I got a guided tour of Best Buy today..

[DeltaSierra]

Quoth draggar

$90 for a 400? They must have shown you the most expensive ones they had. I saw some 400 for around $50 - their website has some much cheaper.

Here is a 600 for $60: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Thermalt...&skuId=5381884

Corsair 500 for $60 also: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+...&skuId=4136153

But, I guess this goes along with posts # 13

Canada here - this was the cheapest one they had in the store! The website had cheaper ones but "online only."

[Sakka]

Quoth DeltaSierra

Funny you wrote this - I was just in BB yesterday looking for an ATX power supply too but they wanted $90 for a 400W PSU. I called a local repair geek who works out of his house and he sold me a brand new 500W for $50.

Wow, I'm in the boonies of BC, and the most expensive power supply I remember seeing on the shelf in the last year was a 500W for $50. The 400W's are sitting in the $30-35 range.

There are some high efficiency 350W power supplies that are in the mid $70s, but boss brought those in against the advice of everyone at work, so I'm not counting them.

[lordlundar]

Quoth draggar

We're discussing desktops, not servers.

Seriously, though, overclocking or just one heck of a machine?

I stand corrected. 750W Quad rail modular connection unit. I was aiming for the modular connections and that was the lowest end I could find for a good price.

That and stupid levels of futureproofing. (I could easily build a brand new high end rig and stick this thing in it.)

[Gravekeeper]

Quoth lordlundar

That and stupid levels of futureproofing. (I could easily build a brand new high end rig and stick this thing in it.)

You'd need to be OC'n a high end quad core and running 2 vid cards in Crossfire / SLI to even begin to start using up 750 watts >.>

My spiffy new I5 Ivy Bridge rig I just finished building a few hours ago still only pulls about 300 watts max load tops if I had everything running under a stress test. You want clean, effecient power. Max power doesn't help much unless you're running a seriously ridiculous rig.

[fma_fanatic]

We love our local MicroCenter because DaDairyDruid and I have been in there with our computers for fairly minor things.

Me because I couldn't get the damned heatsink fit on my CPU, due to the way it was designed. It was made specifically for it, but the darn thing wouldn't seat right. The guy got it on no problem. This would have cost at a place like Best Buy. No charge.

DaDairyDruid because the RAM he got was causing errors. We discovered that the motherboard wanted paired RAM and we couldn't mix n match. The guy at the help desk helped find the right RAM and even installed it. Again, no charge.

[lordlundar]

Quoth Gravekeeper

You'd need to be OC'n a high end quad core and running 2 vid cards in Crossfire / SLI to even begin to start using up 750 watts >.>

My spiffy new I5 Ivy Bridge rig I just finished building a few hours ago still only pulls about 300 watts max load tops if I had everything running under a stress test. You want clean, effecient power. Max power doesn't help much unless you're running a seriously ridiculous rig.

Yeah I know. Like I said, I was after the modular connection setup and that was the lowest output that I could find.

On the plus side I can put just about anything into my rig and not have to worry about power.

[Gravekeeper]

Quoth lordlundar

Yeah I know. Like I said, I was after the modular connection setup and that was the lowest output that I could find.

On the plus side I can put just about anything into my rig and not have to worry about power.

True, but you're driving up your power bill by having the PSU at low load where it has the worst effenciency. Maybe slap in a second video card and give it something to do ;p

[Andara Bledin]

Quoth draggar

I love walking up to customers in BB (after the associate leaves) and showing them the prices of HDMI cables on Amazon.com - I've gotten 6 cables from there for under $10 and they're the same "quality" as the $40-$50 ones in Best Buy.

Monoprice is your bestest bud for cables, hands down.

Quoth draggar

$90 for a 400? They must have shown you the most expensive ones they had. I saw some 400 for around $50 - their website has some much cheaper.

You can get one for $20 at Newegg.

500w is $30, and 600w is $50.

Since there's a local Newegg pick-up location that's not far from me, I much prefer to go through them when I don't just hit up the local Fry's. Yet again glad that I don't have to rely on the likes of Best Buy for, well, anything.

^-.-^

[Chromatix]

Beware, very cheap PSUs can often be able to handle only half their rated load - and you need more than 200W to run a modern PC reliably, unless it's seriously stripped down.

I recommend looking for "80 Plus" certified PSUs. Doesn't matter what level, just the fact that someone has tested it throughout it's load range and been able to *measure* the efficiency of it is a very good sign.