Recommend me a *budget* PSU

Permabanned
Joined
10 Apr 2004
Posts
13,122
Location
Darlington, County Durham
I'll begin by listing the system specs:
  • Gigabyte 7VTX motherboard
  • (Socket A) AMD Duron 1300 - which I want to overclock at 106 FSB
  • 3x 256mb DDR, single-sided
  • 3Com network card
  • Matrox/Geforce 2 (some low-end model) AGP graphic card
  • Compaq Smart Array 3200 SCSI card, with 64mb battery-backed cache :cool:
  • 2x (soon to be either 3-4x) IBM SCSI 9.1gb drives, 7200 rpm, 2mb cache
  • IBM 10gb IDE drive
  • IDE caddy with front 4cm fan, which could take any drive - usually IBM/Hitachi 7200rpm models
  • Pioneer A06S DVD-ROM drive
  • PCI slot cooler
  • 12cm fan @ 5v - it's either YS-Tech FD1225 or FD1238 - pretty sure it's the FD1238
  • Soon to have another 2x 80mm fans installed
In all a rather beefy system, currently being powered-up by two (everything but the SCSI drives on a 300w) PSUs! :eek:

I don't want to spend more than £30 (inc VAT) plus P&P.

I think a 400-450w should cover it, but feel free to correct me.

Before I forget: do not even think about recommending Q-Tecs - full-stop. :D
 
Last edited:
basmic said:
The reason I wanted a budget PSU, is I'm not made of money.

I'd be quiet happy with some generic 450w for £15, than a 6,000,000w Q-Tec.
hehe oh I understand that.. only down at under that price/power your in Q-Tec quality range :P
 
Listen to BigDom I suggest you go with PSU like the type he suggested, you wont regret it. If you’re looking for cheaper then that then:
1. You won’t find it at OC, so you’re on your own since we can’t mention competitors, OC only stock good quality stuff (with the exception of that nasty Q-Tec, why the hell is that still listed anyway?).
2. TBH you shouldn’t skimp on the PSU, if you buy a cheap nasty one when it goes it'll most likely take the rest of the pc with it and probably within a short amount of time.

If it isn’t urgent wait and save a little, better then getting a dud pc. :)

P.S. If you think thats a beefy system you need to be slapped around a bit to bring you up to speed! :P
 
The Mad One:

The only reason I bought an Enermax for my primary (as per sig) machine, was because I wanted a stabler overclock and a lower electric bill - both of which I got. :cool:

I was perfectly happy running 400w PSUs for 2.5 years.
 
why do you want 4 small scsi hard drives and so many case fans

A low end duron system should run fine on a cheap generic psu with 1 hard drive 1 optical drive

should also run pretty cool cpu fan usually does enough cooling on its own

think about selling all the scsi kit and getting a single ide hard drive of an appropriate size as it should draw far less power than a scsi 4 drive array
40GB IDE drives go for about £30 new £20 second hand
80GB IDE drives go for about £35-40 new and £25-30 secondhand


Iv set up few systems for friends with generic sub £10 psus usually 350W
and they run fine
i tend to draw the line on a cheap psu around the 2ghz or xp2000 mark as after that the system generally becomes worth £100+
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom