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Need a PSU recommendation, here are my options

P

panfist

Senior member
Hey, thanks for all of your recommendations. I went with the 600W ultra for $50 which was back in stock this morning. It's kind of ironic that after all of my research I bought a PSU I hadn't considered before. Anyway, I know the wattage isn't necessarily adequate for SLI, but it was such a good deal I couldn't really pass it up. If/when I ever go SLI, I'll just move this excellent PSU into one of my other systems.

Thanks for all of your help.


--------------------------------------------------
Ok so for all the research I've done today I have some new options.

Ultra X-pro 600w for $50
Nevermind, this one is sold out.

OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS for $70 after $15 mir

Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620 watts for $115 after $25 mir

Also the two silverstones are still on the table. I'm leaning towards the Ultra or the OCZ though, because of price.

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Old thread
I'm looking for the best value since I'm kind of on a budget. My system is an e8400 which I would like to overclock as much as possible, 1x 8800GT, 2 hard disks and 2x1GB or RAM. I would like some room to grow, which means probably up to 4 gigs of RAM, maybe another 8800GT or whatever next-gen video cards may be released in the next year.

I've been researching PSU reviews for the last couple of hours and I've narrowed down my options to these. I'm interested in these different attributes, in order from most important to least: efficiency, voltage regulation, quietness.

All of my options link to frozencpu.com because they're local to me and I can drive down and pick up a unit today. If there is a deal that is a much better value online, I'm open to suggestions. Here they are, in no particular order.

Gigabyte Odin 550W for $155

Silverstone Strider ST60F 600W for $110

Silverstone Olympia OP650 for $130

Aerocool Horsepower 750W for $160

Thanks.
 
Gigabyte Odin 550W, split rail supply so I say no.

Cooler Mater Real Power Pro 850W, split rail supply so I say no.

Silverstone Strider ST60F 600W, split rail supply so I say no.

Silverstone Olympia OP650, single rail supply. The Silverstone Olympia OP650 is a good supply but there are better PSU's for the money but not at FrozenCPU.com.

Aerocool Horsepower 750W, split rail supply so I say no.

So the Silverstone Olympia OP650 is the only PSU you listed that I would recommend.
Its too bad FrozenCPU.com has such a limited selection and you limit your self to buying only from them.

The Corsair HX 620 that is out of stock is listed as a split rail supply but is really a single rail supply. This is the best PSU they carry in your price range IMO. Too bad its not in stock. Info http://www.houseofhelp.com/v3/...p?p=324422&postcount=5



 
The Strider or Olympia would be more than enough for you and both are good PSUs. But if you want more power I would go with the Coolermaster Real Power Pro...very good power supply.

Don't believe any bunk about needing a single rail either.
 
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
So the Silverstone Olympia OP650 is the only PSU listed that I would recommend.
Its too bad FrozenCPU.com has such a limited selection and you limit your self to buying only from them.
Click to expand...

I didn't limit myself to only from them, I said if "if there is a deal that is much better value online, I'm open to suggestions." So suggest away 😀

Also, I don't see the reason to be prejudice against split rail PSUs. I've taken enough electronics classes in college to know you can manufacture good and bad units using either design philosophy.
 
Originally posted by: HOOfan 1
The Strider or Olympia would be more than enough for you and both are good PSUs. But if you want more power I would go with the Coolermaster Real Power Pro...very good power supply.

Don't believe any bunk about needing a single rail either.
Click to expand...

I'm already leaning towards the strider because of it's price, and it's modular. Although the Olympia does seem to get higher marks in reviews.
 
Originally posted by: HOOfan 1
The Strider or Olympia would be more than enough for you and both are good PSUs. But if you want more power I would go with the Coolermaster Real Power Pro...very good power supply.

Don't believe any bunk about needing a single rail either.
Click to expand...

Well its not bunk. A single rail supply can't have load balancing problems. Multi rail supplies can, some reading material. http://www.playtool.com/pages/...tirail/multirails.html
 
A quote from your article:
The real issue is whether the power supply provides enough total current at 12 volts (as well as the other rails) and not whether it has multiple 12 volt rails.
Click to expand...

