Need a budget PSU suggestion for a friend

[Techhog]

My friend is currently using an HP system with an FX-6100 (yes, lol Bulldozer and all that) and a Radeon HD 7450. I want to sell him my 7950, but he needs a new PSU for that. Ideally, we'd be looking for something under $60, but it needs to be something to last him until he's able to overhaul his system and then some. He doesn't overclock. So, what's a nice, reliable option for him?

 

[Charlie98]

Corsair CX series, or the modular CX-M. You can often find them on sale or on rebate, and in my experience they are decent units.

 

[lehtv]

I'd advise against a lowly CX unit with crapxon caps and mere 3 year warranty. You should be able to find some quality 500+ watt unit with 5y warranty for under $60, esp. if counting rebates.

 

[Techhog]

I'd advise against a lowly CX unit with crapxon caps and mere 3 year warranty. You should be able to find some quality 500+ watt unit with 5y warranty for under $60, esp. if counting rebates.

Can you offer any suggestions? If they all require rebates, then it's going to be extremely borderline. What on earth happened to silver units? :/

 

[lehtv]

Maybe Silver is avoided because it's associated with loss, i.e. losing in competition against the Gold medalist, while Bronze is associated with winning versus 4th place . Or maybe Gold efficiency is just not that much more expensive to manufacture, making it hard to price 80+ Silver units competitively.

Seasonic S12II-520 $60, no rebate. Solid choice, just can't go wrong with it. Supplied with 6+2-pin + 6-pin PCIe connectors, which is what most 7950's use (or 6+6-pin). Few use 8+8-pin. You might be able to price match it to SuperBiiz's $56.

EVGA 750 B2 $59 AR + $5 shipping. Incredible value despite being only Bronze efficient. It's well reviewed, has tons of capacity for the price, and modular cables, and 5 year warranty.

Both of these have a long life ball bearing fan and Japanese only capacitors.

 

[Techhog]

Maybe Silver is avoided because it's associated with loss, i.e. losing in competition against the Gold medalist, while Bronze is associated with winning versus 4th place . Or maybe Gold efficiency is just not that much more expensive to manufacture, making it hard to price 80+ Silver units competitively.

Seasonic S12II-520 $60, no rebate. Solid choice, just can't go wrong with it. Supplied with 6+2-pin + 6-pin PCIe connectors, which is what most 7950's use (or 6+6-pin). Few use 8+8-pin. You might be able to price match it to SuperBiiz's $56.

EVGA 750 B2 $59 AR + $5 shipping. Incredible value despite being only Bronze efficient. It's well reviewed, has tons of capacity for the price, and modular cables, and 5 year warranty.

Both of these have a long life ball bearing fan and Japanese only capacitors.

Oh, I did forget to mention that my 7950 is 6+6-pin, though any PSU with enough power for it should have that anyway.

Those do look like solid choices. I'll suggest those to him. I'll also throw in this one just in case he wants to be sure that he gets a long life out of the PSU. I honestly kinda want to replace my PSU with that one because my current SATA power cables are too stiff, preventing me from using adjacent HDD slots. :/

By the way, is there a reason that you're recommending the 750W version of that EVGA unit over the 600W version? That $20 difference is pretty big, and i doubt that my friend will ever need two GPUs.

 

[lehtv]

By the way, is there a reason that you're recommending the 750W version of that EVGA unit over the 600W version? That $20 difference is pretty big, and i doubt that my friend will ever need two GPUs.

Are you referring to this? That's not the same series. EVGA 750 B2 is a SuperNova series unit with 5 yr warranty and high quality parts. EVGA 600B is just an entry level unit with 3 year warranty, sleeve bearing fan, HEC-built internals with Teapo capacitors. It's still a little notch above CX series in my book (in particular, the +12V rating is a lot closer to the unit's rated capacity), but doesn't compare to a SuperNova.

 

[Techhog]

Are you referring to this? That's not the same series. EVGA 750 B2 is a SuperNova series unit with 5 yr warranty and high quality parts. EVGA 600B is just an entry level unit with 3 year warranty, sleeve bearing fan, HEC-built internals with Teapo capacitors. It's still a little notch above CX series in my book (in particular, the +12V rating is a lot closer to the unit's rated capacity), but doesn't compare to a SuperNova.

Ah. If he's going to spend that much, I'd just tell him to get the one I linked. I'll talk with him later and report back.

