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I was going to buy my computer at 'De Wit'. They gave me an offer, which has a different PSU. I wanted the Antec Basiq, 500 Watt. They offered Antec New Solution,430 watt'.

 

Antec Basiq on the site I found it: € 55,53.

Antec New Solution I was offered: € 105,00

 

So if I'd take the offer I'd buy a weaker power supply (The rest of the PSU wasn't that great either) for almost double the price? Some of the other parts also seemed overpriced. Byebye de wit...

 

edit: It seems there was a little misunderstanding with what I wanted. The Antec New Solution isn't the PSU, it's a case WITH the PSU. Anyway, I can still save about 150 euro's by ordering it from the other company. But my parents are complaining... Bah. We'll see what I end up ordering...

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Right... so what you're saying Marxist is, I shouldn't have any stray voltage issues with the HX520W version, as it doesn't actually have 3 +12v rails? Good to know. Maybe I'll go with that one then...

 

I found the article you pulled that quote from, it seems quite helpful and positive... I'm almost decided on buying this one, but there are just a couple things...

 

1. The 120mm fan. Just how noisy are we talking here? This PC of mine is in the general living area of the house so I have other people to consider... it's not like it's in my room and it can be as noisy as it likes. :P

 

2. The cables... I don't understand the table he used. Could you explain it please? All I know is the cables with my current PSU are all 4-pin, and my HDD works off IDE, and my AGP card requires a power connector as well, also 4-pin. He does seem to mention molex connectors, which is what I imagine I'm using... though what's a berg connector?

 

Thanks for your help thus far. ^^

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  1. 120mm fans are generally going to be quieter than 80mm ones. I'd venture a guess that it's because they don't have to spin as fast to move the same amount of air.
  2. At the most basic level, a modular power supply means most of the cables aren't going to be already attached and hard-wired into the power supply --- instead, you'll find lengths of cable lying about the box the power supply came in with power connectors on both ends. This means that you can, at any one point in time, choose from no more than about six (this number obviously varies) power connectors you'd like to run from your power supply (barring the cables running from the power supply from the mainboard, which are still very much hard-wired) to components. The point is that you can choose which cables go in those six or so slots.
     
    Let's say you had a particularly power-hungry AGP video card that needed two molex plugs, each on dedicated lines with no other devices present, and still run two hard disks (one IDE, one SATA) and a floppy. With a modular power supply, all you'd need to do is get two extra-long power cables terminating in single molex plugs, and with each plug one side into the power supply, and the other into your video card. You could then use one of the remaining four "modular" plugs on the power supply to run a cable containing a molex, a berg, and a SATA power connector (if you could find one, that is --- but please bear with me). With a power supply that has all its cables hardwired in, the inside of your computer would be an existential nightmare of splitters, converters, and extension lines at best. At worst, you'd need to give in and just buy a new power supply.

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I see... well that explains what a modular PSU is, thanks. The HX520W looks as though it's probably modular, except the slots I see on it are all 3-pin and 5-pin:

 

http://jonnyguru.com/PSU/HX620W/HX620W_MI2.jpg

 

Do molex connectors have a different number of pins on one end from the other? I'm not sure what all the slots there could be used for... I assume that's the part you plug all the connectors into.

 

If I can just add molex connectors to the power supply without them being inbuilt then I suppose it doesn't matter what cables are supplied with it, I can just buy them separately.

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The two connectors with six pins are your PEG power plugs. The five ones below it with five pins each are the modular connectors. They supply a lot of different rails with one pin each (once again, since there's no real standard to my knowledge, this depends on the power supply you use), and then your cable with the molex plugs would pick up on three of them --- +12V, +5V, and 0V --- and double up on the 0V to make the four wires that go into a molex connector.
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Oh really? So what you're saying is, you're completely sure a 4-pin molex connector would have an end that would fit into a 5-pin slot on the PSU? (Just making sure here, paranoid about ordering a PSU I can't use!).

 

And what's a PEG cable for anyway? (I don't think I already asked this did I?).

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As long as the cables are made for that power supply, yes, you can just plug one in. As I said, there's no real standard, so if you order cables from someone other than Seasonic, or get ones that aren't made for your particular power supply, things will likely explode.

 

PEG power cables are six-pin rectangular connectors that supply power to PCI-E video cards.

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Ah, I see, thanks. So the question is, do they supply molex connectors with this PSU? There's a table of included connectors and such on JohnnyGuru's site, but I don't quite understand it. Could you see if you can please?
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Clockwise, starting from top-leftmost corner: two SATA power cables, with two connectors each; a molex power cable terminating in two connectors; two additional molex cables terminating in three connectors (bringing the total molex connectors up to eight, four of which are very close to the power supply); two PEG cables; and a two-wire molex cable (you cannot use this for anything other than fans) ending in two plugs.

 

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-139-001-09.JPG

 

The mainboard connectors aren't pictured. That includes the 24-pin ATX connector, the 4-pin ATX12V connector, and the 8-pin EPS connector.

 

The cable at the bottom-left corner is a molex splitter ending in two berg connectors, for floppy drives.

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Ah great, thanks. So it supplies all the cables I need. Woot! So I'll order that along with a 24-to-20 pin connector then. Sorted. Thanks a lot for your help Marxist. ^^
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