Got home to find my PC wouldn't even turn on. Seems the PSU is dead as I cannot see any lights on the motherboard and the fan is not spinning in the PSU. Tried a new Belkin power cable to be sure it wasn't that and even plugged the PSU directly into the wall to check it wasn't my anti-surge adaptor. No joy. Looks like I'll have to order a new PSU. What model do I go for though and will a 750 or 800 W PSU suffice? My current CM Silent Pro 850 M was only 3.5 years old and is the first faulty PSU I've owned. I have one graphics card, one PCI-E sound card, two BD-ROM drives, one SSD and three internal 7,200 rpm hard drives totalling 5 TB. USB power wise I have one 1 TB external drive and, obviously, a keyboard and mouse as well as an Xbox 360 controller. Would a 750 W PSU be OK for those? I'm not likely to ever use SLI or CFX again? Thanks.
That'll be fine for that.I can't imagine any system with a single card needing more than that.As always buy quality.The UK guys can probably suggest more about models places than I could as regards as what to buy.
I think I will order the XFX Pro Series Black Edition 850 W fully modular PSU from Amazon as it is £115 and Custom PC magazine gave the 750 W one 90% back in September 2013. That 750 W version is only £4 cheaper on Amazon so may as well go for the extra wattage.
Check out the Superflower units in that price range also, if I was buying a PSU at the moment it'd be from them or EVGA (who use Superflower as their OEM). http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-019-SF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2057 Here's a review from Johnnyguru for the 750w version: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=370
Sorry Darkest, I've already ordered the XFX one for delivery on Thursday before 1pm. I'm currently debating whether to take the day off to fit it then or wait until Friday night after work. I'm kind of pissed off that the CM PSU died after less than four years as it was not cheap! Are the modular cables universal, i.e. can I use the existing SATA and GFX cables from my CM PSU with the new XFX one or are they different shaped connectors? Also, why don't PSUs have power LEDs on the back anymore?
Honestly, if you dont sli, and use the "small" Intel sockets, then 650 watt would have been sufficient for you. But regarding psu's, i guess its a matter of "better safe than sorry" Ive actually just ordered a psu myself - ordered the corsair ax1200 (replacing my almost 8 year old thermaltake 1200 watt psu)
Yeah, I figured having an 850 W PSU would mean it would be less stressed than a 750 W one would be. It cost £4 more anyway. But it felt odd buying a smaller PSU as well. Who knows maybe the next NVIDIA GPU will need an 800 W PSU?
Yeah, you want to be somewhat future proofed - you dont want to buy a new psu every 2nd year. Also the reason i choosed to buy the corsair ax1200... aside of me needing roughly 1000 watt at peak load, the psu is VERY efficient, and comes with a 7 year warrenty... so hopefully it will serve me as long as my current one has - my current one hasnt actually died yet, but its become quite noisy, and less effective (which really shows on the Electric bill!)
I just changed from a nearly 4 year old corsair ax1200w to a cm V1200w Platinum just installed it yesterday so far so good, should be ok as it's a seasonic design.
I recently upgraded my rig and thought might as well do the psu as well, the cm V1200 platinum had some good reviews and was a good price here, sold the corsair on a local auction site and got $310nz dollars, the V1200 cost me $434 new
Question: Can a dead motherboard prevent a PSU from powering up? In other words, would a PSU fan still spin even if the motherboard was dead or does the motherboard itself stop the PSU from working when plugged in. Can you test a PSU works without plugging it into a PC just be plugging it into the mains and turning it on? I'm asking because I've assumed that it is my PSU that is dead because there are no lights on my motherboard and no fan activity or lights on the PSU either. I am concerned that I may have wasted my money buying a new PSU if it is actually the motherboard that is dead. How are you supposed to test these things anyway?
Well I had an issue when I was working on a computer in one of my college classes and the computer wouldn't turn back on after putting it back together after taking it apart. Turns out it was a bad memory module. Here is what I would do to troubleshoot this is disconnect every drive and device that is plugged into the computer then take out all but 1 memory module and see if the computer powers on. Heck if you have an old graphics card I would swap out your 780 for the older card for testing purposes.
general rule i use with a bit of common sense is what ever power i require, i should expect to pay around 10% of that for the cost of the PSU. 800W PSU = £80ish. I have followed this rule, kept with known brands and never really had a problem. I have only ever had one PSU blow up on me, from Enermax even through following this rule, but that was 5 years after buying it.
The only way you can test it, is if you have 2 of everything available for testing... then its simply starting with replacing the unit that is most likely to be faulty - if you dont have that option, then you basically cant do a proper test, and only make a qualified guess at what the issue is. But you are absolutely correct, that a dead mobo shouldnt affect fans - they should still be running.
You mean the fan on the PSU? That's what makes me think the PSU is dead plus there's no lights at all on the motherboard. I then read of a way of testing the PSU by using a paperclip on the 24-pin CPU connector with everything unplugged from the PC and I wondered why you would do that if the fan on the PSU would still work regardless. After all, a PSU has to itself receive power first from the mains before it distributes it to the PC components. It doesn't help that my CM Silent Pro M 850 doesn't have any power LEDs...I don't think the new XFX one does either. That seems a bit of an odd omission don't you think? Imagine if your TV or games console had no power LED, how would you know if it was working or not when confronted with a blank screen?
Well, i meant the case fans - if they connected directly to the psu, rather than the mobo, then they should still be spinning, if the psu isnt dead, regardless of everything else. But you are still right regarding the fan on the psu itself - if it is spinning, then its getting power, and the psu isnt dead. Right you are
Did you try to make a "short circuit", disconnect psu cable and then connect cable back inside while psu switch powered on. I remember when my old psu died last September, was a emp from lightning strike it still showed mobo power on and reset buttons (green, red) after I used this "short circuit" trick. When I tried to power on again it died completely 12v rail exploded lol, after that it didnt power those mobo buttons anymore. Now Im ok since then with this 100€ 650W psu, its not the best but not the worst, has 90% efficiency @ 450-500w so that's more then enough for OC'ed 4770 and 780.
For a new psu from my recent search/new build from a few months ago, I'd recommend Superflower Leadex / EVGA Supernova (same platform). I went with the EVGA Gold (G2) since the 1000w model for ~130ish i think it was Euros was too good to pass up for me.
