Can the famous 550w AcBel...

[Wizard]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Prescott is still a joke. All P4 is stomped by the C2D and cost little to get. About 220-240 gets you complete board (Asus have few for 60-90 range with G33 or G43 iirc), C2D (E5200 or E5300) cpu and 2GB or 4GB with onboard video.

Try not to pay too much for P4 stuff even a complete PC. My over priced local computer store competitor is selling a SFF Lenovo P4 2.8, 512MB, 40GB for 149. Other one is 80GB, 1GB for about 20 more. Not worth the money. Warranty, whopping 30 days. All this is off lease stuff.

Cheers, Wizard

[370forlife]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

I think compaq still sells prescott p4 computers and amd sempron single core computers for about $400.

At least last time I was as best buy (1 month ago)

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Well it runs great and was only $75 for a good board, cpu, hdd, useable case, and even a decent optical drive. It does what I need it to do well, and I can always just upgrade the board and cpu later if I need it. The RAM I bought it and the graphics card I'm going to get are modern DDR2 and PCI-E.

Although it doesn't seem like I'll be needing an upgrade any time soon. I mostly need something that can browse the web really well, and this machine does that great. My computer geek days have been over for a while, all I need is a web browser/music player.

[shadow]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

I have run Codegen power supply for many years before ditching it. This was before I knew about badcaps and the like.

They are better quality units than the shitty Deer ones (thankfully). Although they still skimp on components and use crap capacitors.

[Wizard]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

You did well on that budget. 75 bucks.

Cheers, Wizard

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

It's here...

This thing is NICE. For starters, when the FedEx guy handed me the box the weight took me by surprise. I set it on the kitchen table and my dad picked it up to look at it and commented that it was pretty heavy.

I cracked it open and was pleased to see a ton of connectors. Far more than I will ever need. Also I've noticed every other power supply I have ever seen has extremely cheap looking transformers. This one has several big, lovely torroidal transformers. Plus two PCB's, the Nidec fan...

Thank you badcaps for putting me on this thing. And it was only $26.66 shipped and everything.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Hey how hot is this beast supposed to run? Mine is running pretty hot. Are they supposed to run toasty?

[ratdude747]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

thats not good. what brand caps are in the box?

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Does anybody with something useful to say have any input on if these are supposed to run toasty?

[acstech]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

The air coming out of the back can get rather warm. It hasn't been a problem for me though. How hot are we talking here? Do you get burned?

If you haven't had it apart, you should know that the heatsink on the top board in the unit is actually screwed down to the case. This can make them seem like they're running hotter than they really are. Go by the exhaust temperature.

Also it has a thermostatically controlled fan.

Edit: I would suggest taking the case off and just looking around to get a better understanding of the unit. Just for reference, the unit has empty holes on all the rails on the PCB. You can use these for expansion if you need to. For example, I added 2x 6-pin PCI-E connectors to mine so I could run my 8800GTX with it. Thank you Molex sample program...

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

No need for expansion here But good to know.

It's just the casing that gets hot. Not hot enough to burn you, but pretty hot nevertheless. If it's part of the heatsinking, then it's fine right? The air coming out the exhaust is warm but not hot or anything.

I had no idea the fan was thermostat controlled. Thermostat control is a pet peeve of mine, but the fan is very quiet and I haven't been able to notice that it revs up and down.

[370forlife]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

also depends on how hot the air going into it is.

How hot is the inside of your case? Do you have proper ventilation (rear case fan that moves good air)

[acstech]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

It is part of the heatsinking, so it's fine. I even take mine apart and put some thermal compound on there. They also have some nice copper heat spreaders on those heatsinks. Those also get thermal compound. It's probably not necessary, but if I'm in there anyway I might as well.

The fan will speed up a bit if you really load down the unit, but usually it's pretty steady. I don't see your application loading it down enough to speed up the fan. I actually like thermostatic control if it's done right and doesn't result in overheating. I find that a fan running full speed all the time doesn't last as long as a thermostatically controlled one.

