[conspire] inexpensive power supplies (was: Advice on Building a Computer)

[Eric De Mund]

Adrien, All,

Mark Weisler <mark at weisler-saratoga-ca.us>:
] A lot of the power supplies coming out of China these days are pretty
] comparable in quality, the quality has gotten better overall. The safe
] bet is to go with a name brand, like Enermax, Antec, CoolerMaster.
] Power supplies were coming down in price; lately they've been climbing
] back up in price.

Interesting. Thank you for this info. I'm glad to hear it. I didn't know
that CoolerMaster was a respected brand.

Even though I just picked one up the other day from Fry's, a CoolerMas-
ter "eXtreme Power" 500W RP-500-PCAR power supply, for $10. (It was $40
before the $30 rebate.) General specifications:

o   Type: Intel Form Factor ATX12V V2.01
o   Input Voltage: 110-115V/220-230V (Selectable)
o   Input current: 8A at 115Vac / 6.3A at 230Vac
o   Input frequency range: 47 ~ 63Hz
o   Fan: Sleeve bearing 120mm fan
o   Power good signal: 100 ~ 500ms
o   Hold up time: >17ms
o   Efficiency: 70% typically
o   MTBF: >100,000 Hours
o   Protection: OVP/OPP/Short Circuit Protection
o   Dimension: Standard ATX PS2 150x140x86mm
o   Operation temperature: 5~50 degrees C (Nominal Input Voltage)
o   Safety: Menko/TUV/cUL/CE/BSMI/FCC

    +-----------+--------------------------------------------------+
    | AC INPUT  |            115V/230V  8A/6.3A  60/50Hz           |
    +-----------+-------+-----+-------+-------+------+------+------+
    | DC OUTPUT | +3.3V | +5V | +12V1 | +12V2 |  -5V | -12V | 5Vsb |
    +-----------+-------+-----+-------+-------+------+------+------+
    | Max.Power |  20A  | 20A |  16A  |  16A  | 0.8A | 0.8A | 2.0A |
    +-----------+-------+-----+-------+-------+------+------+------+

For those willing to play the rebate game, these power supply deals come
along from time to time at Fry's; keep your eyes on the Fry's display ad
in the Mercury News [1] if interested. My personal experience is that
the Palo Alto store has had more of these units on hand than the Sunny-
vale store when I've gone in to get one.

Regards,
Eric

p.s. If you remain firm in your resolve, Fry's *will* grant you a rain-
check on such "limit 1 per customer" items as these power supplies if
they're out of stock. This time around while dancing with the "Super!"
(supervisor) over this issue, a hidden cache of 13 of these power sup-
plies magically turned up all of a sudden. Evidently, relinquishing one
of the deep sale items to a paying customer is less objectionable to
them than completing the paperwork for and being accountable to manage-
ment regarding a raincheck. And to think I had almost given up after
being 

Notes
-----
1.  Fry's display ad (URL valid as of 2007.12.29)
    http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?advid=32664
--
"Clearly the purpose of cutting grass is to encourage the grass."
--Edward Teller, *Memoirs*, p. 355

Eric De MUND   | Ixian Systems           | Jab: eadixian at jabber.org/main
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