A few things I'm worried about...

[JoeJe]

I'm currently building a PC, it powers on OK (See pic in sig, it's awesome!) but I haven't purchased any RAM or a CPU yet due to being a poor student :( - I'm worried about a few things and I need someone to confirm my suspicions before I explode with worry! - Thanks :)

1. Graphics card (ATi Radeon HD 4850) doesn't supply a signal (This is expected), but shows a little red light, is this a problem?

2. Ethernet port LED's (The yellow and green LED's actually on the port itself) do not light up when an Ethernet cable is plugged in, do these only initalise once the processor and RAM have booted up?

3. All 11 USB ports (Yes, 11!!! Woo!) power a USB stick with an LED on it OK, but it doesn't charge my iPod, could the USB ports be faulty? (All of them do this)

I'm just worried that I have faulty parts in my machine as my motherboard isn't brand new, it was purchased from eBay (£103 with a free copy of Vista Ultimate 64!)

[aaron333]

I'm not sure but I would deffo wait.

Rule of thumb, buy at the same time, so you can check asap. And tbh, don't even bother with the Novatech 800w psu.

[JoeJe]

I'm not sure but I would deffo wait.

Rule of thumb, buy at the same time, so you can check asap. And tbh, don't even bother with the Novatech 800w psu.

Why? - Whats wrong with the Novatech 800w PSU? - it had 7 good reviews on it's sale page and I doubt such a loyal company such as Novatech would sell dodgy parts...

[aaron333]

I'm afraid you need to read up on psu's mate. That psu is more like a 400w. The amps on the 12v rail power the cpu and GFX card and it's low on these. There is little protection, so if it goes bang, it will take most of your components with it.
What you pay for with branded psu's is these amps, a 520w corsair states it's continous output, what it will deliver no matter what rather than the maximum like Novatechs own brand one does. You're also paying for protection, that it will go out without a scene as well as being stable under load.

What is a PC Power Supply Unit?

In the simplest of terms, the Power Supply Unit, PSU for short, is a component designed to supply power to a computer.
It will do this by converting 240V AC power from your regular wall socket to low-voltage DC power for the internal
computer components.

Why is a decent PSU important?

As mentioned above, PSU's are the most crucial part of the system. It is responsible for providing power to all of your
other expensive components, and having a PSU that fails to do this properly can lead to damage and incorrect functioning
of these parts.
An often cited phrase when buying consumer goods is 'you're paying for the brand'. This phrase is 9 times out of 10 incorrect
when buying a PSU - a quality branded PSU will provide stable, continuous, and sufficient power whilst remaining cool and
efficient, and maintaining a quiet operation. The other major factor that seperates a decent PSU from a bad one is the inbuilt

protection it
will provide in the unfortunate event of a failure. Cheaper PSU's will often not include any form of protection and the chances
of them destroying the sensitive components will be far greater. Finally on the subject of failure, decent PSU's will
generally use higher quality components such as capacitors, wires and cooling systems

Power supply considerations

Power output

An obvious question on most people's minds when buying a PSU is 'will it be powerful enough?'. Unfortunately, the common
misconception is 'more watts equals more power' - this is sadly not the case. Power supply manufacturers will often
produce PSU's with grossly overinflated specifications, and will use tricks to circumvent laws regarding false advertising.
Common techniques include quoting the peak power instead of the continuous power, determining the continuous output power
capability at unrealistically low temperatures (e.g. at room temperature as opposed to 40°C), and advertising total power
as a measure of capacity, when modern systems are almost totally reliant on the number of amps on the 12 volt line(s).

In order to make their PSUs look more powerful than they really are, PSU manufacturers will quote the peak power figure
- that is, the maximum figure that the PSU can deliver for a short period of time.
On the other hand, continuous power is the power delivery that can be sustained for long periods of time with no adverse
effects to the unit. This obviously will create a problem when buying a system that, for example, will require 300W
of continuous power and a PSU is used with 300W of peak power available. Before long the PSU will not be able to sustain
this and fail, with possibly disastrous consequences.
A notable example of a manufacturer that quotes continuous power is Corsair. The excellent Corsair VX450W is a 450W
PSU that will be able to continuously supply 450W of power to components within a system. In tests, its actual peak
figure has been measured at just under 600W! In contrast, the Arctic Power 600W PSU will quote the peak figure, the
continuous figure being much lower - potentially a big problem.
The second thing that the manufacturers often do not quote or make inconspicuous is amperage figure, particularly of
the 12V rail(s). The current that the power supply can deliver to the components is perhaps the most important figure
to judge a power supply output power on, and is often overlooked. Just because a PSU can output 600W of power, it
doesn't mean that a decent proportion of this power is reserved for the 12V rail(s). With graphics cards becoming
increasingly more powerful, the two major graphics card manufacturers, ATi and NVidia, will list the specifications
for theirs to include a decent PSU able to deliver a certain amount of amps on the 12V rail (this figure is based
on a typical system and not what the graphics card alone will need). An example would be NVidia's 8800GT.
This graphics card is recommended to be used in conjunction with a PSU able to supply 27amps along the 12V rail(s).
The Corsair VX450W is able to supply 34amps on a single 12V rail, thus there is plenty of headroom for extra components.
A cheap 500W PSU may only be able to deliver 22amps on the 12V rail, making it unsuitable for use with an 8800GT.
Again, the current is often quoted as a peak figure and the sustainable figure is significantly lower. Again,
Corsair (and other 'honest' manufacturers) will quote the amperage figure as sustainable amps.