Basically, if I know what I'm getting, and I know how to add and subtract, I should be fine. There's nothing in that article that enumerates any physical electronic benefit to having one rail vs. multiple vs. single rail with multiple current-limited lines.
 
Originally posted by: panfist
A quote from your article:
The real issue is whether the power supply provides enough total current at 12 volts (as well as the other rails) and not whether it has multiple 12 volt rails.
Click to expand...

Basically, if I know what I'm getting, and I know how to add and subtract, I should be fine. There's nothing in that article that enumerates any physical electronic benefit to having one rail vs. multiple vs. single rail with multiple current-limited lines.
Click to expand...

No the PSU has to be able to supply the needed power that each rail requires.
Most multi rail supplies do not list how the rails are split and even if they do you may run into load balancing problems. Why even take the chance because as you stated "There's nothing in that article that enumerates any physical electronic benefit to having one rail vs. multiple vs. single rail with multiple current-limited lines."

Did you read this part? http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuoverload/overload.html

My simple example. Just to keep it simple I will use a 2 rail supply. Each 12 volt rail can put out 18 amps for a total of 36 amps. 12V1 powers all but the CPU. 12V2 power only the CPU. Now say the CPU draws a max of 10 amps. You have 8 amps that can never be used, in affect de rating the PSU. This is not a show stopper but a single rail PSU can't have this problem. Now say 12V1 needs 20 amps to power the rest of your system. Guess what its not going to work because 12V1 is limited to 18 amps. If only the 8 amps trapped on 12V2 was available but its not.

Ask your self this question. Is it worth the possible headache trying to balance out the loads on a multi rail PSU? It's not IMO.
 
Ok if you say so. I read jonnyGURU's post and what he said is good info and for the most part sound advice. The tone in which it was written tends to color reality.

Multi current limited rail PSU's exist for safety considerations only. There is no advantage to using a PSU that has muti current limited rails. There are disadvantages. Possible load balancing problems and trapped amperage. Sure a PSU with 6 or 8 current limited rails will most likely get away from load balancing problems but you will have trapped amperage up the ass. This means you will need a PSU thats larger than actually needed.

Take that Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W as an example. To keep from running into load balancing problems it has 6 rails. The trouble is it has 6 rails to trap amperage on. Say a system uses 13 amps on each rail leaving 5 amps per rail. 5x6 = 30 so you have a possible total of 30 amps trapped. This would be best case because you would most likely never draw 13 amps from any or all 12 volt rails. You could have several rails totally unused. So the true trapped amperage would be much higher. The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W is rated at 75 amps combined on the 12 rails so 75-30 = 45 amps. A quality single rail 600 to 700 watt PSU will do the same job because no amperage can be trapped. It also can't have load balancing problems.

Believe what you want I just can't see the point of having a huge PSU thats not needed so you can have enough rails to eliminate load balancing problems and cause guaranteed trapped amperage which necessitates the huge PSU in the first place.
 
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
This means you will need a PSU thats larger than actually needed.
Click to expand...

I'm going to buy a PSU larger than I actually need, anyway. Who do you know has a PSU that they push to 80-100% of its limit all the time?
 
Originally posted by: panfist
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
This means you will need a PSU thats larger than actually needed.
Click to expand...

I'm going to buy a PSU larger than I actually need, anyway. Who do you know has a PSU that they push to 80-100% of its limit all the time?
Click to expand...

Sure you need some head room, I'd say 20% minimum over the max a system could possibly draw. I never said to use a under sized PSU I said that the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W will trap so much amperage do to the 6 rail design a quality 600 to 700 watt single rail PSU will do the same job. It will have the same or better usable reserve capacity because you can't have trapped amperage on a single rail supply.
 
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
Sure you need some head room, I'd say 20% minimum over the max a system could possibly draw. I never said to use a under sized PSU I said that the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W will trap so much amperage do to the 6 rail design a quality 600 to 700 watt single rail PSU will do the same job. It will have the same or better usable reserve capacity because you can't have trapped amperage on a single rail supply.
Click to expand...

