How to find the 5v line on a power supply?

False. OEM supplies tend to be among the best, such as Delta, Lite-On,
Enhance, and high-end Channel Well, and I've never seen deficient ones
except in old e-Machines and some containing defective capacitors.

 

I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt, considering one of
the abrupt replies, but it's not easy.

You say the power supply is "AMD certified" and the advertising says
"Intel Certified / AMD Recommended"

But after a tiny amount of research, I don't find any evidence that
it's AMD recommended or Intel certified. About 30 power supply
makers are listed on AMD's web site, but Rexus isn't one of them.
Searching for "Intel certified" and "Rexus" produces no meaningful
results.

 

AMD and Intel certifications are very low standards, practically
meaningless, as shown by all the Deer and Powmax supplies approved by
them. Only Nvidia's SLI certification may be worth anything.

And why should they when Antec is but a marketer that produces nothing?
Large OEMs instead deal directly with the manufacturers, and at least
one of the OEMs
you listed has used a company that supplies Antec: Channel Well.

 

Fair enough, but it seems that I have had just as many oem supplies die on
me as I have had no name brands die... Just saying from my experince in
working on computers in the last 10 years. To be totally honest though I
can't remember that many systems with dead psu's. Most of the time if there
is a problem with the psu it was the fan or it was hit by lightning.

I guess my point is that just about any moderately priced psu will last as
long as your computer is not obsolete. I've had the 350w psu that came with
my $50 case for 3 years now on 24/7 with no problems except I had to change
the fan about 6 months ago.

- Mike

 

Three of these PSUs are AMD certified, two are not:

1. http://static.flickr.com/39/79711182_55eb38f55b.jpg
2. http://static.flickr.com/41/75125024_161da61ad7.jpg
3. http://static.flickr.com/38/75117436_1de7a3142d.jpg
4. http://static.flickr.com/28/67715167_9880b9e1c4.jpg
5. http://static.flickr.com/41/79709280_e68a4d0001.jpg

Which are AMD certified and which are not?
What is the power rating of each PSU?

Do not top post, dammit.

 

I'd guess 2,3 and 4 due to the larger heat sink.

- Mike

 

Not at all, the typical Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc, 300W
PSU is better than it.

OEMs tend to use accurately rated but no-frills units. It's
beside the point though, a normal ATX supply cannot replace
his proprietary supply.

 

Completely untrue. Watt per watt, HP, Compaq, Dell and
Gateway all use equivalent quality to an Antec.

Antec isn't "high quality" though, merely upper mid-grade
that is marketed hence more popular.

 

Surge resistance and fan longevity are both factors in PSU
quality. A dollar here for higher voltage rated parts, a
dollar there for a filter, another dollar for a better
fan... it all adds up, and all differentiates between them.

 

Michael Kennedy wrote, by immorally top posting::

Do you mean they're AMD certified? You didn't specify.

And what is the power rating of each PSU? Hint: They range from
200-550W.

 

Yes I meant that 2, 3 and 4 are AMD certified..

Power rating... hmm well this is just a wild guess but I think that

1 is a 200W
2 is a 300W
3 is a 400W
4 is a 350W
5 is probably some cheap 550W

- Mike

 

1. 350W, not AMD recommended.
Codegen. But your power estimate is probably much more realistic.

2. 300W, AMD recommended.
Key Mouse/MaxPower/Soyo. It actually did put out 300W when I tested it
for ten minutes (I can't test longer -- my load resistors get too hot),
but I cheated and paralleled a second diode for the +5.0V rail (empty
space on the circuit board for it). Originally there was no EMI filter
(or AM radio reception), but at least this PSU and the case it came in
didn't cost me anything

3. 300W, not AMD recommended.
Delta DPS-300BB from an Acer computer. It managed to put out 380W, the
limit of my test load resistance, so maybe by common standards it is a
400W, especially because its filter capacitors are larger than those in
any other 300W PSU I've seen, and the transformer is larger than normal
despite operating at 95 KHz rather than the more common 60 KHz.
$13-15. Kony can tell you more about this model PSU..

4. 200W, not AMD recommended.
Delta 200W NPS200PB from a Dell. The only tipoffs that this is not a
350W are the small transformer (but this one runs at 100 KHz) and the
470uF high voltage filter capacitors (too small for such well-made PSU
rated for 350W).

