need to decide on a PSU

A

AlmostEvil

Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
813
Getting a GTX280 and most likely putting my 8800gt to physics use for the time being. Also would like to crossfire 5850s down the road so i need some future proofing. kinda decided between these 4:
Silverstone ST75F-P
Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W
XFX BE 750W
Corsair 750HX

Whats the best out of these?

would ~750w would be enough for 2 5850s? would like to get a modular PSU, had one before and loved it. also would like to keep the price somewhat below $150

thanks in advance
 
750w ought to be sufficient, yes.

Of those four, I'd go with the XFX or the Corsair (whichever is cheaper/whichever one you like the look of better). The Thermaltake 775w is a decent unit (it got a silver award here, after all) but the XFX and the Corsair are both better; the caps are of higher quality and-at least in the case of the XFX-the ripple values are lower than the Thermaltake's on the 12v rail.

The Silverstone didn't do so hot in this review (it was out of spec on ripple in some tests and had some weird voltage issues, and it has Teapo and Sus'con caps on the secondary, neither of which are exactly top-shelf brands) so I wouldn't bother with it.

If you wanted to cough up a little bit more money, the Seasonic X-750 is probably the best 750w power supply on the market right now. That said, the real-world benefits of going from something as good as the XFX or Corsair to the Seasonic are arguable at best, and you can get the 850w XFX for less than the cost of the Seasonic, so...
 
Siorus said:
The Silverstone didn't do so hot in this review (it was out of spec on ripple in some tests and had some weird voltage issues, and it has Teapo and Sus'con caps on the secondary, neither of which are exactly top-shelf brands) so I wouldn't bother with it.
Click to expand...
That review is for a different PSU. The OP is looking at the ST75F-P, not the ST75F.
 
yea the 7 year warranty is nice to have. that was one of the reasons i got the HX850 over the XFX.
 
Siorus said:
If you wanted to cough up a little bit more money, the Seasonic X-750 is probably the best 750w power supply on the market right now. That said, the real-world benefits of going from something as good as the XFX or Corsair to the Seasonic are arguable at best, and you can get the 850w XFX for less than the cost of the Seasonic, so...
Click to expand...

The XFX psu's are built off the seasonic platforms. Quite literally they are Seasonics that are black with green fans and single 12v rails.

Id go with an 850W unit. Those Corsair units are rather nice too. Unless your using crazy amounts of HDDs, have a wicked CPU overclock and have tri-SLI or TriFire setups to power, 850W sounds like the sweet spot. And honestly, its like 20-30 bucks more for an extra 100W over a 750W.
 
ebeattie said:
The XFX psu's are built off the seasonic platforms. Quite literally they are Seasonics that are black with green fans and single 12v rails.
Click to expand...
The XFX units use platforms inferior to the one used by the X-series. They may be Seasonics, but they are not quite as good.
 
The x-series are the ultimate in quality. There is nothing else on the market that can compare to them at the moment. As far as I know, only Seasonic is selling those models. The XFX ones are probably based off of the older platforms, like the M12D. Same as the Corsair HX series. Almost all of the top quality power supplies on the market are based off of a Seasonic design.
 
While I do realize it is not one of your four choices, have you considered the PC Power&Cooling's 750w Silencer? They can be a bit difficult to find, but they are quite a good PSU. We have two of them, after trying out the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W, they are much quieter and seem to be more stable. While I don't have actual numbers on this, it is an opinion on the subject.

Even since OCZ bought PC Power&Cooling, they have incorporated a lot of the PC P&C design features into the OCZ offerings. I would highly suggest looking into these.
 
ebeattie said:
Tell that to the PSU editor Paul Johnson: XFX 850W PSU review conclusions page
Click to expand...
Nothing in that link contradicts what I have said. Here are his impressions of the superior Seasonic X-750 model: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/09/25/seasonic_x_series_x750_power_supply_review/9
Wyluliraven said:
While I do realize it is not one of your four choices, have you considered the PC Power&Cooling's 750w Silencer? They can be a bit difficult to find, but they are quite a good PSU. We have two of them, after trying out the Thermaltake Toughpower XT 775W, they are much quieter and seem to be more stable. While I don't have actual numbers on this, it is an opinion on the subject.
Click to expand...
The Silencer 750 is worse than every one of the PSUs on the OP's list. It is also most certainly not quieter than the Toughpower XT 775W, unless the Toughpower happened to be defective.
Wyluliraven said:
Even since OCZ bought PC Power&Cooling, they have incorporated a lot of the PC P&C design features into the OCZ offerings.
Click to expand...
That is incorrect. PCP&C has never had anything to do with the design of any PSUs, including the ones they have sold under their names, and they have also had no significant impact on the quality of OCZ-branded units (which still range from mediocre to bad outside of a few high-end models).
 
While they are raving about the Seasonic brand units, am I correct or didnt the X-750 AND XFX 850W units both receive [H]ard Gold Choice awards? They did. No doubt the X-750 is a hell of a unit, but for $150 bucks you STILL get Seasonic quality AND an extra 100W.
 
Last edited:
ebeattie said:
While they are raving about the Seasonic brand units, am I correct or didnt the X-750 AND XFX 850W units both receive [H]ard Gold Choice awards? They did. No doubt the X-750 is a hell of a unit, but for $150 bucks you STILL get Seasonic quality AND an extra 100W.
Click to expand...
They did both win gold awards, but the X-750 is better.
 
Zero82z said:
That is incorrect. PCP&C has never had anything to do with the design of any PSUs, including the ones they have sold under their names, and they have also had no significant impact on the quality of OCZ-branded units (which still range from mediocre to bad outside of a few high-end models).
Click to expand...

heh, and they haven't even used the same OEMS.....possibly until now....if those MKIIs are Sirfa.....ick is all I can say
 
HOOfan_1 said:
heh, and they haven't even used the same OEMS.....possibly until now....if those MKIIs are Sirfa.....ick is all I can say
Click to expand...
If the Silencer MKIIs are Sirfa, then it's OCZ that has influenced PCP&C's PSUs, not the other way around.
 
Maybe less influencing, and more coercing. Too bad they didn't give Impervio more of a fair shake.
 
Gold awards mean absolutely nothing. It just means you get what you pay for, or more. At $125, you can get the XFX 750 watt with 80 plus silver certification. A Seasonic X-750 will cost you $190, $65 more than the XFX, but you get a much better quality power supply with 80 plus gold certification. The [H] gold award given to both of these power supplies means that they perform very well, and priced very well for the features that they offer.
 
^Saying the X-750 is much better than the XFX is an exaggeration. They're pretty much dead even in the two things PSU snobs care most about: voltage regulation and ripple suppression.

The X-750's advantages are:
1. ~2.5% better efficiency
2. quieter overall with a better fan
3. polymer caps on the secondary
4. fully modular
5. non-controversial styling

Better? Sure, but most of those things are more niceties than necessities. Also, anyone still paying $190 for an X-750 is getting ripped off since ewiz's everyday price is $169 w/fs and they frequently run $10-$15 off promo codes that make it even cheaper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top