Well, to be honest I don't know why I stuck that one on the list. I thought I might have needed the extra wattage but so far no one has recommended it on any forum, it's not modular, and you raise a valid point about 6 rails.
 
What I would buy to power your new rig including 8800 GT's in SLI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817139004 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817139002 or
https://shop.pcpower.com/power...er-750-quad-black.html

If you want a real 800 plus watt PSU and have $280 you want to part with. This would be overkill because you really only need a quality 500 + watt quality supply for your system.
https://shop.pcpower.com/power...ly/turbo-cool-860.html

Not much else I can say, you need to buy what you feel good about. The Silverstone Olympia OP650 is the only PSU you listed that I would recommend. None of the other PSU's you listed are of top quality accept the other Silverstone and it a multi rail PSU.
 
Originally posted by: panfist
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
Sure you need some head room, I'd say 20% minimum over the max a system could possibly draw. I never said to use a under sized PSU I said that the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W will trap so much amperage do to the 6 rail design a quality 600 to 700 watt single rail PSU will do the same job. It will have the same or better usable reserve capacity because you can't have trapped amperage on a single rail supply.
Click to expand...

Well, to be honest I don't know why I stuck that one on the list. I thought I might have needed the extra wattage but so far no one has recommended it on any forum, it's not modular, and you raise a valid point about 6 rails.
Click to expand...

Yup more rails trap more amperage but lessen the chance of load balancing problems.
Fewer rails trap less amperage but still do and they can have load balance problems and limit PSU's maximum wattage. The main reason many PSU manufactures are going back to single rail designs is not to save money. I do agree that it will reduce the cost of a PSU. They are going back to single rails because no matter how the power is split up, load balancing problems can happen causing RMA's and complaints. I would rather see the money saved by going back to a single rail designs used on better components and designs.

It cracks me up every time I see someone with a expensive rig looking at crap brand PSU's because money is tight. A quality PSU is the hart of a stable system. This is not pointed at you directly BTW.
 
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
Ok if you say so. I read jonnyGURU's post and what he said is good info and for the most part sound advice. The tone in which it was written tends to color reality.

Multi current limited rail PSU's exist for safety considerations only. There is no advantage to using a PSU that has muti current limited rails. There are disadvantages. Possible load balancing problems and trapped amperage. Sure a PSU with 6 or 8 current limited rails will most likely get away from load balancing problems but you will have trapped amperage up the ass. This means you will need a PSU thats larger than actually needed.

Take that Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W as an example. To keep from running into load balancing problems it has 6 rails. The trouble is it has 6 rails to trap amperage on. Say a system uses 13 amps on each rail leaving 5 amps per rail. 5x6 = 30 so you have a possible total of 30 amps trapped. This would be best case because you would most likely never draw 13 amps from any or all 12 volt rails. You could have several rails totally unused. So the true trapped amperage would be much higher. The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W is rated at 75 amps combined on the 12 rails so 75-30 = 45 amps. A quality single rail 600 to 700 watt PSU will do the same job because no amperage can be trapped. It also can't have load balancing problems.

Believe what you want I just can't see the point of having a huge PSU thats not needed so you can have enough rails to eliminate load balancing problems and cause guaranteed trapped amperage which necessitates the huge PSU in the first place.
Click to expand...

You obviously didn't read Jonny's post. There is no need to balance loads and there is no trapped amperage. If a mutli-rail PSU is done right (which with a little research you can find, you need to research to find the right single rail unit as well) then the PCI-E connectors will be separated from the CPU and other components on their own rails.

Just because a rail is designated at 18Amps doesn't mean that it will always be running at 18 Amps or that current is trapped on that rail if not in use. The whole point of 90% or multi-rail units out there is to take a single 12V source and split it up to go to different components. Then Over Current Protection circuitry is applied to each split. The combined wattage is always the same so there is never trapped power. When there are enough rails and they are distributed as they should be (which they will be on the good units) then there is no way a single rail will ever be tripped unless there is a short cirbuit. There is no way a single graphics card will pull over 18 Amps.

But it isn't my place to try to change anyones mind about their prefernce, so I will drop it and allow you to think what you want.

