Finally upgrading! Anyone know stuff about power supplies? Deciding between these 2.. (1 Viewer)

[Kami]

Well I've been chugging along with this for the past 19 months:
P3-700e overclocked to 933MHz
512mb pc133
GeForce2 GTS 32mb
etc.
and now I'll be upgrading...I have all my components decided except the power supply. I know AMD's are really picky and power hungry and I also hear the GF4 needs a nice power supply.
I've narrowed it down to these and please don't suggest other ones, I can get these for good prices:
Antec PP412X: More wattage (400w), 245 watt (!) combined on 3.3v & 5v, but possibly louder?
Enermax EG365P-VE FCA: Less wattage (350w), only 185 watt combined on the 3.3v and 5v rails, but you can tone the fan speed way down to reduce noise.
Noise *is* a concern to me but it's not the main concern (stability is). I also hear that the Antec has a ADDA fan in it, and aren't these relatively quiet? If I had the enermax I would turn the fan speed dial down all the way most likely.
This is all the stuff it will have to power:
-ECS K7S5A
-Athlon XP 1800+ (no overclocking planned at this point)
-512MB Samsung DDR (PC2100)
-Abit GeForce 4 Ti4200 (overclocked to Ti4400 speeds and hopefully Ti4600 speeds)
-SB Audigy
-40GB Maxtor 7200rpm
-15GB Maxtor 7200rpm
-LG CDRW
-Toshiba DVD-ROM
-Linksys NIC
-Firewire card (usually 1 or 2 firewire devices hooked up, but I don't think it's a real issue since the ext. HD is externally powered and the DV-Camera only sends data)
-Floppy
Both power supplies are about the same price, but I'm torn between them. Won't be ordering the parts til next week. Anyone?

 

[Dave E H]

I'm going with the Enermax. I actually bought the wrong model - the FC, but wanted the FCA - nice blue will match my case. I've only read good things about enermax. I'm going with a similar set up. You shouldn't need more than the enermax.

 

[Max Leung]

I have an Enermax as well. Two in fact...I gave one to a friend, although he never dusts around his computer, so it will be a true torture test to see if it lasts more than a year (he killed 2 powersupplies in one year...the lint buildup was so bad that it wrecked his memory and his CPU fan).

The Enermax I'm using is about 400 watts, 2 fans, one of which is manually adjustable. I should've gotten the cheaper one with the one fan, as I plan to go watercooling one of these days.

 

[CarlDJr]

Kami,
You might want to check out the new TruePower Antec power supplies.
http://www.antec-inc.com/p_truehome.html

 

[Kami]

Carl, the TruPower's are nice but they will be pricey in canada...I have it narrowed down to these two.
I think the strongest points are:
Antec: 245watts on the 3.3v and 5v rails...this PSU could really take a beating and it's probably even sufficient for dual Athlons.
Enermax: dual fans, manually adjustable
So far most people think Enermax, hmm.
I can't wait to build this mofo though

 

[JJR512]

I'm going to second the Antec TruePower suggestion. I have one of these babies myself (the 430W model). It is extremely quiet. You say the Enermax is manually adjustable? This Antec adjusts itself! And I have seen some reports here and there that some Enermax power supplies had some issues with the 5V line.

 

[JJR512]

Elaborating on my last comment, here are some sources to back me up:
This first one is a thread started by someone who had problems with the same Enermax you want to get: http://amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=40329
Something else: http://amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=81817

 

[Kami]

Yeah while I was doing some more reading and searching tonight I came a cross a lot of stuff similar to those links you just posted. Seems Enermax's may not be all they are hyped up to be (at least for faster AMD CPUs).

I am leaning towards the Antec, but as I said already it won't be a trupower one. For one, I can't find any canadian retailers with them. if I bought it in the US the exchange would probably kill it. If the noise is really THAT bad on the Antec then I will just replace the fan with an 80mm Panaflo (only 21dba).