PCA Forums

Allied 420w PSU w/2 fans, any good?

How much? I've never heard anything bad about Allied per-se, but I'd rather have an Antec myself.

The Allied PSU was $40 or so at the local Computer shop, Newegg has it for around $30. Originally I was looking at the Antec True Power 430w which was $80. Everyone tells me Antec is quality, so that is what I went for at first. These PSU's seem so overpriced though. I saw an Energymax(sp?) 430w PSU online somewhere for almost $90! But y'know, I'd rather pay now then later.


Forgive me for asking all these questions, this is the first PC I'm putting together.

I've seen some who have an allied psu say they are pleased with them. But, for how long will it be good for.

They may be ok, but remember the 3 year antec warranty. I've had 3 cheapo power supplies blow up. 2 sounded like a shot gun going off. Fortunately nothing else was damaged, except the last one did kill my sound card.


Another lower cost one to consider is enlight. For a main system, I wouldn't consider anything less.

Enermax are okay unless you have an Epox board. I've heard that Epox boards don't like them.

Frankly a PSU is not something to skimp on. If you never want voltage problems, get a good one. Otherwise it may fail you, damage your mobo, or just cause intermittent errors that you'll never be able to figure out the cause of.

A PSU that costs $30 just can't be a quality PSU - you get what you pay for.

Money's tight and you want to save a little, get a True380 or True330. Unless you have a ton of drives or plan on some radical overclocking, it'll be more than enough.

Antec also makes some cheaper PSUs that are not part of the True line but are still better than other cheap PSU. Like this one for $45: http://www.newegg.com/app/Viewproduct.a ... hFor=SL350

Originally posted by FlyingPenguin
Enermax are okay unless you have an Epox board. I've heard that Epox boards don't like them.

Frankly a PSU is not something to skimp on. If you never want voltage problems, get a good one. Otherwise it may fail you, damage your mobo, or just cause intermittent errors that you'll never be able to figure out the cause of.

A PSU that costs $30 just can't be a quality PSU - you get what you pay for.

Money's tight and you want to save a little, get a True380 or True330. Unless you have a ton of drives or plan on some radical overclocking, it'll be more than enough.

Antec also makes some cheaper PSUs that are not part of the True line but are still better than other cheap PSU. Like this one for $45: http://www.newegg.com/app/Viewproduct.a ... hFor=SL350

Sure, I understand what you are saying completely. Like I said, I'd rather pay a little more now then a lot later.

Only look at it this way, a nice case without a PSU is $70 average and good PSU is another $60-70. I don't mind paying for a good PSU but I don't want to sell a kidney to have a decent PC either. More or less I know what I want to put together, the case, mobo, cpu, etc. Only a lot of nice cases come with PSU's, so why buy a case/psu combo if I'm just going to rip out the psu, right? Cases without PSU's are not much cheaper and good PSU's on their own are way more costly. It adds up.

I saw this combo deal, of a Cheiftec case in black (great color, matches my drives, keyboard, etc) with a 450W AMD approved Foxconn PSU.

Scroll down a little and tell me what you think:Link

Here's a little copy & paste for you from http://www.newegg.com:
------------------------------
N82E16811125201
CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower w/ acrylic window) BLACK w/450Watt Foxconn Power Supply **Now with 2 x Front USB2.0 and 1 x Firewire IEEE1394 ports**
Specifications:
Material: Aluminum
Form Factor: ATX
Drive Bays: External 4 x 5.25", 2 x 3.5", Internal: 4 x 3.5".
Expansion Slots:7
Fans:2 rear Mounted Fans
Power Supply:450W AMD approved Power Supply, Powered by Foxconn (Austin)
Dimensions:473 x 205 x 522 mm (D x W x H) Weights Only 18LBs!
------------------------------

Same case type I'm looking for, nice color, good price, 450w PSU. Good deal? Of course the Antec case (very similar to that one in the link but in silver) and Antec True 400w PSU I started out with is nice and all but would cost more.

Here is what I want to put together:
CPU: AMD CPU, 2500 XP Barton
HD: 120GB Western Digital Hard Drive
Mobo: Abit NF7-S or Asus Deluxe (maybe a $10 difference)
RAM: Kingston 512MB 1x PC-2700
Video Card: Geforce-Fx 5600
DVD: Lite On 16x DVD Drive Black
Cd-Burner: 52x Lite On CD-rw Black (Heh, I'm selling my LG Combo for the DVD drive and Burner separately. My LG burner is not as fast so...)
Floppy: MSI 1.44mb
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Black Elite Keyboard and mouse combo
OS: XP Home
Monitor: Nec 17in dealie
A couple of fans, a cold cathode and Logitech Z-640's.

Not planning on any extreme OC-ing. Just general use/casual gaming.


Perhaps I'm over thinking this. It's my inexperience. Hope it's not too annoying. As always thanks for your advice, time and patience with a noob.


EDIT: And I do try to read as many online reviews as possible (PCA included of course) and ask around a lot. Just so y'know.

Foxconn is okay, but doesn't compare to Antec (about the same as Allied).

Directron.com is probably one of the best places to order a case from. Most of their cases include a PSU and you can usually upgrade to a better one for a reasonable price.

It think this is the same case you're looking at: http://directron.com/da10bd.html

You can get a MUCH better deal by buying an Antec case and upgradign to a True PSU. Like this one one sale: http://directron.com/lanboy.html

It's only $92 with a True330 or $110 with a True380.

Go through there cases carefully - you can definately find some good deals, and unlike Newegg you can upgrade the PSU for a reasonable price.

I like Newegg - order from them all the time - but Directron is better for cases.

420W Enlight $55 shipped fr newegg. 40A @ +5v and 18A @ +12v in addition to being VERY quiet.

I wouldn't get any PSU that's under 400W at this point in time.

Foxconn is okay, but doesn't compare to Antec (about the same as Allied).

Directron.com is probably one of the best places to order a case from. Most of their cases include a PSU and you can usually upgrade to a better one for a reasonable price.

It think this is the same case you're looking at: http://directron.com/da10bd.html

You can get a MUCH better deal by buying an Antec case and upgradign to a True PSU. Like this one one sale: http://directron.com/lanboy.html

It's only $92 with a True330 or $110 with a True380.

Go through there cases carefully - you can definately find some good deals, and unlike Newegg you can upgrade the PSU for a reasonable price.

I like Newegg - order from them all the time - but Directron is better for cases.

420W Enlight $55 shipped fr newegg. 40A @ +5v and 18A @ +12v in addition to being VERY quiet.

True, true. Good advice as always. Directron.com, haven't checked them out. I'm just having a devil of a time finding a good PSU/Case. Not so much the case, but a good PSU at a reasonable price is difficult to turn up.

Someone mentioned Enlight before but I forgot to write it down at the time. Sounds really good now. Thanks man.

If anything, I might just bite the bullet and get an quality Antec or Energymax psu.