Let me just leave it at this. ATX 2.2 Specifies that no rail should allow over 18 Amps of current, do you really think Intel and their partners are stupid enough to dictate this if a well desgned multi-rail PSU won't be adequate? Since a majority of PSU manufacturers want to adhere to ATX standards, they build Multi-rail PSUs. There are certainly more high end Multi-rail PSUs out there right now than there are single rail PSUs. There are plenty of Multi-rail PSUs powering very high end systems, so all of this only a single rail will run this video card or that videocard or allow you to overclock just seems rather silly when you think about those facts.

Originally posted by: wonderwrench
. None of the other PSU's you listed are of top quality accept the other Silverstone and it a multi rail PSU.
Click to expand...

that is absured

The Gigabyte Odin is an very high quality unit

The Coolermaster Real Power Pro is a high quality unit

That Aerocool is made by CWT and is also a high quality unit
 
Originally posted by: HOOfan 1
Originally posted by: wonderwrench
Ok if you say so. I read jonnyGURU's post and what he said is good info and for the most part sound advice. The tone in which it was written tends to color reality.

Multi current limited rail PSU's exist for safety considerations only. There is no advantage to using a PSU that has muti current limited rails. There are disadvantages. Possible load balancing problems and trapped amperage. Sure a PSU with 6 or 8 current limited rails will most likely get away from load balancing problems but you will have trapped amperage up the ass. This means you will need a PSU thats larger than actually needed.

Take that Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W as an example. To keep from running into load balancing problems it has 6 rails. The trouble is it has 6 rails to trap amperage on. Say a system uses 13 amps on each rail leaving 5 amps per rail. 5x6 = 30 so you have a possible total of 30 amps trapped. This would be best case because you would most likely never draw 13 amps from any or all 12 volt rails. You could have several rails totally unused. So the true trapped amperage would be much higher. The Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W is rated at 75 amps combined on the 12 rails so 75-30 = 45 amps. A quality single rail 600 to 700 watt PSU will do the same job because no amperage can be trapped. It also can't have load balancing problems.

Believe what you want I just can't see the point of having a huge PSU thats not needed so you can have enough rails to eliminate load balancing problems and cause guaranteed trapped amperage which necessitates the huge PSU in the first place.
Click to expand...

You obviously didn't read Jonny's post. There is no need to balance loads and there is no trapped amperage. If a mutli-rail PSU is done right (which with a little research you can find, you need to research to find the right single rail unit as well) then the PCI-E connectors will be separated from the CPU and other components on their own rails.

Just because a rail is designated at 18Amps doesn't mean that it will always be running at 18 Amps or that current is trapped on that rail if not in use. The whole point of 90% or multi-rail units out there is to take a single 12V source and split it up to go to different components. Then Over Current Protection circuitry is applied to each split. The combined wattage is always the same so there is never trapped power. When there are enough rails and they are distributed as they should be (which they will be on the good units) then there is no way a single rail will ever be tripped unless there is a short cirbuit. There is no way a single graphics card will pull over 18 Amps.

But it isn't my place to try to change anyones mind about their prefernce, so I will drop it and allow you to think what you want.

Let me just leave it at this. ATX 2.2 Specifies that no rail should allow over 18 Amps of current, do you really think Intel and their partners are stupid enough to dictate this if a well desgned multi-rail PSU won't be adequate? Since a majority of PSU manufacturers want to adhere to ATX standards, they build Multi-rail PSUs. There are certainly more high end Multi-rail PSUs out there right now than there are single rail PSUs. There are plenty of Multi-rail PSUs powering very high end systems, so all of this only a single rail will run this video card or that videocard or allow you to overclock just seems rather silly when you think about those facts.

Originally posted by: wonderwrench
. None of the other PSU's you listed are of top quality accept the other Silverstone and it a multi rail PSU.
Click to expand...

that is absured

The Gigabyte Odin is an very high quality unit

The Coolermaster Real Power Pro is a high quality unit

That Aerocool is made by CWT and is also a high quality unit
Click to expand...

