Power Supply unit

[joeyace]

Can anyone tell me what is the absolute minimum wattage rating to have supplying an athlon 64 3000, with 2 x 120 gig hard drives (with their corresponding cooling fans) +2 case fans. I have been offered a brand new 400 watt mercury psu for £20.00 (anybody heard that make before?). And they guarantee it is 400 watts real power.Do I stick with better known brand names, or could there be any truth in what they are saying.

[Trojan]

Dont scrimp on your PSU...searching the the 400W Mercury PSU I managed to find it for £16.98 (inc delivery) any unit at that price is certainly one to miss.

All too oftain people underestimate the importance of a stable and quality PSU and buying a cheapo will cause your probs.

General rule is to stick with the bigger brands, Enermax, Antec, bla bla... as the componants inside would be of higher quality (and slighty more expensive) but certainly worth the xtra cash.

you'll have no end of people offering their advice on particular PSU's but in a recent CustomPC PSU lab test the TAGEN TG480-U01 came first and the AOpen Xpower 400W came 2nd is what was an extensive test on stability.

[Slamdog]

in the same test, the antec neopower came in top but was more expensive than the rest...

i like antec though, and had no qualms in buying a neopower for my rig that needed one.

[Trojan]

The Antec Neopower 480W did turn out a great result and was the only PSU to have a 6-pin PCI-E graphics GFX card connector and has the ability to unplug any unused molex connectors straight from the PSU..but yes the cost of the unit did affect its overall score....