Which Power Supply(Watt)

[andres101]

I am building a HTPC but I am not sure which PSU to take.

Components:
gigabyte motherboard (K8NF-939) with everything on (gfx,sound,lan)
Athlon 64 3500+ (Socket 939)
Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA
LITEON Lightscribe DVDRW drive.

I would like to eventually put another 3 SATA drives in, but I don't need all that space right now. I would also like to get a better GFX card (later), but it won't be anything too fancy (more than R1K).

So my question is, which PSU is right for me?
(300W,360W,420W,480W,560W)

 

[willirob]

350W should be fine unless you add a mother of a GFX card

 

[Bjorn]

you will get away with the 420w if its not a generic OEM power supply, although the 480w would be better. you wont need anything more than that IMHO

 

[willirob]

also you might find the following interesting reading

http://www.denguru.com/2006/02/28/diy_hd_htpc_extravaganza_part2/

 

[andres101]

Thanks for the response.

Watt Price Rand per Watt
300 R 298 R 0.99
360 R 463 R 1.29
410 R 485 R 1.18
420 R 485 R 1.15
480 R 595 R 1.24
560 R 680 R 1.21

I think I will go for the 420W then as it is better value for money.

 

[andres101]

it is the Thermaltake Silent PurePower series from here

 

[willirob]

errr OK - won't ask what you do for a living

 

[andres101]

also you might find the following interesting reading

http://www.denguru.com/2006/02/28/diy_hd_htpc_extravaganza_part2/

Hmmm, looks exactly like a tom's hardware article I found a while back.

 

[andres101]

errr OK - won't ask what you do for a living

My motto is Ask no questions, hear no lies

 

[Ratwiz]

Check this guide andres!

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=136602

Just make sure it's a decent brand, otherwise you might have ***

 

[Toxin]

This will help you out with regard to size. Or at least give you a rough ammount in watts.

 

[andres101]

This will help you out with regard to size. Or at least give you a rough ammount in watts.

This is great, thanks! According to this, I can get away with <300W. I will go for the 420 just in case though...

 

[masticore]

Rule 1 when buying a PSU : NEVER buy cheap.

A 500W piece-of-crap isn't going to provide as stable a supply of power as a 350W quality product. I'm running a P4, 5900, 7 (yes seven) hard drives, 1 optical off a 350W Antec supply. The thing cost close to a small fortune (compared to a 350W AOpen / some-other-kuk) but it was worth every cent.

Rule 2 : calculate your requirements, allow for growth, then buy what you need.

Use this calculator : http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp


Bear in mind that PSUs tend to be less efficient at lower loads, so a 500W supply that has to provide 250W will actually draw more power than a 350W needing to provide 250W. It's not a majorly significant difference but you will end up paying for more electricity. So don't buy a 500W if you'll only ever max out at 320W ... unless you want to support Eskom.

 

[andres101]

Rule 1 when buying a PSU : NEVER buy cheap.

Does Thermaltake count as cheap? I've read some good reviews on it and it appears to be a well known brand. Not sure how the price compares to other PSU's.

Use this calculator : http://www.extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp

According to it, with 4x 7200 SATA drives, I will only need 306W.

I think I'm sticking with the 420W. If I want to put a better GFX card in later, I will be able to...

 

[Toxin]

A 420W should be fine for what you want. Just bear in mind that if you're gonna get a better G-card you should think about getting something that will cater for that as well. Especially if you're going for the 7 series geforce or the new ATIs.

Also if your going SLI or Crossfire your wattage increases something stuupid.

I've got a Coolermaster RS-450 Real Power which is very stable. Quiet too.

 

[masticore]

IMO no, Thermaltakes do NOT count as cheap. They're a good option. You'll find they're significantly more expensive than (e.g.) AOpen or some Sahara-POS.
As an example :

AOpen 400W from Rectum will cost you about R210.
Thermaltake 420W from Corex will cost you from R450 to R900.

420W sounds reasonable for your requirements. Your board doesn't have SLI, so going beyond 420 is going to be pretty difficult.

 

[willirob]

lets not forget that this is supposed to be a HTPC not a killa gaming rig

 

[andres101]

I've got a Coolermaster RS-450 Real Power which is very stable. Quiet too.

I see it has a <20dba rating, which is quiet.

Taking the RS-CM450W.

Thanks for all the info everyone! really appreciate it. never throught power supplies were so complicated.

 

[Toxin]

Something else you should think of is maybe getting a PSU with cable management. Where you only use the cables you need.

Antec PSUs like the NeoPower480 have it. They're expensive tho.

 

[Methias]

Im no longer a big fan of the thermaltake PSU's.

I've seen a fair number of them fail and destroy PC hardware. And mine now has JUSt started to do scary things to me (sparking noises... not cool). Now I need to replace it (I have the 680watt purepower one, running SLI'd cards, 6HDD's 2 DVD dual layer writers so I needed a high power PSU). R1.7k down the toilet