Choosing a PSU that is able to deliver the correct power to your system can be a hard task, but with a bit of research
and advice from ebuyer forum members, the right PSU can be obtained

Stability

As well as providing the power, it will need to be delivered cleanly and in a stable manner. A PSU will output
three voltages to different components - 12V, 3.3V and 5V. 12V is reserved for demanding components such as graphics
cards, the CPU and hard drives. 3.3V is used by components such as memory and PCI cards, and 5V is used by USB and some
onboard chips.
The power given out by the PSU's needs the be as close to these voltages as possible, otherwise problems such as hard
drive corruption, memory failures and damage to USB components can occur. Higher quality PSU's will generally use
better voltage regulation components thus providing more stable power.
PSU reviews are often a good place to look for voltage stability tests.

In built protection

So you've just spent £600 on components for a new PC, but you bought a cheap, no name PSU. The PSU then fails
and because it is lacking in a decent over current protection system, it will go beserk and deliver a surge of current
to all the other components, destroying them. It has happened to members of this forum, and when it does, sure the
PSU will be replaced under warranty, but the other components will not be covered..£600 down the drain.
A quality PSU will include a circuit (or circuits) specifically designed to stop components being damaged in the
event of a failure. Another feature of protection circuits is to protect the PSU itself. If a system draws too much
power from the PSU and it can't cope, a decent PSU will shut itself down. Cheap makes can, and often have, carry
on supplying power until they overheat, go bang, or catch fire (or all three).
Having this protection is reason alone to spend a few extra pounds on a decent PSU - spending that extra tenner could
save you hundreds or even a few thousand down the line. Always read as many reviews as possible on your chosen PSU as
they will often mention the protection systems the PSU employs.

Energy Efficiency

With rising energy costs and living in a green conscious society, energry efficient PSU's are becoming ever
increasingly important. A more efficient PSU will lead to less electricity being used, thus lower electricity
bills! Efficiency will be measured on how much power is actually delivered to the components, and how much is
lost due to factors such as heat.
Generally a PSU is 70-75% efficient, so when delivers 100W of DC power, 25W will be lost. Higher quality
PSU's can be over 80% efficient and as of 2003, 93% efficient supplies have become available. The cheaper
the components and design of the PSU, the less efficient it will be.
80 PLUS (http://www.80plus.org/) certify PSU's that are over 80% efficient and PSU's that have been
certified will bear the 80 PLUS logo.

Heat and noise

Two other factors to consider is the heat and noise that a PSU produces. As the PSU provides more power, naturally
it will give off more heat. All PSU's have methods to deal with this heat, such as using heatsinks and fans.
As the heat increases, the fans will have to spin faster, creating more noise. PSU's that are able to remain
cool will be quieter and affect the overall case temperature less. A more efficient PSU will be easier to cool.
The inside of a PSU can reveal alot about its cooling methods. Often, a cheap PSU will use flimsy heatsinks and
cheap, noisy fans. More expensive or quality PSU's will use carefully designed heatsinks with low noise high output
fans. Reading reviews and reading specifications can assist you in choosing a PSU that will produce less heat and
noise

Zalman are notable for creating a line of PSU's that runs completely passive, i.e with no fans. This PSU's comes highly rated
by many reviewers and it goes to show that decent heatsinks can make all the difference.

Thank's to TimmyGcse for that guide off the ebuyer forums.

[JoeJe]

I don't think it's a rubbish PSU, look at these reviews on it, plus the fact it's not one of those really light cheaply manufactured ones, it has a decent weight to it and the metal casing isn't really thin, I have a really cheap PSU as a spare and that really is made out of ****. If you read the specifications of this PSU, it has overload protection of up to 150%, so it won't blow up my PC

Reviewed By:Big Dave
Date:Apr 7 2009
Rated:http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gif
A friend said to me once, To much power is just enough! Well this PSU lives up to that, enough cables and connectors than you would ever need. im running the motherboard, graphics card, blue-ray and Lightscribe dvd r/w 2 500GB HDD and 2 x 110mm fans and 3 x 80mm fans not including all the other stuff like lights ect and the PSU keeps asking for more!!

Reviewed By:itchypaws
Date:Mar 8 2009
Rated:http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gifhttp://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/_images/star.gif
Why pay more for an 800W PSU? This is super quiet with many connectors and has not problem with my asus p6t deluxe mobo and intel i7 cpu set. Only negative I found, my mobo power supplier connector is opposite end of case to power supply and it was a bit of a stretch routing it across the mobo. I think I would have had this problem with any power supply though.



That's a direct copy off the Novatech website, if this PSU was advertised as an 800W PSU and can only handle up to 400W then Ofcom would be on Novatech's tail.

