New Build ( Finally )

[railfrog]

Have not made up my mind yet where to buy it from. Will look around and if one comes up at a good price then i'll snap it up.
To give you a clue as to costs there is this one from ebuyer. Note the free postage.
Corsair 550W VX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 5 Year Warranty - Ebuyer

Or this place....Its within driving distance so no postage again.
Overclockers UK

Would like a PSU with single rail and non modular
btw...i live in UK

[EXreaction]

Why are you specifically looking for a single rail and non-modular?

[railfrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

Why are you specifically looking for a single rail and non-modular?

This is taken from the PCPower & Cooling website...

Power Supply Myths Exposed!

3. DON'T LOSE POWER WITH MODULAR PLUGS


Due to their look, convenience, and cost savings for manufacturers, modular plugs have become a popular power supply feature. Unfortunately, there has been little or no discussion of the impact of this feature on overall performance and reliability. The fact is, modular plugs limit power by adding to electrical resistance. The voltage drop can be as much as would occur in 2 feet of standard wire. Worse yet, modular plugs utilize delicate pins that can easily loosen, corrode, and burn, creating the potential for a major system failure. That's why professional system builders specify uninterrupted wire!



8. ARE MULTIPLE 12-VOLT RAILS BETTER THAN A SINGLE 12-VOLT RAIL?


With all the hype about multiple 12-volt rails (ads claim that two rails is better than one, five is better than four, etc.), you'd think it was a better design. Unfortunately, it's not!

Here are the facts: A large, single 12-volt rail (without a 240VA limit) can transfer 100% of the 12-volt output from the PSU to the computer, while a multi-rail 12-volt design has distribution losses of up to 30% of the power supply's rating. Those losses occur because power literally gets "trapped" on under-utilized rails. For example, if the 12-volt rail that powers the CPU is rated for 17 amps and the CPU only uses 7A, the remaining 10A is unusable, since it is isolated from the rest of the system.

Since the maximum current from any one 12-volt rail of a multiple-rail PSU is limited to 20 amps (240VA / 12 volts = 20 amps), PCs with high-performance components that draw over 20 amps from the same rail are subject to over-current shutdowns. With power requirements for multiple processors and graphics cards continuing to grow, the multiple-rail design, with its 240VA limit per rail, is basically obsolete.

[EXreaction]

The amount resistance added by modular plugs is minuscule, as long as you don't buy some cheap POS.

Nothing in your computer will ever use 20A by itself. I'd say that a good 99% of computers don't even use more than 20A from +12v.

[railfrog]

ok....have found some modular, multi rail units.

Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel

Gigabyte ODIN GT 550W ATX2.2 Dual-SLi Compliant Modular PSU (GE-S550A-D1)

Hiper 580W HPU-4M580 SLi Certified ATX2.2 PSU

OCZ Fatal1ty 550w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply



I have always liked the idea of modular as it dosen't clutter the case up so much. Got put off by what i have read.

Any of these ok for what i want?


edit....Anyone ever heard of Kingwin?
Kingwin 600W Modular PSU - 4x SATA, 2x PCI express - Ebuyer

[EXreaction]

I would go with the OCZ or Hiper. I know OCZ has some good stuff and although Hiper had some issues with their first line of power supplies (this was a couple years back), the second generation they had fixed all of that and was rated very highly (not sure which generation those are, I've not paid much attention since they do not sell in the US to anywhere I've seen). Also if it is SLI Certified it has to have enough power for some level of SLI according to nVidia's testing.

[railfrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

I would go with the OCZ or Hiper. I know OCZ has some good stuff.

Please put my mind at rest...

On a forum over here someone is saying that OCZ are rubbish, and the only reason that they have a good name is because they bought out PC Power & Cooling.

Was looking at this one...
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-035-OC

[EXreaction]

I am using an OCZ now and many other people around here do also.

[railfrog]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

I am using an OCZ now and many other people around here do also.

And has it been good and kind to you?

[EXreaction]

I've only had it for about a month so far, but ya, it's been great (although the model I bought was pretty cheap, 500w silentstream, which I think they were trying to get rid of because it's an older model. Only problem was that it didn't have a lot of SATA connectors, so I had to buy some splitters).