Viewing Thread:
"No regrets now, they don't work?"

Ever purchased a 6600GT and now wished you saved a little more for the 6800GT? Ever bought the Athlon 3800+ and now think the extra £70 for the 4000+ might have been the better choice? I have a few regrets myself, just look above to see them. But should I be regretful? Is the extra performace with the high end parts noticeable? Does an Athlon 3800+ feel just like the 4000+ in real world gaming?

The parts will be arriving in 2-4 days now. All I ask is that they give me a solid 99fps in all modern games, using 800x600 resolution and no special features turned on. Pixel shader 1/2 is just fine, I won't use PS3.

--------------
Athlon 3800+ (V-core)
D*bsValue Gaming Case with built in 480 PSU (hope the PSU isn't a rubbish brand)
Asus A8N SLI (not deluxe version. Saved the pounds)
Cosair VS1GBKIT400 PC3200 2x512MB CAS2.5

Heh heh I was once the ashamed owner of a D*bs value case... It was TERRIBLE, very poor ventilation, bad PSU and looking at it gave me sore eyes.

WickedWare wrote:
> cookie monster wrote:
> The only way to know the quality for sure is to take a multimeter
> and
> measure the rails.
>
> When I found out what that means I'll do it.


Don't bother, it's intermittent failures which will catch you out, it's very unlikely to be delivering a constant, wrong voltage. This is why PSU problems are such a pain to diagnose, because they're so intermittent.

Never heard of it. The chances of it failing are quite low though so you don't need to rush out and get one straight away.

cookie monster wrote:
> The only way to know the quality for sure is to take a multimeter and
> measure the rails.

When I found out what that means I'll do it.

Damarus wrote:
> To be honest I wouldn't trust a 480W unbranded PSU with a 3800+ but
> that's just me.

There's a manufacturer's name. It's 'COLORSit'.

Bullett wrote:
> I have that case (is it the black one with side window and alien-style
> front lights?

Yup.

I have that case (is it the black one with side window and alien-style front lights? - ugly mofo?) and only bought it to cut costs as my current system is only a go-between (except for the graphics :D ).

So far it's doing it's job well. It's pretty noisy, but it functions, and that's all that matters. No cut-outs, no apparent stability issues - although I can't obviously predict an explosion!

I would recommend investing in a better case/PSU though. I'l be going for either the Antec Range or Thermaltake range with appropriate top-range PSU's when I come to re-upgrading my Mobo/CPU. I do only have an Athlon64 3000+ though, not a 3800, so it's no big loss if it blows up on me.

The only way to know the quality for sure is to take a multimeter and measure the rails.

To be honest I wouldn't trust a 480W unbranded PSU with a 3800+ but that's just me.

Coin wrote:
> Meh.
>
> Get a Tagan TG-U01.

Ran out of money lol.

Anyway, it's arrived today now!!! And here's what it says on side of the PSU:

+3.3V / 28A
+5V / 35A
+12V / 25A
-5V / 0.5A
-12V / 0.8A
+5VSB / 2.5A

480W

On the side of the box it says:

"Active PFC function"
"PF value 0.99 under condition of 230VAC/50Hz at full load. (Valid for AX models only)"

No idea what all this means.

Meh.

Get a Tagan TG-U01.

The PSU in that case will be noisier and less stable/reliable/long-lasting than a quality unit. The case will probably be cramped, flimsy and (relatively) difficult to work with. It's possible to get a good case for about £30, but I wouldn't spend less than £40 on a PSU (unless it was someone elses PC |o/). Remember when buying a power supply that branding is absolutely everything, and power rating means virtually nothing.