Please help me choose a replacement power supply

[pangea33]

I'm hoping to get a little input on a psu purchase. I built my system about 14 months ago and it's been reliable, but my power supply died on me the other day.

The system is in an Antec 300 case with 2 120mm cooling fans. The main board is a Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P running 4 gigs of ram with an AMD Phenom II X2 550 cpu. Video is an EVGA GeForce 8800GTS with 512mb. The machine has 3-640 WDC sata drives and an IDE DVD-Burner.

I run Ubuntu pretty much exclusively and do development type tasks in LAMP. Occasional video conversion tasks and lots of Internet, but my game playing is on a console keeping the demands on this machine somewhat low.

The original power supply is an OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W, which was recommended to me by a friend. When looking at the feedback on Newegg I saw a disturbing number of people complaining that their's died after 9-14 months of use. I probably would have chosen different knowing what I know now.

I feel that these 2 power supplies are my current candidates. I'd really like to order a replacement tonight or tomorrow, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. The community is always very helpful here.

I really like the 4-25A 12v rails on the Antec but I've heard some warnings about modular power supplies. I've also heard very good things about Corsair, but this one only has a single 52A 12v rail. My target budget is $100, but quality is more important than saving $20.

Antec EarthWatts EA750 - $99 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371026)
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W - $89 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005)

also nice but slightly higher than my target price:

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W - $109 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006)

[sassie05]

The Corsair 750TX gets my vote. But, I'm biased. I have a couple of these, for a few years now (different comps of course) and have no issues. Also running the 650tx in a very recent build.
Recently I RMA'd one of the 750's that failed, let's say due to no fault of Corsair:o ;)
No receipt and no problem with returning it.

About Multi vs Single Rails. (http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3990)

[pangea33]

Thanks for the thoughts as well as the link. I have heard so many good things and read so many positive reviews about Corsair that I decided to go with the 750tx.

[sassie05]

Your welcome. Glad it may have helped.

[jlreich]

Good choice.

Keep in mind, though admittedly I didn't read it through, that article is from 2006. Things were a little different then. When mainstream power requirements became above what was considered safe amperage on a single rail manufacturers start splitting up the rails. High end components to make a large single rail was doable but very expensive. Remember how much a PC P&C unit used to cost when they were one of the few that made high quality large single rail units? :eek: So although single rails are better in that you don't confine the power on multiple rails it was too much for most to be able to afford a $200 PSU. Now days it is not as expensive to make a stable and safe single large rails. So now we have many manufacturers that do so for a reasonable price that most can afford. Which is why Corsair has become one of the top rated PSU manufacturers. :) There are better units out there, but these Corsair units are good quality for a decent price.

I just noticed it is from 2008. Either way...