Power Supply Selection

Selecting power supply is a tough choice as there are like so many power ratings to choose from, 350W - 1000W, PFC ( Power Factor Corrections ) and so many brands.  I always believe that if the company is good in one line of products (for example a PC maker) I would not buy a LCD monitor from them as I know that they would just OEM it from some major LCD maker and put their sticker on it. I would also buy a power supply from a company that specialized in making power supply or other factor that caught my attention.

For this case, it was both the higher specs, nicer design and "GREEN" factor that the company supports.

The Xigmatek power supply caught my attention as being a company that support GREEN initiative by using a recycled cardboard. The NRP-PC501, is a 500W power supply with all the necessary extra connectors to connect up to 2 power hungry x16 3D graphic cards, support both 4 or 8 pins EPS12V connector. All the cables comes with nice sleeve to keep all the cables in place with a nice 140mm quiet fan.

This is the picture of the power supply with a large 140mm transparent fan with a nice quality finish. 500W is way too much for HTPC power requirements but since power supply is one of the components that does not go obsolete as fast as the rest of the technologies,  I choose to invest in a higher power rating power supply as I can still reuse it in other chassis if needed to.