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DFI Recommended Power Supplies (UPDATED October 20th, 2006!)


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Great that this thread is still being updated.

I got the SS ZF-75 "Zeus" for a month now and

it really really deserves being on this list.

its the one on this list right?

 

it is a real good psu...as you already know from owning it and I already know from adding it to the list ;)

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Thermaltake's 680 watt PSU have a long history of crapping-out, and their PCI-e rail won't even handle a single 6800 Ultra, for long, until you get the dreaded low voltage/current warnings from the card. I've had two in 1 year. Total piece-of-crap. My second one crapped-out last night. 5 volt rail (rated at 50 amps) went belly-up.

 

The only thing I've ever bought from this company that was any good was an copper HSF. That's it!

 

I'm lookin' to try an 700 watt OCZ supply, but am gun-shy of ANYTHING right now...

 

...OK, just ordered the OCZ 700 watter. I trust OCZ from previous exemplary service. They've always treated me right.

 

Charles

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Thermaltake's 680 watt PSU have a long history of crapping-out, and their PCI-e rail won't even handle a single 6800 Ultra, for long, until you get the dreaded low voltage/current warnings from the card. I've had two in 1 year. Total piece-of-crap. My second one crapped-out last night. 5 volt rail (rated at 50 amps) went belly-up.

 

The only thing I've ever bought from this company that was any good was an copper HSF. That's it!

 

I'm lookin' to try an 700 watt OCZ supply, but am gun-shy of ANYTHING right now...

 

...OK, just ordered the OCZ 700 watter. I trust OCZ from previous exemplary service. They've always treated me right.

 

Charles

nice to see you again Charles...wondered what happened to ya (hopefully the rig workin so well that you ain't needed us but we always like your company lol)

 

 

get an OCZ 700w...you won't be disappointed I can tell you...it's running my sig about 18 hours a day multitask when I aint gaming

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its the one on this list right?

 

it is a real good psu...as you already know from owning it and I already know from adding it to the list ;)

 

Yeah, it is. Though when I bought it (well, friend and I swapped :) ) it wasn't on the rec. list, but Silverstone as a manufacturer was. It's keeping my system very stable and while I'm surfing the web it is also really quiet. It gets noisy when I'm gaming though but I do not notice it that much anyway (got a good headset).

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nice to see you again Charles...wondered what happened to ya (hopefully the rig workin so well that you ain't needed us but we always like your company lol)

 

That's exactly it, Travis! I've been pounding the computer mercilessly for months, and it just keeps hangin' in there. Have my plate full lately with many changes at work. Got back into flying RC aircraft (using RealFlight G3 to hone-my-skills...helps tremendously flying the real stuff, and it really gives the 'puter a workout), getting honey-do's around the new house, and motorcycling pretty much takes-up any free time here.

 

It's the pits having to browse-the-web with my laptop, and I don't want to use my GF's machine, or I'd have to clean-it-out and change stuff...she wouldn't like that.

 

Took the monster to work, to see if anything else was wrong besides the supply, and had to use two supplies (one for video card, one for the rest) to feed it what it requires. No hiccups, so am confident the machine is OK, and didn't have anything wrong that caused the supply to crap-out.

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my concern with the smallish heatsinks, and small package of the OCZ 700 watt unit. Fortunately, the grill appears open enough to allow good airflow, and I'm sure techs ran-to-failure the supply at max loads, and found failure-rate acceptable. The positive reviews on the supply were the deciding factor to buy...

 

I like the new look of the forum! LMAO when I saw your new animated avatar.

 

Charles

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Well...I've returned my second 680 watt Thermaltake in a bit over one year now. I've requested an upgrade to the new 750 watt toughpower unit, since Thermaltake has a 3 year warranty, and I'll pay the difference. We'll see how that flies. Haven't seen any indepth reviews of Thermaltake's new supply yet. It better be engineered properly compared to the 680 watt unit. Just ask around and read reviews of the 680 watter, before you buy.

 

Hoping the new OCZ 700 watt unit will be solid-as-a-rock...just ordered one.

