. Took me a while to realise I needed to use the red wire from the motherboard connection. It now runs like a baby!

Why did I use the red wire from a HD power connector ?, because it was easier to work with (cut/strip)

 

Offline Floid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 918
    • Show only replies by Floid
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #12 on: March 09, 2007, 10:33:27 AM »
Careful, not all ATX-shaped Dell supplies are ATX.  (Instead, some are fry-your-Dell-if-you-use-an-off-the-shelf-part, and presumably vice-versa.  This news came out around 1999 or so, no idea if or when they stopped.)

At the low end of cheap, I went with a Coolmax CX-300 on my recent Athlon 64x2 upgrade (which, being a 3800+ with integrated graphics, is not meant to be a power pig), and it's holding up fine while also being the quietest ATX PSU I've owned.

SilentPCReview seems to have one of the more comprehensive PSU test rigs out there, and their 2006 efficiency roundup and power distribution articles may help you characterize your needs.
 

Offline Floid

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2003
  • Posts: 918
    • Show only replies by Floid
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #13 on: March 09, 2007, 10:42:59 AM »
[Deleted -- failed to read some figures above!]
 

Offline odin

  • Colonization had Galleons
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Join Date: Feb 2002
  • Posts: 6796
    • Show only replies by odin
Re: Suggestions on an affordable kick butt ATX power supply?
« Reply #14 on: March 09, 2007, 11:03:03 AM »
I've been using an Antec 400W PSU for a year now and it's been holding up great and fairly quiet. Huge improvement over the noname PSU anyway and I think the price wasn't too high either (around the 60EUR mark).