Power supply???

[disabled]

Sapphiron...Thanks a lot yes it looks very good but if I purchase the 800VA will this do the trick as explained above...I.E. PC,router and phone line?...Or must I get the 1000VA?..

 

[Artagra]

I would go AOpen or Antec - I've had bad experiences with the Thermaltakes

Artag

 

[MrBean_pm]

I noticed on the connector where you plug it into the mobo, there are a few a brown patches which means a few pins are gettting really hot for some reason. Its a 350w psu

Hmmm....dunno how I missed this, but this is not good - it sounds to me you have a hot connection, in other words, the pins are not making proper contact at the connection point, or the wires from the psu are to thin to handle the current drain.

I would say the former is most likely the problem, you will have to use a small pliers and nip the connectors a little, so the males would sit tighter inside the females......hehe - soz for the double meaning, unintentional.

Then, wrt UPS's go for APC. They are the best for commercial use, and quite affordable. They actually filter mains to provide ripple free current, as well as very fast transistions to battery when there is under/overvolting on mains, unlike other cheap brands that do not filter mains, and is more a battery backup than a ups.

Enjoy.

 

[Sapphiron]

@ Sapphiron: I would investigate case ventilation, and input power quality if I were you. I have had the same powersupplies for quite a long time now, torturing them to bits, yet they last, outputs as stable and within ripple-spec as on day 1. Why?

Because I have a 750A APC UPS, and another 1.5KW UPS - proper quality units.

@ ShockG: Thanx for your support, but, what you say is the truth, these are great units, and I would hate some other problems wrt case vent or input power quality knock them down.

But, as an alternative, Seasonic is also great for any budget rig, again, quality input mains power is a must.

If people stick to these simple rules of thumb, they will not need to replace any psu's for a long time.

Br,
MrBean.

Try convincing my clients not to plug a heater or fan into the same plug as the PC. Or to spend R1500 on a APC UPS to protect their PC.

It is far less effort to stick with the expensive Antec PSU's that can take whatever my clients can throw at it.

Case ventilation is not a problem, since I insist on having a case with at least a 92mm or 120mm case fan in it.

Aopen are probably fine in "normal" conditions and they break when they get into the real world of dust, heat and idiot users. I prefer my products to be over-engineered to give me some margin of error.

PS: All my own kit runs on 2 APC 1500VA SMART UPS's

 

[ap0c]

I always thought low priced UPS do not give surge / lightning protection... ?

 

[MrBean_pm]

I always thought low priced UPS do not give surge / lightning protection... ?

You're right, Apoc, most of them don't. APC however do, and they are not exactly cheap either.....for SOHO use, I find them to be the best.

PS: All my own kit runs on 2 APC 1500VA SMART UPS's

[jealous mode on] a Bit of an overkill there, wouldn't you say [/jealous mode off]

hehe...nice equipment though, I have 1x 2kW and 1x 750VA units - won't swop them for almost anything - very reliable.

About the PSU's though, I yet to have one Aopen die on me. I use a wide variety, and as mentioned earlier, have no reason to recommend one over the other, but with careful planning and execution in building systems, they will last a long time.

But, each to his own, I have ordered 1 of these PC Power and Cooling 1kW units today, so for a long time no-one will claim they have a better psu than me...rofl....

Seriously though, it is for a new mod I am busy with.

Now I have to wait, because PcCasegear will only get stock within next week to two.....

 

[BTTB]

$795
Even in Australian Dollars that is a fortune for a PSU

 

[theriddler]

Thanks for all your help guys, I went with the AOpen 400w PSU and it works well. Thanks again

 

[MrBean_pm]

Thanks for all your help guys, I went with the AOpen 400w PSU and it works well. Thanks again

You're welcome - and keep the guys posted as to how well it performs ....

$795
Even in Australian Dollars that is a fortune for a PSU

Yes, but I will not need another 1 again - for a very long time. This wil see me through the next 5 years - incidentally this is how long the warranty is valid for.

These are the best psu's available for ATX systems, period. I am glad I can actually buy one now - wanted to do that in SA, but freight on these was putting me off......

So, roughly R4k, but worth it....especially when considering the rig I am powering....

 

[Prometheus]

I noticed on the connector where you plug it into the mobo, there are a few a brown patches which means a few pins are gettting really hot for some reason. Its a 350w psu

LOL. Sorry, but for that a couple of guys here wants you to fork out up to R5000. That is perfectly normal actually as long as there aren't any wires melting. It has more to do with the type of plastic being used for the connector. Even my new 6 month old Thermaltake 420W is starting to do it and my old 350W PSU did the same. Haven't seen one yet that doesn't do it after some time so expect your new one to also do it.

