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So the box I use as a server PSU just died and I'm looking to replace it. It was a FSP 530W and lasted about 4 and a half years so I'm pretty happy with that. The server is just an old 3.0Ghz P4e with 2 GB of ram, 3 hard drives, a pair of optical drives I never use, and a ATI 9500 Pro.

The thing is I have an Antech Truepower-2 550W in my desktop (that is about 3 years old) that I could move to my server. The desktop is a PentiumD, that I hope to upgrade to a quad core2 someday, with a Nvidia 9600GT and pulls more power then the server so there would be a bigger savings to put a good power efficient PSU there first.

I guess I'm looking for suggestions on what is a good, power efficient PSU to pick up. After 3 or 4 years I'm even sure what is a good brand anymore.

One of these fine power supplies should be adequate for a powerful gaming PC.

Thanks, I did see that list. It is a pretty long list which is why I was asking for manufacture preferences.

Brands? Well most brands have had some hits and misses, but in general for best record I've seen are Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, and Corsair. I've seen some lemon Antecs but overall they are good. I've never had a bad Corsair, or PC Power & Cooling. Haven't used a lot of Seasonic (well actually branded seasonic that is, I've used a few corsairs that were seasonic), but the ones I've seen in use seem good.

Thanks for the response, I had pretty good luck with that FPS PSU, 4.5 years isn't bad. Because I wanted my server up soon, I picked up a 600W with free shipping that was supposed to be >85% efficiency (well I'm expecting 85%+ what the wattage range I expect to be running the PSU in). I got the 600W vs a 500W because it worked out to be cheaper then the 500W PSU because of the free shipping. The one thing I did like was the MFTF was >100,000 hours so if I can hit that range I'll be really happy.

I was looking at PC Power & Cooling and Seasonic but they seemed to cost more for about the same thing and I haven't ever used them but it's good to know they work well for the future. It seems odd that Corsair has PSU but hey if they work well why not.

New PSU came today, so I dropped it in the Desktop. According to APC powerchute, power usage is now 233W with both cores going full out Including the monitor. With the Antec 550 I think it was about 275W with the monitor. The monitor counts for about 20W so looks like I'm saving about 37-40W with the new PSU. Not bad at all really. So at with power being about .12 a KW it will save me like 40 bucks a year.

Which power supply did you end up getting? A FSP 600W? That TruPower 550 seems quite inefficient I am a bit surprised.

Yep a FSP 600W. I was surprised as well that the 550 was that inefficient. Though if i subtract 20W for a monitor and figure if they quote >85% (82% might be ok) for the FSP I would get 215 * .82 = 176W used by the system. So the TruPower 550 would be 255 * X = 176, x = ~70%. Really that doesn't seem that far off, it isn't one of the high efficiency models. Looking at the stuff on newegg most models are in the 60 or 70% range, if they aren't "high end".

Pretty much pays for itself in 2 years. Overall I'm pretty happy, we'll see how this PSU does over time.