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

[KimTjik]

Hi, I'm new to DFI-Street and hope to get some help from you experts:

 

I'm planning to buy the DFI UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert MoBo but no sure the following Power Supply are good or not:...

I'm not an expert so my opinion is more based on feedback from other users. My opinion might also be biased.

 

Thermaltake: make good cases, but I wouldn't recommend any of their PSU:s yet. Someday maybe they get it right.

 

Enermax: usually a very good manufacturer, lately however I've seen more reports of failing Enermax PSU:s than ever before. Maybe a coincident, maybe not.

 

OCZ: the 520W powerstream still seems to be hard to beat and as far as I can understand it perform better than the 600W.

 

Another option (very biased since I'm a owner of one myself): Forton Epsilon has so far obviously worked flawlessly, and since you're having an Expert mobo I still think it's one of the better options right now and not too expensive.

[Dan42684]

NEO, I havent been told anything about the OCZ powerstream and I didn't know about that deep of info. Does that only occur for the Expert board or is that just the PSU in general?

[dab]

if you don't mind the noise get a zippy 600w

[Dan42684]

I dont know if I need that much power yet, I just talked to Voltes-5 about processor and mobo and right now I'm looking at a DFI Ultra and Opteron 165 or 170

[NEOAethyr]

The psu in general, I have it on a nf2 board, it's my main psu, the enermax I have as a secondary powering my fans to help lighten the load on the +12v.

The ocz can handle loads no doubt, but it's the fluctuation that's keeping me from stability.

(To much load on one lead/cable is trouble though, nothing to serious but defenlty enough for some concernes)

 

I have problems in the morning when it gets warmer out, my rails change a bit, not by much, but all it takes for me to lose stablity is just touching the varible resistors on the psu, just a tap with an eye glass screwdriver can screw me up :(I don't even have to put the screwdriver in the slots.., touchy, does'nt normally chnage the rails this way but it certainly effects my stability, I can get a certain level to stick this way though, blah blah).

So when the rails change it messes me up a bit.

 

I'm hammering away as I speek, hopefully after I goto sleep and then wake up, it'll be all good again.

I'm just now getting this thing up and running the way I want it(I've had the psu since the end of dec btw).

Later on I will re-solder in new cables with a thicker gauge on the ocz.

 

Also there's 2 rails right?, on the 600w, inside they are split off one big one.

There's 2 vr's in thre but they have glue or epoxy over them, for adjusting the 2 rails seperatly.

There's also a spot for a 3rd rail but ti's missing a couple parts, not much.

 

If someone was willing to do so, they could mod it so they had adjustments for multible +12v rails, per rail.

Instead of just the main +12v rail the 2 is split off.

They could even add a 3rd +12v rail.

 

This way they could balance performance with there drives and stability with there system.

And or re-wire the thing any way they choose picking what goes on what rail.

 

Like example a rail just for fans, so you could crank them up.

 

 

In that aspect it's a modders dream.

It got me quite excited when I took it aprt to redo the fans(I have a low speed ver, I hooked it up externally to the +12v rail for full speed fans).

 

 

 

A general view of the psu I would think it's an avg good psu.

Like the enermax's.

Just that you may have to adjust it.

The enermax however you woud'nt beable to, but I'd doubt it be to far from spec.

 

It all depends.

If they were both setup identical level wise, they would probably be the same, just a guess, I really don't know.

 

 

I do know that after I modded my old enermax 350w when I used it for my main power(before the ocz came along), it did extremly well for it's wattage.

 

However the ocz is slightly a class ahead.

At 1st I needed more vcore wioth the ocz.

I added a simple coil ring to it, I just wrapped the 4pin(8pin for the ner boards if you need all 8), around the ring a few times.

I then zip tied it tight and electrical taped over it, it now does better.

When I 1st did this, I redid it a few times btw for layout reasons and etc, nothing big, I was allowed to do I think it was 0.07v less vcore or somehting like that then orignally.

I can't truly remember, it was I think 0.025v less then what I needed with the old modded enermax(same mods, multible filtering in places though on that psu back then).

 

250x10 btw.

 

The ring, a ferrit ring, a decent sized one, one probaly that has the hole around the same diameter of the main atx conenctor, just a guess.

2-3 times, just so it can reach the 4-8pin conenctor on the mobo without pushing your luck.

 

 

Anyways it's defently a high class psu.

Just bit hard to work with because of adjustable rails.

 

I'm not to found of the idea of both low speed and high speed fan ver's though :.

The fans are slightly loud in the high speed ver, but the gain is worth it.

However you don't get to pick which one you get, it's ramdom.

You can't go by the color fo the one fan either, old is green, new is blue.

Blue has both low speed and high speed fan ver's.

 

 

There's also 4 fan headers in the psu, but they are all the same speed :.

Which sucks, meaning you have to either solder the fans in or hook them up externally for the time being.

If you get a low speed ver anyways.

