Any of these "Budget Modular PSUs" Decent?

[hellfire88]

Hi All,

I just bought a Seasonic X650 Gold PSU that ended up being DOA unfortunately. So for now I'm going to buy a cheaper PSU to use in the meantime since this is kind of a "temp/budget build" to play Diablo3 with friends. Thing is I have a pretty small case (Silverstone TJ08-E) so I believe Modular would be better. I am trying to choose from the following 3x Modular ~650W PSUs in the ~$60 range:

NZXT Hale82 650W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817116014
(~$51 after rebate)

OCZ ZT Series 650W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341051
(~$59.99 after rebate)

Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153136
(~$54.99 after rebate)

My hardware is as follows:

- Silverstone TJ08-E microATX case
- AMD Phenom II 960T Zosma (running stock for now, but may overclock later on)
- Biostar A880G+ motherboard
- G.Skill 8GB RAM
- ATI 7850 or nVidia 570 video card
- Western Digital Black 640GB HDD
- Western Digital Green 1.5TB HDD
- LiteOn BluRay ROM / DVDRW combo drive
- 3.5" USB card reader

Or maybe I should just get this Antec Neo Eco 620W by default (not modular, but I may be able to squeeze the extra cables in the side of the TJ08-E case, and I've had good luck with these Antec Neo Eco 620's in the past):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031
(~$45 after rebate w/shipping)

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[hellfire88]

Hi All,

I just bought a Seasonic X650 Gold PSU that ended up being DOA unfortunately. So for now I'm going to buy a cheaper PSU to use in the meantime since this is kind of a "temp/budget build" to play Diablo3 with friends. Thing is I have a pretty small case (Silverstone TJ08-E) so I believe Modular would be better. I am trying to choose from the following 3x Modular ~650W PSUs in the ~$60 range:

NZXT Hale82 650W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817116014
(~$51 after rebate)

OCZ ZT Series 650W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341051
(~$59.99 after rebate)

Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153136
(~$54.99 after rebate)

My hardware is as follows:

- Silverstone TJ08-E microATX case
- AMD Phenom II 960T Zosma (running stock for now, but may overclock later on)
- Biostar A880G+ motherboard
- G.Skill 8GB RAM
- ATI 7850 or nVidia 570 video card
- Western Digital Black 640GB HDD
- Western Digital Green 1.5TB HDD
- LiteOn BluRay ROM / DVDRW combo drive
- 3.5" USB card reader

Or maybe I should just get this Antec Neo Eco 620W by default (not modular, but I may be able to squeeze the extra cables in the side of the TJ08-E case, and I've had good luck with these Antec Neo Eco 620's in the past):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371031
(~$45 after rebate w/shipping)

Thanks in advance for any input.

Ok after some research it seems the NZXT Hale82 650W will be the best bets as it appears to be a Seasonic ODM PSU (similar to the Seasonic M12II Bronze and Corsair TX650).

The OCZ ZT 650W got decent reviews to with a "Great Wall" company being the ODM.

The Thermaltake TR2 RX seems to have gotten rather mediocre reviews, with 2 samples burning out on a reviewer, so i guess I will pass on that one.

For $51 (after $30 rebate ) for the NZXT Hale82 650W semi-modular PSU seems like a pretty good deal so I got one. Hope this helps anyone also looking for a cheapie modular PSU in the 650W range.

 

[lehtv]

For $51 AR, NZXT Hale82 650W is a steal, it's a very good PSU. It is anything but cheap in terms of quality, and it usually is priced accordingly ($110 release price). In comparison, the OCZ ZT is OK and the Thermaltake TR2 is crap.

 

[hellfire88]

For $51 AR, NZXT Hale82 650W is a steal, it's a very good PSU. It is anything but cheap in terms of quality, and it usually is priced accordingly ($110 release price). In comparison, the OCZ ZT is OK and the Thermaltake TR2 is crap.

Thanks for your confirmation, the NXZXT Hale82 650W was actually $42 after rebate last week! Oh well, i missed that sale so had to pay $9 more. Only concern I have is that apparently people have been having bad luck with NZXT rebates

 

[chin311]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341017

I've been running this for a few months with zero issues pretty much 24/7.

An i5, 8gb, asus 560, intel ssd and a bluray writer.

 

[bononos]

For $51 AR, NZXT Hale82 650W is a steal, it's a very good PSU. It is anything but cheap in terms of quality, and it usually is priced accordingly ($110 release price). In comparison, the OCZ ZT is OK and the Thermaltake TR2 is crap.

Are the TR2's sporting the bronze 80+ also as bad as the non-pfc standard TR2s?

 

[lehtv]

They should be better, but they're still inferior to Seasonic or its derivatives, or Antec's Delta-made units and Corsair's CWT-made units

 

[alexruiz]

I have used the OCZ ZT 650W, and it is a very nice unit. I know the forums members are infatuated with Seasonic, but they are not the only ones making good units

 

[lehtv]

How did you determine the ZT 650W was a very nice unit? Not saying it isn't, but I think you'll forgive me if I assume that you don't have the expertise needed to analyze the build quality, and that you don't own expensive equipment to load the PSU to its limits while capturing multimeter readouts of voltages on all rails simultaneously and testing for ripple and noise levels.

 

[alexruiz]

How did you determine the ZT 650W was a very nice unit? Not saying it isn't, but I think you'll forgive me if I assume that you don't have the expertise needed to analyze the build quality, and that you don't own expensive equipment to load the PSU to its limits while capturing multimeter readouts of voltages on all rails simultaneously and testing for ripple and noise levels.

I don't have the equipment, but Gabriel Torres (hardwaresecrets) and Johny Guru do, and they both recommend the PSU (golden award by Gabriel) They are reputable and tough on their tests.

Once moving beyond the benchmarks, how about using it in real life? The user experience of how it will work. We read numbers, but the intangibles also matter

I can also ask your same question to all those who recommend the NZXT simply because it is Seasonic. You haven't tested with equipment, have you? My point is that there are several ODMs who make good PSUs, and that there is life beyond seasonic. If you truly want to get snobish and recommend the best, that is Enermax. A Lepa Gold 1600W would surely look good in his machine, but I am sure the almost $300 charge in the credit card will not

I cannot speak for the thermaltake, but I know the OCZ ZT will do a fine job


Alex
ps. I have PSUs in my own machines made by seasonic, great wall and CWT. Very pleased with all of them.

 

[lehtv]

I don't have the equipment, but Gabriel Torres (hardwaresecrets) and Johny Guru do, and they both recommend the PSU (golden award by Gabriel) They are reputable and tough on their tests.

Yeah, that makes sense - but you didn't mention the hwsecrets and jonnyguru reviews initially, instead you seemed to base the recommendation on having used it yourself. That may work for a lot of other components but not PSUs. Plenty of people have utterly crap PSUs and are willing to recommend them just because the PC boots.

I can also ask your same question to all those who recommend the NZXT simply because it is Seasonic.

Well no, I +1'd NZXT because I had read the reviews

 

[jacktesterson]

The ZT series is the best value budget modular PSUs out right now in my opinion.

I've used a few of the 550w models with no issues at all. I've even got my own backup ZT 550w for sale as I need a bigger backup now. I was able to run a 2500k with 2x 7850's off the 550w without issue. (Everything O/Cd)

They are also JonnyGuru recommended.

 

[Concillian]

I have an NZXT Hale90. It's a Superflower unit with NZXT's white box / black cable color scheme. Certainly wouldn't consider it a budget brand... Superflower is legit.

I dunno about their 82, but if it's also Superflower built, there's no reason to avoid it.