Ripple problem of OCZ GamerXstream 700W

[cho]

The power unit got quite a lot of positive comments from newegg and its review in this site is pretty good too except: "Ripple that exceeds tolerances documented in the ATX specifications".

I don't know anthing about ripple. So, in what kind of situation, a power unit with ripple problem will fail to perform well?

[jonnyGURU]

I usually describe ripple in the part of the review prior to showing the oscope results. For whatever reason, I didn't do that when I did the GameXstream review:


Ripple is what you call the small fluctuations in voltage that happens every ms or so that may not affect performance, but may kill your components in time.


Now, keep in mind that the excessive ripple only occurs at high loads. I doubt that someone that could get by with a GameXstream 700W (without experiencing errors and lock ups because of not enough power) would peak the PSU to the point where the ripple would exceed specifications, but....

Specifications for ripple as per the ATX12V standard is 120mV. FSP Epsilon based PSU's like the GameXstream are spec'd at 200mV.

Personally, I would prefer a PSU that didn't have ripple that exceeded specification. ;)

[CAD4466HK]

The power unit got quite a lot of positive comments from newegg

And that means what exactly :confused:

[Veno(V)]

I saw the post from another thread of the 700w gamexstream for sale at tigerdirect for 80$ after rebate. I was wondering what is considered a full load.

I want to use this for my pc which is running:

P4 3.0E Ghz Socket 478
2x512 CorsairValue Ram DDR1
8x IDE hard disks
2x DVD Burner/DVD Rom
1x NEC Iomega Drive
1x 3.5 Disk Drive
1x PowerColor ATI 9800NonPro AGP 8x Video Card
1x Sound BLaster Audigy2 PCI Sound Card
1x Intel PRO/100+ PCI NIC Card
2x Promise Ultra 100 ATA IDE Controller Card

I ran all this on what I thought was da bomb psu "Antec TrueBlue 480"


I know you guys are gunna kill/flame me for posting this but I have been getting so many crashes and I/O errors from my hard disk that it is driving me crazy for the past 3 years in which I have been dealing with. I didn't know it could have been a PSU problem til I posted in NewEgg >_<

Please help ... I would really appreciate it and want to thank everyone in advance for taking their time and reading it.

P.S. I wish you all a great Thanksgiving Weekend ^___^


Sincerely Yours,

Veno(V)

[madmat]

You've got too much load for that 480W. You should've gone with the 550 for that many hard drives. The 480 has 22A on the 12V line, you're putting 16 to 24A peak on that rail on just the HDD's alone. Yes, that's just on start up but calculate all the overloading times the number of times you've fired up your PC and that's a lot of cycles of overloading the PSU.

[Veno(V)]

Do you know of any good deals that would def more than satisfy my needs to handle the load? I'm not sure what you mean by a 550. Would any of you pls be kind enough to direct me some models of the psu's or even better the links to where I can get them? =oP

P.S. I would really appreciate it very much and thank you for your reply Madmat ^__^



Veno(V)

[madmat]

Antec True 550W, It was available in '03 and had a few more amps on the 12V rail. That said I'd recommend getting something in the 500W to 600W range. The Silverstone ST50EF Plus, the Seasonic 500W S or M series, ETC. Something of good quality would do the job for your rig. I'm sure others will chime in soon enough.

[dqniel]

Prescotts are power-hungry, you have a decently strenuous video card, and all your HDDs and add-on cards add up. The "extreme power supply calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine)" recommends around 440w but I take the rating with a grain of salt even though their PSU calculator seems to be quite detailed and accurate. I agree with madmat on that the best bet for your current rig is a quality 500w to 600w. The Enhance 5150GH at www.Ewiz.com is like $70 and is good, but a Corsair 520w from www.zipzoomfly.com would be even better. If you're looking for future expandability and top quality, you can get a Zippy GSM6600 for $140 at www.ncix.com.

[Veno(V)]

I used that calculator and it brought me up to 535 watts considering my case is a mid tower with 3 plexi glass windows for my fancy lights =oP

Yah - I have usb and firewire powered stuff as well as a tv tuner card and other things. I dont think the a 550watt would suffice. I should have stated earlier. I dont even know if 600watt may do it but I am looking for something 600watt and up.

Also, I don't have any SATA drives. So, I'm using 13x 5.25 molex (not counting my 4x 80mm fans) and 2x 3.5 molex. I wanna know if it's okay for me to split one of the 5.25 molex into 5 more 5.25 molex because that is what I have been doing.

P.S. I assume the 700w GameXStream isnt for me

Veno(V)

[Bbq]

Don't use the calculator. I got over 550w draw on a single video card, an opteron, and 3 hard drives.

You'll do fine with the enhance ENS-5150. Remember, not all 500w power supplies are made equal.

[JEDIYoda]

The power unit got quite a lot of positive comments from newegg and its review in this site is pretty good too except: "Ripple that exceeds tolerances documented in the ATX specifications".

I don't know anthing about ripple. So, in what kind of situation, a power unit with ripple problem will fail to perform well?

Keep in mind that those are customer comments that are posted at the newEgg site and in no way should be elevated to "review" status!!

You need to take each comment with a grain of salt!! Especially when alot of the comments range from -- My order arived within a day or 2 of my order and the item I ordered is working fine!!

