I was just tempted to buy the Phanteks Enthoo Primo rev 2 and Corsair CX750M bundle/special from Scan for £200. First impressions of the case are that it is very well thought out and very spacious. I like it! My current build has been rather long in gestation as it changed from air cooled to be my first water cooled build. I bought most of the parts around 6 months ago from the local Novatech shop (sadly now closed). The decision was a bit spur of the moment and the choices were heavily based on what they had in stock. The motherboard is a Z87 sabertooth with a Haswell i4770k and 32Gb of RAM. I chose the Corsair Graphite 600T in white as the case, a decision which I much regret. The system was built pretty quickly using a Corsair H60 as the cooler. I was able to get 4.4GHz on all 4 cores but instability any higher. I think that this stupid desire for more speed, led me to research water cooling and de-lidding (I am too much a coward to do it!), and much delayed the project (as usual ). The build is now working and my data transferred from the old PC. I am planning to transfer everything to the Phanteks case which will allow installation of a bigger radiator. It's surprising how warm the water loop gets on just running a simple game. FYI GFX card is a GTX 580 water cooled (Ebay purchase). The current PSU is a modular 750W Novatech model. The guy in the shop claimed it was made by one of the big manufactuers and re-branded. To be fair it looks good, the fan is quiet, and the cables modular and the connectors colour coded. The question is - is the CX750M any better? Will it have enough oomph/stability to support the i4770k and a new GTX780Ti? I have run power requirement calculations on a website and it suggested that 680W was needed in total, so should be enough headroom. I'm not clear what the difference between the CX HX and TX (ZX?) series from corsair is, and whether for the same power output it really makes any difference, or whether it is just marketing bs. Any comments or observations would be much appreciated. I'll probably post about my water cooling adventures in the appropriate sub-forum.
I have been using the CX750M for around a year now and it certainly seems ok to me. This is in a system that has consisted of an i5 4670k with firstly a 7850, then a R9 280X, then a R9 290 and now a GTX 780 and I've had no issues whatsoever. Corsairs website does state this though: 'CX Series Modular power supply units are an excellent choice for basic system builds and desktop PC computer upgrades, offering high reliability, low noise, and the flexibility of modular cabling.' so I don't think they're considered exactly 'high end'
The Novatech PSU's are rebadged OCZ models, which were a bit hit and miss if memory serves. Look for reviews of the same wattage OCZ model, and you should get some reliable info. Edit. After further investigation, It would seem that the Novatech modular 750w is a rebadged OCZ Fatality, which is a very very good PSU indeed.
I've not used a CX750M but have owned two Corsair TX650 series PSUs which didn't last very long. The first (non modular) lasted about 2 years and the replacement (semi modular) lasted a only few months, neither were being overworked.
Wow, great info. Thank you. Thanks "sonicgroove" - the Novatech is semi-modular, but definitely looks like the OCZ ModXStream Pro series, down to the colour coded sockets and fan grill style, but doesn't exactly match any model in this series. Thanks "slinger" - good to know that this PSU is "proven" with a GTX 780 setup. Not so good to hear of users having problems with Corsair PSUs however. I would have thought that a 750W PSU is much like any other, although there might be variations on the current distribution between 3.3V/5V/12V, and possibly split or shared 12V rail(s). Cynical me thinks that the TX/CX/ZX/YX/enthusiast/professional/gamer is all marketing stuff. So for the re-build I think I'll stick with the Novatech, as it's now burnt in . I'll have to go through my back issues of Custom PC to find the last PSU shoot-out to see if there are any comments about Corsair or OCZ. The cost of the Phanteks Enthoo Primo and CX750M PSU bundle was exactly the same as the case by itself (give or take a few quid). I was planning to get this case after reading the review on this site anyway. So I now have a spare PSU.
