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Hardware 600 - 700W PSU Review Round-Up

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 22 Feb 2010.

  1. Kunin

    Kunin What's a Dremel?

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    PSU is the one part I never skimp on, IMO it's the single most important part of the whole build. Crappy PSU = wasted money on everything else.

    @Bindibadgi I always jump straight to the end first, that's where the best charts normally are and of course the conclusion. I then jump back to specific tests I want to see the details of, sometimes I'll read the entire article if the numbers were close (or so different it just looks interesting).
     
  2. tonyd223

    tonyd223 king of nothing

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    +1
     
  3. rickysio

    rickysio N900 | HJE900

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    Blown PSU = cause other hardware to blow.

    Luckily I haven't encountered such a thing yet.
     
  4. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    So a really loud one with detachable cables gets the same "feature" score as a quiet one with a mess out the back? :lol:

    Sorry, couldn't resist :D
     
  5. rickysio

    rickysio N900 | HJE900

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    Bit-Tech has a hard on for modular, AFAIK.
     
  6. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Yes, the greater consensus in the office is that if you want a PSU - you should buy modular for neatness, just as long as the connectors are good enough.
     
  7. Zero82z

    Zero82z What's a Dremel?

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    Corsair is insecure about their PSUs which is why they send them to other review sites like HardOCP, JonnyGURU, Hardware Secrets, et al. who have more strenuous testing procedures than you guys? Your reasoning there doesn't make any sense.

    It would be nice to see you guys add ripple/noise testing to your testing repertoire as well as perform some kind of analysis of the internals. As it is, ripple limits are an important aspect of the ATX spec, and since you go through all the trouble of using a high-end Chroma tester, you may as well go for it to give your reviews more completeness.
    Actually, a properly-designed PSU should not cause damage to other hardware when it fails.
     
  8. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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    Corsair has sent in many PSUs before for review in CPC/bit-tech - it's just that on this occasion Corsair wasn't happy with the results that we got. I'm sure, that once Corsair has calmed down, you'll see more Corsair PSU reviews in the future. In point of fact, I was talking to Corsair about this on MSN this afternoon.

    It's something we can look at doing, but as Rich has already mentioned, given how little traffic PSU articles generate, its less of priority than other article types right now I'm afraid.
     
  9. Zero82z

    Zero82z What's a Dremel?

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    Perhaps, but given the amount of effort that was already put into the testing for this article, ripple testing would be a comparatively minor addition in terms of the amount of time and labour involved.
     
  10. rickysio

    rickysio N900 | HJE900

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    That was more or less my reason as to why we shouldn't skimp on PSU's. How many cheap ones are properly-designed? Nearly none.
     
  11. Zero82z

    Zero82z What's a Dremel?

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    Depends on what you consider cheap. There are a pretty decent amount of inexpensive Antec and Seasonic units available that are still pretty good quality, for example.
     
  12. Fintster

    Fintster What's a Dremel?

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    For the last few months I've been trailing through the net looking at reviews and parts for my new i750 build. At last i felt happy with the parts i picked for the £920 budget. Got my new rig up and running a week ago and was very pleased with the end result. It was clocked to 3.8ghz and running smoothly and within it's limits. Last night when the Antec truepower 650w went bang. Man, I nearly cried dont know yet if there's any damage to any other parts, but today really topped it off ,after having a chat in my local pc shop i find out that one of their customers used the same PSU as me and it lasted 3 mounths in his rig before it also gave up the ghost (thankfully there was no damage to the rest of his rig). I have always trusted the name Antec as a sign of quality parts but after this especally if it has destroyed any other parts I will not be using their product range again. I don't know about you but to commit £900+ especially in these times for a family man is a large commitment, indeed. I am disgusted with the reviews being purely positive, with claims of excellence, when their equipment could end up costing me a fortune, due to it's instablility and clearly unaddressed issues. I wouldn't be so negative, but the fact that someone else living in the same city is a bit too much of a coincidence and it makes alarm bells ring for me.
     
  13. TWeaK

    TWeaK Minimodder

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    @Finster - I never really liked the look of that Antec, tbh. Still, I'm surprised you've had such a big issue. I'd be more inclined to believe you and the other person in your city had one of a bad batch of their PSU's. You should definitely look at returning it, or at least make a warranty claim.

    I had my PSU blow up not that long ago. Admittedly it was a Hyper Type R which was more than 5 years old, so I wasn't too surprised. Afterwards, I was really drawn towards Corsair - they give a guarantee that your PSU won't blow up in 5 years, as well as a 7 year warranty. In the end though I went for a 520W Seasonic M12II Bronze, as I really liked my old Seasonic PSU. Efficiency was also a key factor, but both Seasonic and Corsair are about the same on that. Seasonic tend to be cheaper though and Scan had an offer on the M12II, so that sealed the deal for me.
     
  14. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    In respect, many companies now give a 5 year warranty, as they expect no one to actually take the company up on it, much less keep the proof of purchase or in some cases, register the purchase.

    The Antec TruePower new is a Seasonic by the way - Corsair also use Seasonic, as well as CWT.

    Finster, seems like you've had a rough ride, but I'd also question the handling and transport of the PSUs - like any sensitive electronic component if they're treated like footballs by the guys delivering it or kept in the wrong place, then that could be a reason, especially if its from the same shop.
     
  15. Fintster

    Fintster What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks people for your knowledge and support, you've made me feel a lot better. I've been building rigs for the past ten years and use FSP PSUs (which I think is also a main manufacturer for producing PSUs for other manufacturers). I bought it from E-Buyer and hopefully it was just a case of a bad batch or perhaps a result of bad handling/manufacture. I will be returning it and hopefully it will have done no damage to the rest of my rig. I will keep you informed. :eek:)
     
  16. bw67958

    bw67958 What's a Dremel?

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    I bought the Antec PSU based on this article and am really pleased with it.
     
  17. ProfQ

    ProfQ What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks for the image. It is now my "official" wallpaper!
     
  18. Keith_UK

    Keith_UK What's a Dremel?

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    Shame an OCZ power supply wasnt tested. I have an OCZ 550W Fatality atm. It comes with all the connections I will ever need including the 8-pin PCI Express and 3 year warranty. I will never run the hugely power hungry top end graphics card though. If I was to buy a new graphics card from whats out atm it would be a 1GB GTX 460, around that price range is what I usually buy and very nice on power usage to performance.
     
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