Replacement budget PSU (UK)

[f300]

Hello, first time poster here! Great forum, been reading lots but would like some advice.

I was installing an SSD today (which I'd won, amazingly ), looking forward to a nice speedup over my HDD. I got to the point of powering back up, and... nothing.

I noticed that the light on the back of the PSU hadn't come on so I turned the PSU switch off, checked the power cable was plugged in properly and turned the switch on again. The light came on this time but was accompanied by an arcing noise followed by a wisp of smoke coming from around the switch and a burning electronics smell.

It's an OCZ StealthXStream 500w (OCZ500SXS-UK)

So I'm going to need a replacement and aren't sure what to go for. Unfortunately I'm on a tight budget therefore looking for something reasonably priced, but still decent quality and reliable. Here's what it needs to power, getting quite old now:

Core2Duo E6600 (Conroe)
Asus P5K
Geforce 8800GTS 640
4GB DDR2 (4x 1GB)
240Gb Mushkin Chronos
1Tb Samsung F3
X-Fi XtremeGamer (PCI)
Hauppauge WinTV DVB-T tuner (PCI)
DVD-RW

Any recommendations greatly appreciated
Thanks!

[Tator Tot]

While it's not the cheapest watts per dollar, the Be Quiet Efficient Power 350w would be more than enough for the system is very efficient, built pretty well (thus reliable) has a good warranty & good company to back them and is quiet.

The cheapest option is the Antec VP350P, which is very affordable, and slightly better built but less efficient and not as quiet.

Both units are solid options, it really depends on what you need out of your system.


And yes, 350w is plenty for what you're running.

[f300]

Wow, thanks I was expecting to have to spend more than that Antec, the PSU calculator I looked at said I would need at least 480W! I guess they overestimate heavily.

Hmm, if you don't mind me asking more... if I wanted a bit of future-proofing for a cpu, mobo, gfx upgrade (maybe a year from now say) without buying a new PSU, what should I be looking at? Any upgrade would be at max a 7850 type power level, 1x 6pin PCI-E, no xfire/sli, cheapest "K" model intel quad. Just wondering if it would be worth spending a bit extra now rather than having to replace the PSU again.

Thanks again!

[Tator Tot]

The HD7850 only uses about 100-105w and if you got a 2500K or 3570K without overclocking (but Tubro on) the 350w unit would still be fine with your current setup.

If you want to overclock the chip by a good degree on the GPU then the Thermaltake SMART 430w or XFX Pro Series 450w
Either would be a good option, the XFX unit is louder but does perform, electrically, a bit better.

[allikat]

I got that Antec Basiq for a HTPC, and it's been rock solid, and looked well put together.