This should be in Marvin.

Also, why does it need to be "low wattage" - modern PSUs are efficient, and the machine will draw whatever it will draw (which won't be a lot with a P3), and nothing will go boom-boom. The "excess" at the wall will be minimal on a top-of-the-world unit (which will be in the realm of 90% efficiency). Look at Corsair, SeaSonic, FirePower (formerly PC Power & Cooling), and fancier units from Thermaltake, Antec, etc. I know SeaSonic has some Platinum rated fanless units in the 400-500W range, like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817151097

Might make for an interesting build, if you went ritzy with the CPU cooling (e.g. Thermalright SI-97), and didn't go outlandish with the graphics card (or otherwise kept it quiet). Should run fairly quiet (if not silent), and still be a good performer. OFC you'll probably spend more on cooling, casing, and power than the net sum of the parts inside, but there's nothing explicitly wrong about that.

Finally note that there are plenty of less expensive/exotic units that will also meet your requirements, and save you some money. OFC if you want to spend the money on something exotic, go for it.

The answer is simple:

Do you need -5V for ISA Slots? If so, the answer is NONE.

If you don't need -5V, the SSR-360GP is the lowest-watt 80+ Gold PSU on the market, as far as I know:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817151117

Only $60

If you need a high quality ATX PSU with -5VSB and Japanese Capacitors, you will have to re-cap the PSU yourself. You will need to post a list of the capacitors and their details, and I can show you the most suitable replacements at Digikey or Newark.

obobskivich wrote:

This should be in Marvin.

"Discussion about old PC hardware and Retro PCs" - I failed to see where it's mentioned something about modern hardware.

"Announcements, advice, random banter, unrelated discussion, et cetera." - Whether here I see the key word "advice"

mockingbird wrote:

If you don't need -5V, the SSR-360GP is the lowest-watt 80+ Gold PSU on the market

This is the PSU I have in my home file server (running a Celeron G1610). After reading countless reviews, this came out on top every time. Also, it's not fanless but the fan is extremely quiet. Excellent PSU!

I've been using these semi-modular PSUs with good success..

Corsair CX430M:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … 9-049-_-Product

Artex wrote:

I've been using these semi-modular PSUs with good success..

Corsair CX430M:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … 9-049-_-Product

Yeah, I've noticed that, but after a quick research I found out that Corsair doesn't use Japanese capacitors in their entry level power supplies.

From Corsair's site

While Corsair appreciates the higher quality standards of Japanese brand capacitors, and will continue to use them for enthusiast level products (HX and up)

I trust Corsair as a company... even if their lower end supplies are 'lower end.' I would choose Corsair first, or Seasonic second.

dexter311 wrote:

mockingbird wrote:

If you don't need -5V, the SSR-360GP is the lowest-watt 80+ Gold PSU on the market

This is the PSU I have in my home file server (running a Celeron G1610). After reading countless reviews, this came out on top every time. Also, it's not fanless but the fan is extremely quiet. Excellent PSU!

Agreed. Great PSU. I think the fan is Sanyo Denki or Panaflo.

I'm using an Antec EA500D in my work computer (It was a curb find in an old Pentium 4... Such a new PSU in such an old PC - go figure. Replaced the odd LTec caps with Japanese) and an Antec TruePower New 550 in my gaming computer. My $10 fleamarket re-capped SP-450 died around a month ago but I ought to take a look inside to see what's up with it.

I trust Corsair as a company... even if their lower end supplies are 'lower end.' I'd much rather use a new power supply than any used one from eBay.

Their lower-end PSUs are OK if you can get them on sale. But don't expect them to last for more than a couple of years before they need re-capping.

mockingbird wrote:

Their lower-end PSUs are OK if you can get them on sale. But don't expect them to last for more than a couple of years before they need re-capping.

