200 replies to this topic

[Undead]

Serafita Kayin said:

Just a heads up, I'll be getting a new rev of the Ultra X4 1kW across my bench for review in short order, anyone got a specific test for me to hit it with?  I'll have the review work first, but I'll indulge what I can afterwards time permitting...

Ultra revised the X4 1000W? I certainly hope they did, it was a pretty bad unit.

Sir Elementalcheese said:

Hey guys,
I've just opened my pc for the first time ever :eek: and noticed I have a 350w psu. It's running a quadcore i7 processor and a geforce gtx 460 graphics card. Do I need to upgrade it? There's probably useful information that I missed out it, sorry. Let me know if there's anything else you need to know, I'm a complete noob when it comes to these things :p

I'm gonna assume it's a prebuilt... and since it's a 350W PSU there's a 99.99% chance it's a POS. I suggest you get it replaced. What's your budget?

Edited by Undead, 27 January 2011 - 01:47 PM.

[Lord Sojar]

Seasonic, yet again, wipes the floor with the competition.  

The Season X-Series 560W is flawless.

http://www.anandtech...ic-xseries-560w

[Undead]

The Kingwin LZP-550 is actually better than the Seasonic X-560, it's the best consumer 550w currently available. They're both very good, though.

Review

I'm eager to see how their Platinum efficiency X-1000 will perform though. Corsair AFAIK is going to replace the ancient HX1000. My guess is it's either going to use CWT DSG, CWT PUC Silver, or the Seasonic X-1000 platform.

Alot of companies are starting to use Superflowers Golden Green/Golden King platforms. The XION 90+ Golds use it, Kingwin uses it, NZXT uses it, and Rosewill are starting to use it aswell. :)

Edit: Have anandtech recently improved their PSU testing methodology?

Edited by Undead, 23 March 2011 - 06:18 AM.

[dhatcher1]

Undead Cheese said:

The Kingwin LZP-550 is actually better than the Seasonic X-560, it's the best consumer 550w currently available.

At $180 its as expensive as the Seasonic X 650.  Both are almost twice the price of the far more reasonable Seasonic S12II 620W and Antec TP650.  They are even $50 more expensive than the $130 Silver certified Seasonic SS-850HT.  I cant see spending that much when there are many good, less expensive alternatives.

Edited by dhatcher1, 23 March 2011 - 04:12 PM.

[Undead]

dhatcher1 said:

At $180 its as expensive as the Seasonic X 650.  Both are almost twice the price of the far more reasonable Seasonic S12II 620W and Antec TP650.  They are even $50 more expensive than the $130 Silver certified Seasonic SS-850HT.  I cant see spending that much when there are many good, less expensive alternatives.

That's true. The price does kill it, but it's still the best 550w on the market based on electrical performance and build quality. I don't think they were going for value when they released this.

The Truepower New 650 & 750 are currently untouchable in terms of price : performance, though.

People probably won't buy the Kingwin, cause of the brand name.... generalizing and all. Put a Corsair badge on there and everyone will flock to it.

Edited by Undead, 23 March 2011 - 09:55 PM.

[Undead]

Looks like Enermax is back to being competitive again.

http://www.hardocp.c...supply_review/9

That's simply an amazing PSU. Ripple at 1350W only gets to 30mV at worst, and voltage regulation is also solid. Build quality is also a highlight of this PSU, as it rivals Delta quality. At $300, (surprisingly good price point, considering Enermax likes to put ridiculous price tags on their PSU's) it's a good alternative to the HCP-1200 and Corsair AX1200.

[Lodar]

Guys, atm I got a liteon pe-6451-1 450W in my Acer Aspire 7720 http://tweakers.net/...).html#tab:info).

Like I allready mentioned in an other post I will buy a new pc in about 6 months, before that I do however would like to upgrade my PSU because it is showing some problems (Im guessing it just does not give the right amount anymore).

What is the cheapest yet reliable 450W PSU that will fit in this case?

(I found a very small picture: http://t3.gstatic.co...mAl5-yJwqCQ&t=1 that shows what space I got. But not sure if you can see enough in this)

Thanks

[Undead]

What are the specs going to be?

The CX430 is a decent cheap PSU ($25 after rebates), but you should treat it as a 380w. The Neo ECO 400/450, Rosewill RG-430 and XFX Pro 450 are also good options.