"Just because a rail is designated at 18Amps doesn't mean that it will always be running at 18 Amps or that current is trapped on that rail if not in use. The whole point of 90% or multi-rail units out there is to take a single 12V source and split it up to go to different components. Then Over Current Protection circuitry is applied to each split. The combined wattage is always the same so there is never trapped power. When there are enough rails and they are distributed as they should be (which they will be on the good units) then there is no way a single rail will ever be tripped unless there is a short cirbuit. There is no way a single graphics card will pull over 18 Amps."

PSU's only put out the amperage needed. I never said differently. The combined wattage is only available when all 12 volt rails are used. I can't believe you think amperage can't be trapped as it can and does on a multi rail PSU. If a PSU has functioning current limited rails current is trapped if that rail is not used or only partly used. This is because no other 12 volt rail can use more than its own current limit. If you are telling me you can pull the rated combined 12 volt amperage from a single rail on a PSU that has more than one current limited 12v rail we have a problem. This PSU is a single rail PSU not a single rail PSU with multi current limited outputs.

"Let me just leave it at this. ATX 2.2 Specifies that no rail should allow over 18 Amps of current, do you really think Intel and their partners are stupid enough to dictate this if a well desgned multi-rail PSU won't be adequate? Since a majority of PSU manufacturers want to adhere to ATX standards, they build Multi-rail PSUs. There are certainly more high end Multi-rail PSUs out there right now than there are single rail PSUs. There are plenty of Multi-rail PSUs powering very high end systems, so all of this only a single rail will run this video card or that videocard or allow you to overclock just seems rather silly when you think about those facts."

No the ATX spec states no output can have more than 240 VA. So 240/12 = 20 amps.
I would like to see some proof to backup the claim that most newer PSU's are muti rail.
Also many so called single rail PSU's that claim to have multi current limited rails in fact do not, so you will need to test a lot of PSU's to prove anything.

I stand by all I have said. You can believe what you want.

 
Hey wonderwrench...stand by this:

ATX Power Supply Design Guide
http://www.formfactors.org/dev.../ATX12V%20PSDG2.01.pdf

Section 1.2.1, page 7

System components that use 12V are continuing to increase in power. In cases where expected current requirements is greater than 18A a second 12 V rail should be made available. ATX12V power supplies should be designed to accommodate these increased +12 VDC currents.
Click to expand...

The 20 amp rating to which you referred is the short circuit protection limit. So 18A over 12V continuous, and if it peaks over 20A, the short circuit protection should kick in.

Edit 2: after all that is said, I still agree with you that 6 rails is too many. I would rather have 4 rails that deliver amps beyond the ATX spec, than 6 18A rails. The largest number of rails I can think of using are 5: 1 rail to the 24 pin motherboard connect, 2 rails to the 8-pin motherboard connect, and 2 PCI-e rails. Is there anything else that uses 12V that I'm overlooking? Probably...I think I'm forgetting something...

Edit 1: does anyone besides me see a grammar mistake in the ATX design guide quote above?
 
You must also take note of the temperature that a given unit has it's output rated at as well. Some ps's give power ratings at rediculously low temps, temps that you won't see in the real world and as you load the system the available power will drop. The better ps's give power ratings at 50C temp so you can see what your real world power output will be from that unit.
 
Originally posted by: panfist

Edit 2: after all that is said, I still agree with you that 6 rails is too many. I would rather have 4 rails that deliver amps beyond the ATX spec, than 6 18A rails. The largest number of rails I can think of using are 5: 1 rail to the 24 pin motherboard connect, 2 rails to the 8-pin motherboard connect, and 2 PCI-e rails. Is there anything else that uses 12V that I'm overlooking? Probably...I think I'm forgetting something...
Click to expand...

actually 6 rails to me is the best possible scenario. The PSU in question Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850 Watt has 4 PCI-E connectors.

With 6 rails the CPU can be on its own rail, the accessories and other components can be on their own rail and each PCI-E connector can be on its own rail.....and each of these rails has its own limit of 18 Amps, there is no way that any of these rails should ever reach their limit.


well This Review shows a bit of a different configuration than that, but it is IMO an excellent set up still.
 
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