 

If anyone has seen any links to reputable sites reviewing the TT 750 watt toughpower supply, please let me know!

 

Charles

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Trav:

 

Your suggestion is exactly what I'm gonna do. Keep the 750 watter TT (if they'll exchange my defective 680 for it) for an emergency spare, and use the OCZ.

 

Guess I should be thankful my TT HSF is still cooling the FX-55 nicely... ;-}

 

Charles

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Trav:

 

Your suggestion is exactly what I'm gonna do. Keep the 750 watter TT (if they'll exchange my defective 680 for it) for an emergency spare, and use the OCZ.

 

Guess I should be thankful my TT HSF is still cooling the FX-55 nicely... ;-}

 

Charles

ya I was pretty impressed with the TT heatsink...I didn't like it nearly as much of course as my Thermalright's and my watercooling, but for a clip-on it did a nice job and was quiet.

 

I just wish TT would get their heads out of their combined you-know-what's and have Fortron or Enermax or someone make their psu's for them

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I'd be remiss if I didn't mention my concern with the smallish heatsinks, and small package of the OCZ 700 watt unit. Fortunately, the grill appears open enough to allow good airflow, and I'm sure techs ran-to-failure the supply at max loads, and found failure-rate acceptable.

Charles

 

Here is what the xbitlabs review I linked to above had to say about the small heatsinks and associated components:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/dis...-roundup_6.html

 

"In most “ordinary” power supplies, high-voltage output rails use large diode packs in TO-247 packaging, but the first thing to draw my attention here is that the packs on the appropriate heatsink are all Fairchild’s YM3045N (MBRP3045N) in small TO-220 packages, yet there are as many as eight in total! Closer examination shows that the packs are connected in parallel in pairs, two of them belonging to the +5V line, two more to the +3.3V line, and the remaining four to the +12V. So, there are two diode packs, each with a max current of 30A, on the +5V channel whose allowable current is 30A, too. Why this double reserve? The fact is the temperature of a diode pack depends on two factors: the passing current and the voltage drop on it (Power = I*U), but these parameters are not independent because the voltage is higher when the current is higher. Thus, the amount of power dissipated by a diode pack grows up at a faster rate than the current passing through this pack, and two packs, each of which passes a current of 15A through, dissipate less heat than one 30A pack. Talking about the specific characteristics of the YM3045N packs, it is easy to calculate that the difference in heat dissipation between these two designs is more than 30% if the current is 30A.

 

Of course, two diode packs allow using a simpler and cheaper heatsink, but cost more by themselves than a single diode pack. Thus, the manufacturer always chooses between two options: they can put more expensive diodes and save on the heatsink or they can save on the diodes but put down a more expensive heatsink. The latter way is more common, but FSP’s engineers took the former approach. You might say it would be well to have both expensive diodes and a good heatsink all at once, but this would inevitably affect the end cost of the power supply. For example, FSP’s fan-less power supply called Zen uses the same YM3045N diodes and the heatsinks occupy almost the entire free space inside the case, too, but that PSU is priced appropriately high, even though it is one of the cheapest fan-less solutions available.

 

The engineers followed the same approach with the rest of the semiconductors. Take note of the tidy row of three transistors on the PFC heatsink or of the two diode bridges on both sides of the central heatsink.

 

So it’s now clear with the diodes, but the smaller heatsinks are not only the consequence of the developer’s using more diode packs. Their size alone may improve the cooling efficiency. A smaller heatsink offers less resistance to the incoming stream of air. The speed of the air stream is higher then and its temperature gets lower. Of course, this effect is not very big, but you shouldn’t dismiss it altogether."

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Excellent, Limnos! Thank you for that information! Kudos!

 

Trav:

 

I suspect that another company is indeed making TT's new 750 watt supply. Will have to wait-n-see when more information is available, but the internals and exterior look vaguely (what I can tell from pathetic pictures) familiar to the Fortron/OCZ fare.

 

Anything would be an improvement over the previous 680 watt engineering fiasco...

 

Charles

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