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X-Connect 500W Modular PSU
VL writes "Sure, power supply reviews aren't all that interesting, but we take a look at one nice PSU that delivers power where it counts, and best of all, it is the best modular setup we've seen in this market segment."
so, come on, what's the deal?
* Posted by CmdrTaco
* by VL, viperlair, the company selling these PSU's
NEWS for Nerds or STUFF for Nerds? If I need stuff for nerds I go to my local PC supplier or I go to thinkgeek but this is a lil bit over the top not ?
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
"According to specifications, the fans will generate 34 dB of noise at full speed, which is certainly far from silent."
I was kinda psyched a while back when I replaced my old power supplies on two boxes w/ 400 watters. (the biggest i had heard of at the time). Stupidly, I failed to realize how much louder the new power supplies were. I don't know how many dbs exactly, though they verge on annoying.
TODO: come up with a clever sig
...is one of these for my Shuttle. Thing's too small for the excess wires running about.
(what I'd really like to see is a departure from the ATX connector on the Shuttles, moving to something smaller with less wires and higher amperage rated connections, but that's beside the point.)
Karma: Negative (Mostly affected by dorm trolling)
In case you didn't notice, this very nice review was brought to you you by a nice dotcom that has absolutely no interest in making you visit them....
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I wouldn't label this as a "top of the line" "only the rich have" item. I dropped $90 on an antec PSU at 480 watts becuase the no name one I had didn't cut it. I can not stress enough the importance of buying a quality PSU, because it is such a hard thing to reconize when it is causing trouble. So exspect to spend around $100 on a quality power rig PSU. Another point of intrest to me is that that is a really inovative idea with the modular plugs. Seriously, when was the last time you saw something change in PSUs and it made you say "wow, that is really something different."
404
Despite all the bitching about this article being a paid ad, this PSU looks fairly useful.
The other day when I was blowing all the dust out of my case, I saw all those unused power cords strung about all over the place and wished I could get rid of them.
Since we're getting rid of bulky ribbon cables with S-ATA, it would be nice to get rid of all that other spaghetti too.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
He didn't even push the PSU, yet say that it was more than able. Eh? He had one HD... How about 4 drives in a raid (so they're all active), and then see how it fares playing some games (so the gpu is taxed too)?
The modular connections looked like something I might want though.
Each connector provides additional resistance in the circuit leading to voltage sags and heat build up in the connectors.
I'd be more interested if this PSU offered high efficiency and Active PFC. (Active PFC opens the way for more efficient PSU designs). Current PSUs offer an electrical efficiency of about 68% - on a high-end system, the PSU could be pumping out over 100 W of heat itself, making it even more of a space heater than the CPU - and requiring substantial fans too.
Modern industrial SMPSs can achieve electrical efficiencies which are much higher. I've seen telecoms grade 400W PSUs claim efficiency of over 95% - so the technology exists to mass produce these things today.
Also, this review made no mention of protection systems:
Incredibly, the safety features listed above, are not standard on all PC PSUs - only a very few offer crowbar protection.
Yeah. Its like the firewall in software:
user: I have a problem with my hardware....
idiot: how big is your psu?
user: 300W
idiot: NOT ENOUGH. GET MORE. OF COURSE your system is unstable with only 300W...
A 3.6GHZ Prescott with a NV40 and 2 GB ram draws about 220W from your PSU. So NOBODY needs a 500W PSU for a single cpu system, even if he has 10 discs or so.
In fact some of the "bigger" psus have so little rating on their 12V lines that downgrading can help. My old 420W psu wouldnt boot with 8 drives, only with 6. My new 350W has no problems whatever...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Depends. First of all, get brand-name PSUs. It doesn't have to be a super high profile brand like Antec or Enermax, there are equally good/better, cheap PSUs by other manufacturers, but no-name PSUs are horrible. Or at least they used to be - the rule was that any brand-name PSU was more powerful than a no-name PSU of twice the rating. Looking around on the net is a pretty good idea, although most PSU reviews really suck.
That said, most people I know buy way too powerful PSUs. 350W really gets you a long way - as I'm writing this, my 350W hec PSU powers a GF4 Ti4200, an XP 1800+, three hard drives and one optical drive. I'm fairly certain there's still room for more, I think a 300W PSU would be sufficient for this system. I'm curious whether it'd break if I installed a cutting edge graphics card which at some point were claimed to require a 450W PSU.
Buying a PSU that is too powerful for your system isn't a big deal, though. PSUs run most efficient when they're being used close to their maximum rating, but I don't think the efficiency difference is that great. So you can't go wrong if you buy a 400W PSU - you'll just spend more than you have to, for one thing.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
"All the cables are sleeved with a tinned copper braid, which act to shield the rest of the PC from EMI." How cables that transmit DC power going to generate EMI? If if a device's current draw is fluctuation enough to cause RF propagation the device needs to be replaced, not sheild the DC transmition cables.