PSUs, cpu fans and that x1800 on special?

[act smiley]

Yep, I'm confused again. Luckily enough, I've decided what I'm going to get mostly, I'm just not sure about power supplies.
Now, I know enough to never buy another QTec (unfortunately thanks to learning from my own experience rather than someone else's) but I'm not quite sure what to get. I'm trying to keep this cheap as I'm already near the limit of what I can afford for the rest, but obviously I don't want something cheap and nasty that'll melt the fancy bits n pieces (A64 3700, X1800XT). Not too interested in all the fancy options like detachable cables, etc.


Here's what I'm considering:
Antec Truepower 2 430w £53
Tagan TG480 480w £59
Enermax Liberty 400w for £53
FSP Sparkle 400w £47
The FSP is temptingly cheap, but is it up to the job?

Or should I just get a £61 Antec case & 400w PSU and try and sell on either that case or this one secondhand?

Also, should I get a retail Athlon 64 or should I get an OEM and an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro? I was thinking about the latter, but is just getting the retail pack a better idea, considering that it'd save me about £15 as I'd need some Arctic Silver too? How would they compare noise & temperature wise?

Also, if I order that X1800XT on special that's labelled pre-order, will everything get sent at once later on or will everything else get sent straight off and the card be sent later. Also, when is it expected to be in stock?

 

[ajgoodfellow]

Hi!

All of those power supplies are good models and I've heard good things about FSP so I wouldn't let the price put you off

The OEM CPUs come without a HSF and a one year warranty, vs the Retail 3 yr warranty - that's the only difference. In all honesty unless you're overclocking (and even then as the retail HSF is pretty good) I'd get the Retail boxed version - only £5 more with the extra warranty and bundled cooler

If you buy something that's out of stock or labelled as pre-order your whole order will be held up until it comes back into stock. I'd personally go for the 512MB X1800XT that's on offer for £215+VAT. It's faster at resolutions of 1280x1024 when AA & AF are applied

 

[act smiley]

Thanks for the opinion on the FSP, I might get that.
OK so the retail's heatsink&fan is ok then? is it noisier than the one I was considering?
Can't stretch the extra £30 for the 512mb version, so I guess I'll just have to order the 256mb one and wait.
Thanks for the help

 

[ajgoodfellow]

It is noisier than the Artic Freezer 64 but it's not too bad

If you have an ASUS motherboard enable Q-Fan - this controls the fan speed automatically depending on temperature. A-Bit boards have a similar feature where you manually set the fan speed at specific temperature points. This can help to keep the noise of the fan down

As for the £30 for the 512MB X1800XT, you're saving £15 on the CPU HSF and £10 on the PSU which almost covers it but the 256MB is still a great card