What's a good PSU?

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BiggusDoggus

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#9920 24-Oct-2006 11:50

I am looking to upgrade my PSU (from my current 250w one - nuf said). I have an extremely limited budget, as in my accountant/missus would be far happier if I found one on the side of the road. I can get a 370w Excel PSU for approx $35.00. Is Excel a good brand, if it's a brand at all? And is this a good price? And is Apower as bad as I have read after Googling it? thanks

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JAMMAN2110

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#49453 24-Oct-2006 12:17

Welcome to Geekzone. A power supply is widely regarded as "the most overlooked component". This is one of the important areas for spending money on a computer, without power theres no point

Where are you thinking of buying it from?

BiggusDoggus

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#49454 24-Oct-2006 12:20

Thanks Jamman! I've popped in and out of the site for a while now but this is my first post.

C1 Shoppingmall

Or I've seen an X-Case 400W ATX PSU on Ascent for $55...

cheers

[Moderator edit (JF): Included URL]

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

JAMMAN2110

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#49455 24-Oct-2006 12:52

Heres the list of all there power supplies (for those playing at home)

And here they all are listed by price (cheapest at the top of the page)

$30 - $500

Personally I've never heard of Excel, so I can't vouch for them either way. I hope someone else here can.

Other than that I'm curious.. More questions:

Are you going to upgrade more components soon? (RAM, Drives etc)
How many components in your case need their own power cable?

sbiddle

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#49462 24-Oct-2006 12:58

What devices are you running inside your PC, ie processor, HDD"s, PCI cards?

Why do you suspect your PS needs upgrading? While a 250W powr supply is small by todays standards many new desktop PC's will function perfectly. Bigger power supplies are more of an issue if you're running multiple PCI cards, cooling fans, 2+ HDD's or a high end GFX card.

BiggusDoggus

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#49467 24-Oct-2006 13:32

Okay, I'm about to justify the "wannabe geek" tag. I don't know specifics or technical details but I'm running a pretty low end system:

Pentium 4 1.6 processor
80 GB HD
DVD combo drive
512M SDRAM
geForce2 MX400 64MB AGP card.

And that's the reason this has come about - I am looking at upgrading the card to a 256MB Radeon 9550 or 9600, and have realised that I'm probably a little underpowered even with my Moses-era card. Thus the need to upgrade the PSU.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries

BiggusDoggus

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#49511 24-Oct-2006 17:52

And speaking of graphics cards - is Radeon actually better than GeForce, or is just like the "Ford vs Holden"
comparison? As in it's mostly personal preference?

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JAMMAN2110

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#49532 24-Oct-2006 19:12

I have had a system similar to yours, Ive been upgrading it over time and am still using the same PSU that the cheap case came with.. (200W I think). so you can probably get away with that

It is actually about tiem I upgraded PSU as well, I've been suffering from issues of late that can only be attrbuted to poor power.. oh the pain.

JAMMAN2110

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#49533 24-Oct-2006 19:14

BiggusDoggus: And speaking of graphics cards - is Radeon actually better than GeForce, or is just like the "Ford vs Holden"
comparison? As in it's mostly personal preference?

You're more likely to get a good answer to that byt making a new thread