Power supply question

[Jenny]

Ok, a lot of you probably read my post in Suckage about the electrical surge a month ago. (For those that haven't... http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86373 )

Long story short, the power supply in my Dell PowerEdge 400SC is fried.

Hints/tips/suggestions on where & what to buy to replace it? Not expensive, cause I have no $$, altho hopefully we'll get enough insurance to cover it, but one that is good enough quality that I don't have to worry.

TIA.

[LegendKiller]

I wouldn't get any other PSU than an Antec, their Trupower series is awesome.

I know there was an issue with Dell using PSU plugs that were reverse of ATX standards, hooking up a Dell Mobo to an ATX standard CPU would blow one of the components (forgot which), so I would check to see if they are still doing that.

[bachviet]

...

I know there was an issue with Dell using PSU plugs that were reverse of ATX standards, hooking up a Dell Mobo to an ATX standard CPU would blow one of the components (forgot which), so I would check to see if they are still doing that.
I think Dell computers have standard ATX PSU now.

[Jenny]

LOL You guys just spoke complete Greek to me. :P

[hapoo]

Translation:
Just buy an Antec

[Jeffbx]

LOTS of info specific to the 400SC in here:


http://www.aaltonen.us/forums/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=b8810bbcd72725376b8a76ec10410f95

[Jenny]

Oh, excellent, thanks.

[Bires]

Go to newegg.com and read some reviews on PS's in the $40-70 range.

Antec makes good PSs, but you have to pay for them. I've had nothing but luck with Enermax. Just read some reviews on noise/power levels/etc.

Also, you want AT LEAST 400W.

[doolittle]

if you want a deal get a power supply at frys for 15bucks or less. it will prolly only last as long as its warranty though it may last longer, if you end up buying another 1 a year later youve still only spent 30bucks. if you upgrade your computer regularly this maybe a good way to go. ive used alot of these cheap pws they work just fine for a year or longer. if you plan on keeping this box for longer than 2 years the antek is a great product and worth every penny.

[Jenny]

Got a 400w one (not Antec, too expensive) for $35 or so at newegg :)

[DarkFury]

Got a 400w one (not Antec, too expensive) for $35 or so at newegg :)
Well... you get what you pay for sometimes. Hopefully it will work out fine for you, however I still put my money on Antec as well.

The quality is worth a few extra dollars in my book.

[Jenny]

Yeah, this one got pretty good reviews (4 1/2 stars out of 5 on pricegrabber, 4 out of 5 at newegg) so I'm pretty happy. :)

[doolittle]

yea if you spend over 30bucks for 1 its prolly pretty decent. so are you sure thats the only thing wrong with it after that power surge? i would check out all the connections on the MOBO, it maybe a good idea to test out all the USB,Serial,ps2, and parallel ports ect. the techs that looked at your machine may have missed somthing , it would be a bummer if you needed one of these ports a few months down the road, only to find out somthing else got fried also.

[LegendKiller]

Well, here's what I know of Antec. I am testing a Truepower 480w, I put 2x6800GT SLI, the 146GB 15k.4, the 300GB 10k.7, and the 36LP 15k drive on *ONE* power rail. It ran perfectly until I started doing Doom3 loops at 1280x1024x6x16.

That means I put a ton of load onto one power rail and it didn't fail, thats enough for my book.

[Jenny]

LOL well, I won't have that much on there. :P So mine doesn't have to do that. Consider that I had the normal 250w that came with the computer in there and did fine. heh

and yeah, we'll check all the ports, make sure everything runs fine. :)

[Markel]

I hope your Dell has a "normal" opening for the power supply at the back of the case. The Dell we have (Dimension 4550) lacked the opening for the typical on/off switch on the back of the power supply, so I had to cut the opening for it to fit. I also had to be sure to get a power supply that had the power cord in the right position, as the Dell case would only allow on in a certain configuration (and I found that all power supplies don't follow the same standard).

[Showtime]

There are actually plenty of decent power supply companies. Some are better than Antec. Forton, Enermax and Seasonic (very highly rated) all build decent power supplies. But for your dell, I wouldn't spend too much. You only need around 350 watts if Im not mistaken and those wattage ps are on the cheap now.

You should also be able to find your dell ps on ebay for cheap.

-j