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ALEX1974 · Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:34 pm

I found an Enermax 350W and a Chieftac 360W.The former is more expensive but looks nicer and it has 2 fans that you can adjust their rotaion?Which one would you recommend?I amust emphasize that i use only 1 hdd,1 cd-rom,1 cd-recorder,XP 2400( 1700+@2000).In that case would the 300W enermax be sufficient?It is cheaper and i want to seve some money...thanks!

Kid Chaos · Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:50 pm

Enermax. Quality assured.

boobyne · Tue Jan 21, 2003 2:51 pm

From the choices that you give, and assuming that you're talking about cases and not cases with power supplies, go with the Enermax.

Antec also makes good psu's. I have a TruePower 330W and it works very well.

300W will work, but you are better off not going below 350w or higher. PSU's are not an area to skimp on. If you do go 300W, be sure to get a "branded" psu (i.e. Antec, Enermax, etc.)

Also, consider getting a UPS.

sativa · Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:45 pm

this doens't include chieftec but its worth looking at

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1774

ALEX1974 · Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:07 pm

thanks for the replies..i think i will choose enermax...although i feel sorry about the 100 euro i am going to spend :-?

Buub · Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:10 pm

Cheap is usually the opposite of quality when it comes to things like power supplies and RAM.

boobyne · Tue Jan 21, 2003 5:34 pm

I know how you feel.

Even though you don't need a case, sometimes Enermax has good deals on nice cases with Enermax psu's in them for about 2x more than you would spend on the psu itself. That way, you get a high quality psu and a nice case at the same time. It's worth a look.

ALEX1974 · Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:23 pm

No i will use my old Codegen case...it is a simple design.I won't spend more on my case now,maybe later i will get a nice looking noname case with a plexiglass window...do you know whether these plexi windows have any negative effects on heat dissipation or noise??

eckslax · Tue Jan 21, 2003 6:40 pm

I wouldn't worry about it because of the fact that most hardcore overclockers have some kind of window in their case. I am talking about the kind of crazy people that spend hundreds on mods and cooling, so I doubt that they would settle for something that is going to hurt heat dissipation. I have a window in the side of my case and don't notice any difference one way or another.

ALEX1974 · Mon Jan 27, 2003 6:35 pm

Hmmm i purchased the Enermax Ax-VE 365 but i am not too satisfied...
5V value is at 4.93
12V value is at 11.89...
Isn't this a bit low for a top power supply?Could it be that it is because of the motherboard or something else? :-?

Otherwise it has a lot of features and excellent constraction.The second 92 mm ventilator was very noisy and i unplaged it already....only 1 C difference,not big deal!

Austin · Mon Jan 27, 2003 7:37 pm

I'd advise against disabling any of the inbuilt PSU fans (if that's what you meant) as they are a significant part of keeping the important parts of the PSU cool, if one of them is in any way noisy it is not a good sign (try a little oil on the rear of the centre of the fan). The rails are fine and have a fair degree of changability/adaptability (as do the devices running on them), well within spec, no consumer PSU is ever going to provide 100% perfect voltages although it is more ideal to be a little over than a little under.

ALEX1974 · Mon Jan 27, 2003 8:08 pm

Yes i also thought that voltages should have been a bit higher than normal rather than a bit lower :cry:

Concerning the intake fan,it is not that important i believe,since there are big heatsinks in the power supply and a goodair flow produced by the external fan... :wink:

eckslax · Mon Jan 27, 2003 8:24 pm

Even so, Austin was right. The second fan will keep your PSU cooler and lengthen the life of your unit. Then again, it is your decision and your ears, so do whatever seems right to you.

Aphasia · Tue Jan 28, 2003 3:19 am

ALEX1974
How did you measure voltage, if you use a multimeter it probably wont show the same numbers as the built in monitor.

And those values should be within spec.
5V is within 1,4% and 12V is witin 0.9%
IIRC correctly the spec is at least a 5% tolerance ans most computers will probably take up to 10% depending on line, load etc.

It also depends what you have running to drain each line. And look at the 3,3V line, is that 3,3 or 4,5....many things use 4,5V for the 3,3 volt line today.

Rakhmaninov3 · Tue Jan 28, 2003 4:27 am

I'll plug this case I have once again--Enermax Alienware-like box w/330W powersupply, lotta **** running in it, no problems, stays cool.

ALEX1974 · Tue Jan 28, 2003 7:09 am

I simply use the via hardware monitor utility to measure these values...the 3.3 V value is at 3.4...
i just thought for instance that 5.05 is better than 4.93..at least this is what i read in some enermax reviews!

AntecRep · Wed Jan 29, 2003 10:41 am

Don't trust the voltage readings you get from software. A multimeter is best.

Technically closer to spec is better, but most overclockers have found that higher tends to be better (mostly because their drawing more power, so if they start higher they have more wiggle room). Beyond that you have to look at the fluctuations of the readings the wider they are the worse off you are (granted you'll normally have some fluctuations).

AntecRep

ALEX1974 · Wed Jan 29, 2003 12:55 pm

Yes actually there are fluctuations too....4.93 to 4.85 and 11.95 to 11.88 all the time plus after a game or during the voltages even drop a little more...practically these values are not better than my old 10 Euro 300Wcodegen !And i wonder why did i spend 100 Euro for this Enermax power supply....maybe there is something that i don't realize right now but later :-?

Austin · Wed Jan 29, 2003 5:39 pm

Enermax aren't as good as the likes of Antec BUT they are still very good and reliable, obviously you get a few duds with any brand. It's a shame Antec aren't sold more globaly, those USA'ers get things far too good. If your rails stay within 5% of spec there is no prob at all, even 10%+ is little to worry about. Sw monitoring is only there as a rough guide so take it with a pinch of salt. Having a branded PSU will always be MUCH better, it's not just how close they run the rails to spec but a whole wealth of other things too. Even so Enermax are MUCH better than Chieftec in my and others experience.

Aphasia · Thu Jan 30, 2003 4:57 am

Weird.. i did a post here yesterday evening... but it seems the net ate my post.....*grumble*

Anyway.. unless it makes the computer go unstable, dont worry about it. Ive found sparkle to be the best PSU ive ever used.

I dont like toms but they did manage to get a sparkle 300w to 390w before it went into safe shutdown, a lot of other psu's just blew up instead of shutting down.

Austin · Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:23 am

Yeah I've heard a lot of good things about Sparkle too. ToPower are also less well known but very good PSUs too.

AntecRep · Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:33 pm

We do sell in Europe, Australia and parts of Asia.

http://www.antec-inc.com/buy.html

AntecRep

Austin · Thu Jan 30, 2003 3:50 pm

It must surely be pretty recent then because I found them impossible to track down when I snagged my Enermax. Looking at your UK e-tailers I see:

ebuyer (never touch them EVER again)
insight (always seemed a little too pricey)
jungle (okay but rarely think of them for PC parts)
Simply (always seemed far too pricey)
PC Upgrader (I'll check them out)

:wink:

I use http://www.dabs.com http://www.komplett.co.uk http://www.savastore.com but do also usually check out http://www.simply.co.uk http://www.insight.com/uk http://www.aria.co.uk http://www.cclcomputers.co.uk and http://www.scan.co.uk

drizzt · Sun Apr 06, 2003 8:32 am

Yes,yes enermax definately "TRUE POWER"...

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