900W to 1100W PSU Group Test - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 9th Jul 2007, 12:13

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...test_july_07/1

Those with mighty power requirements need an equally mighty power supply. After spending thousands of your hard earned cash on some high end components, surely you want to top it of with a PSU that'll stand up to the task? We check out six units rated between 900W and 1100W.

Bindibadgi · 9th Jul 2007, 12:24

Article Edit: After speaking to Nanopoint again it appears our wires got crossed and the SilverPower SP1000 PSU was £150 INC VAT not Ex VAT. Scores and article adjusted accordingly.

Mankz · 9th Jul 2007, 12:39

Where are the PCP&C's and the Silverstones!

f00dl3 · 9th Jul 2007, 13:25

Make sure you need one of those big boys before you buy one. I got a 650 Watt PSU with my system I built last year w/ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB PC 800 RAM, nVidia 7950 GX2 1 GB, 2x 250 GB SATA drives, TV Tuner, front USB, etc.... and the max power consumption does not peak above 215 Watts. Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S

Bindibadgi · 9th Jul 2007, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mankz.

Where are the PCP&C's and the Silverstones!

Didn't have them at the time of testing. We'll be looking into them in the future but they're not currently on the cards out of the 9 I've got coming to review.

PCPCs have only just come available too :P

cosmic · 9th Jul 2007, 13:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by f00dl3

Make sure you need one of those big boys before you buy one. I got a 650 Watt PSU with my system I built last year w/ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB PC 800 RAM, nVidia 7950 GX2 1 GB, 2x 250 GB SATA drives, TV Tuner, front USB, etc.... and the max power consumption does not peak above 215 Watts. Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S

That is so true. Sitting next to a machine with an 1100W PSU going full on will be like sitting next to a one bar electric fire. Mind you summer is not too hot this year, so useful for providing background heating.

dire_wolf · 9th Jul 2007, 13:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by f00dl3

Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S

Lol, so true, most people over spec their PSU, adopting a 'bigger is better' mentality

total waste of money unless you have a massive hard drive array or some obscenely expensive gfx setup

Bindibadgi · 9th Jul 2007, 14:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by dire_wolf

Lol, so true, most people over spec their PSU, adopting a 'bigger is better' mentality

total waste of money unless you have a massive hard drive array or some obscenely expensive gfx setup

Which is my whole argument for the entire review XD

Amon · 9th Jul 2007, 14:23

The drop-down box for the page index needs a minor adjustment:

Quote:

Originally Posted by page source

<option value="/hardware/2007/07/09/psu_group_test_july_07/7">7 - Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W </option>

should be

Quote:

Originally Posted by page source

<option value="/hardware/2007/07/09/psu_group_test_july_07/7">7 - Enermax Galaxy DXX 1000W Results</option>

And thanks for including the fabled Enermax unit in the comparison

dire_wolf · 9th Jul 2007, 14:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

Which is my whole argument for the entire review XD

Lol, sorry bud, haven't even read it yet, was just meandering through threads

Mister_Tad · 9th Jul 2007, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by the article

Personally, I don't see why you'd pay for the PC P&C PSU when the Enermax costs so much less

The PCP&C has a single monster 12v rail instead of 4 smaller ones

afaik the PCP&C is also rated at 1kw for higher temps and 24/7 use
and the PCP&C is, well, its a PCP&C

Quote:

Originally Posted by the article

the HX620 is actually a 750W model that's underrated because Corsair want to guarantee silence.

I did not know that, is it designed to cut off at >620w, or does it just keep on going?

Bindibadgi · 9th Jul 2007, 15:24

It keeps going afaik but it's only rated to 620W because they want it to be silent, which it is

Otherwise the heat and noise start to crank up.

Krikkit · 9th Jul 2007, 16:46

Nice review, and thank you for putting that note in at the beginning about PSU ratings and what people actually need, a lot of people see quad-core and SLi G80's and think they need 121 jigawatts!

Interesting about the Corsair PSU, I'll definately move that one higher up the list on my next upgrade.

airchie · 9th Jul 2007, 17:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmic

That is so true. Sitting next to a machine with an 1100W PSU going full on will be like sitting next to a one bar electric fire.

Thing is, it won't be going 'full on' unless it has a massive amount of peripherals etc.

Isn't it true that a PSU is likely to be more efficient when it's not working near 100% load?
ie, buying a bigger PSU like this and running it at less than 50% load may actually be MORE efficient than getting a 430W PSU and making it work like a slave to maintain your power requirements?

Can you lovely Bit-Techers try running a test like this to confirm or refute this idea?

Bindibadgi · 9th Jul 2007, 17:41

Yea. But there's arguments over it: should you run at PSU at 50-75% and not stress it too hard? Or, do you buy what you need citing that it says it can do that so that's what it should be capable of.

cosmic · 9th Jul 2007, 20:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by airchie

Isn't it true that a PSU is likely to be more efficient when it's not working near 100% load?
ie, buying a bigger PSU like this and running it at less than 50% load may actually be MORE efficient than getting a 430W PSU and making it work like a slave to maintain your power requirements?

