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AMDReview Site News!
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| Manufacturers: |
I-Star
Enermax |
| Products: |
TC-500R8A (500W)
EG651P-VE (550W) |
| Availability: |
Now |
| Authors: |
Pieter (dutchcedar) Bijleveld
John (flashawk) Smith
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| Date: |
3-25-03 |
| Price: |
TC-500R8A: $526.40
EG651P-VE: $140.00 |
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Discuss
this review in our forums
There are
5 parts to this review, please use the pulldown below to browse sections or
simply hit "Next" at the bottom of each section to continue
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This a tough call to make because I just love the I-Star TC-500R8A, but
it is rather expensive, with a suggested retail price of about $450.00.
The only negative point I can make is that it is considerably louder than
the Enermax. Considering that it is actually two power supplies, the additional
fan noise can certainly be expected.
With a street price in the $140.00 range, the Enermax EG651P-VE is certainly
more affordable and is a good bit quieter. This would be an excellent
choice for a robust system if cost is an important factor.
With all things considered, my decision is to take advantage of the I-Star's
redundancy and hot swap features. Although these are both exceptional
power supplies, my system must stay running and the I-Star will help greatly
in achieving that goal. A little case modding will be in order to mount
those LEDs to the front of the case and the location of the top case fan
on the LianLi case will have to be addressed.
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| PROS
- I-Star 500 watt TC-500R8A |
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Redundancy |
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Hot swappable |
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Dual AC power |
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Failure alarm |
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Rear activity LEDs |
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Remote LEDs |
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Excellent fit and finish |
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Motherboard adapter |
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| CONS
- I-Star 500 watt TC-500R8A |
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Size |
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Price |
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| PROS
- Enermax 550 watt EG651P-VE |
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Variable speed fan
control |
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Quiet operation |
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Affordability |
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Sheathing on main wires |
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| CONS
- Enermax 550 watt EG651P-VE |
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None |
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| Market Watch |
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| -CPU AMD
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| 2600+ and below | |
| 2700+ and above | |
| AMD MP | |
| Opteron | |
| Athlon 64 | |
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| -CPU Intel
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| P4/XE 2.4 & up | |
| P4/XE 2.2 & down | |
| Celeron | |
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| -Memory DDR | |
| -Memory pc133 | |
-Hard Drive IDE
(60G and lower) | |
-Hard Drive IDE
(80G and higher) | |
| -CD/DVD/CDRWs | |
| -nVidia video cards | |
| ATI video cards | |
| -LCD monitors: 15in | |
| -LCD monitors: 17in | |
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AMD Motherboards
XP:nForce2,VIA KT600
Opteron: nForce3, AMD8000
64: nForce3, AMD8000, K8T
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Intel Motherboards
Latest Chipset: 875P
w/Graphics: 865G
VIA: P4X
ATI: 9100 IGP
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