Power Supply Suggestions

I recently purchased a Geforce 8600, and upon recieving it, realized that I would need a new power supply. Is there a lot of difference between high-end and low-end power supplies, and if so, are there any good brands that I should be looking at?

I know almost nothing about hardware, so any advice is appreciated.

ThermalTake Toughpower 600 watts and up.

Thanks _33

Are ThermalTake's more reliable than other brands?

If I look at [a http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+1131414179&name=601+-+700W]Newegg[/a], there are 600+ Watt power supplies for as low as 25$. Are these bad quality? Just curious, because I'm on a rather tight budget. I will spend if I have to, but I don't mind sacrificing a small amount of performance for a large price drop.

With their latest deals, the Toughpower (600 watts and above) are all fabricated by the very renowned american supplier Channel Well which strictly uses the highest quality parts. I have a 600 watts, and it is silent, doesn't pull out heat like most other power supplies, it is extremely stable. Most reviews will show that the Toughpower brand from ThermalTake are part of the big boys, and exceed the 80+ requirements.

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Power/ToughPower/toughpower_index.asp

I have a 600 watts model, and it's more than just reliable. Do not buy the 550 watts model, it's the only one that is not Channel Well built (the first in the series).

There tends to be a huge wquality difference between the cheapo and the more expensive models. From my experience, anything below $75 or so tends to be garbage, with the -good- ones being well over a hundred bucks.

Many of the cheap ones artificially inflate their ratings, but are having problems keeping a steady output, especially at high power drain levels. If your voltages aren't steady, your computer won't be stable either.

Power supplies are an often overlooked part, but they are one of the major causes for mystery system instability issues.

I love my current Seasonic S13 550W model, it's rock solid and extremely quiet. Other good brands are Antec or Thermaltake.

there's quite a lot of technology in power supplies today, since its not an exciting part of the puter it usualy gets overlooked.

I like the reviews on this page, since when I build a PC I want to get good performance, stability and as silent a PC as possible.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html

Some people might argue the necsssity of a 1000 watts and above power supply. If you consider you have a graphics card sipping 250 watts, a motherboard + memory + processor sipping another 150 watts (I'm being conservative), already you're up to 400 watts, which is almost half 1000 watts PEAK. Now add your DVD drives, your hard drives (SATA or IDE), your fans, your USB peripherals, and you'll end up easily close to 600 watts, which is more than half the potential of 1000 watts. What all this comes up to, is that it is IMHO suggested to install a power supply that exceeds the potential consumption of the components that are to be plugged in. And for many reasons, some of which are; current leakage, humidity, temperature, stability. That is where most people disregard, and it is of upmost importance, as a power supply (convenient name) supplies the required power to those components. Add to that, the efficiency of the said power supply. If it is inefficient, and also has a low peak wattage output, you're obviously in for some potential problems, which could dead (sorry, lead) to components failing (not just the power supply). If so, then you're in for some expense, and possible lost of your data from peripheral failure.

1000 Watts sounds nice, but unfortunately I don't have 300 dollars to spend on a new power supply. I wasn't aware that the power supply was so important, to be honest.

Does this Tagan look like a good deal? The price is decent enough (although more than I spent on the graphics card, unfortunately). Also, is there anything else I should watch out for besides wattage (compatability, etc...)?

Lastly, are there better sites (translation: cheaper) than Newegg for purchasing hardware? I took a look at the local Best Buy and Circuit City, but their prices seem higher.

Some true comments, but you don't need to go overboard. This is the PSU I bought for my system (sorry, I know it's a UK site, but gives you an idea). This runs pretty quiet and works fine with my Intel Core 2 DUO/GeForce 8800Gts system.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126825/rb/0

To be honest I always go for a PC case that comes with its own PSU, and never had a single problem in nine years (thats about 20 PSUs).

The only problem I have had, was with a PSU (in a PC I built for somebody else) that died after 8 months, which I got replaced under warranty.

I don't think 1/20 failure is a bad average, especially since it cost nothing to replace it.

if frys is near you, they often have good coupon deals. Not this week by the looks of things. But they often have $50 - $60 off of some pretty nice PSU's.

A week ago they had this, which would be fine so long as your not going SLI:



Usualy get one or two of these type deals every other week, unfortunately this week has crappy mail in rebates only :(

That Antec is a very good deal, considering it's a 85% efficient ATX V2.2 psu. 550 watts for this Antec will get you great power for the modest configurations.

I went with a 650Watt Antec, just to let you know. Thanks for all the help, everyone.

500w is plenty unless you're running a top end gfx card, then get 600w.