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PSU Choice for new build

P

Phas3Zer0

n00b
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
55
Just wondering on a good PSU for my build.

Processor - Intel Core i5-3570K O.C
Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme4
Video Card - GIGABYTE GV-N670OC-2GD GeForce GTX 670 2GB
Memory - CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 9-9-9-24
SSD - Kingston HyperX 3K
SATA Hard Drive x1
Case: NZXT Source 210 S210-001
Fans - 7x120mm or 4x120mm & 3x140mm

According to eXtreme Power Supply Calculator recommended PSU wattage is 450W

To make room for possibly a 2nd video card and more hardware I was thinking 600-700 would be the sweet spot. So far I've narrowed my search down to these 2.

OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular 80 Plus $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341017
CONS: Short Cables.

SeaSonic M12II 620 80 Plus Bronze $89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095
CONS: ?
 
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The M12II is by far the superior choice. Better efficiency, better everything. The M12II has 576 watts available on the 12v rail, while the ModXStream has 500 watts.

However:
The Rosewill Hive 750w is a far better value at $60 AR.
Another choice would be the Rosewill Capstone 650-M for $80 AR.
 
That Rosewill RG630-S12 supply is made by a no-name OEM called "ATNG". Who knows about its quality. Also does not have modular cables, which means a not ideal internal setup (less airflow). Although good luck finding a quality supply above 600W around $60 with them.

The OCZ you linked is made by the sometimes questionable OEM Sirtech. The Seasonic you link is a far superior option, but you pay for it (and the modular cables most cheaper supplies do not have). I'll agree with one of the two other options Tsumi linked above: the Rosewill Capstone 650M. Its made by Super Flower (a traditionally high quality manufacturer) and also has modular cables ($80 after mail-in rebate on Newegg only).

One lower priced in that wattage range that is also made by a quality OEM: Antec Neo Eco 620C ($70 currently). Built by Seasonic and has 576W on the 12V rail. In fact, it looks very similar to the Seasonic M12II 620 you linked, but without the modular cables. For $10 less ($60), the same thing also made by Seasonic, but 520W rated here (480W on the 12V rail).

With power supplies, unlike many other PC components, more expensive in a wattage range often means higher quality. And the power supply is one item (besides the motherboard, etc.) you really don't want to cheap-out on.
 
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Rosewill Hive 750 watt review. It's not a top tier product, but it's not a bottom tier product either, and is priced accordingly.

OCZ ModxStream 700w review. Again, not a top tier product, but not a bottom barrel product either.

Rosewill RG630-S12 review. Once again, not bottom tier.

He wants SLI, so the 520 is out of the question.

You should NEVER judge power supplies based on brand or OEM. There are some OEMs that you can be sure will be good (i.e. Seasonic, XFX because they use exclusively Seasonic), but you shouldn't discount a particular power supply because of who makes or sells it.
 
Tsumi said:
You should NEVER judge power supplies based on brand or OEM. There are some OEMs that you can be sure will be good (i.e. Seasonic, XFX because they use exclusively Seasonic), but you shouldn't discount a particular power supply because of who makes or sells it.
Click to expand...

Sigh. We've had this argument before.

Brand: yes, means nothing. Who makes the supply (OEM manufacturer): unlike your judgement, I believe that yes, it can be very important.

Some manufacturers (OEMs) have a long history of average supplies; not great but not bad. Some have good supplies across their entire lines. Some have mediocre to bad supplies across their entire lines. And some have both good and bad supplies in their lines.

Thus my recommendation to look at supplies made by Seasonic, Delta or Super Flower. Not a single bad supply across any of their lines that I have seen so far in recent years.

Another thing that's wise to do: don't rely on a single "professional" review for anything, power supply or otherwise. Unless its from HardOCP ;). Different sites have different methodology. As well as different quality. Some source their own copies of review items from retailers (as HardOCP do AFAIK). Thus they aren't influenced by being given free stuff as some other sites are. The highest quality for the money paid ("best value") will assure you of fewer issues with your PC build.
 
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The enthusiast community is a pretty close community, especially at the upper levels. These "professional" reviewers respect and do communicate with each other, especially JonnyGuru and [H]OCP.

The breakdowns are pretty in depth at Hardware Secrets, JonnyGuru, and [H]OCP, I'd argue they're practically the same. They will show the components used, and you can judge based on what the internals look like if you want to. All three use professional load testers. All three use professional oscilloscopes and other test equipment as well. [H]OCP and Hardware Secrets test at 45+ C ambients, which are very stressful temperatures (Hardware Secrets tested the Rosewill Hive 750 with a final room temp of 50 C at the full load test).

JonnyGuru typically tests at lower temps, as the high temp test is based on how much heat is coming out of the load tester. However, he does do crossload tests, which is something neither [H]OCP or Hardware Secrets do.