I don't power these systems up every day - not 24/7 systems so I should get more than a few years out of these supplies.

mockingbird wrote:

If you don't need -5V, the SSR-360GP is the lowest-watt 80+ Gold PSU on the market, as far as I know:

Yeah. I've been thinking about this one as well. No, I don't care about ISA slots when it comes to a Pentium III system.

Artex wrote:

I trust Corsair as a company... even if their lower end supplies are 'lower end.' I would choose Corsair first, or Seasonic second.

I am not sure if you are aware of it, but at Corsair they don't make their own power supplies instead they just buy and rebrand them from Seasonic and CWT. The Corsair CX430 is actually manufactured by CWT.

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Artex wrote:

I trust Corsair as a company... even if their lower end supplies are 'lower end.' I would choose Corsair first, or Seasonic second.

I am not sure if you are aware of it, but at Corsair they don't make their own power supplies instead they just buy and rebrand them from Seasonic and CWT. The Corsair CX430 is actually manufactured by CWT.

No wonder I like em 😉. I think I remember reading that somewhere.

Artex wrote:

I've been using these semi-modular PSUs with good success..

Corsair CX430M:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … 9-049-_-Product

Ouch, I've just noticed that for the same price you can get the Seasonic SSR-360GP and it tells me that the Corsair CX430M is overpriced as heck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817151117

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Ouch, I've just noticed that for the same price you can get the Seasonic SSR-360GP and it tells me that the Corsair CX430M is overpriced as heck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817151117

Well, you are paying something for the Corsair brand... 😵

Beyond the SeaSonic Platinum (linked above) and the 360GP, you might also consider the Thermaltake Grand 450W. It's fully modular, 80+ Gold, etc. You'll probably spend a little bit more, but you did say money no object. The 850W was well reviewed by jonnyGuru, and they do feature Japanese electrolytics. But keep in mind with all of these, especially the 360W, the 5V rail is not as robust as you may want for a top-end P3/Athlon era machine.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Power_Supply/To … 450W/design.htm

I doubt the software will work in an old OS like 9x though... 🤣

As far as the comment about Marvin - no need to take offense; was simply pointing out that hardware questions go in Marvin. 😊

obobskivich wrote:

Well, you are paying something for the Corsair brand... 😵

Poor Artex with a bunch of Corsair CX430M units 😀

obobskivich wrote:

Beyond the SeaSonic Platinum (linked above) and the 360GP, you might also consider the Thermaltake Grand 450W. It's fully modular, 80+ Gold, etc. You'll probably spend a little bit more, but you did say money no object. The 850W was well reviewed by jonnyGuru, and they do feature Japanese electrolytics. But keep in mind with all of these, especially the 360W, the 5V rail is not as robust as you may want for a top-end P3/Athlon era machine.

http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Power_Supply/To … 450W/design.htm

I doubt the software will work in an old OS like 9x though... 🤣

Well, I don't mind paying extra for a better power supply unit if it will really help, but I just don't want to overreact. It's for a Pentium III 733 MHz. I think the Thermaltake Grand 450W might be a bit too far especially if its software won't work in Windows 98 SE and when you can buy two Seasonic SSR-360GP units that also use Japanese capacitors for the same price. I just don't think the Thermaltake Grand 450W will last longer than Seasonic SSR-360GP.

obobskivich wrote:

As far as the comment about Marvin - no need to be rude; was simply pointing out that hardware questions go in Marvin. 😊

I am sorry if it seemed rude to you, but I didn't mean to be rude I just stated facts. Marvin is for discussion about old PC hardware and Retro PCs, at least this is what it says in the description, but my topic is about modern power supplies.

Something to highlight:

Corsair CX430M
Continuous Power Output = 430W
80 PLUS Certification = 80 PLUS BRONZE
Warranty = 3 years

SeaSonic SSR-360GP
Continuous Power Output = 360W
80 PLUS Certification = 80 PLUS GOLD
Warranty = 5 years

Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G 450W
Continuous Power Output = 450W
80 PLUS Certification = 80 PLUS GOLD
Warranty = 7 years

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Poor Artex with a bunch of the Corsair CX430M 😀

I've had great luck with my HX 520 since ~2005, and apparently Corsair's customer service is top notch (I've never had to test this). The 430W has also reviewed well, so I wouldn't say it's a bad buy, but it may not be the best price-performance ever (but that's probably true of anything "name brand").

