Power Supply for DFI Ultra-D

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee, Devonavar

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Power Supply for DFI Ultra-D

Post by tgenesis » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:41 pm

Hi All!

I did a search on this topic but most of the time, people simply recommend the Seasonic S12 series PSUs. There's a huge problem between Seasonic and DFI motherboards so that's out of the question.

Can anyone recommend a quiet alternative to the Seasonic PSUs? I was looking at the Enermax Liberty 500w PSU among others. I'm open to other suggestions though!

Thanks in advance!

SnooP
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2005 1:01 am

Post by SnooP » Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:59 pm

I'd have an incling that the seasonic s12 330w/380w would be fine with dfi, since there different psu design to the 500/600w models. an Antec neo HE 380w could be worth a look, though its a bit of a gamble again, especially considering how light your system is (therefore may have issues with high efficiency psu's). An enermax liberty 400w would also do fine, its not super silent though, as would an antec sp2 350w. Of course i'm showing obvious blatent disregard for dfi's infamous '480w' psu policy..(follow it if you want tech support from dfi, otherwise its irrelevent despite the bs dfi reps like angry_games say). Other psu's to look at could be FSP blue storm 500, or zalman 460w.
Last edited by SnooP on Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:07 pm

Whoops! I updated my sig! I have a beefier system now :)

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:02 am

I was also considering the Zalman ZM460. Would this be sufficient to power my system for now? What if I upgraded in the future? Would this power supply still be sufficient for DX10 video cards, etc?

SnooP
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2005 1:01 am

Post by SnooP » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:23 am

the zalman 460w will handle any current single videocard system (and most sli systems with an adapter), and will handle dx10 cards easy when they come out. most systems draw at the most 200w dc for single v/card system, up to 300w or so for sli system (overclocked).

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:47 am

Thanks heaps Snoop!

Well, I think I've narrowed it down to 3 PSUs. The Enermax Liberty 500w, Antec Neo HE 500w or the Zalman ZM460. I'm leaning towards the Antec or Enermax ones but since the Antec uses a 80mm fan, I'm not so sure about noise levels. On the other hand, I don't like the idea of combining Molex and SATA together on the Enermax which defeats the purpose of it being modular a ittle. Finally,I like the Zalman one as it's received a recommendation from SPCR but it doesn't have the capability to support SLI without an adapter.

Just a note as to why I haven't considered Silverstone or PC P&C PSUs. Firstly, someone sold of his Silverstone 600w PSU as it didn't fit in the Antec P180 which is the case I have. Secondly, both PSUs are not known to be quiet and quiet is very important to me. I don't need silence, but I do need quiet.

Can anyone help me tip it one way or another?

krille
Posts: 357
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:56 am
Location: Sweden

Post by krille » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:54 am

I think the new revision (AX I think it's called, revision 3 anyhow) of the Seasonic S12 should work with DFI boards. Not 100% though.

New revision can be bought here
http://www.case-mod.com/

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:13 am

krille wrote:I think the new revision (AX I think it's called, revision 3 anyhow) of the Seasonic S12 should work with DFI boards. Not 100% though.
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I'm down under in Australia so I don't really want to buy something from the US. Shipping will kill me!

IsaacKuo
Posts: 1705
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 7:50 am
Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Post by IsaacKuo » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:22 am

tgenesis wrote:but since the Antec uses a 80mm fan, I'm not so sure about noise levels. [...] the Antec P180 which is the case I have.
That 80mm fan won't be making any noise at all when you remove it, and simply rely upon the P180's lower 120mm case fan to provide PSU airflow.

Given the design of the P180 case, I'd rather go with a straight-thru 80mm power supply than a bend-around-and-then-90degrees 120mm power supply.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:12 am

IsaacKuo wrote: That 80mm fan won't be making any noise at all when you remove it, and simply rely upon the P180's lower 120mm case fan to provide PSU airflow.

Given the design of the P180 case, I'd rather go with a straight-thru 80mm power supply than a bend-around-and-then-90degrees 120mm power supply.
Hrm...that's food for thought. But I also heard that the Antec HEs have some compatability with certain motherboards. I'd hate to get it then realise that there's a problem with my DFI NF4 Ultra-D. Anyone have this particular combination?

McBanjo
Posts: 671
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:40 pm
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Post by McBanjo » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:49 am

tgenesis wrote:Hrm...that's food for thought. But I also heard that the Antec HEs have some compatability with certain motherboards. I'd hate to get it then realise that there's a problem with my DFI NF4 Ultra-D. Anyone have this particular combination?
HE has only problem (to my knowledge) with Asus boards. DFI had problem with some Seasonic ones.
Think both are corrected now

jaganath
Posts: 5085
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:55 am
Location: UK

Post by jaganath » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:50 am

HE has only problem (to my knowledge) with Asus boards.
This is not correct. I don't have the time right now to trawl through the mammoth Neo HE threads in the various forums, but other makes of motherboards were involved as well.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:52 am

According to DFI STreet, the problems between DFI motherboards and Seasonic PSUs continue to exist and has not and will not be resolved :(

jsluk
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:07 am

Seasonic / DFI

Post by jsluk » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:26 am

Check Angry's sig on the DFI forum. He had a Seasonic 600 running on one of his 2 computers. He was the one that stated that earlier that there appeared to be incompatability issues with DFI motherboards but that had been fixed in later versions.

