good power supply

**modena** · 08-01-2005, 06:19 AM

Is this a good power supply?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7&Sku=ULT31312

I need a 550w or more watt one, and I wanted it somewhat fancy, so I just wanted to check if this one would be good or not. (for an AMD system)

**Fas-ligand** · 08-01-2005, 07:28 AM

I believe this is quite similar to the power supply I have for an AMD system (one of the Barton chips) and I've had no problems with it.

**modena** · 08-01-2005, 07:32 AM

Cool because I also found this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148008
Was trying to figure out which one to go with.

It seems that my old power supply is weak in my system now, because I get regular messages from my video card, that it has just set itself to a lower speed because it is not getting enough power.

**Grimm** · 08-01-2005, 09:01 AM

Why do you need 550W?
The Ultras are trash. For a few months they put out some good units, but their quality quickly went into the crapper.
Aspire is OK from what I have heard. But I can't reccomend it as I am not familiar with it.
Good 550W PSUs:
Fortron FSP550-60PLN
Antec TP-II 550

Good PSU manufaturers:
PC Power & Cooling
Antec
Zippy (generaly for only high end stuff)
Enermax
OCZ
Hiper
Seasonic
Fortron
XClio
Vantec
Tagan
Sparkle
Cooler Master

**modena** · 08-01-2005, 09:06 AM

Well I currently have either 350 or 400 now ( I will check tonight when I get home) and I am having the video card problem that I stated above. I want to have ample power, as I may plan to hookup additional HD's and other drives in the future.
let me know, I am all ears (well fingers too, as I can respond!)

**Grimm** · 08-01-2005, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by modena

Well I currently have either 350 or 400 now ( I will check tonight when I get home) and I am having the video card problem that I stated above. I want to have ample power, as I may plan to hookup additional HD's and other drives in the future.
let me know, I am all ears (well fingers too, as I can respond!)

A quality 400W will give better power than a crap 500W.
Old PSUs get weak and die, you might not need anything more than a 450, but extra room won't hurt.
But look at quality over brute watts.

**DarkFury** · 08-01-2005, 09:29 AM

I always say... check for the power handling capabilty on the +12V rails... The closer to 30A or more on the +12V rail, the better.

Today's "power hungry" systems are putting more demands on Power Supplies than ever before. With mobos, multiple hard drives, fans and now video cards that need their own dedicated 12V connection... you'd better make sure that your power supply is up to the task of feeding everything enough power to run properly... (or BAD things could happen... )

This is why I am now going to a 2 P/S setup... I finally was running so much stuff that I could see my PC actually not running all that good (I guess 5 hard drives and a GeForce 6800 will do that huh?)