Where can something like that be interpreted as a review? lol

[JEDIYoda]

I used that calculator and it brought me up to 535 watts considering my case is a mid tower with 3 plexi glass windows for my fancy lights =oP

Yah - I have usb and firewire powered stuff as well as a tv tuner card and other things. I dont think the a 550watt would suffice. I should have stated earlier. I dont even know if 600watt may do it but I am looking for something 600watt and up.

Also, I don't have any SATA drives. So, I'm using 13x 5.25 molex (not counting my 4x 80mm fans) and 2x 3.5 molex. I wanna know if it's okay for me to split one of the 5.25 molex into 5 more 5.25 molex because that is what I have been doing.

P.S. I assume the 700w GameXStream isnt for me

Veno(V)

Most calculators are at best a very very loose guide to what you actually need...almost useless IMO!!

[Veno(V)]

I really appreciate the replies everyone. I do udnerstand ppl in NewEgg give poor reviews and lack the expertise you here have but going from a 480watt to a 500watt seems to be an unnecessary move. I really am afraid that once I get it and it's not enough, then I would feel really stupid. My uncle is running a 650watt with 8 hard disks and he says it barely manages.

I was looking at the p180 case and it's nice besides it lacking a psu.

[Bbq]

Remember

Not all power supplies are made equal.

Compare: An average generic "600w". 18a on the +12v rail. That's only 216w on the 12v. At full load, a prescott will take about 8 amps of power to run. 96w, give or take. That leaves you with 120w on the +12v rails for other things.

A Corsair HX 520. "only" 520w, with 40 amps on the +12v rail.

Just remember, quality >>>>>>> quantity.

[Veno(V)]

How many amps are on the 5150gh & the ST50EF-Plus +12V?

P.S. I dunno how u guys figured out the Amps on them. Man, I feel stupid!


Veno(V)

[GalvanizedYankee]

How many amps are on the 5150gh & the ST50EF-Plus +12V?

P.S. I dunno how u guys figured out the Amps on them. Man, I feel stupid!


Veno(V)

Combined 12V would be 36A for the ST50F and 35A for the 5150GH as per Enhance by phone several months ago. The ST50EF has 4 SATA connects, sleeving and a three year warrenty compared to the 5150GH's 2 SATA connects, no sleeving, one year warrenty.
The Silverstone Elements and Striders are made by Enhance. Nearly the exact same units really. The 5150GH will Froogle for < $70.

http://www.enhanceusa.com/file/72_specification.pdf

Read me :D http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=23

[uOpt]

The effect of the ripple also depends on what you run behind that PSU.

For my Supermicro board I asked Supermicro support directly what they think of a PSU with too much ripple and they said the board has so good power management that it doesn't care (it's a $1250 board).

Low ripple becomes more important with cheaper boards because they won't correct it. Obviously harddrives won't like it but they are on the 5V rail which doesn't have ripple on this PSU.

Of course the GXS might have other issues such as overly cheap parts, but I'm still on the fence of replacing it. Never change a running system, right? Waiting for the Silverstone OP1000 and then taking a pick.

[Veno(V)]

The 5150gh is almost $80 after shipping from ewiz

The ST50EF-Plus is like $90 deadeyedata total

I dont understand the difference between the ST50EF-Plus and the ST50EF-Plus SC.

I looked at them thru the manufacturer site. Can someone enlighten me?


Veno(V)

[CAD4466HK]

The SC version means "short cable" for the SFF rigs:)

[Veno(V)]

Since the price difference is so minimal - I should go for the ST50EF ...heehee ^_^


Thank you guys so much for your help!!!

[IdaGno]

The effect of the ripple also depends on what you run behind that PSU.

For my Supermicro board I asked Supermicro support directly what they think of a PSU with too much ripple and they said the board has so good power management that it doesn't care (it's a $1250 board).

Low ripple becomes more important with cheaper boards because they won't correct it. Obviously harddrives won't like it but they are on the 5V rail which doesn't have ripple on this PSU.

Of course the GXS might have other issues such as overly cheap parts, but I'm still on the fence of replacing it. Never change a running system, right? Waiting for the Silverstone OP1000 and then taking a pick.

An interesting MORE HARDWARE soultion discussed below, for those determined to chase a flat sine wave. Smooth is good!

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&number=1&artpage=1982&articID=474

"The design intent looks to replace what is often absent in both motherboard power circuitry and PSU's, ample capacitance with emphasis on storage."

"Clever-Power's VGA Booster & CPU Stabilizer most definitely aids in smoothing the DC sine wave between your power supply and system, albeit the CPU or graphic cards. To the extent your system can benefit from "line conditioning" will of course depend on the quality of the PSU you own. Neither of these units can compensate if your PSU is under powered, nor can they correct problems which may exist in the circuitry or devices themselves."

"It's not that these products lack merit, they do aid in smoothing the DC sine wave and to a certain extent staring current. The problem is they simply don't excel at either and what they do accomplish would be difficult for the End-user to recognize."

"The question then remains, are you willing to invest in a product whose benefits are obvious on an oscilloscope yet difficult to detect in "real world" applications?"

[jonnyGURU]

Yes, I remember that review.

I'd just as well invest in a power supply that's properly built to begin with. Many can be obtained for the same amount of money as the aforementioned GameXstream. Why invest twice as much $$$ by getting a sub-standard PSU and a bank of caps?