Which PSU should I buy?

Damn, props to them... they absolutely crushed him. 😁
Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty sure the CX430 doesn't even hit 78% efficiency, so...

That tiny 1-2% difference doesn't mean much to the average user—and let’s be clear, an efficient power supply isn't automatically a high-quality one—but still, it feels like a blatant attempt to mislead the general public. :/

For instance, look at how Chieftec just cooked up their own little certificate 😁

I need some advice on which PSU to grab for either a GTX 260 or an HD 5670. I was looking at this Thermaltake 420W. Is that actually any good??? My current setup is running 2GB of DDR2 RAM, an AMD Athlon 5200 x2, and an 8600GT.

Not really—the Thermaltake 420W is honestly pretty mediocre if you ask me.
Look, if I were in your shoes, I'd check out the Fortron 400W, the Chieftec A-80 450W, or maybe even the LC POWER Silent Giant LC6560GP3 V2.3...

By the way, just a heads-up: an HD 5670 and a GTX 260 aren't even in the same league when it comes to graphics performance...

casualsurfer92 said:I need some help deciding which power supply to buy for a GTX 260 or an HD 5670? I was thinking about this Thermaltake 420W. Is that actually a decent unit??? My specs are: 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM, AMD Athlon 64 x2 4000+, and an 8600GT graphics card.

Look, I really don't think you'll see any benefit from grabbing a GTX 260—your processor is just going to bottleneck it, leaving all that extra power sitting completely idle. In my opinion, the most sensible move here is to go with the HD 5670; honestly, you might even find a used HD 4830, which is significantly more powerful than a 9800GT.

Do yourself a favor and check out some benchmarks before you make a call:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...ed=0CD0Q9QEwBQ

As for the PSU, that Chieftec they have over at Micro Center is solid:

http://www.newegg.com/index.php?naziv=...kl=052.712.063

It would handle your current setup perfectly fine, and more importantly, it gives you enough breathing room for a much better processor down the road if you decide to upgrade. 😉

Alexander Martinez said:Good grief—I haven't read this much misinformation in years. 😁

Clearly you're just winging it without any actual experience—do us all a favor and quit playing around with stuff you don't understand. 😉

Zachary Wilson30 said:Good grief—to be that wrong and still insist you're right? Honestly, mad respect. 🙏
If I told you I ran dual GTX 260s, a Phenom II X4 overclocked to 3.8GHz, two hard drives, five fans—plus whatever else—on a 535W power supply with only 36A on the 12V rail, you’d probably tell me I'm lying and that I need at least an 850W unit. But there it is.
Look, just hold off on the arguing until you actually look up the power draw for these new components.
Here's a solid link to get things started;
I’ve been looking through the threads on PCForum—specifically that one about power supply reliability—and honestly, it's the same old story. Everyone's guessing instead of actually knowing what they're talking about. If you want to talk about hardware that actually holds up, let's look at the facts. You've got people throwing around names like Chieftec or Fortron 400W without any real data—it's all guesswork. I've seen enough cheap units fail to know that if it isn't a solid Seasonic or a reliable Corsair CX series, you're basically playing Russian roulette with your components. Regarding that specific discussion about the GTX 260 and whether a budget unit can handle it—it's a bad idea. Don't pair a mid-range card with a junk power supply just to save a few bucks. It's common sense, really. Stick to brands like Micro Center carries that have a reputation for a reason. Anything else is just asking for a headache.

Sign here, guys! 🙂

Morgan Moore3—you’d actually benefit from checking out PCForum once in a while. You might actually learn something real there. 😉

Dealing with those idiots. You've got to be kidding me. I basically just told them to get lost because they seem to think they've mastered everything under the sun, when in reality, they don't have a clue.

Every time I try to start a thread, this guy deletes it. So I repost it, and he does it again. He doesn't bother explaining why or pointing out where I messed up; if you actually ask him what the hell is going on or why he's deleting stuff, he just drops a link to the rules and leaves it at that. Good luck figuring out what's wrong with your post then.

It’s apparently too much effort for him to just say, "Hey, fix the title," or "Fix the content," or even "This part isn't quite right." Instead, it's just a link—no context, no nothing—so you're left guessing.

I really hope this kind of thing doesn't become the norm, because if it does, I might just have to blacklist this entire forum.

Morgan Moore37 said:Those idiots? You’ve got to be kidding me. I basically just said goodbye to them because they actually think they’ve mastered everything under the sun, when in reality, they aren't worth a lick of sense.