Hardware Secrets doesn't do transient tests, while JonnyGuru and [H]OCP do. However, they tend to be more in depth on the internals and build quality, and they do do overload tests to check OCP and OPP.

[H]OCP does 80% load torture tests and 100v tests, which aren't done by Hardware Secrets or JonnyGuru. But they don't do everything either, as I covered above.

Each site has a slightly different testing methodology, but the core of them are all the same, and they are all equally valid. To say [H]OCP is somehow more valid than JonnyGuru or Hardware Secrets is simply your personal preference.
 
Cant go wrong with either a Corsair or Seasonic PSU.. They both have essentially the same design but with different visuals.. I would recommend Seasonic Gold though, Has been rock solid in my build. These two manufacturers are at the top of my list, rest all come after these...Dont think too much about ripple suppression or voltage sag or anything technical when it comes to PSU`s, Just get a quality unit and you will be served well. All these reviews just make your head spin with fancy technical terms eventually to conclude by saying that the power supply is recommended and you can go buy it :p!.
 
murkris118 said:
Just get a quality unit and you will be served well.
Click to expand...

Yes! :)

Tsumi said:
The enthusiast community is a pretty close community, especially at the upper levels. These "professional" reviewers respect and do communicate with each other, especially JonnyGuru and [H]OCP.
Click to expand...

They may or may not be "close". The only well known evidence of collaboration between sites that is I can remember is from back in 2000 (yes, I'm old & very crusty). HardOCP and Tom's Hardware both found out and verified between them that Pentium III 1.13 GHz CPUs were seriously bugged (and thanks to them, were later recalled by Intel).

The reason I say try to find as many reviews as possible for hardware is that you can get a better idea of potential issues with a reviewed product when your information base covers multiple sources. Some reviews might miss something, have different testing methodology (as mentioned) and so on. That is, if you want to rely on reviews as opposed to the known history of an OEM.

An example I argued with Tsumi about in the past is HardOCP giving the OCZ ZT Series 650W (made by the OEM Great Wall) a failing grade, while HardwareSecrets gave it a top "Golden award". Different people have different judgements as to what "fail" means ;).

To prevent head-spinning as well as saving time & effort, its much easier to just go with a well known high quality OEM (such as the three I mentioned previously--Seasonic, Delta & Super Flower). An excellent site that shows who makes what supply for what vendor is here.

Good luck!
 
I recommend the SeaSonic M12II 620. I built a pc recently for my buddy with the same parts you listed (galaxy 670 instead of gigabyte) and he also has an ssd boot and disk storage drive. No issues with overclocking either.
 
Fritingo said:
Yes! :)



They may or may not be "close". The only well known evidence of collaboration between sites that is I can remember is from back in 2000 (yes, I'm old & very crusty). HardOCP and Tom's Hardware both found out and verified between them that Pentium III 1.13 GHz CPUs were seriously bugged (and thanks to them, were later recalled by Intel).

The reason I say try to find as many reviews as possible for hardware is that you can get a better idea of potential issues with a reviewed product when your information base covers multiple sources. Some reviews might miss something, have different testing methodology (as mentioned) and so on. That is, if you want to rely on reviews as opposed to the known history of an OEM.

An example I argued with Tsumi about in the past is HardOCP giving the OCZ ZT Series 650W (made by the OEM Great Wall) a failing grade, while HardwareSecrets gave it a top "Golden award". Different people have different judgements as to what "fail" means ;).

To prevent head-spinning as well as saving time & effort, its much easier to just go with a well known high quality OEM (such as the three I mentioned previously--Seasonic, Delta & Super Flower). An excellent site that shows who makes what supply for what vendor is here.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

You may be old and crusty, but your view is seriously narrow. ATNG has been making PSUs for years, it's also quite large. So it's not some no name OEM. They make some pretty shit units usually, but that doesn't mean that they haven't had a few gems in that corn crusted turd.

Here is a pair of ATNGs that do decently.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story4&reid=60
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Rosewill-FORTRESS-650-Power-Supply-Review/1597/11

So once again, it has nothing to do with OEM, Brand or anything frankly. It comes down, does the unit perform well and within spec under its rated wattages. Even a crappy Sirtec/ATNG/Topower/*shudder* Huntkey can sometimes achieve this.

The only thing brand gives you is warranty. OEM gives you nothing but bias. Check the reviews, and make sure you're getting a unit that isn't going to pump component killing ripple through your components, and has enough juice for your build. Thats all that matters.
 
Again, it failed their high temperature tests, but that doesn't mean the ZT is a bad buy. For the right price, it's a good buy. Ultimately, I don't choose a power supply based on who makes them. I choose the power supply based on what warranty I want to receive, and the value it provides. I won't get the ZT650 for $100 when I can get the X750 for $100-120, but if I needed a new power supply and the ZT650 was in the $40 range, and it provides what I need, I wouldn't hesitate to get it.
 
Jorona said:
So it's not some no name OEM. They make some pretty shit units usually, but that doesn't mean that they haven't had a few gems in that corn crusted turd.