370 brings up a good point. How's your case ventilation?

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Well for me, thermostat control pisses me off because on some computers (a few newer Gateway machines I've dealt with and some others), you can hear the fan rev up when you start doing CPU-heavy stuff. It bugs the shit out of me hearing the fans go from quiet to loud. I like my computer to be quiet and stay quiet, not falsely make me believe that it's quiet and then suddenly get loud when I start playing flash video. Makes it feel like a cheesy laptop instead of a rock-solid desktop.

Anyways, back to the AcBel, the case is a POS that will get the boot next paycheck or so, but it has to do until then. It has pretty horrible ventilation, the temp inside hits up to 44C during the day (39C at night). I'm sure this is also to blame for the PSU running hot, since it draws air from inside the case.

[ratdude747]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

i agree with thermostat fans. blech. since i have a noisy box fan in my room, noise is no issue. id rather it run loud and cool things really well than be a silent space heater. my p4 presscott 630 with scythe katina cooler used to run 60c with "smart" (more like dumb) fan control on under average load. the psu is a delta, which is blowing hot air yet the fan is running sooooo slow... turned off fan control, and it holds at 40-40c under higher loads.

i also roll my eyes at people who undervolt fans. you bought a big ass fan, make it move air! i feel no air then it is a waste of space and energy in my book. you want a silent computer, get an iphone (until your friend keeps calling)

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

you want a silent computer, get an iphone

What?

[370forlife]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

Iphones are essentially computers in your hand with a SIM card in them.

They run a stripped down version of mac OSX

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

since i have a noisy box fan in my room, noise is no issue.

It's great to know that you don't care about noise. Everybody thinks the same way you do, so this obviously applies to everyone.

id rather it run loud and cool things really well than be a silent space heater.

Loud≠Cool.

i also roll my eyes at people who undervolt fans. you bought a big ass fan, make it move air!

This is in the interest of moving a decent amount of air (that's why it's a big fan) while keeping things quiet (that's why it's undervolted).

i feel no air then it is a waste of space and energy in my book.

Your argument is invalid. Undervolted Fan≠No Airflow.

you want a silent computer, get an iphone

iPhone≠Full blown desktop.

[ratdude747]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

no:

cool≠beast that runs so hot you can turn the furnace off in the winter

i accidentally undervolted a 80mm to 5v and it barely did anything, so undervolted≠not thermodynamically efficient

the iphone bit was a joke'

but on the topic of apple, remember the apple /// ? it had no fan to make it quiet resulting in an overpriced desoldering machine that would warp plastic.

i like my fans to move as much air as possible. that way i don't have to worry as much about overheating/ allows better overclocking

and by loud=cool, i mean noice from high speed not from dry bearings. that noice i do hate. whine form speed is good, roar from bad bearings is bad

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Can the famous 550w AcBel...

cool≠beast that runs so hot you can turn the furnace off in the winter

Do you know what ≠ means? It's not clear from your wording whether or not you understand its meaning. (Protip: it means "does not equal")


You seem to be hell-bent against computers not being loud ass pieces of shit loaded with fans.

and by loud=cool, i mean noice from high speed not from dry bearings. that noice i do hate. whine form speed is good, roar from bad bearings is bad

By Loud≠Cool, I meant your computer doesn't have to sound like a fucking airplane to run cool. This has nothing to do with faulty components.

i accidentally undervolted a 80mm to 5v and it barely did anything, so undervolted≠not thermodynamically efficient

It's settled guys. Ratdude undervolted one fan and it didn't move much air. Clearly, all fans will give the same result. Also, again, do you know what ≠ means?

but on the topic of apple, remember the apple /// ? it had no fan to make it quiet resulting in an overpriced desoldering machine that would warp plastic.

The oh-so-wise Ratdude believes that quiet computers are doomed to run hot and fail, and he even has an example from the 1980's to back it up.

i like my fans to move as much air as possible. that way i don't have to worry as much about overheating/ allows better overclocking

Again, your computer being a loudass piece of shit does not guarantee that it will run cool.