[FluffyWuffy]

Always, Always, ALWAYS get a modular PSU if you're doing a mid-tower.

[Lodar]

Undead Cheese said:

What are the specs going to be?

The CX430 is a decent cheap PSU ($25 after rebates), but you should treat it as a 380w. The Neo ECO 400/450, Rosewill RG-430 and XFX Pro 450 are also good options.

What I got right now is:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.50 Ghz
RAM: 4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR @ 399MHz
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4650 1 GB GDDR2
PSU: Liteon 450W
Motherboard: Acer FMCP7AM (CPU 1)

I wont upgrade anything els. I just need a PSU that will keep this pc running for years to come as a server/media player next to my in-6-months-to-be new computer.

So im guessing the NEO would or XFX would work? And how can I be sure it will fit? (are they MODULAR, like Fluffy said?) I never find any physical sizes or w/e when I look at the specs :(. (I allso looked inside the case again, and Im not even sure how they put it in there. It is locked between some iron plate looking thingies that require no screw drivers or w/e).

[dhatcher1]

FluffyWuffy said:

Always, Always, ALWAYS get a modular PSU if you're doing a mid-tower.

If you get a case with the PSU that mounts at the bottom, then you can just let the extra cables lay in the bottom of the case out of the way.  You dont have to spend all the time tying them off to keep them from dangling into airflow lanes or worse, against components like you do if the case has a top mounted PSU.

Quote

And how can I be sure it will fit?

Almost all power supplies are "ATX", which is a standard size.  Modular refers to the cables, not the PSU itself.  Only if you have a small case or a prebuilt (like Dell) that makes custom sized PSU bays would you have to worry about it not fitting.

Edited by dhatcher1, 08 June 2011 - 12:24 AM.

[Quaker]

You might want to add a note to your "intro" to point out that getting a more powerful power supply does NOT make your computer more powerful. That is to say, if your computer consumes, say, 236 watts while running, it will consume 236 watts whether you have a 300watt power supply or a 1200watt power supply. You only need a power supply large enough to power everything at "max" plus some headroom.

(I only point this out because I've seen posts where people seem to think "the bigger the power supply, the better")

[Undead]

Quaker said:

You might want to add a note to your "intro" to point out that getting a more powerful power supply does NOT make your computer more powerful. That is to say, if your computer consumes, say, 236 watts while running, it will consume 236 watts whether you have a 300watt power supply or a 1200watt power supply. You only need a power supply large enough to power everything at "max" plus some headroom.

(I only point this out because I've seen posts where people seem to think "the bigger the power supply, the better")

Yeah, I'll make sure to add that in when I get round to doing the intro.

Edited by Undead, 23 July 2011 - 08:35 AM.
was tired when I posted

[Elder III]

The undead cheese has risen!  Where ya been man? ;)

[Undead]

Sick... but I'm getting better. :)

Edit: Re-sticking this for now.

Edited by Undead, 07 October 2011 - 04:13 AM.

[Shadowww]

Hi guys,
sorry for sticking in, I just accidentally found this thread on Google & thought I could ask my PSU related question here, cause you guys seem to know a lot about PSU's.

How good is a PSU SPS-XP600, made by Xilence? It's 'marketing' name is Red Wing Series 600 R3.

I've had one in my system for 3 years or so, but I recently started wondering whether I should replace it.

[Quaker]

Is there any particular reason for wanting to replace it?
If it's been working for 3 years, there's no particular reason to change it, but you might want to open it up and clean the dust out of it. (They appear to be a good brand, btw.)

Edited by Quaker, 11 December 2011 - 04:01 PM.

[Shadowww]

Well, I'm planning to do a system upgrade soon (going from AMD AM3 to Intel Sandy Bridge), so I was wondering whether I should worry if this old power supply can do any damage to my system or it's fine.

