advice on power supply

[brgriffi]

I am building a new system and needed some advice on the power supply. I have an ASRock P4V88 motherboard with an Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz processor. The power supply that I bought is a PowerLab 450w. I'm wondering if anyone has heard anything or has had any experience with this particular power supply. It was cheap so I am now rather leary of it.

Thanks!

[Whyzman]

I've not heard of that manufacturer...

One of the more important aspects in selecting a power supply now-a-days is the amount of power allocated to the 12v rail. Today's video cards, processors, and multi-fan setups thirst for 12v power. For some strange reason, many of the newer power supplies still provide a hefty 5v rail which is not used nearly as much.

Here's some excellent reading on power supply selection:

http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/power_supply/

Also, Welcome tohttp://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

[brgriffi]

There is no documentation with the power supply. How do I tell how much power is going to the 12v rail? It does say "Professional Pentium 4 Power" on the box and also says Intel/AMD ready. That probably doesn't mean much. It has the following on one side of the box:

*high efficiency
*low noise and ripple
*over voltage protection
*short curcuit protection
*built in EMI emitter
*insulation resistance 100M min.
*complies with FCC part 15J class B 115VAC
operation and CISPR 22 230 VAC operation
*100% burn in test/vibration test/hi-pot test/leakage current test

[saphalline]

You'll have to look at the sticker on the side of the PSU itself. It will list the voltage, amperage, and rail info on the sticker. Basically what you want these days is at least 17A on the +12V rail. Anything less, and you don't reallly want to run it on a modern system, especially with that P4!

[brgriffi]

Here's what is says on the power supply itself:

Output: +3.3V +5V +12V -12V -5V +5VSb
MAX(A): 30A 50A 25A 0.8A 0.5A 2.0A

AC INPUT: 100V-127V/6A 60Hz
200V-240V/3A 50HZ

I'm still not sure what you mean by the "12v rail"

Appreciate the help! Thanks!

[Whyzman]

Rail is the term to describe the "track" that a particular power supply is coming down...12v lead would also be acceptable...

It looks like you've 25A (25amps) allocated to the 12v rail, which I would say is adequate. If you want to see exactly how much 12v power you'll be needing I would refer to the link I gave above. You can get a pretty close estimate by looking at the various needs of your 12v components and simply totalling them up...

Again, I personally don't know anything about the reliability of your particular power supply. Perhaps someone else here has had some experience with them...

[123456]

My hp's owner manual says to put put in a expansion card greater than 5v....so I guess I have 5v...

[brgriffi]

Thanks for the link regarding selecting power supplies! It was helpful and now I understand what a "rail" is! I am going to go ahead and try this PowerLab PSU. Based on my estimate as to what I need on each rail, I should be ok.

Thanks for the advice!!

[jjburnett]

The Logisys Phantom case that I have ordered has a 480 watt PowerLab PSU. I haven't built my system yet, post and let me know how yours turns out with this PSU.