TDP stands for Thermal Design Power, which can be more or less taken to be the power consumption of the processor. In the PSU calculator, the percentage refers to your typical usage of the processor. If you're an overclocker or a heavy user which does a lot of video editing or number crunching when just set it to 100%. Otherwise just place your estimate. 80% is still a safe bet for non-overclocked systems, even for gaming.

CM realpower is ok, though only the 550W and above has enough connectors for SLI (you won't need so much power though). For the cost of a Realpower 550W it might be better to get a silverstone. I'm not sure which silverstone models support SLI though.

CM extreme power is ok, even for overclocking low power systems. But stay away from the models boasting more than 430W-the 5xxW model can barely pump out 470W.

Active PFC won't reduce your electricity bill much, but it will make your life easier if you happen to be using a UPS-you'll get more battery time. Main advantage of active PFC is that those PSUs handle AC voltage fluctuations better, and reduce the need for a voltage regulator.

I'm not sure about power logic, but an icute i tested seems ok, though I wouldn't suggest using it on PCs taking more than 150-200W. Voltage regulation for most icute are pretty sloppy when load is heavy. And I'm also not sure how well it handles overheating.

Look out for these OEM brands-Enlight, Enhance, FSP. If you happen to dig one up somewhere, they are often good value for money. Very decent performance, usually almost dirt cheap price.

Hmm, seems icute has reliability problems, I wonder if its simply because of poor circuit design or due to overheating. That system doesn't take that much power. Didn't have enough time to check the components of the unit i handled.

Yes, the meter is correct. A64 systems usually take up around 100W only not counting the video card. 8800GTX takes up 130w at full load, but that can only happen if you pair it up with a high end C2D system; even a heavily overclocked A64 X2 system won't be enough. So yes, your system probably takes up 150-170W at most, and your Real Power 450W is just shaking leg there

Don't look down on the Real Power 450W. For a PSU of its price its not bad.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/02/28/str...ing/page38.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article205-page3.html

This is how the power supplies are tested. The equipment costs more than a brand new Kancil
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/11/how...power_supplies/
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article683-page1.html


I'm sorry to say this, but you've been fooled by power supply marketing. The Real Power series and eXtreme Power series are just names used by Cooler Master to diffentiate their different product lines. Main advantage of the Real Power series is that it had aPFC and a power meter, though frankly they don't matter much. The extreme power 430W is actually quite reliable, most PSUs of similar price are hardly worth shit in terms of performance.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/eXtremePower430W/

The testing method is similarly extensive as those used by Tom's Hardware and Silent PC review.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/new_testing/

However, the extreme power 600W does not do as well as the 430W.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/eXtremePower600W/
Just goes to show you cannot judge just by name.

No bro, your decision was good. I would not have recommended that PSU if I did not have concrete proof that it performs well (refer to above). FSP Saga performs slightly better, but is usually more expensive.

I've posted up a guide on cleaning PSUs without voiding warranty, check below. Although it applies to only some PSUs, most of the more expensive ones are usually the ones that can easily be cleaned in this way.

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/480460

Yeah, I pointed that out in my guide. Opening the PSU will allow for more thoroughness though, but its your own choice.

600W is enough. Don't bother with more unless you're gonna overclock Core2Quad with HD2900XT Crossfire.

A 450W PSU should be enough. The extremeoutervision calculator calcultates the absolute maximum power all the components can possibly use, though honestly I have not been able to make ANY system actually use the ammount of power listed in the calculator, even with dual prime + ATItool artifact scan + DVD burn + everest HDD stress (at that point, even the mouse can't move properly). I only managed to achieve 80% of the calculated power consumption even on my best efforts.

Get the silverstone ST40F. For that price none of the rest are even worth considering. In fact all the other 3 will not deliver their rated power unless cooled to 25C (even then, no guarantee).

If you insist on getting any of the others, get the eXteme power 430W. That particular model has been tested ok, while the higher watt models of that series have been tested to be crap.

Acbel is good if you're budget concious, but if you can spend a little more to get something better like a Silverstone, why not?

All PSUs from the following makers have been known to output their rated power as promised. Except for the last category, all the manufacturers here have (for the most part) spotless track records. I have omitted brands which do not manufacture their own PSUs, as they often take from more than 1 manufacturer and quality varies from model to model.

Highly reliable with very good voltage regulation
-PC Power & Cooling
(the King of PSUs)
-FSP (aka Fortron)
-Silverstone
-Seasonic
-Tagan
-Delta

Reliable, voltage regulation is not so good but still within acceptable ranges
-Acbel
-Enlight
-Enhance

Known to have reliability issues, though voltage regulation is ok during testing
-Enermax
-Antec

Most, but not all, of the manufacturers not mentioned here are often not reliable, a majority cannot even deliver their rated specification.

They're pretty good for the price, though they're not the best. Their well known for their lower watt PSUs-low noise and good efficiency with very decent reliability. Their higher watt models sometimes suffer from overheating problems, partly because of an overemphasis on low noise the fans sometimes don't cool enough.