So once again, it has nothing to do with OEM, Brand or anything frankly. It comes down, does the unit perform well and within spec under its rated wattages. Even a crappy Sirtec/ATNG/Topower/*shudder* Huntkey can sometimes achieve this.

The only thing brand gives you is warranty. OEM gives you nothing but bias.
Click to expand...

You might have missed where I said above: "Some manufacturers (OEMs) have a long history of average supplies; not great but not bad. Some have good supplies across their entire lines. Some have mediocre to bad supplies across their entire lines. And some have both good and bad supplies in their lines."

No actually, I'm not narrow. Fairly hefty actually :D. But when you are dealing with an OEM that makes nothing but top quality supplies, its much easier for people with limited time or expertise to get something that works well.

No question, some OEMs that make supplies that vary in quality can and do put out good models from time to time. All depends if you want to spend time pouring over multiple reviews for a particular model to be sure its not crap or instead patronize an OEM of known high quality. Up to you.

Its not the easiest matter for the average consumer to know what brand is made by who, though. Which is why I like linking this database.

Tsumi said:
Again, it failed their high temperature tests, but that doesn't mean the ZT is a bad buy. For the right price, it's a good buy.
Click to expand...

Ill agree insofar if there are no other options at its wattage/feature range & price. If there are other options that are higher quality/less issue(s) at the same/lower price, I don't see why that model would be preferable.
 
Fritingo said:
Ill agree insofar if there are no other options at its wattage/feature range & price. If there are other options that are higher quality/less issue(s) at the same/lower price, I don't see why that model would be preferable.
Click to expand...

Of course, the right price means that you have to take other power supplies into consideration and their prices as well. How good of a value something is depends on how competing products are priced.
 
I like the Corsair AX models because they are modular.
 
Fritingo said:
Yes! :)



They may or may not be "close". The only well known evidence of collaboration between sites that is I can remember is from back in 2000 (yes, I'm old & very crusty). HardOCP and Tom's Hardware both found out and verified between them that Pentium III 1.13 GHz CPUs were seriously bugged (and thanks to them, were later recalled by Intel).

The reason I say try to find as many reviews as possible for hardware is that you can get a better idea of potential issues with a reviewed product when your information base covers multiple sources. Some reviews might miss something, have different testing methodology (as mentioned) and so on. That is, if you want to rely on reviews as opposed to the known history of an OEM.

An example I argued with Tsumi about in the past is HardOCP giving the OCZ ZT Series 650W (made by the OEM Great Wall) a failing grade, while HardwareSecrets gave it a top "Golden award". Different people have different judgements as to what "fail" means ;).

To prevent head-spinning as well as saving time & effort, its much easier to just go with a well known high quality OEM (such as the three I mentioned previously--Seasonic, Delta & Super Flower). An excellent site that shows who makes what supply for what vendor is here.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

The reason testers have different judgement on what fails is because they may not push them to the limits. It seems [H] will beat the &*^&* out of it, if it passes at max load, max this, max that, then its good.
Why would you want something that didnt meet the best specs in all areas?
 
Hagrid said:
The reason testers have different judgement on what fails is because they may not push them to the limits. It seems [H] will beat the &*^&* out of it, if it passes at max load, max this, max that, then its good.
Why would you want something that didnt meet the best specs in all areas?
Click to expand...

Well, the ZT test was odd because Hardware Secrets were testing at a 45 C ambient as well. In fact, they were able to pull 750 watts from it at a room temperature of 43.8 C. I doubt Hardware Secrets would lie about something like this. The noise and ripple results were similar, so it's doubtful Hardware Secrets got a binned unit. Although it is possible that QC on their OTP circuitry (and maybe the rest of their power supply) might not be as good.
 
Tsumi said:
Well, the ZT test was odd because Hardware Secrets were testing at a 45 C ambient as well. In fact, they were able to pull 750 watts from it at a room temperature of 43.8 C. I doubt Hardware Secrets would lie about something like this. The noise and ripple results were similar, so it's doubtful Hardware Secrets got a binned unit. Although it is possible that QC on their OTP circuitry (and maybe the rest of their power supply) might not be as good.
Click to expand...

I was just kind of generalizing that if a tester tests its max on everything and it passes, it would make sense that it would be recommended.
This is about the only site I visit since it seems to have all the needed info for me. :cool:
 
Tsumi said:
Well, the ZT test was odd because Hardware Secrets were testing at a 45 C ambient as well. In fact, they were able to pull 750 watts from it at a room temperature of 43.8 C. I doubt Hardware Secrets would lie about something like this. The noise and ripple results were similar, so it's doubtful Hardware Secrets got a binned unit. Although it is possible that QC on their OTP circuitry (and maybe the rest of their power supply) might not be as good.
Click to expand...

For some reason I don't think Gabe runs them as long as I do. ;)
 
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