Reliable power at what cost?

[Ironcat]

This is my first mod so I am going to have a ton of questions. Bear with me...

I got what I thought was a good deal on a power supply. It is a 430w true power from Antec. After all my rebates and whatever it was 79 bucks.

Then I got what I think is an even better deal on a 650w by a company called BFG Tech. I had not yet opened the Antec so I bought the BFG and figured I could just return the Antec whenever. This was only 59 bucks after rebates. I never heard of BFG but I figure power is power, right?

A friend is trying to do a warranty / return / shipping back and forth blah blah with a 480w true power by Antec. In the meantime he has bought himself a new power supply and offered me the 480. It is still in the arguing with the company stage so who knows if it will work but if it does, I just have to pay his shipping.

Bearing in mind that my mod is going to have a few lighted fans and maybe a molex for some extra LEDS but nothing over the top... Is the 650w company's powerbox worth keeping at all? Is it overkill? Is there such a thing as too much power? If the 480w works out, is this good enough? Is the original 430 good enough? What should I do?

[ajmilton]

the wattage depends entirely on what you're sticking in the case :P

for instance, if you're running a pair of cards in SLI, you're going to >need< the extra power

on the ohter hand, if you're running minimal amount of stuff (one HD, low end graphics, etc) the 430 should be fine :P

got this link from crimson sky the other day
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

should help you determine your power needs.

[.Maleficus.]

I would keep the 650W if I were you.

You will most likely appreciate the extra power in the future. Antec is a good brand, but so is BFG Tech. BFG mainly makes video cards from what I've seen from them, but they aren't bad by any means.

[podpet24]

Yeah, more power isn't exactly a bad thing. Besides, you could always have the option of adding more stuff into a case with more wattage.

[simon275]

Unless you have a large system with lots of HDD, Burners, and an SLI setup I would actually go for the 430w PSU. As it produces alot less heat then the 650w. Yes I know the heat is vented out the back but the PSU does raise the abiment air temp in the case as well. Really depends though whether you want a couple of extra degrees or future profing. The choice is yours.

[Silenced_Coyote]

To be more accurate about the heat each PSU expels, you would have to look at the efficiency of the load you are putting on it. Because if your PC draws 350W and both PSUs have 75% efficiency at that load, then they should both put out the same amount of energy lost to heat.

Edit:

The above was just an example. I do not know how efficient either PSUs are on a load of 350W, or any other load for that matter.

[public_eyesore]

Whats the specs of your computer? If your buying a high power psu but dont need it, your gonna have a hefty un-needed electric bill.

[Razors Edge]

BFG tech is accually pretty good. I have a BFG Tech Geforce 6600 GT OC and a BFG tech Geforce 7800.

There pretty reliable.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Whats the specs of your computer? If your buying a high power psu but dont need it, your gonna have a hefty un-needed electric bill.

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't power supplies only drawing the power that your system needs? So if your PC only needs 500W and you have a 650W PSU, it will only put out 500W. It would be more accurate to talk about efficiency.

Both companies are good. I would stick with BFG because it will give you more upgradability if you so choose to. Not only that, but since you capitalized on rebates, it is also less expensive. So return the Antec and get more of your money back.

[Ronyx]

i would say future proof it and don't listen to the electricity bill c**p. the PSU only draws as much as it needs to to run your system. the 650W PSU's are 650 because that is their maximum capacity with their wireing and stuff. plus if you futureproof now you won't have issues in the future of having to cut back on equipment just because you don't have the sufficient power.

[Ironcat]

Alright... Y'all decided me.
I am going with the 650 for a few reasons.

1. Future proofing myself if I decide to add things later.
2. I am really not too worried about what effect my computer will have on my electrical bill.
3. I don't KNOW my specs yet... as I see things go on sale I buy them. So far I only have a case, a power supply, 1 hard drive, and a dvd burner.

[Razors Edge]

I still think you should get a 750. You'll be sorry you didn't.

[klingelton]

heh, anyone remember that whirring sound of a hdd trying to spin up despite not having enough power.

i remember the day about 10 years ago when i thought i was cool. I put 2 cd rom drives (for some reason) in my pc, 2 hdd (6.4gb and a 1gb) and some other stuff. my pc powered up but crashed alot, especially when i opened a cd drive. turned out that 220w wasn't enough to power all that!!

btw im still not cool, im a g33k

[Zephik]

Well I just thought of something...

I think that computer components in the future will be of course more powerful than the ones we have now but they will probably also take less power to run. So really... a 600W PSU is plenty right?

I think it is kind of like the conroe. Alot of CPU's are more power equals more heat. But with the conroe... even more power than the best Pentium Dual Core but it runs as cool as like what? A celeron?

So I think thats the next thing that they are going to try and work on is less power consumption.

Just an opinion/thought.

-SF

[ajmilton]

i dunno, snowfire. i have seen a lot of advances in computer stuff, but all of them require more power.
smaller chips tend to mean that more chips are packed into the same space, requiring more power to drive them.
people are more concerned with big numbers as far as processing and computing power goes. they don't care so much about wattage and heat. especially people who are doing hefty computing - hardcore gamers, digital animators, high-end CAD applications etc.
i don't see power consumption going down any in the near future :p