Antec is a little pricey and hard to find here. But yeah, they're kinda ok. Not much reviews on their current models so hard to say.

Tagan makes some seriously heavy duty stuff. Kinda hard to find though. Silverstone is often better in terms of power efficiency, they have lots of 80 plus certified models.

AFAIK, there has never been a Silverstone PSU that could not deliver the watts promised. So yes, they're all true power.

Loud may not be a bad thing, as it usually means that the PSU has adequate cooling.
On the flip side, it may mean that the manufacturer screwed up the airflow and the restiction is causing all that noise.

The required range for 12V is +/-5%, which gives 11.4V-12.6V. But if you're overclocking, to minimise risk(overclocking is risky to start with) usually overclockers will demand a 3% tolerance or tighter, which gives 11.64V-12.36V.

It should be pretty good. Enhance is another PSU maker that has yet to produce a PSU that didn't live up to its promises. Mostly they do OEM business, so you don't see them often.

I'm not sure if they even have a high end series, but here is one review of one of their models. I found others as well, but lazy to look for them again.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=24

Its enough bro, even if you're overclocking that processor with a overclocked 8800GTX.
And btw, all your fans combined would probably uses less than 20W, unless they're all high performance fans that make as much noise as a hair dryer.

Well, it depends on how much power you are already using. Cheaper PSUs usually have efficiency ratings of 60-70% and more expensive PSUs usually have efficiency ratings of 75%-85%. If you're not using a lot of power, the efficiency difference of 5-20% will only translate to a few cents to one ringgit more in electricity cost (assuming running 24/7, idle 60% of the time). However, if your system takes up more than 300W (typically Pentium 4 and Pentium D systems only) then the savings would make more sense as the PSU would be wasting about an additional 100W or more from the wall socket.

Btw, do not confuse power factor with power efficiency. Both are quite different.

Toughpower is AFTER thermaltake learnt their lesson selling their crappy Butterfly psus (AKA exploding PSUs). Guess after having every other unit sent back for RMA they finally though to buy from some manufacturer that manufactures proper PSUs.

I depends how much amps you're pulling though each connector. If you're using a lot of power then modular PSUs will not be as good as non-modular PSUs because the added resistance will cause a slight voltage drop. However, about end performance, it kind of debatable..since its easier to manage airflow and get better cooling with modular cables you -might- be able to argue that modular PSUs can offer better 'performance' (well, at the very least most but not all people agree it looks less messy). But its really up to individual taste, since its hard to argue which is 'really better'.

Sometimes the seller lists the ratings differently. Which is the case for these 2 PSUs.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=110
http://www.jonnyguru.com/PSU/eXtremePower600W/
There are also cases where the PSU is labeled LESS than what its built for, like in the case of the CM Real Power 550W (its designed for 600-650W). Unfortunately I can't find the link for this one.

Definitely..Power logic only good for office PC use..
One day when I get a load tester up I'm gonna try nuke one of those..
As it is I've already nuked a bunch of unknowns cap ayams without any load tester..

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Aug 2 2007, 10:03 PM

If its single rail, you won't have to worry about evenly dividing out the load, as the rail will have lots of Amperes and you won't have to evenly divide out your load across seperate rails. If you don't divide out the load, the relatively low Amps on each rail (240VA max, or 12V x 20A for those not so electrically inclined) will mean its pretty easy to trigger the over current protection by accidentally putting everything on one rail and nothing on the rest. The only downside of single rail is the manufacturer must not take shortcuts when designing the PSU, as having that much power flow though a single circuit places a lot of stress on it and the wiring. The whole idea of having multi rail PSUs came from Intel, but unfortunately no one at that time seemed to bother considering that people would have serious headaches wiring up their PSU when using lots of power like in a set with a >100W CPU, >100W GFX x2 in SLi/Crossfire and a whole rack of HDD in RAID.

Spec wise it looks ok to me, though the question is whether the manufacturers are telling the truth about the ratings or not. Assuming they are telling the truth (hard to check for this maker, as they do not have a UL code), its looks like a good bargain (550W, active PFC for less than RM200). Almost too good to be true in fact..

That all white PSU looks really cool..considered painting a PSU white once but thought it wouldn't look nice..guess I'm wrong..

The raptorX looks really slick..not that many PSUs come with such a mirror finish..guarantee fingerprint magnet..but I'll have to say I like it..maybe can take it apart and shoehorn in a nastier baby like a Seasonic or Topower..

Ask bombman, he can find a lot of hard to find modding stuff

The sad downside of using white..love it though I'm kinda torn between white or black..

Yeah, the multi rail thing was intel's idea..but when SLI/crossfire users started having problems even with 500-700W PSUs (stupid PSU manufacturers connected everything to same rail, causing overload trip offs), even intel practically ignored their own specification. Somehow, they never updated the the ATX spec to say single rail is ok, but the current specs no longer say anything about the max current allowed on a 12V rail.