 

[Techhog]

Are you referring to this? That's not the same series. EVGA 750 B2 is a SuperNova series unit with 5 yr warranty and high quality parts. EVGA 600B is just an entry level unit with 3 year warranty, sleeve bearing fan, HEC-built internals with Teapo capacitors. It's still a little notch above CX series in my book (in particular, the +12V rating is a lot closer to the unit's rated capacity), but doesn't compare to a SuperNova.

Do you have an opinion on the EVGA 650W GQ? It's gold rated, got a 9.4 from Jonnyguru, and is semi-modular... but only has a 3-year warranty. It also might be a somewhat tight fit in his case. Still, a 9.4 is pretty good, though i don't understand why the warranty is one 3 years. Even my PSU came with a 5-year warranty, and it's not exactly amazing.

 

[lehtv]

EVGA 650W GQ looks good to me. The warranty doesn't worry me much given the quality of the components used

 

[smitbret]

I'd advise against a lowly CX unit with crapxon caps and mere 3 year warranty. You should be able to find some quality 500+ watt unit with 5y warranty for under $60, esp. if counting rebates.

I've used 4 of the CX Builder Series in the last 4 years and they are solid, especially for the price. I can almost buy three CX430s for $60, why would I bother with any 500W for $60. Just doing a cursory glance on NewEgg for 500W+ CPUs I could find a couple of Seasonics or FSP that I would consider to be "better" than a Corsair CX but those were $70+. They are certainly not "performance" PSUs but you won't find consistently better in that $60 and under range.

With that being said I think OP would be better off spending a little more and getting the EVGA 650W GQ that's already been endorsed. I just don't feel good about 500W on the system he is proposing and if they overclock at all it might start pushing the limits of a 500W PSU. Not only that but when OP's friend does his overhaul there won't be anything wrong with just repurposing the EVGA to the new system.

 

[lehtv]

@smitbret

So because you've run four CX units in the last 4 years in systems whose wattage and use scenario you haven't described, they're solid units? Sorry, that doesn't cut it. No matter... user reports aren't needed here, it's still true that Japanese caps are more reliable than CapXons, SamXons (and even Teapos), ball bearing fans are more reliable than sleeve bearing fans, and Seasonic's build quality and voltage stability generally outshines those of CWT, especially in the low end.

CX430 isn't enough for a 7950 anyway, and the OP has a budget of $60, so recommending CX430 for $20 is just irrelevant here. For FX-6100 + 7950 I would consider CX600 the correct unit to pick out of CX series, and that's more expensive than S12II-520. S12II-520 is still $60, not $70+.

 

[smitbret]

@smitbret

So because you've run four CX units in the last 4 years in systems whose wattage and use scenario you haven't described, they're solid units? Sorry, that doesn't cut it. No matter... user reports aren't needed here, it's still true that Japanese caps are more reliable than CapXons, SamXons (and even Teapos), ball bearing fans are more reliable than sleeve bearing fans, and Seasonic's build quality and voltage stability generally outshines those of CWT, especially in the low end.

All of which I agree with but OP stated that he wanted to spend no more than $60. With that budget in mind, the CX is a good go to PSU.

CX430 isn't enough for a 7950 anyway, and the OP has a budget of $60, so recommending CX430 for $20 is just irrelevant here. For FX-6100 + 7950 I would consider CX600 the correct unit to pick out of CX series, and that's more expensive than S12II-520. S12II-520 is still $60, not $70+.

Had you finished reading my post before getting your palms sweaty in anticipation of proving someone wrong on an internet forum you'd see that I said exactly this already.

 

[lehtv]

All of which I agree with but OP stated that he wanted to spend no more than $60. With that budget in mind, the CX is a good go to PSU.

Nope, S12II-520 is a much better go-to PSU with a $60 budget. XFX 550W is another decent $60 unit. With a $20-40 AR budget, the CX units are good purchases, unless something better happens to be on sale at that price.

Had you finished reading my post before getting your palms sweaty in anticipation of proving someone wrong on an internet forum you'd see that I said exactly this already.

Oh, the irony. You only brought up the unit's capacity in the paragraph which you added in your edit which I didn't see when was typing my post.

 

[MrTeal]

The 750W XFX TS on Amazon is a great deal at $63 if you don't mind the lack of modularity.

 

[lehtv]

@MrTeal It's out of stock though with no ETA.

 

[MrTeal]

@MrTeal It's out of stock though with no ETA.

It's back in stock now, though the price is back up. Too bad, that was a good deal.