Is there any way to get dust out of it without opening it up? It has this 'warranty void if removed' sticker, and it's on 5 year one. :S

[Elder III]

most people use a "canned air" which can be bought for as cheap as $3.97 at Walmart.  I just blast as much dust out of the case as possible.  If you can blow some out of the PSU vents and/or fans then go for it, but don't try to open up the PSU itself.  You could give yourself a nasty shock without the right setup and equipment, and you might fry it, which would obviously not be a good thing. Whatever you can blast out with some moderate compressed air (air in a can, not a shop compressor!!!) is plenty. ;)

[Shadowww]

Ah ok, thanks. Haven't thought of compressed air even though I work with it every day (@ bicycle repair shop) :P

[Undead]

Shadowww said:

Hi guys,
sorry for sticking in, I just accidentally found this thread on Google & thought I could ask my PSU related question here, cause you guys seem to know a lot about PSU's.

How good is a PSU SPS-XP600, made by Xilence? It's 'marketing' name is Red Wing Series 600 R3.

I've had one in my system for 3 years or so, but I recently started wondering whether I should replace it.

That PSU is OK, not great. I wouldn't say you need to replace it. You should treat it as a 450w though, due to the +12v capacity.

[baels]

Hmm. Been running my i5-2500k (still stock) /Gigabyte NVOC GTX 570 on a 550W XFX Pro Core edition PSU (@1920x1080). I know the system could probably run on a solid 450W let alone the 550W.. But what I want to know is, if I ran a second monitor (@1440x900), the PSU would be fine yeah? Since monitors have their own power source, any additional strain on the PSU is from the GPU performing extra calculations, which surely can't be that bad?

[Elder III]

The additional monitor won't inflict any extra load on your PSU.  The GPU may work a tiny bit harder, but that's about it.

[Undead]

baels said:

Hmm. Been running my i5-2500k (still stock) /Gigabyte NVOC GTX 570 on a 550W XFX Pro Core edition PSU (@1920x1080). I know the system could probably run on a solid 450W let alone the 550W.. But what I want to know is, if I ran a second monitor (@1440x900), the PSU would be fine yeah? Since monitors have their own power source, any additional strain on the PSU is from the GPU performing extra calculations, which surely can't be that bad?

Adding a second monitor will probably make your 2D clocks jump a little higher, but it's nothing to worry about. At idle you'll still be drawing less than 150w from the PSU, and at full load load 350-400w.

[Lord Sojar]

Well, add 2 new PSUs to the list!  NZXT has done it again.  :)

http://www.anandtech...e82-650w-750w/1

They are pretty damn nice. ^_^

[Alucard]

Why no love for cooler master PSU's?

[Undead]

Lord Sojar said:

Well, add 2 new PSUs to the list!  NZXT has done it again.  :)

http://www.anandtech...e82-650w-750w/1

They are pretty damn nice. ^_^

Give some credit to Seasonic, it's their design. ;)

Alucard said:

Why no love for cooler master PSU's?

There's usually always something better than the price. Everything they have tends to range from total garbage to "decent" in terms of performance/build quality.. and most of the decent stuff are EOL and hard to find.

[Alucard]

I see that this PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 is a good one and is named in the OP's list, but it has no cable management. This PSU has cable management: Corsair TX650M. Now in terms of quality and performance, they are exactly the same right?

[Undead]

Alucard said:

I see that this PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 is a good one and is named in the OP's list, but it has no cable management. This PSU has cable management: Corsair TX650M. Now in terms of quality and performance, they are exactly the same right?

The TX650M and TX650V2 are completely different internally. The TX V2 is a Seasonic (SS-AT platform to be exact) and the TX modulars are made by CWT (PSH-IIII)

The TX V2 has slightly better performance, and slightly better build quality compared to the TX-M. They're both pretty good.... but the TX-M series are really overpriced for what they are. They took the old pricepoint of the (now EOL) HX750 and HX850, and those units destroy the TX-M in everything.

Edited by Undead, 21 February 2012 - 10:57 AM.

[Alucard]

Undead said:

The TX650M and TX650V2 are completely different internally. The TX V2 is a Seasonic (SS-AT platform to be exact) and the TX modulars are made by CWT (PSH-IIII)

The TX V2 has slightly better performance, and slightly better build quality compared to the TX-M. They're both pretty good.... but the TX-M series are really overpriced for what they are. They took the old pricepoint of the (now EOL) HX750 and HX850, and those units destroy the TX-M in everything.

I assume you are talking about Corsair CMPSU-750HX, too bad I can't get a 650 watt version of it from this shop :(

So can you suggest a good corsair/seasonic/antec/other brand semi modular 650 Watt PSU please?

Thanks.