[aaron333]

Thats it. LOOK. They state max wattage, not max continous. Ask ANYONE!!!

I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole.

The people in the reviews are not trained to review, they have no idea about amps and efficiency.

if you actually read any of the above then it may help.

It has 1 PCI-E connector, why? Because its ****. 500w decent psu's have more than that.

[JoeJe]

Thats it. LOOK. They state max wattage, not max continous. Ask ANYONE!!!

I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole.

The people in the reviews are not trained to review, they have no idea about amps and efficiency.

if you actually read any of the above then it may help.

It has 1 PCI-E connector, why? Because its ****. 500w decent psu's have more than that.

Oh great... and I bet Novatech won't want to refund it either... F*@#!!!!!! - 30 quid is alot of money for me aswell, any suggestions on a better PSU then...

[aaron333]

This will run it fine:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/OCZ400SXS-UK.html

I used to run a 4850 on a coolermaster 460, 460w max, 401.5 continous. That's the one psu coolermaster state the max output of. The OCZ above is bare minimum and actually states the continous output, max is more like 470.

Tbh, its not much more than your current psu.

After saying that, I have heard a few horror stories from OCZ owners.

TBH, I would get this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/CX400W.html

OCZ aren't bad, one of the top brands. Corsair are better.

[JoeJe]

This will run it fine:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/OCZ400SXS-UK.html

I used to run a 4850 on a coolermaster 460, 460w max, 401.5 continous. That's the one psu coolermaster state the max output of. The OCZ above is bare minimum and actually states the continous output, max is more like 470.

Tbh, its not much more than your current psu.

After saying that, I have heard a few horror stories from OCZ owners.

TBH, I would get this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/CX400W.html

OCZ aren't bad, one of the top brands. Corsair are better.

So I have now removed the PSU and has been put back in the box, any idea on how I can return it? I am MILES away from Portsmouth :(

[aaron333]

You can only return it under 7 days, if not your stuck with it.

[DoubleTop]

You can only return it under 7 days, if not your stuck with it.

new distance selling act is ten days.

DT.

[H_a_p_p_y]

TBH, I would get this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Components/PowerSupplies/CX400W.html

OCZ aren't bad, one of the top brands. Corsair are better.

That or the VX450 would be a good choice. Check out this VX450 review :)

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/540/8

[codemonkey]

new distance selling act is ten days.

DT.

Still says 7 days here??

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/

[JoeJe]

Don't worry, its under 7 days old, will be 7 days on thursday this week (I think) and I have a return number, it shall be shipped back ASAP, So yeah back to square one, great...

I need a PSU that can handle quite a powerful overclock, 8GB of RAM, an ATi Radeon HD 4850 and an Asus Maximus Mobo, so around 800w-1000w. I need one that has a continuous supply of power (like we discussed) and reasonably priced, I'm a student, not a millioniare :)

[Jeddmann]

lol 800-900w?

That rig will run on a quality 350w psu depending on cpu.

Peoples idea about power requirements are waaay overblown.

I'd get a 600w corsair unit myself. Failing that OCZ are good and cheap.

[PMM]

Still says 7 days here??

http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/distance-selling-regulations/


Depends in the way its viewed interpreted, I am not aware of a change.


In the case of goods, the cooling-off period normally ends seven working days after the day the goods are received.For a business not working weekends and a day's grace for delivery
essentially it can be 10 days from when the person placed order and had acknowledgement.

Example being Ordered Friday - received Monday (= 3 days past) + 7 working days DST = 10 - 12 days from day of purchase.

Depends if you look from purchase date or received date and the business working days.

//at JoeJe (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/member.php?u=14211) did you plug any external cable into the card ? many card needs an extra power plug connecting to suppliment the power without you may get a red light warning you of a power issue.

[DoubleTop]

http://forums.teamphoenixrising.net/images/smilies/Offtopic.gif

I think it must depend on how you take it, allowing for delivery times etc.. I've seen a couple of retailers now stating in t&c ten days, must admit to not having checked it out though.

DT.

[aaron333]

I doubt it will run on a 350w. A branded 400 watt will do fine, get a corsair 450 as Happy said for peice of mind.

[JoeJe]

I doubt it will run on a 350w. A branded 400 watt will do fine, get a corsair 450 as Happy said for peice of mind.

450W!?!?! for tons of LED fans, cold cathodes, an overclocked quad core, 8GB of RAM a 1TB HDD and a DL DVD-RW??? plus possibly more in the future.

Seriously, I need something around 800w-1000w, also I have just been down the post office and have sent off the deathtrap of a PSU in the post :) - I will remake this topic so we go back on topic :) (If you get what I mean)

[JoeJe]

TOPIC RE-MADE: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?p=161975

Please can an admin close this topic, Thanks :)

[IainK]

seriously, a branded 400W WILL do fine, however for futur upgradability you may want to look at the corsair 650W :)

[JoeJe]

seriously, a branded 400W WILL do fine, however for futur upgradability you may want to look at the corsair 650W :)


Ah OK cool, thanks :)

New topic about my PSU: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?p=161998
This topic re-made: http://forum.novatech.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12729

Please can this topic be closed, Thanks :)