power supply question

[mdroth]

curious to see if anyone has experience with Leadman (POWMAX) power supplies. Need to buy a new PS and computer geeks has one for a good price.
thanks for the opinions

also if that is not good- what shoud i look to buy for a 400 W PS and where should i look?

[Dourden]

First of all what are you really putting in the system that you need a 400W PS for. Not that you might not need one but sometimes people get way too much PS for what they need so I am just checking.

[mdroth]

Dourden

1 strip light- cold cathode
4 fans average case size
2 CD- CdR
4 HD
P4
512 Mb ram
geforce 3
ethernet card and
soundblaster live

Had a 350, and i think it's failing.

[maface]

Toms Hardware had a PS review recently http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...highlight=toms

[bill1971]

I believe an engineer around here in a previous thread was kinda
bashing Enermax PSUs, although a lot of us have had very good success with them. So this EE recommended a 500 watt CompUSA PSU for $80 - said it worked great, and solved his prob.

I looked at this PSU at the store, and all I could find on the unit was on one of the fans which said "Powmax". So can we assume that the whole PSU is a Leadman(Powmax)?? If so, it seems that
in PS reviews that I've read, this brand only had "average" ratings at best.

That tom's Hardware article would be a good starting point for you. If I remember correctly, the Antec True 380watt got good
overall reviews. Looks like the Heroichi also performed well.
Both of these are sold at www.Newegg.com .

Hope this helps.

- Bill

[woodbutcher]

Hey md
I also saw the powmax at geeks. Have had several of them in cases that came with the PS. Never had any probs with them.
I personally like the antec "true" series.

WB

[LarrySamDavid25]

I would highly recommend HEC or Antec, definately...you'd be amazed at the problems an inadequate PSU can provide. Simply AMAZED.

NoPOST's, parking hard drives, system halts, memory failures, bandwidth lags (internal and external)...the list goes on. And it almost always APPEARS to be a problem with another piece of hardware...and changing that hardware can fix the problem, as the new hardware may not require the current that the prior did, or the problem may up and shift to another device as the current flow has been altered.

I think these shoddy PSU's is one of the reasons behind hard drive MFG's wanting to shorten their warranties, as many of these hard drives are dieing due to crap PSU's working them to death.

UP, down, UP, down, UP, down...the voltage of a POS PSU

[Xixi]

they have a similar one at www.buypcdirect.com for $19.25 shipped, it's a 400 watt ps. hth

[mdroth]

thanks for the replies,
Went with antec, the problem was something else but nice new Ps can't hurt.
Thanks again
mike

[LarrySamDavid25]

Heads up on that Powmax400W'er...they're a bit unreliable, at least the two I had were...