PSU Guide

[Frick]

Maybe I should re-read the OP

Don't. It wasn't even that accurate to start with and that was more than ten years ago. A lot of things has happened since then, a lot of the OEMs previously thought of as "bad" are now anything from quite decent to downright good (unless of course you are one of those PSU elitists in which case you are wrong about things).

I'm like you, ain't no electrical engineer, but from my own daily experience with the rig in my system specs, that corsair AX760 is couple months short of 5 yrs old. Been used everyday since new, although it's only platinum grade & performs mostly 40-60% daily, its still performs like the day it was bought. All this in a regular suburban home with no A/C in a climate like SE Australia.
Not plugging for corsair, just saying it seems higher grade PSU seem to have better reliability as a bonus.

That's really nothing special. You can expect that kind of performance from any but the crappiest PSUs.

 

[John Naylor]

I have never found PSU Listings useful. Classifications are all to often made whereby a review of one model series (say 650 watter) gets a good review and the "rating" is shared across all units in the series, even when the PSUs are not made on the same platform or even same OEM. I know it's unpopular in a social media world where reading more than 3 sentences is considered '" bother" but if I don't see 5 pages, I won't even bother to read a review. In addition, as is all too often the case with other components (i.e monitors).... there's a production run from which samples go out to reviewers and then there's a component change which makes manufacturing cheaper.

When budget is a priority, the Seasonic S12 / M12 is hard to beat as they are often as low as $35 - $50. I'll use these so grandma can see poics of her grand kids, Momma can read her emails and keep facebook updated and office worker can take work home and any decent unit that can meet ATX spec is fine w/ me. For enthusiast / gaming boxes, it's time to move up ... with moderate overclocking, I want to see coltage variations under 2.0 -2.5 % and good noise levels. For serious overclocking want to see < 1.0% voltage variation and top notch noise levels.

 

[robot zombie]

Don't. It wasn't even that accurate to start with and that was more than ten years ago. A lot of things has happened since then, a lot of the OEMs previously thought of as "bad" are now anything from quite decent to downright good (unless of course you are one of those PSU elitists in which case you are wrong about things).

Haha, yeah, I see that reading over it. I realized immediately I was thinking of another guide on this site.

Oddly enough, takes me back to a time when a lot of people were still pushing for the absolute maximum headroom you could get, to the point where they were using a third of the power available All in the name of performance.

 

[John Naylor]

There are advantages to be had ... I calculate the max theoretical wattage required and then multiply by 1.25 for stock or moderate over clocking and 1.5 for serious OCing. Why oversize ?

a) PSUs reach peak efficiency at 50%... which means more heat is produced and more electric is consumed per watt of power above 50%

620 watt PSU producing 600 watts of power will pull 690 watts from the wall producing 90 watts of heat
1200 watt PSU producing 600 watts of power will pull 667 watts from the wall producing 67 watts of heat

b) The cooling system for a 1200 watt PSU will barely be used at 600 watts meaning the fans if on will be at low speed and noise will be low. The 620, it will be audible.

c) The ability of the PSU to accurately control voltages diminishes the closest you get to rated power. The less accurately the PSU can match the voltages called for by MoBo, chipset, GPU, the less stable the overclock.

d) The ability of the PSU to minimize electrical noise diminishes the closest you get to rated power. The more noise, the less stable the overclock.

BTW, not suggesting you double necessary power... just picked 600 and 1200 cause it made the math easy

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Jesus, the amount of things wrong in the OP...

Super flower not recommended at all? They are one of the highest rated OEMs these days, and having looked through their older stuff, they were never particularly crap either.

Corsair=seasonic?

I really get tired of the whole "buy a corsair psu they are the best" thing, because they aren't the best and never really were. Only the overpriced AX and old HX series were really top class units... (Seasonic platinum series was basically always cheaper than the corsair AX branded models)

 

[Frick]

Jesus, the amount of things wrong in the OP...

Super flower not recommended at all? They are one of the highest rated OEMs these days, and having looked through their older stuff, they were never particularly crap either.

Corsair=seasonic?

I really get tired of the whole "buy a corsair psu they are the best" thing, because they aren't the best and never really were. Only the overpriced AX and old HX series were really top class units... (Seasonic platinum series was basically always cheaper than the corsair AX branded models)

Yeah, the OP should really be updated (the font is horrible too), or not be a sticky anymore. It's of no help to anyone.

 

[bogmali]

OK folks we get the idea, the OP has not been updated and now it is no longer sticky'd. Instead of necroing and complaining, why not just start a whole new thread with the most current info available? Leave this thread be as I will request for it to be locked.