Just a heads-up: most of the people giving advice here (including the moderators) actually hang out over there too. They’re posting advice on both sites. So, those "idiots" you're talking about? They’re actually right here... "idiots" as well. 😁

Every time I start a thread, this guy wipes it out. I repost it, and he does it again. He doesn't explain why, and he certainly doesn't point out where the mistake is. When you ask him what the hell he's doing or why he keeps deleting stuff, all he does is drop a link to the rules and leave you to guess where you messed up.

Is it really that hard to say, "Hey, fix the title," or "Fix the content," or even just "This part isn't okay"? Instead, he just drops a link and leaves you to figure it out yourself.

The moderator has dozens of these issues to deal with daily—it's part of the job. Where would he end up if he had to hold everyone's hand and personally explain every single rule line by line? Just for context, there are over 4,000 active "idiots" over there, with a total membership of more than 30,000 "idiots."

I hope that doesn't happen, otherwise this forum is going on a blacklist too.

Your little blacklist doesn't mean a thing to them. But their ban? That’ll sting you for a week, a month, or forever, depending on how much of an idiot you decide to be. 🙂

Alexander Martinez said:Just a heads up—most of the people giving advice here (including the mods) actually hang out over there too. So those "idiots" you're talking about? They're basically the same "idiots" right here... 😁

The mod has dozens of these things to deal with every single day on top of everything else... imagine if they had to hold everyone's hand and explain every single rule line by line. Just so you know, there are over 4,000 active "idiots" over there, and more than 30,000 total members.

Your blacklist doesn't mean a thing to them, but their ban? That’ll sting you for a week, a month, or forever, depending on how much of a jerk you decide to be. 🙂

+1 👍
I'm signing off on all of this..

I'm one of those idiots over there myself, but I rarely get banned; I mostly just lurk to see what's happening with stuff I care about. 🙂

I'm running an AMD Athlon 5200 x2
with 2GB of DDR2 RAM...
I used to have a GeForce 8600GT paired with a generic 400W power supply—back then, I upgraded to a GTX 260 and picked up a Chieftec A-80 450W from HGspot for about $167 I think. The performance jump was massive; I could crank almost everything to max settings without a hitch, except for GTA IV, obviously, plus Crysis and Saints Row 2—those really demand more RAM and a quad-core CPU. My graphics card is solid, though—a friend of mine had a total beast back then, a Q6600 (overclocked to the moon) with 8GB of RAM and an HD 4870 X2. We ran a little experiment where we swapped my XFX card—it had 216MB of something, I can't quite recall, usually they're 192MB—into his rig, and believe it or not, the average performance actually dropped by about 10 FPS 🙂

216 stream processors... 🙂

Where can I actually find the wattage on this power supply?

Go ahead and flip that side panel open—you'll want to take a good look at the label on the power supply unit. When you're evaluating a PSU, raw wattage isn't the only thing that matters; honestly, what’s even more critical is identifying the actual manufacturer, the specific model, and just how old the unit really is.

Casey Long2 said:Just flip the side panel and check the sticker on the PSU. With power supplies, wattage isn't everything—what actually matters is the manufacturer, the specific model, and how old it is.

Is there any other way? I’m lowkey terrified I’m gonna fry something. 😁

Nah, the power supply doesn't have any onboard electronics that would actually show up within Windows.
You won't mess anything up if you just refresh the page, download it, and leave the internal components alone. 🙂
By the way—if your rig is still under warranty and has that factory seal intact—I'd really suggest not opening it up, otherwise you might end up voiding your coverage. 🙂

Casey Long2 said:Nah, there’s zero electronics in the PSU that Windows would even recognize.
You won't break anything if you just unscrew the case, pull it out, and leave everything else alone. 🙂
By the way, if your rig is still under warranty and has that seal on it, don't touch a thing unless you want to void it. 🙂

Well, it does have a warranty... 😁
So I shouldn't touch it then? :/

Also, how much does the power supply actually matter if I'm just swapping out the CPU or the GPU?

Investing in a high-quality power supply is always a smart move—it's really the foundation of any build. Low-end units tend to be inefficient, they often run loud, and they have a nasty habit of overheating. More importantly, the voltage they provide can be incredibly unstable, which puts your other expensive components at risk of damage. And of course, if the unit is subpar—and I don't just mean the total wattage, but the actual power delivery per individual rail—it simply won't be able to keep up with the demands of a powerful graphics card.

If your new graphics card stays within the same performance tier as your old one, there's a good chance it won't pull significantly more power. The same logic applies to processors, too. As generations advance, CPUs generally become more efficient per watt.

Hey everyone. I figured this was a decent place to ask for some advice on finding a reliable UPS. I’m sure there’s a bit of everything floating around here.🙂

And what kind of budget are we talking about here? What else is left on your parts list? 🙂