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PC Power & Cooling no more - what's the modern equivalent?

nerp

nerp

Diamond Member
I was a fan of PC Power & Cooling for PSUs since they were very well made. I tend to spend more for quality components. I have a 500W unit powering my current system. Now that the company doesn't exist and was gobbled up by OCZ (bleh) I hear the quality of the PSUs has gone downhill severely. So, what's the brand that holds the candle these days? I'm not in the market for one but there will be a time and I only like to go with the best in terms of PSUs.
 
- Corsair RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX and AXi series, as well as RM550, RM750 and RM850
- EVGA SuperNova GS, GQ, G2, P2 and T2 series
- virtually all Seasonic Gold and higher rated units
- virtually all XFX Gold and higher rated units

These are just the series you can't really go wrong with (although some units here can be a little noisy for low noise PC enthusiasts). There are plenty of models from various other brands worth buying even if those brands aren't necessarily that high quality overall. And the brands mentioned here also have Bronze rated units that are perfectly fine quality-wise, but you'll probably want to spend extra on better efficiency.

Check jonnyguru.com, techpowerup.com and other reliable review sites if you're not sure. There's a handy review database at realhardtechx.com which lists reviews from 14 sites and contains most brand name PSUs in the market.
 
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The only brand of that list I haven't owned is XFX... so I can't vouch for their products personally. But Corsair, EVGA, and especially Seasonic (which is an OEM) have been very good to me. I own a couple of other brands as well, but those 3 are at the top. I will give XFX a try at some point.
 
I would add Super Flower to the above list. It's not like it was in the past where most PSUs were junk. Nowadays there are lots of reliable manufacturers.
 
Mr Evil said:
I would add Super Flower to the above list. It's not like it was in the past where most PSUs were junk. Nowadays there are lots of reliable manufacturers.
Click to expand...

Mostly just Super Flower's Gold and Platinum units are worth buying. Golden Green HX have lower quality capacitors compared to their other Gold rated units, though they're still otherwise decent and covered by 5 year warranty. Super Flower branded Bronze and lower units tend to be pretty crap and should be avoided, but they do make decent Bronze units for EVGA (750 B2 and 850 B2).
 
Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I'll be eyeing Seasonic going foward.

In the past I had good results with FSP too.
 
If it were me I'd remove the RM series (but keep the RMi) from that list purely on the basis that you don't quite get what you pay for component wise. Capacitors not likely to last as long as similarly priced models.
 
Deders said:
If it were me I'd remove the RM series from that list purely on the basis that you don't quite get what you pay for component wise. Capacitors not likely to last as long as similarly priced models.
Click to expand...

I only mentioned the RM750 and RM850 and left out other RM series units exactly for the reason you mentioned. Other units in the series use CapXons on the secondary side. EDIT: Now that I research more into it, RM550 uses Nippon electrolytics according to PCper and performs really nicely, so no reason to not buy that either.

The RM750 and RM850 were revised early last year, the new revisions use better capacitors. The OEM switched from Chicony to CWT, and while Chicony's build quality can be better than CWT's, I do prefer the Japanese caps.

Also, it's worth mentioning that OklahomaWolf, the PSU reviewer at JonnyGuru, actually prefers the Chicony unit - so the capacitor quality of the original RM750 and RM850 units may not actually be an issue at all.

Now the only real difference between these and the RMx and RMi equivalents is warranty length (and Corsair Link compatibility with RMi).

(but keep the RMi)
Click to expand...

There's no reason to exclude the RMx series.
 
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Very interesting, I wasn't as up to date on this as you. Is there a way of distinguishing the old rm's from the new?
 
Deders said:
Very interesting, I wasn't as up to date on this as you. Is there a way of distinguishing the old rm's from the new?
Click to expand...

Yes, compare the rear part of the PSU:

Original Chicony-made RM850:


New CWT-made RM850:


Notice the coils (or lack thereof) and the position of the on/off button relative to the plug.
 
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