Raidmax Sagitta

[Bazzer]

Hi, I am a newbie, I have never built a PC but I have reasonable skills. I have found your site extremely useful and informative, I intend to follow your guidance as much as possible, but, I have been given a Raidmax Sagitta case and my question is; should I use this case to build my PC or would it be better to start with a different case?

[RickyTick]

Does it have the power supply with it?

[Bazzer]

Does it have the power supply with it?

Yes it does, it has a sticker rating it at 460W

[RickyTick]

should I use this case to build my PC or would it be better to start with a different case?

You could use that case and psu. If it's been used for several years, then I might be concerned about the psu. If it's fairly new or was never used, then go with it. 460 watt is not a tremendous amount, so don't expect to run multiple video card or such.

[zburns]

Here is a link to the Newegg page for what I assume is the PSU in question: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152032&cm_re=Raidmax_RX-450K_450W_Power_Supply-_-17-152-032-_-Product

Here is the ratings for the PSU from the Newegg page: +3.3V@28A, +5V@34A, +12V@21A, -5V@0.5A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@2.0A

From my earlier, post, the +12 volt rail or rails, is the most important rail. This psu has evidently one + 12 volt rail and will put out 21 amperes for a total wattage of 12v X 21 Amps = 252 watts. Using a safety factor of 20 %, this gives you 200 usable watts for all your boards and other components (mobo, video card, HD, DVD drive -- may or may not include fans). Really a small amount of useful wattage. Use a safety factor of 10 %, there would be about 225 useful watts.

The +5V@34A Raidmax Rail has a higher ampere rating than Antec, Corsair or OCZ by 9 to 14 amps depending on which comparison. This rail alone in the comparison uses 45 to 70 more watts than the comparison psu's. Since it is higher wattage for the same rails as in similar Antec, Corsair and OCZ psus, either this rail in RAIDMAX is just overated or Antec, Corsair and OCZ is under rated. Either way, this difference in this rail between Raidmax and the others does impact the available 'useful wattage' of the PSU.