Hardware What is the best 720-750W Power Supply?

We put eight 720-750W PSUs through their paces to separate the champs from the chumps.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/psus/2013/04/26/best-power-supply-psu-720-750w/1

 

My conclusion is that the Seasonic X-Series 750W is the best all-rounder, isn't it?

 

The XFX is the same physical PSU design, but it's cheaper. Ergo, win.

 

Agreed, the XFX is the way to go. They use Seasonic for all their PSU's. I always recommend them at work now.

 

That was my thought having had a read through - interesting that it doesn't get an award despite getting the same score as the "PC Power & Cooling" supply (which I wouldn't put anywhere near my rig tbh)

I've recently bought a Seasonic X-Series and was tempted by the, physically identical but cheaper, XFX but I've heard bad things about their customer service and decided that as the Seasonic I bought was on offer, and as such was only slightly more than the XFX, I would go for the Seasonic - it's an excellent PSU and I don't regret it in the slightest

 

Brought the XFX myself a few years back now not had a problem with it since, ( brought it with my i7950 mobo and chip so we are talking 3 years give or take now )

100% stable with having had 2 580s and now 2 680s + the watercooling pump and stuff all connected.

Seasonic is the exact same psu but seasonic has slightly better customer service.

 

What always makes me chuckle is that so many PC builders go for premium 750W or higher PSUs despite the fact that they will only ever be powering a single CPU & GPU rig with a handful of hard drives and a few fans.

One of the very reasons I have "downgraded" to a 550W unit - for my uses I would have seen no benefit in spending more than £50 - none whatsoever. So far in real world usage I haven't seen the rig pull more than 350W. I could probably just about have gotten away with a decent 430W to be honest, but I'm wary that overclocking might have been pushing that too far in extreme circumstances.

 

If I had to buy a new PSU, I'd be looking at 550W too, and I wouldn't consider spending more than £60-£65. Look at the premiums for the high efficiency PSUs - it will take you YEARS to recover the difference in price over a decent Bronze PSU; unless you're folding 24/7.

I understand some people want to leave room for the possible inclusion of a 2nd GPU, but most of people with fairly modern gear won't use more than 350W-400W. I ran an X58 rig with a dual GPU GTX 295, both CPU and GPUs heavily overclocked, and it didn't trouble my 700W Realpower PSU. My 2500k and 670 don't breach 350W when overclocked and stressed.

 

No Corsair PSU? Come on :|

 

I think the only reason I spend more on PSUs is that the expensive ones also tend to be the quietest (Seasonic, Be Quiet!). And I've also downgraded to a 550W unit after previously owning a more-wattage-then-I-needed PSU.

Also, great article - thanks for the roundup Bit-tech.

 

100% agree. Corsair are one of the most commonly used and recommended PSUs and they have been admitted from this test?!

I understand that they may not have sent you a sample to test but I can't believe that you don't have one lying around.

I have seen this a few times with BT round ups - where the most common and popular models have been omitted.

 

I'm not sure how it works but, if BT are planning a feature, don't they contact all the usual suspects for review samples? Maybe Corsair didn't ship any, or they were late?

 

My conclusion is the best PSU is the Seasonic X-Series. The extra isn't that much, you get more warranty, and you get Seasonic support instead of XFX. You may get Seasonic build quality with the XFX, but you get XFX support too.
Look at it a different way, you are paying 13 quid for 2 years extra warranty and Seasonic service support. Worth it.

Is 7 years warranty excessive and useless?
Tell that to my PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750w, 6 years (and 12mths out of warranty) and still chugging strong in an enthusiast-class machine. Dependable and inaudible at heavy loads, why would I "upgrade" any time soon? A high-quality PSU will easily outlast several generations of more ephemeral hardware like CPUs, GPUs, and MBs.

 

Quite happy that my Dark Power Pro still holds up nicely. I'd quite happily use a lower power 550 or 600W PSU, but I originally bought the BeQuiet for an overclocked i7 950 rig, which enjoyed sucking power like vampires like blood.

 

my Be Quiet and Corsair (about 650W, and 550W) are still working nicely after a few years now

 

I got myself 2x AX850. Corsair indeed is uber common. You guys really NEED to do a review with Corsair too.

 

I'm quite surprised there is no Corsair psu in that test. Imo the best 750w psu is the AX series, reviews speak for themselves.

I wouldn't touch xfx psus as their support is terrible.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

PC Power & Cooling is supposed to have a really solid reputation, but mine was the only PSU I've ever owned that literally went up in smoke.

 

Agreed, on modern systems, we don't need as much power as we used to, but you can go too far and regret it later. As you get down at lower wattages, you do have to start being careful of what rails that power is coming from. It's safer and easier to just over buy, which leaves you head room for upgrades later should you need it, but I do agree, many today are over buying, especially for basic office systems.

As for never seeing one break 350watts...
Dig up an old Pentium 4 805D, these were the first chips where you could hit 4gigs without exotic cooling. Though considering that they can push 240 watts from the cpu alone when overclocked that high, you need a heck of a PSU and cooling system. Combine that with the right video card and you are right at 350 watts just about at idle.

Mine was pulling well over 400 watts from the power supply under load (without SLI), when the 550 watt PSU, the UPS and the water pump all decided it was just too much. Which is why I now have 6 year old, 750 watt PSU in my box.

They had a fantastic reputation before they were bought out. They are still good, just not as good as they once were. Even then though, there is always faulty ones.

My (pre buyout) Silencer 750 is over 6 years old (possibly 7 or 8) and still powers the overclocked 2600k in my desktop. I consider it one of the best investments I ever made in computing.