Page 2 - How to Choose A Power supply

Sorry for the late reply.

I do have one, but i can't seem to find it and as far as i remember, it didn't have a UL number either.

this thread helped me out a TON! wow, thanks for all the great info guys. I didn't know about a lot of that stuff, and I had NO CLUE how much power my computer that I'm going to build would pull, so I didn't know how big to go. The calculator said 571 watts, so I'm going to go with the OCZ GameXStream 700W psu. At it's lowest efficiency, it is 83%. At 245.8 watts it is 87.8% efficient! I'm sure some of u would have fun reading the review. If u know of a 600+ psu that has better efficiency and is still very quiet, like the OCZ, let me know, cause I'm trying to find the best one. Thanks guys!
-Paul

edit: I didn't realize there was a 600W version. Right now I'm comparing the GameXStream 600W with the Seasonic S12 600W. Both are very efficient, and very comparable as far as performance. It might just come down to looks and little personal preferences.

I'd still recommend the 700W model, the 571W draw is a minimum you should have in a PSU, not a target

And yeah, I read the review of that OCZ a while ago... they look pretty damn nice. You can, however, get it cheaper by buying the FSP version, hehe: http://www.ncix.com/products/index....P%20GROUP%20USA
And that was just a quick google search, I'm sure it can be found for cheaper elsewhere.

Snod, that's been my big problem for the last 24 hours, I'm trying to choose between the GameXStream 700W(thanks for the advice on going 700 ) and the FSP Epsilon FX700-GLN. I've been researching the 2 as much as I can, and I've sort of run into a dead end. Either way it's going to be an awesome PSU, but I want to get the better of the 2. Here's what I've found on their efficiencies compared: OCZ, Epsilon . They are very close to each other, with the epsilon seeming to be just a bit more efficient. However, the PF is around .97 and .98, where the OCZ is .99. I don't know how much this matters.

But sound is a big factor for me, so I checked and found the sound levels from this site: OCZ , Epsilon . It's weird tho, b/c I found on this forum that at most, the FSP would be 35dBa, which contradicts the neoseeker review.

Finally, the only other difference I see is that on the rails as far as amperage. The +3.3V on both is 36A and the +5V on both is 30A. However, all 4 12V rails on the OCZ are 18A, where the Epsilon's are all 15A.

As far as I can tell they are very close in performance, with the epsilon's average efficiency a bit higher than ocz, at most 2% higher. The OCZ, from the review, is quite a bit quieter tho, and has 18A per 12V rail as compared to 15A, so I would lean toward the OCZ. Can anyone clear this up for me? That would be awesome, thanks a lot for the help.
-Paul

if the ocz power factor is .99 it means that it will use a touch more power than the other one with .98 pfc. the power usage will be a touch "smoother". but the difference between .97 and .99 is f@$% all really!

id go for the ocz as it's ratings are higher and it's supposed to be quiter. you must be making a big ass system to suck 571w.

The Seasonic s12 600w is the best in its class and will even outperform some higher wattage rated psu's.

Ok, sweet, thanks for the advice. OCZ is ahead of FSP, so unless something changes before the Core 2 duo comes out, I'll go with the GameXStream.

haha, ya I'm building a nice system I've been saving up for a quite a while now. Real quick I'll give u the specs that I've researched and chosen. A few parts aren't on here, and that's because I haven't researched them yet.
Intel Core 2 Xtreme X6800 @ 2.93Ghz, 2GB OCZ EL PC2-8000 XTC: Low Latency PLUS DDR2-1100, Antec P180 case, 2 Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2's in SLI, 2 Western Digital 150GB Raptors in RAID 0, OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU, and to top it all off for now, the Samsung Syncmaster 244T 24" widescreen, HDCP monitor
-Paul

That is a very good PSU, and I actually researched that too, but according to this review it is very comparable to the GameXStream in performance. Actually, they're almost identical in efficiency and noise if the reviews are correct, so for the 100W extra, I chose OCZ. If u want to look at the OCZ review, it's in my original post in this thread.

Do u agree or am I missing something. I tried to be thorough, but I don't know all there is to know about PSUs. Thanks
-Paul

y do u need to build a pc using the fastest cpu and gpus???

what the hell do you need the power for???

the seasonic 600w is an awesome power supply, is was the best by far in a review i saw, but there werent any 700w power supplies in there. id expect the ocz 700w to be better, but i cant confirm that!

there must be some reviews on it, do some searching!

No..your right gusta, the Seasonic s12 600w is one of the best if not the best, but only against other 600w psu's......that ocz 700w is in a different class and has excellent rails, so I would opt for that if the extra power is needed.

I have searched a LOT, those links were the best reviews on the OCZ I could find. They're pretty good reviews, although I like Anandtech's and Tom's Hardware's review styles the best. As I said, the performances of the 2 are very close, pretty much identical, the only differences really are the OCZ has quad 12V rails, and is 700W.

I'm building a system with the fastest CPU and GPUs so I don't have to upgrade next year. It's a system built for the future. I figure if u can do it, go all out, it's more fun and lasts longer!

Ok, thanks a lot for the help guys, u made my decision a lot easier, I appreciate it.

how do u no if the power suply u want will fit in your machine?

bc there's a standard. the ATX standard. your psu that you choose might be a bit too long, but you can always mount the PSU outside your case.

it should fit. what case do u have?

Yep, they should all be standardized. Like pyro said, some of them are longer then most, but then only reason they don't fit then is becuase of an exhaust fan in certain cases, or something else that blocks it. But it should, theoretically, fit.