Don't throw out that old PSU, it's still capable of powering a standard pc with 3 or 4 drives, graphics card, sound card and top end cpu. I've seen lately pcs with a multitude of fans not really increasing airflow, but increasing power usage by a large margin in a lot of cases. So putting in 10 fans at shall we say a 10W average per fan will then use up 100W. Making your PSU work a lot harder and increasing the amount of heat generated. I think two fans for the case and one on the PSU is more than enough. If you REALLY think you need more fans then buy an unregulated power supply which generates less heat and requires less cooling and connect all your fans to that alone and also use it for your mods like lighting and stuff.

 

[Sapphiron]

[jealous mode on] a Bit of an overkill there, wouldn't you say [/jealous mode off]

Keep in mind I'm running my laptop and my desktop on one and my other 3 PC's off the other one. I still have all my old PC's working. Right back to my old P3 450 with 768mb RAM.

If the power goes out, I can switch off my current desktop and work on it for 11 hours before the laptop has to switch to battery (another 3 hours life). As long as the power in Cape Town does not go out for longer than 14 hours, my business keeps working.

 

[MrBean_pm]

Good reason then, Sapphiron. I would rather have a big one too, than a smaller one.

If you REALLY think you need more fans then buy an unregulated power supply which generates less heat and requires less cooling and connect all your fans to that alone and also use it for your mods like lighting and stuff.

Even bigger 120mm fans only draw around 0.2A (200mA) max from the 12V line at full load - so 5 of these will draw 1A - but, most of them is rated around 180mA, so make it roughly 6x 120mm fans will only draw 1A.

No need for seperate psu - and yes, it must be regulated, otherwise it's ac

You probably meant unfiltered?

And the reason the plastic goes brown has nothing to do with type of plastic they're using - it is overheating, that's why it goes brown.

Bad connection on the atx plug if only the front bit goes brown, if whole length of cable discolor, cable is too thin to handle current.

No need to listen to this advise...use it or not....np for me.

 

[Prometheus]

Even bigger 120mm fans only draw around 0.2A (200mA) max from the 12V line at full load - so 5 of these will draw 1A - but, most of them is rated around 180mA, so make it roughly 6x 120mm fans will only draw 1A.

Ok, so why do they tell us to add so many watts to the power supply for every fan used? So with 10 fans like some of these cases actually have you can use up to 24W (12*0.2*10) plus all your case lighting and stuff. Still makes sense to use a separate power supply for all of that.

No need for seperate psu - and yes, it must be regulated, otherwise it's ac

You probably meant unfiltered?

No, I actually did mean unregulated. An unregulated power supply does not regulate the dc supply through a voltage regulator which produces 90% of the heat in the power supply. It still has a bridge rectifier that converts the ac supply to a dc one and smoothing capacitors to produce a supply that is smooth enough for use with with fans and lights. That is the correct electronic term for it.

And the reason the plastic goes brown has nothing to do with type of plastic they're using - it is overheating, that's why it goes brown.

It's overheating that accelerates it, but why do some of them do it and others don't. So far everyone I had turned brown at some point. There's no way those were all bad connections as even the plugs not in use turns yellow. That's why I say it's more to do with the plastic itself. Old things discolour and heat causes them to discolour faster. If it doesn't get too hot to touch then it aint broken and you can't really call it overheating as you would have to throw out every appliance in the house.

 

[MrBean_pm]

Ok, so why do they tell us to add so many watts to the power supply for every fan used? So with 10 fans like some of these cases actually have you can use up to 24W (12*0.2*10) plus all your case lighting and stuff. Still makes sense to use a separate power supply for all of that.

Because it's bull.

P=IV
eg Power = Volts x Amps
Look at the back of the fan, it will even have the wattage rating on most fans out there. Depending on the cfm the fan can move, and whether it's using sleeved bearings, or ballbearings, the typical wattage rating for a 120mm fan, moving 65cfm air, would be around 2.4W each. The very high cfm fans will reach around 3.2W per 120mm fan.

If you are that crazy to have 10 casefans in your case, it will only use 36W off your 12V rail - provided you use the hugely powerful 100cfm monsters More likely than not, you will have 2-4 80mm fans, consuming around 1.6W each....make it 2W for high cfm versions. That is continious 8W of powerdrain from your 450-600W quality (supposedly) psu...no need for additional psu, extra expenses, etc....

Rather use that money towards a better quality psu.

Hope this makes sense?

It still has a bridge rectifier that converts the ac supply to a dc one and smoothing capacitors to produce a supply that is smooth enough for use with with fans and lights. That is the correct electronic term for it

I am an electronics engineer, and have to plead temporary insanity :flowers: Did not read the world unregulated, instead I saw unrectified. Hehe. Apologies for that slip-up.

It's overheating that accelerates it, but why do some of them do it and others don't.

Quality. I have never had any psu which suffered this, although I have seen many cheap brands do. The gauge of the wiring on these are generally 16 gauge, instead of 18 gauge.

So, the wires themselves overheat, due to being to thin to handle the high current that passes through them....