Well, I don't mind paying extra for a better power supply unit if it will really help, but I just don't want to overreact. It's for a Pentium III 733 MHz. I think the Thermaltake Grand 450W might be a bit too far especially if its software won't work in Windows 98 SE and when you can buy two Seasonic SSR-360GP units that also use Japanese capacitors for the same price. I just don't think the the Thermaltake Grand 450W will last longer than Seasonic SSR-360GP.

Honestly I probably wouldn't bother with the software anywhere - it looks like a gimmick. 😊

As far as "don't want to overreact" - I think any of the PSUs you're looking at here are an overreaction for a P3. I say this for a few reasons:

- Unless you're doing something really extreme with the build (that will draw on the PSU), the power requirements won't be that high overall.

- I think the recent obsession with "Japanese capacitors" and similar has gotten out of hand - it isn't reasonable to assume that PSUs that aren't built from gold-pressed latinum will burst into flames and explode after 2 years 100% of the time. For example my Dell P3 is still using the Foxconn OEM that was new back in whatever 1999 or 2000, and it still works just fine. It's a 200W unit that doesn't have any magical specs, but it works.

I'm not saying go pick up a $5 DEER and hope for the best, but on the other hand dropping close to $100 into a PSU for a P3 is not worth it imho. Get something that works and move on. My first pick would be the Thermaltake 430W - it's been available in some variation or another for like a decade (and I have one that's about that old and is still going strong), has a solid 5V rail, and costs under $50. OTOH depending on what you're souring for the P3 machine, you may just get an OEM box that has a working PSU and call it a day. 😀

I am sorry if it seemed rude to you, but I didn't mean to be rude .

😀 No harm no foul.

I use old Chieftec PSUs like this one in most of my retro builds.

I usually pick them up for ~1 Euro + ~6 Euro shipping from the Swedish "Ebay".
I do not really know whats inside but so far none has ever failed and I have alot of them from the time period 1998 - 2006.

To me 80+ efficiency and Japaneese caps or not seem like non issues for systems with little up time pulling 75 - 150w from the wall.

I use Corsairs AX series in my newer gaming builds and a Fractal Design Newton R2 for testing hardware.

Personally I don't like those old Chieftecs, but only because I've seen a couple of then fail catastrophically, to the point of in one case taking the motherboard with it.
But I'm sure the quality varies a lot from model to model.

Also, when it comes to power supplies, the most expensive ones are not always the best. One of the cheapest power supplies I've ever purchased, an OCZ ModXstream Pro 500W, turns out to be a very solid PSU. It's been reviewed with great results, and I've been using it in a number of different builds over the years. The only reason I bought it, was to put together a media center system years ago, and I wanted something "cheap and modular". This was cheap, about $45 back then I think (around 2006), and it is modular. So looking around a bit, checking out some of the review sites, might reveal some proper bargains.
My PIII 1.4GHz is using a stock Compaq PSU, and keeping in mind that I've added a 10.000RPM scsi drive, a much more demanding graphics card, a discreet sound card, which all draw on that small ~200W (I think) PSU, I'm surprised it's holding up as well as it is. Keeping in mind that the system came with a PIII 800EB, puts this system at around the turn of the millennium, meaning the PSU is probably 14 years old or so. Somehow I doubt it has Japanese caps.

In my main system I use a Corsair HX-series though, which is a very nice unit. It wasn't cheap though, and I wouldn't bother with something like that for a retro rig.

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Poor Artex with a bunch of Corsair CX430M units 😀

A bunch = 2, and I got them on sale for $29.99 each from NewEgg so I don't feel too bad, and you shouldn't either. 😵