Regarding the Antec Neo, I have the 430 watt unit which came with the P150 case. Initially, when I built my computer in Jan. 06, I was concerned because of all the postings on the DFI forums. Check my sig. So far so good. I am not doing SLI but I have my Opty overclock at 2.75 Ghz.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:03 am

Yeah, I know that Angry got his system working with a Seasonic. But other users have also reported problems even with the new revision A2s. So as of now, I'll be staying away from Seasonic for a bit.

But thanks for your input! Seems that Antec Neo HE is looking pretty good!

jaganath
Posts: 5085
Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2005 6:55 am
Location: UK

Post by jaganath » Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:12 am

other users have also reported problems even with the new revision A2s
IIRC the newest revision of the Seasonic is the A3; it is this revision which is supposed to have fixed the problem between DFI boards and S12's.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:18 am

Can anyone confirm the existence of A03 revision Seasonic S12 PSUs? I haven't heard of it being officially released. Just the rumours that have been floating around.

dhanson865
Posts: 2198
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 11:20 am
Location: TN, USA

Post by dhanson865 » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:55 pm

tgenesis wrote:Can anyone confirm the existence of A03 revision Seasonic S12 PSUs? I haven't heard of it being officially released. Just the rumours that have been floating around.
Have you read http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=30441 yet?

I've done some sluething around the USA and international site for Seasonic and haven't found the official PDFs but we've got a pretty good rundown of the changes for the new version.

tgenesis
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun May 22, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by tgenesis » Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:05 pm

Yup. I've read that thread. Funny thing is that itoq in that thread wasn't sure what revision his PSU was. It didn't say. But anyhow, it's not relevant to me. I'm not willing to take the risk of Seasonic PSUs at this point. So it's still down to the Zalman, Antec NeoHe and Enermax Liberty. Can anyone help me decide on which one? It's going to be used in a P180 and I'm not keen on modding the PSU as I'm a bit of a noob. :D

On the Lam
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:35 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by On the Lam » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:33 pm

See my sig - Yep I'm running the Seasonic S12 330W - My only problem is that my RAM is running Single Channel - The boys at DFI-Street insist my PS is WOEFULLY underpowered and is the cause of my RAM issues, but I slapped in a borrowed Silverstone 600W PS in there one time and it didn't fix the RAM issues.

Other than that, my system is running pretty darn stable.

nici
Posts: 3011
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by nici » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:04 pm

Old thread but oh well.. My Ultra-D works fine with the Neo HE 430 its running on now, see sig, it also works just as good on a Phantom 350 and a 400W zalman.

shimq1
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:32 am
Location: United States

Post by shimq1 » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:35 pm

On the Lam wrote:See my sig - Yep I'm running the Seasonic S12 330W - My only problem is that my RAM is running Single Channel - The boys at DFI-Street insist my PS is WOEFULLY underpowered and is the cause of my RAM issues, but I slapped in a borrowed Silverstone 600W PS in there one time and it didn't fix the RAM issues.

Other than that, my system is running pretty darn stable.
Wow you run all of that in a 330W PSU. My system's the same except I have Opteron 146, a LanParty SLI-DR and Modstream 450W.

nici
Posts: 3011
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by nici » Wed Jul 05, 2006 10:29 pm

330W is plenty, my sig system with another gig of memory and a X800GTO 12pipe @ 575/540 draws about 195W from the wall while stressing CPU and GPU to the max, gaming is a bit lower.

shimq1
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:32 am
Location: United States

Post by shimq1 » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:45 am

Everytime I ask about what to upgrade OTHER than the PSU on DFI-Street, I get 5 replies telling me I should get a 600W PSU.

nici
Posts: 3011
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by nici » Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:57 am

Yeah i got that too when i had some trouble with trying to boot for the first time.. :roll: Even the sticker on the mobo 24pin plug says 330W is ok for a 3400+ and a 6600GT IIRC. I think it was an FX cpu and 6800GT SLI that was 600W recommeded. Don´t wuote me on this though, i read the sticker when i got the mobo wich was a while ago.. :P

I think DFI-Street has a rule that one should not post questions about hardware problems if one has a PSU under 480W, seriously.

shimq1
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:32 am
Location: United States

Post by shimq1 » Thu Jul 06, 2006 9:39 am

Yup, you don't get help there unless you have the minimum of a 480W PSU.

klankymen
Patron of SPCR
Posts: 1069
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Munich, Bavaria, Europe

Post by klankymen » Thu Jul 06, 2006 9:49 am

well, I guess when you want help there, just tell them you have the 1kW PCPnC, so they don't keep annoying you about the PSU, maybe you'll actually get some productive feedback :D

shimq1
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Apr 02, 2006 11:32 am
Location: United States

Post by shimq1 » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:21 am

That's what I was thinking. :D I'll say I have quad PC&C 1kW PSUs, one for motherboard, one for video card, one for hard drives and one for the fans.

On the Lam
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:35 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Post by On the Lam » Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:36 pm

shimq1 wrote:Yup, you don't get help there unless you have the minimum of a 480W PSU.
Haha, so true! Maybe I should use that as an excuse to get myself a S12 500W...

nici
Posts: 3011
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:49 am
Location: Suomi Finland Perkele

Post by nici » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:05 am

Don´t forget to add a PSU for the floppy drive :wink:

Post Reply