Power Supplies

[Guest Sparkie]

This is to aid people in their buying decisions.

 

I've picked Power Supplies because I believe its the most important but often overlooked component in the system.

 

You get what you pay for with Power Supplies.

 

Power supplies are relatively simple devices. There isn't any 'new' technology being poured into them, just better (and worse) manufacturing methods.

 

The differences in prices lie in the quality of components being put in them.

 

Most power supplies are manufactured by only a handful of factories. The factories sell them to companies. Those companies put their name on them and might make a few of their own 'enhancements' (Better fan, LED's,modular etc).

 

The most important thing to keep in mind is reliability. Company A might have a very plain, single fan, 500W P/S that sells for $100. Company B might have a 550W P/S that sells for $50 and also has two fans that are controllable. You might think to yourself "Hey I get more wattage AND 2 fans that modulate for half the price". In fact you'd be buying a  cheaper, more unreliable P/S with internal components that are more likely to fail sooner and create problems for you.

 

Spending an extra hundred dollars or so to have clean, reliable power is more important than anything else. The power supply should be the first and most important thing considered when building a system.

 

A cheap Power supply can fail taking out expensive computer components with it. You will also lose many hours trying to troubleshoot whats gone wrong. If you have 1 PC controlling  your entire home automation system, its importance becomes vital.

 

PC's and Electronics are similar to our bodies. Both depend on energy to function correctly. But the QUALITY of energy being fed to them is the most important.

 

Do the research, spend the money.

 

Mark

[Billped]

Your post is spot on, but begs the question: how can we judge quality?  The answer isn't "spend more", because companies can and do create the impression of quality by charging more but discounting more frequently - "I got a $200 PSU with a $150 rebate so I ONLY paid $50!!"

 

I guess what I a looking for is a high quality PSU at the best price.  I am willing to pay more, but don't want to simply go out and pay $150 to PC power and cooling where a $70 PSU from another brand would give me 90+% of the quality.

 

 

Bill

[j5428]

I just got a corsair vx550w from buy.com for $84.99 - $20 Google checkout promo and - $20 Corsair rebate. $44.99 Shipped.  That one was hard to pass up.  It has a single 12v rail as recommended for unRAID.  Reviews are excellent.  The Antec Earthwatts I had before it was running 10 drives fine.  The specs on the Antec said it had dual 12v rails.

[SSD]

Although I agree that you don't want to buy a crappy PSU, I also don't think you need the very best.  I'd say its more a question of staying away from the bottom 25%, than aiming for the top.  YMMV, but I've always bought decent brands with enough watts for my application, and have never had any screwy PSU problems.  I have had a few die over the years, but that is pretty rare.

 

I find the biggest mistake people make is underestimating the amount of cooling they need or should have.  I probably go overboard here, but fans are cheap and keeping computer components cool pays off in longevity and reliability.  I avoid fans smaller than 120mm whenever possible, as they are noisy and don't move much air.  I have activie cooling on every hard drive.  I also pick PSUs with bigger (120mm) fans.

 

Here is an interesting article on PSUs that explains everything you ever wanted to know - including single vs multi-rail.  It explains some of the deceptive tricks that PSU manufacturers use in advertising their "specs".  Very iworthwhile read.  http://www.playtool.com/pages/psucompat/compat.html

 

[Guest Sparkie]

I agree that you should shop around and not overspend. But if a Power suplly is a quality product it usually doesn't fluctuate too much in price unless it's becoming obsolete in the market. I work as a controls electrician and we do have a margin of mark-up on the products we install. We do have room to give "deals" and still make a little profit but we wouldn't sell a $500 board for $75...