PSU blew out; what is the best replacement to buy?

desigamer

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My PSU recently blew out, so I need a replacement. The PSU I was using was a Colors-It 550w 115/230V (for sale on here and here).

What is the best replacement to buy? I'm looking for a possible more efficient and reliable PSU. A PSU calculator worked out that I need 450w minimum, though i'd prefer to keep it safe and buy another 550w. PC specs can be found here (though I now have a total of 1.5tb as HDD - mixed). Thank you :thumbsup: .
 
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always go for a decent powersupply. corsair are one of the best at the moment. if it breaks send it back and they will give you a new one no questions asked. my tx750 blew up on me, they took it back and sent me a new one i sold it.

i took the chance and got a a 850watt.

when every component is linked to the pSU avoid cheep ones.

think of a cheep PSU like a snapping cambelt on your car, when it snaps it usually takes something out with it,
 
Just to let you all know, i've totally gone against all of your advice and re-bought the same PSU as before :thumbsup: :rotfl:

Nice one, thanks, just like the Dabs one only 50W less power and different delivery arrangements. Thanks for the link to that new(er) site. I've seen a decent one on eBay with competitive all in postage price.

How long did the old one last?
 
Nice one, thanks, just like the Dabs one only 50W less power and different delivery arrangements. Thanks for the link to that new(er) site. I've seen a decent one on eBay with competitive all in postage price.

How long did the old one last?

The old one must've lasted since ~March '09. I'm not too bothered about it blowing out again, since the PC is in need of an upgrade soon anyway.

I've read decent reviews of the ColorsIt/CIt brand, so i'm not too fazed about it being a cheapie. If the new one lasts around 2 years, I would be happy with the purchase tbh.
 
I'm about to order a 350W Gold one. I'll only use about a 1/4 of that power but it should run cooler and for longer. My current one is branded "FSP" and came in an "NEC" tower. It only has 4.2A on the 12V rail :( but has lasted 10 years still going strong :)
 
cokker, you are forgetting to add in the 5V and 3.3V rails which on a good supply account for around 33% of the power, more on a bad/old supply, such as my 10 year old one.
 
The 3.3v and 5v rails have very small roles in a computer (RAM, USB and legacy devices), the wattage they can provide isn't usable by other parts. You can't add them to the 12v wattage, on the contrary if the 3.3v and 5v are being used heavily then the 12v wattage will have to help them out.

The 12v rail has to supply the motherboard, CPU and graphics card, as well as helping out any other parts (hard drives at start up) that need it.

At the end of the day, if you use a cheap power supply be prepared to take the risk, I had a cheap power supply break on me, burning the AGP port ruining the graphics card and motherboard as well the CPU.
 
Traditional IDE disk power comprised both 5V and 12V power lines. Laptop 2.5" SATA disks don't require their 12V connector so I might try disconnecting that on a spare SATA cable to balance my load better.

Reassuring to hear that at least the USB 5V supply comes from the PSU and not the motherboard's conversion of the PSU's 12V.

Why would RAM use 5V and 3.3V when it will be at a similar level ~1.5V to the CPU ~1-1.3V? Is this the only voltage the CPU uses (at any one time)? If so I might better understand offloading the conversion to a secondary power rail. All I had hoped to use my 5V was my drives and USB. RAM uses minimal power, IMO, 2-4W per board.

I'd be interested to see a PSU that offers more than 70% of its rated power on its 12V rail(s)?

You can't add them to the 12v wattage, on the contrary if the 3.3v and 5v are being used heavily then the 12v wattage will have to help them out.

This is why PSU's allocate 33% of their rated power to the 3.3V and 5V lines- so as to spare the 12V line.
 
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Okay guys, i received and installed the new PSU today, but i'm having issues. I connected everything properly and it booted up fine, but it automatically shut itself down after a few minutes. I turned it on again straight away and it last about 8 seconds. Turned it on again and it powered off within 2 secs, and so on.

I've read up and someone mentioned something about leaving the PSU powered on for a while (at least 15 mins) to let a battery charge, so after 15 minutes it booted up, but again only lasted about 5 minutes. It then shut off quicker after another power on.

Just be warned, that's no where near 550w, you'd be lucky to draw 350w.

Two poor 16 amp rails will roughly equal 28 amps (being generous) 28amp x 12v = 336w
Could this be the reason? It wouldn't really make sense though, as the previous power supply was exactly this one (albeit an older version, with more molex connectors).

I did notice that my old PSU had voltages of:
28A / 30A / 20A / 20A / 0.5A / 2A - 550W

While my new one has:
28A / 30A / 16A / 16A / 0.3A / 2.5A - 550W

Do those figures make any difference? What's my next step? I'm thinking to test each component. Also, I should mention that my 'new' PSU had a broken seal on the box - possible faulty/old PSU sent? It seemed new enough.
 
If a seal was broken then I'd say you should take it up with the retailer asking why and maybe return it for a better PSU.

The worst case scenario is that the old PSU has taken one of the components out with it, which of course is not fun as it can be hard to tell which etc.
 
The older power supply's 2 x 20amp rails would have helped (36amps-ish combined = 432w).

How many hard drives do you have? Boot-up issues are normally power relating to the spin up, some hard drives can draw around 30 watts during this time.

If the seal has been broken when you received it I'd be inclined to ask for a replacement.

Also what is this battery you speak of?
 
The older power supply's 2 x 20amp rails would have helped (36amps-ish combined = 432w).

How many hard drives do you have? Boot-up issues are normally power relating to the spin up, some hard drives can draw around 30 watts during this time.

If the seal has been broken when you received it I'd be inclined to ask for a replacement.

Also what is this battery you speak of?

I was wondering this too

:rotfl: I have no clue, I just read about someone being advised to leave it for 15 minutes on another forum.

BUT, you guys will probably laugh - I found out what the problem was...

After consulting the BIOS voltage/fan speed page, I noticed my CPU fan was running at 0 RPM. I opened the case up and saw that my messily placed wires were resting on the fan, causing the CPU to overheat. I've now relocated them and everything's fine an' dandy :D .
 
Hehe glad you got it sorted, the only battery I can think of is the one for the BIOS, taking it out for 15 minutes will clear the BIOS and any settings you may have done.

Not the kind that can be recharged :D
 

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