Reply to post: Re: I know it's NYE and you all want to go home, but really..

Re: I know it's NYE and you all want to go home, but really..

"it comes out at 491W - which is a little close to 500W, but still within boundaries."

That, assuming the tolerances in the calculations are ok, doesn't leave enough room to upgrade the dust on the fans let alone the system.

Even for a top notch 500 watt psu I'd not want to gulp more than 400 watts worst case peak. Even then I'd be looking at 650 watts to be on the safe side. After all, the system will almost certainly need to be upgraded or repaired at some point.

In any case, these are switchmode units, so there should be virtually no extra power draw, and the cost of the extra 150 watt margin is nowhere near pro rata.

There's something else to bear in mind. I'm sitting next to a box with a quality 650 watt unit. the computer ticks over at just over 100 watts. Or did until I upgraded the graphics card a while ago. It probably sips a bit more now. The point is that psu fan is just about turning and effectively inaudible.

Ok the box takes some more when all 4 cores and the graphics card are going flat out, but still nowhere near the 650 watt limit, and is still very quiet and cool. Which is what I built it to be.

The point here is that the machine described in the article is a volume unit, built down to a price. It'd be very interesting to know exactly what is fitted (brand) and who makes it. Also what the chances are of the next batch having a different unit of the same claimed rating.

Personally, I'd need to be sure that HP hadn't commissioned a reduced cost special which might be sourced from anywhere. Might have a known brand stuck on it or be own branded. FCC numbers might tell us something.

Off topic slightly, but I've got an old Compac hand-me-down here with an ASUS mobo. With a specially borked bios. Why? I wonder what else ASUS have done to it for them? Not actually looked at the psu. Form, as they say.

There seem to be an army of psu brands out there, but relatively few manufacturers. And even fewer decent ones.

There's a well known electronics wholesaler offering a named (never heard of it) brand 500w psu for under 12 quid +vat at the moment for 1 off. At that price would YOU want to risk your mobo, memory, hard disk, data?

Icon seemed appropriate for a cheap psu.