Windows 10: HG's PC upgrade

While getting rid of one of my very old computers the only thing I save was the Ultra 650W power supply. It has always been a quality power power supply every time I have used it. My local dealer sells box loads of them with out problems.
I use it for test at the present time. I just don't like the fact that it isn't modular.
I would use a Ultra again.

 

HG. Buy the best power supply you can afford. It will pay you back tenfold. You have seen what happens with cheap and nasty PSU, and they can take out your hard drive, cpu ram etc. I would get a 500w as a minimum as often the power rating is down hill with the wind behind it (and sails). The psu in my main machine is a 1000W Enermax and cost me about $230 and will last 10 years at least and give me super quality power to my pride and joy.....*Roflmao2

I have not been active for the last few days as I am in severe nerve pain.....

 

Buy a quality power supply, but probably nothing approaching 1,000 watts. Most people overbuy on their PSU's. I run a 620 in mine.

 

Thank you, fellow forumeers. Much appreciated! *Smile

Sorry to read of your condition, indianatone. I hope you get to feeling better!

It was a 250 watt unit in it that ran for 8 years. I sent the 630 watt piece of crap back for a refund and bought a 400 watt Corsaire from Newegg. This really isn't a high end machine. Wasn't going to spend more on it. I went for the quality. We must remember that the higher the wattage the more amps it draws. I give the power company enough as it is. *Wink

 

Now you're thinking with your wallet first. Power co's get too much as it is.

 

Also need to be aware that the PSU efficiency is rated only at the wattage that the PSU will supply. A 650 W PSU only delivering 200 watts is not 90% or so but much less where as a 300 W PSU delivering 200 watts will be much closer to the stated efficiency.

 

Actually, higher power PSU draws only as much as secondary circuit does. If computer draws 300Watts and you have 1000W PSU, it will still draw only 300W. But, you're right, better to go for quality, 25 - 30 % higher than maximum draw is enough of spare power. If it has at least Bronze rating loss at the wall will be only under 20 %.

 

It's actually a 430 watt unit and is rated bronze.

CORSAIR CX series CX430 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com

I've learned a lot here, especially through you guys. I'm used to amp rating rather than watts with electronics being in the construction industry. e.g. Most power saws draw 15 amps and demands it immediately. They don't wait around for a box to decide how much it'll draw. And they also need a sufficiently rated power cord to supply it otherwise armatures get burned up.

One really has to watch the wording when it comes to PSUs I see. it may say it's a certain wattage, but it doesn't put out squat on demand. I see the rating is an important factor here.

The supply house tried to give me crap that it was a mismatch. "Your Acer T690 does not appear on our list. Only a T670 does". I told them no. It should be more than sufficient for this system. Either it's a lemon or it just can't supply the power which a 250 watt unit did for 8 years. When a PSU pops and sparks the way it did it's most likely a lemon. I want my money back. They couldn't dispute it.

The only other thing I can think of is the power to the wall plug or the power surge safety strip being insufficient. I've got my son coming over with his meter to check it out to be sure, but I doubt that's the problem. We're only talking of pulling 4 amps at the most here unless I'm thinking goofy.

All in all it's problems of my own making. I should have gone for the quality to begin with as indianatone stressed. It's not nice to fool with Mother Electron! *Biggrin

Feedback and/or thoughts on this are always welcome. Thanks again, guys! *Smile

 

There's sticker on PSU that gives you Ampere rating on different voltages. Keep in mind that those are maximum ratings and real, continuous, everyday use would be about 25% lower. Mostly you have to be concerned only with 12v ratings as others follow the same pastern. Also, most PSU are rated at 100 - 240vac so they should take large variations of input voltage. Good ones will also have at least some protection from voltage surges. It would take real catastrophic input voltage rise to brake all those barriers and damage parts on output side.

 

As far as it comes to the power draw from the wall socket. A power supply will only draw the amount of power that is needed to satisfy the demand. A quality power supply only draws power as required and only puts out power that is requested by the computer.

If your system demands 300W any power with the capability of answering that demand will work. Where the problem comes in is the 300w power supply will have to work at 100% to do the job. This will cause the 300W power supply to draw it's maxim from the wall socket and create a lot of heat to satisfy this demand. On the other hand a 600W power supply will furnish that 300W demand without working very hard and will draw less from the wall socket. When you work most power supplies at the upper percentage of it ability the amp, volt, and frequency will be what they call dirty. The variation are larger. You want all them to show very smooth on a oscilloscope. That is where the word (quality) comes in. Any quality power supply has low and high voltage protection. This hopefully will stop (smooth out) the spikes when they they happen.
One can have dirty power coming from the wall socket. A quality power supply will smooth them out. All computers like a very smooth power. None of them like variations. You will notice that top shelf motherboards have more capacitors. They are there to smooth the power the motherboard sends and receives.
The word (smooth) is not a technical term just one I use for better understanding.

Their are volumes wrote on power supplies. I have tried to make it a little simpler.

My methods are not complicated.

1. ALWAYS buy a quality power supply.
2. Buy a power supply that when your system is under full load the power supply will be working in it's 50 to 70 % range or less.
3. Always consider the Amps per voltage rail. Higher is better.
4. Always use the wall to power supply cable that comes with the power supply. Yes other cable you might have will fit.
5. If possible get a modular power supply. They are just easier and neater to work with.
6. Quality power supplies do cost more. If you need to save money save it somewhere else; not the power supply. A power supply is the roots of your computer tree. Every thing in your computer that uses power get it from one place; the power supply.

Like a stated before their are many books just on power supplies. They will give you all the charts, graphs, oscilloscope pictures and formulas you will ever want to look at. Those 6 little rules above should guide you down the right path without spending a year reading those books.

PS: I'm always amazed a person will buy a $350.00 cpu, $300.00 motherboard and a $600.00 video card and put them in a $59.00 case that cools poorly and then use a $49.00 power supply that creates more heat than power.

 

Let's get this one step further as PSU buyers are concerned. It may seem like there ere a lot of PSU manufacturers but the truth is that there are relatively few, ther rest of them are just a case of "sticker engineering". From here (although not complete) Who's Who In Power Supplies, 2013: Brands Vs. Manufacturers - PSU Manufacturers, Designers, And Labels you can get idea who makes which PSU innards.

 

NOT SO...My PSU is 87% efficient from as little as 25w consumption upwards. Good switched mode power supplies only covert power needed at the time and only a little is "lost" in this process. Power supplies in PC are extremely efficient and you will only be pulling what you need from the wall socket not the 600W rating of the PSU for example.

 

Not so, I have 5 spinners, 1 ssd 2 optical drives a graphics card and 32gb of ram. My PSU is Enermax Revolution 87+ 1000W Review and is very efficient indeed. The extra power is there when it is needed instead of the BSOD, think of it as a hi fi amp with plenty of power in reserve so there is very low distortion (clean power) and it only uses what is needed. I have spent half my life mending SMPS so I always spend well on the PSU.

 

A quality 850 W power supply will not draw and more from the wall socket that a 500W power supply doing the same work.
My system has this power supply and it is reported as being very efficient.
Their is no such thing as a quality cheap power supply. If you concern is the power drawn from the wall socket then be concerned with a quality power supply.

AX860i Digital ATX Power Supply ? 860 Watt 80 PLUS® Platinum Certified Fully-Modular PSU

 

One problem that may arise from too powerful PSU with bronze, silver etc. ratings is that it has to use some larger amount of power to reach rated efficiency and that's usually at about 75% load.