Which power supply?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 10:55:23PM -0400, William Park wrote:
> While we're on the topic of "building" computers... Which power supply
> (around 500W) would you recommend?  For other components, I can pretty
> much follow my nose.  But, power supply is one component that I have to
> defer to the experts.

I always check www.hardwaresecrets.com's power supply reviews before
buying one.  They really seem to understand power supplies and have the
right equipment to test them.

If you want a quick start, go to http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/awards
and find power supplies that they gave a golden award (or at least an
award), and read the reviews for those.  Then assuming the review is
recent the power supply should still be in production.

You generally can't trust the specs any power supply manufacturer provides
(there are a few exceptions, but not many).

You can't even assume that one company makes good power supplies and
another makes bad ones as reading the reviews on hardwaresecrets will
show you.  For example the Corsair HX line (of which I recently bought a
750W) is excellent if you get the 750, 850 or 1000W models.  If you get
the smaller ones, they are made by a different supplier, with a totally
different (and pretty awful) design.  So even within one model series
from a manufacturer you can have good power supplies and bad ones.

For example OCZ has a ModXStream Pro 600W
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_443&item_id=019983
that you can currently buy for $65.  It got a golden award in the review
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/OCZ-ModXStream-Pro-600-W-Power-Supply-Review/936/1
as did the 500W version (which canada computers doesn't appear to carry).

The Antec Basiq BP500U looks very good too getting the same golden award
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-Basiq-BP500U-Power-Supply-Review/792/1
and it goes for $60 if it was actually in stock:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_442&item_id=011140

The Antec EarthWatts 500 W looks nice too
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-EarthWatts-500-W-Power-Supply-Review/526/1
and sells for $75
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_442&item_id=012267

So there are plenty there to pick from.  I pretty much just find what
hardwaresecrets gives a golden award, try to find one of the more
efficient ones (some do 80%+ efficiency a lot better than others),
and then try to find one I like the price on that I can actually get.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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