Can you lovely Bit-Techers try running a test like this to confirm or refute this idea?

The more recent PSUs rated as 80+ efficient provide that rating in the 20% to 80% load range. There are some interesting efficiency measurements on the link below for the Corsair HX520/620 PSU where as you say they are most efficient around the 50% of max load mark. However, given most systems idle around the 100W mark and rarely exceed 250W, that makes the optimum PSU rating about 400 Watt for people not using a pair of power hungry graphics cards in SLI?crossfire mode. For those guys, these big units are OK, as long as they can get rid of all the heat somewhere

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page4.html

pillow · 9th Jul 2007, 23:03

y would you anyone but a select few need one of those? corsair hx620 is enough. another way to make money.....

Woodstock · 10th Jul 2007, 06:08

Quote:

Seasonic is a hugely popular brand in the online community, renowned for their very quiet, yet very capable PSUs and at least one member of our own staff swears by them exclusively.

just out of curiosity who would that be? i think id be more tempted to grab to hx 520's then one big

airchie · 10th Jul 2007, 09:30

I like the Corsairs PSUs too (since I have one) but I think they're manufactured for Corsair by Seasonic anyway aren't they?
they're deffo made by another company anyway.

Bindibadgi · 10th Jul 2007, 10:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmic

The more recent PSUs rated as 80+ efficient provide that rating in the 20% to 80% load range. There are some interesting efficiency measurements on the link below for the Corsair HX520/620 PSU where as you say they are most efficient around the 50% of max load mark. However, given most systems idle around the 100W mark and rarely exceed 250W, that makes the optimum PSU rating about 400 Watt for people not using a pair of power hungry graphics cards in SLI?crossfire mode. For those guys, these big units are OK, as long as they can get rid of all the heat somewhere

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page4.html

Power hungry SLI and CrossFire needs anywhere between 400-550W in our experience with only a single hard drive, single fan and single DVD drive. Obviously people's setups vary as they add more kit. To be 80Plus certified they need to have an 80+ real efficiency at 20, 50 and 100% load.

Wood: Last time I checked Brett swears by them

I've always owned Enermax personally.

9th Jul 2007, 12:13	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	900W to 1100W PSU Group Test http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...test_july_07/1 Those with mighty power requirements need an equally mighty power supply. After spending thousands of your hard earned cash on some high end components, surely you want to top it of with a PSU that'll stand up to the task? We check out six units rated between 900W and 1100W. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

9th Jul 2007, 12:24	#2
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,259	Article Edit: After speaking to Nanopoint again it appears our wires got crossed and the SilverPower SP1000 PSU was £150 INC VAT not Ex VAT. Scores and article adjusted accordingly. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

9th Jul 2007, 15:24	#12
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,259	It keeps going afaik but it's only rated to 620W because they want it to be silent, which it is Otherwise the heat and noise start to crank up. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

9th Jul 2007, 16:46	#13
Krikkit Don't panic! Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Lancs, UK Posts: 15,160	Nice review, and thank you for putting that note in at the beginning about PSU ratings and what people actually need, a lot of people see quad-core and SLi G80's and think they need 121 jigawatts! Interesting about the Corsair PSU, I'll definately move that one higher up the list on my next upgrade. __________________ \|E8400 @ 4.4GHz\|WC: 2*120.1 GT's, MCP350, Storm G5\|4GB Dominators\|DFI LT X48-T2R\|8800GT\|74GB Raptor\|Chieftec BA01\|OCZ ModXStream 600W\|Dell 2208WFP\| The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The LOL!!1!!1!, The Zlad!, The Kempness, The Braaaaaains...

9th Jul 2007, 17:41	#15
Bindibadgi Richard Swinburne bit-tech Staff Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Omnipwntent Posts: 28,259	Yea. But there's arguments over it: should you run at PSU at 50-75% and not stress it too hard? Or, do you buy what you need citing that it says it can do that so that's what it should be capable of. __________________ Made you look, made you stare, made you clicked this in your underwear! Den of Geek!

9th Jul 2007, 13:25	#4
f00dl3 Minimodder Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 36	Make sure you need one of those big boys before you buy one. I got a 650 Watt PSU with my system I built last year w/ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB PC 800 RAM, nVidia 7950 GX2 1 GB, 2x 250 GB SATA drives, TV Tuner, front USB, etc.... and the max power consumption does not peak above 215 Watts. Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S

9th Jul 2007, 23:03	#17
pillow Supermodder Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: illinois Posts: 573	y would you anyone but a select few need one of those? corsair hx620 is enough. another way to make money..... __________________ just got me a macbook, but it can play cod4! Last edited by pillow; 9th Jul 2007 at 23:10.