Otherwise you just deal with it, I did'tn have a dmm back then, but when the fans were low speed, it was the hotest part in my rig.

 

There's a temp thingy in the psu somewhere I dn where, but you can read it back in speedfan, but it'll lock up, the sensor locks.

Speedfan's fault probably.

Mbm does'nt even see it though, which is odd.

 

No one ever talks about it though for some reason, I don't think they noticed I guess.

 

 

Just one more thing, those powershield cables, the ones with the ferrit beads on the ends.

You have to watch out what you put these on.

If you unbalance you drives, ie prefer say you burners to you hd's, you can have trouble.

It all depends on what gets what for voltage, and what perfers what.

If your burners are freaking out, it'll take the whole system down with them, including your hd's.

Making it even memtest unstable over something so simple :.

 

 

It's really crazy what sort of small things can effect stability in a large way.

I swear I only find myself in trouble with the strangest problems, but it's allways been that way, when I figuer them out it helps out.

 

Small things collected together can bring about big changes, that's something I used to say.

Now I know just one small thing can bring about big changes.

 

 

 

Modulers, these are proably best to say away from, I'm not really sure.

There has been peopel that have plugged connectors in backwards on certain psu's only to fry parts.

 

That and there is connectivity issues that effect fluctuation so I've heard.

Ie the enermax liberty I guess, and all others like it.

 

A good psu with straight up soldered wires is probably the way to go if you're looking for the best, decent, any price psu.

 

 

Edit:

Yeah, noise levels seem to be the norm on decent psu's.

Seems to be mandotory :.

 

I'd still prefer some slight noise over less stability.

 

I eiting most of my typos out, I'm getting a little tired, I allways have typos anyways :.

 

I forgot to mention the rail distrobution, most find that handy, the correct distrobution on the ocz 600w'er is:

 

2nd rail:

atx 20+4

4+4 p4

The 2x sata lead

 

The rest is on the 1st +12v rail.

[Dan42684]

I notice you have the 600watt, I was looking to buy a 520watt. Would that still be the same or is the 520 more stable?

[NEOAethyr]

It's "supposed" to be the better.

However, I wonder, it may be the same exact psu, it sorta seems that way when you take this one apart.

 

However I have not seen the inside of a 520w, also this one is longer I guess.

 

The 520 has a single rail.

It's rated for less, but if you read and calc the values of the 600w,they are the same.

The rating on the ocz's are a bit, well, they don't add up for amps and voltages when calc'ing watts.

Some of them don't.

 

I think it is the same psu really I don't really know.

 

The way the rails are distrubuted, there can't be much diffrence at all between the single rail ver and the daul rail ver(520 and 600).

+12v wise anyways.

 

The actual bulk of it may be diffrent though, the mains.

 

 

If you don't need the power, you may wanna try the 520.

It's be best to have someone else answer that one though.

I only loaded mine up with a 6600gt before.

Never 2 cards and what not.

[Dan42684]

I'll do some asking around and if I have problems with it I'll be sure to PM you about it.

[Amepshi]

Well, for some time now, I have been saving up for a better PSU, but unfortunately in Croatia you can't buy OCZ powerstream 520W, or any of those AAA class PSU-s.

 

I have found some better PSU-s, but I have read a lot of good and bad things about them, so I need your help.

 

Here are the ones I could buy (and affoard):

 

Antec NeoHE 550W

Tagan 580W (they have the modular u15, and the other one - u22)

 

Even those PSU-s are overpriced (compared to US webshop prices), but I need the power.

 

Buying over the Internet is not a choice, because most of the websites won't ship to Croatia.

 

My rig contains:

 

DFI SLI-D

A64 3500 @ 2,75GHz, 1,64Volts

XFX 7600gt

(cooling the CPU & GPU with water - radiator is from a Mercedes truck, and water blocks are home made)

2x512 Corsair Twinx XL, v1.1

2x 36GB Raptor, 2x 60GB Seagate

DVD burner, 4 120mm fans

[suprabuy]

Thanks for everyone inputs, especially NEO, very impressive.

 

As I browsed thro' this site I understood DFI Expert is pretty picky for components.

 

I used to build / fix low-to-mid-end machines so don't wanna mod the PSU because as NEO pointed out, it take steep learning curve -- means knowledge and time. Well, I got neither right now. :-)

 

PC P&C got good reputation but beyond the budget.

 

I'll really appreciate others' recommendations so to open my eyes.

 

I visited one site which has a calculator for PSU power consumption. My input, base on basic configuration, always exceed 500W no matter how I reduce the extra.

Are these calculators usually base on full load? (Sorry I can't remember what site)

 

It's difficult to get a suitable PSU for DFI Expert under $150...

[dab]

PSU for Expert under $150US:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817711002

[l0de]

PSU for Expert under $150US:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817711002

 

: ( I just got an expert and my current PSU only has a 4 pin 12v cable, I looked at the pics on newegg and this one only has a 4 pin as well? Am I missing something?