5. 550W (peak), AMD recommended.
Q-Tec. Like the 200W Delta/Dell, its high voltage filters are 470uF.
How did you know that this cheapo PSU was the one rated for 550W rather
than 200W?

 

ok well first you wet a finger and drab the case....then with your tongue
you..............

 

5. 550W (peak), AMD recommended.

The 2 fans and the gold plating.. They always blow the numbers out of
proportion on those for some reason.. I'd say its more like a 300W psu max..

That one is really amd certified? Wow..

- Mike

 

*clarification... I'd say it shouldn't be rated for more than 300W...

 

I still have a couple of those, one of them powering an
overclocked Mobile Barton Athlon, the other in a dual PSU
system with a 2nd, 240(?)W Delta. Good unit... Delta always
uses HQ parts, targets for sustained current, and overall is
just a tremendous bang for buck when you can get ahold of
them in the grey market. Main limitation on this particular
model is it's clearly optimized for 5V current instead of
12V. There's that issue about needing the load on the 3V
rail sometimes, too, but it seems a subjective thing to some
of us...

Understandably some people will scream bloody murder if
their PSU acts dead, but otherwise I seldom want load
resistors in the densely populated output area on the PCB if
the system itself is loading it too.

I'd take same wattage Delta over most brands. Did you see
Anandtech's Computex coverage? 300W video cards... YIKES!
http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2770

I think my next built-from-scratch gaming rig will have 2
Delta server PSU in it. Not PS2 though, ~ 5-1/4 x 5 x
11-1/2 (ie - just big enough for a 120mm _rear_ fan). I can
get 72A per 5V & 12V rails for $100 total
http://www.centrix-intl.com/details.asp?productid=484
(really closer to $130 after factoring for time and parts
to make a load-sharing board, essentially a minimalized
redundant power board with added RC filters on it.).

Found some double sided 3 oz. 0.093" copper clad on ebay,
should be perfect for it... couldn't even find copper clad
over 1/16" at Digikey/Mouser/Allied.


Same 'site linked above has some of those 300W Deltas, or
rather the Intel Server variant, DPS-300JB,
http://www.centrix-intl.com/details.asp?productid=2324
but at this price-point I'd be contemplating a last-gen.
400W Sparkle instead if I needed any PSU with beefy 5V rails
in PS2 form. Although, it's also because I have spare
Sparkles, like always picked up when the price was right...
since I never get hung up on particular models rather than
"what it is" vs. price.

 

That's why I don't trust AMD PSU certification at all. 98% of the
reviews also can't be trusted because they test at just half the rated
power. So it's best to just pick something made by one of the best
manufacturers, like Delta, Zippy/Emacs, Enhance, Lite-On, Seasonic,
Fortron-Source, PC Power & Cooling, Win-tact, Etasis, or NMB/Mineba, or
sold by Antec.

 

And no junk electrolytic capacitors. My Deltas contain only Rubycon,
Nichicon, and Chemicon, none of the Fujyyu junk found in Antecs.

I initially thought tha my Deltas were dead because they wouldn't start
even when I attached a load resistor to the +5.0V rail, but they merely
needed a load on the +3.3V as well. Another oddity was that I
couldn't simply ground the green Power-On wire to turn it on but had to
plug in the AC first and then ground that wire.

My fastest graphics card is just a Radeon 9550.

It seems that CPU power consumption has topped out, but how long before
the same happens with graphics chips?

That's an awesome project.

 

So overclock it till the wheels fall off?
My most power hungry card at the moment is a volt-modded
FX5900. I calculated that it should be using about 120W,
but for all that power it can't do FSAA or AF so well. I
strapped a ~ 1U all copper skt A 'sink on it and then began
wondering if it needed stilts so it didn't break off at the
AGP connector from the extra weight. I haven't been
motivated to push the o'c on anything more valuable yet,
beyond what coolbits allows.

I'd expect it to happen right about when they realize there
is no way to strap on a larger/better heatsink, though
they've already gone beyond Intel in coming up with more
elaborate heatpipes and custom 'sink designs to fit the
allotted space in creative ways. I dont' know if it was the
Anandtech article or elsewhere that I read it, but
supposedly nVidia & ATI's next gen parts won't use as much
power. I welcome that as I still like to avoid video or CPU
over ~ 80W each unless it's only due to free performance
boost from o'c.

Maybe, but it also means the case will be a little over 10"
wide (as I'd put them side-by-side horizontally) which seems
a little big for a gaming system.