Hardware What is the Best 600W+ PSU?

This and enough said! Most people say this and that psu is reliable and good but how many of you have the same test setup that BT and other sites have? Personal experience can be reliable only so much.
Need an example? The Corsair HX1000, two different stores, no relation whatsoever, for one, the most reliable and no RMA done; for the other, they run from it like the devil from the cross simply because it's a RMA nightmare.

I'm sticking with what RedFlames said. If you want a round up full of PSU, pressure the manufacturers to send them to BT.

 

@Farfalho

I understand the situation that BT has with only some companies sending out samples and I agree with RedFlames also. I know this isn't as simple as it would seem and this therefore limits the round up.

That said, however, I would also think that only receiving ten or so PSUs would be indicative of how much respect the companies give BT a review site. Now this may not be their fault as there is a lot of competition out there and this is a somewhat niche market. (I said companies btw not us, and I know a good review on here sells out items on scan regularly, but have the companies noticed this? maybe).


If the reviews were to improve generally, (i.e. some areas are very good e.g. coolers, but some are not e.g. monitors) then logic would state that so would the value placed in those reviews and therefore BT would receive more samples. More people would visit the site again increasing the market footprint of the site and the value of BT opinion in the eyes of the manufacturers would increase, and so on and so on, good for BT and good for us, the readers.

Please understand I like BT. As a news site it is one of the best around for my needs. This is only meant as constructive criticism.

I was unsure if I should really post this because it may be taken the wrong way but I genuinely believe BT needs to regain focus on what it is as now its a little modding, a little bit of a reviews site, and quite a good news section, but there are places which do each thing better.

 

82% for a psu that doesn't pass all the stability tests? They should be penalised more for any fail IMO.

 

I know you cannot measure the actual produced sound (as exact sound measurements are very very complicated).
But a mention of (subjective) sound/noise would be very much appreciated (as you do with graphicscards and coolers).

I sort of see the point of you not writing a conclusion, a "what to buy for whom" section would be nice.
(for an "el cheapo build" for a "silent build" for a "no expenses avoided" build)

 

The Seasonic X-Series PSUs are some of the best.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4217/seasonic-xseries-560w

 

Well doesn't both bit-tech and other sites do sound-test on psu's? It wouldn't be so hard to make a test chamber with the psu separated from the other hardware.


I have requested before a sort of "Current Best-of" area on this site, where the current recomended hardware, ala the best of the best in certain categories, is continiously updated when new stuff is tested. If really the Corsair AX750w psu is still the best, it should be said so, even if it isn't in this test.

Anyway thanks for the effort BT even though you do get shot down from time to time it just means we care

 

If the test kit is too noisy to provide any subjective assessment of the PSU noise at various loads then maybe plug it into a PC, make the PC do something and have a listen?

All of the PSU threads on your forums are along the lines of :

'What PSU do I need for X and Y components?'

'Get PSU 1 or 2'

'Awesome! - Which is the quietest?'

 

We all have our own pref on a particular branded PSU. I for one love the Corsair AX-series PSU's but opted for a Antec HCP 850w 80+ G certified PSU because of great reviews. IMO the Corsair and Seasonic 80+ G certified PSU's are highly overpriced. The Antec HCP was the cheapest out of the lot yet with great reviews. Its running quiet and stable on my new 2500K 4.5GHz build but furthermore I can't really speculate cos I'm not running SLI yet.

 

If someone was really interested in quiet computers they would probably go to SPCR where the noise levels of PSU's are measured in an anechoic chamber. If you haven't heard of SPCR - check it out; lot's of good information there.

If I wanted a really good in depth review of a PSU I would go to JonnyGURU's site or maybe Anand Tech - more serious, less modding bling.

Horses for courses really.

 

Disappointed that there is no Seasonic X-series in this review too. I believe the X660 would trump all the PSUs reviewed here...

 

I used to read PCPro for years and years, every single month, it was my bible... Never been to this site though, came here now after receiving the e-mail featuring this test, just to see if any PSU would come close to the Seasonic X-series...

So registered just to say you guys either should have gone to the shop and bought yourself a Seasonic X-series, or, not named this article "What is the best 600+ Watt PSU?" Very disappointing... Or, should I have known better?

 

Well, just went and read the 400 to 600 Watt article, which does include the Seasonic, and does pretty much show it to kick all the other's hineys... So basically, all I want to say is: very poor choice of title...

 

Totally agree with your post. I loved Custom PC but with the merge with BT quality artiles seem to have been slowly ebbing away. For example when the Noctua NH-D14 cooler hit the market it was clearly the best cooler on the maket for the i7 920 at the time (cooling performance). It may not have been the best value for money however BT gave rubbish cooling reviews due to test equipment/methodology when other sites proclaimed it as one of the best air coolers around at the time.
I loved the what fan review that was done a few years ago by custom pc it covered various different sized fans air pressure/noise/price ect. ANOTHER REVIEW IS LONG OVERDUE.
Some new new Lancool cases have been on the market for a few months now but BT has no review.
Im not expecting a review on every new product by every manufacturer but i think Li-lan/Lancool products would be of interest to readers.
On another point I dont know if the fan on my Seasonic x-750 even works. If it does its so quiet you cant even hear it. Very disappointed not to have any Seasonics in the review.
BT/custom pc you need to up your game as i find it harder to take you reviews seriously.

 

The CMPSU-650HX is a slightly modified Seasonic S12E+ (energy plus series) SS-650HT, and the BW-B620JL is a repacked Seasonic S12II Bronze SS-620GB.

 

How loud are the fans on these PSUs?

Which PSU is the quietest?

Thanks.

 

I thought it was a very good round-up.

The only thing I would have liked to see is a few more PSUs in the 750W-850W range, but only because I'm currently looking for a new 750-850w PSU
That said, the choice to focus more on lower wattages is perfectly reasonable- only a small minority of people need a PSU with a bigger output than 750W.

I find, as long as it doesn't sound like a jet engine, the noise level of a PSU is generally unimportant as the combined noise of the graphics card fan/s, CPU cooler and case fans is normally greater than that of the PSU.

 

Good review, well wroth the full read, but for the last 3 or 4 years it's been possible to go and get a Cosair PSU and know you've picked one of the top all rounders regardless of wattage...and that still seems to hold true, unless your after something very specific, then Cosair continues to be the no-brainer benchmark.

 

I bought one of these on the back of this review, and after 6.5 weeks of problems that I thought were caused by other things it turned out to be the new PSU - PCI-E rail wasn't stable. Amazon sent a replacement, which runs lovely, quiet too.

HOWEVER, Antec by way of apology for all the aggro are shipping out one of their the Rockus 2.1 3D Soundsystems to me (retail $199).

Can't fault Antec for such great customer service, and for taking responsibility for the problem. Amazon, on the otherhand weren't that interested.