Best power supply PSU to upgrade PC?

valone123 · June 4th, 2009, 12:37 PM

It's been a while since I've upgraded so I need some refreshers. The fan on my card burned out so it's time to upgrade which means I'll need a good psu as well. I have a dell quad core inspiron desktop. I will put in the best $200 card I can get (suggestions welcome). Which psu should I get? What am I looking for? I've seen a few 500w psus at newegg but don't know if that's enough for my needs. Help please.

cksboy15 · June 4th, 2009, 01:01 PM

Oh boy I can pull out my favorite list!

Quote:

Good:
Akasa PaxPower....... Antec
Astec.......................... AOpen
Channel Well.............. Coolermaster
Corsair........................ Enermax
Enlight......................... Fortron Source (Sparkle)
Gigabyte..................... HEC Compucase (excluding the lower-end Orion line)
Hi-Power.................... Hiper
Jeantech..................... Lian-Li
Mushkin...................... NSpire
OCZ Technology.......... PC Power & Cooling (now owned by OCZ)
PowerMan................... Seasonic
SilenX.......................... SilverStone
Tagan (ABS)................ Thermaltake
TTGI/SuperFlower...... Vantec
Xclio............................. Zippy / Emacs Verax
Zion.............................. Zalman

Bad:
A GBP Athena................ Allied
Aspire/Apevia............... Athena Power
Apex.............................. Athenatech
Atop............................... Broadway Com
CoolMax......................... Chieftec
DEER.............................. Dynapower
Eagle Tech...................... EYE-T
Foxconn.......................... KingStar
Inwin.............................. Linkworld
L&C ............................... Logisys
MGE................................ PowerMagic
Powertek........................ PowerUp
Powmax.......................... Q-Tec
Raidmax.......................... Rosewill
Skyhawk......................... Star
Startech ......................... Sunbeam
Turbolink......................... Ultra

If its not on there then don't use it.

As for the video card I was always lost when it came to ati and nvidia but I'll give you the best they have for under $200. As for which is faster I don't know but they are both good cards.

nVidia
Newegg.com - XFX GX260NADFF GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
It comes with 2 free games.

ATi
Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H487QT1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ 4+ Turbo Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
Its $5 over but it also comes with a free game and its 1gb which means you can run a huge moniter

If you wanna go with $20 more you can get a 4890
Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H489F1GP Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Yumyumbublegum · June 8th, 2009, 09:38 PM

Dell uses proprietary power supplies, so only certain power supplies are compatibly with dell motherboards. So, your pretty much going to be stuck with this power supply.

Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling Silencer Dell Upgrade PPCS500D 500W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

As for the graphics card, the gtx 260 core 216 and the 4870 perform very similarly. It's really up to you which one you pick.

cksboy15 · June 9th, 2009, 12:19 AM

I didn't know dell parts were proprietary. Anyway the 260 is a little higher in performance with nvidia's latest driver so I would go for that. Course it doesn't help i'm an nvidia fanboy that currently uses and is not hugely impressed by ati.

Aaron_8015 · June 9th, 2009, 01:43 AM

Quote:

I didn't know dell parts were proprietary

Some are. You should be able to change the powersupply to anything (so long as it fits). A good 500W will easily power those cards.

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3 500W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply - Power Supplies

Newegg.com - OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS 500W ATX12V / EPS12V Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

Either of these will do (the top one is cheaper but the bottom has free shipping).

Quote:

Oh boy I can pull out my favorite list!

Horrorcosmic · June 17th, 2009, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cksboy15

Oh boy I can pull out my favorite list!

Good:
Akasa PaxPower....... Antec
Astec.......................... AOpen
Channel Well.............. Coolermaster
Corsair........................ Enermax
Enlight......................... Fortron Source (Sparkle)
Gigabyte..................... HEC Compucase (excluding the lower-end Orion line)
Hi-Power.................... Hiper
Jeantech..................... Lian-Li
Mushkin...................... NSpire
OCZ Technology.......... PC Power & Cooling (now owned by OCZ)
PowerMan................... Seasonic
SilenX.......................... SilverStone
Tagan (ABS)................ Thermaltake
TTGI/SuperFlower...... Vantec
Xclio............................. Zippy / Emacs Verax
Zion.............................. Zalman

Bad:
A GBP Athena................ Allied
Aspire/Apevia............... Athena Power
Apex.............................. Athenatech
Atop............................... Broadway Com
CoolMax......................... Chieftec
DEER.............................. Dynapower
Eagle Tech...................... EYE-T
Foxconn.......................... KingStar
Inwin.............................. Linkworld
L&C ............................... Logisys
MGE................................ PowerMagic
Powertek........................ PowerUp
Powmax.......................... Q-Tec
Raidmax.......................... Rosewill
Skyhawk......................... Star
Startech ......................... Sunbeam
Turbolink......................... Ultra

If its not on there then don't use it.

Most of this i'll agree with except for one, the ULTRA X3 lines, i use the 1k watt and i've had no problems with it, As well as the Inwin PSU's, i've read top to bottem, dozens apon dozens of tests on there Commander line and they look really solid. Honestly if the Commander was out when i built my system i would have gone with that instead of ultra.

Wolfegang16 · June 17th, 2009, 09:29 PM

Newegg.com - XFX GX260NADFF GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

^^ i have that GTX 260 and i game alot and its been amazing so far.

Aaron_8015 · June 17th, 2009, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horrorcosmic

Most of this i'll agree with except for one, the ULTRA X3 lines, i use the 1k watt and i've had no problems with it, As well as the Inwin PSU's, i've read top to bottem, dozens apon dozens of tests on there Commander line and they look really solid. Honestly if the Commander was out when i built my system i would have gone with that instead of ultra.

You have got to remember that list was posted 5 years ago and alot will have changed since then. Yea some people will run PSU's in the bad list just fine, but most people have had problems with. If you read the read it does say some lines of Ultra PSU's have improved.

Power Supply Info