Please recommend me a modest but quality PSU

[Muse]

My Corsair vx550w in my main midtower appears to be tits up, barely breathing. Machine will not come out of suspend, generally won't reboot without removing power from the machine for a minute. I'm leaving the machine on 24/7 meantime.

I'm rebuilding the machine, am receiving used mobo (Gigabyte EP45 UD3R), Q8200 CPU, 9600GSO video card, 2x 2GB RAM from AT member, probably tomorrow. Doing this because I'm installing a PCI card + software that won't run on OS better than Win7 32bit.

So, the machine needs a PSU adequate for that, hopefully for even better if and when I abandon that PCI card/app.

I just cancelled my order for an EVGA 500W BQ, I saw posts saying the BQs just aren't decent (although that particular PSU hasn't been reviewed yet, it's new).

So, I'd prefer a PSU that's quiet and won't burn out or impact my components (i.e. contribute to their demise). At least semi-modular would be nice, a decent fan. I'm seeing that a lot of PSUs are OOS right now. Recommendations appreciated.

 

[Muse]

I'm considering just getting this:

EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2

It's overkill, but super high rated (9.8 at Johnnyguru). It sucks when your PSU isn't up to snuff. I've had other issues for years that may be attibutable to PSU problems. For instance, the display goes blank for about 4 seconds at a time fairly often. Random system freezes requiring a restart are not uncommon.

Edit: Or maybe this...

EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G2 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply

 

[UsandThem]

The 550w is more power than you need, and is an excellent unit with a 7 year warranty.

The 750w is also good quality, but you will never put enough load on it to run at its most efficient level. Even at absolute full load (like running a synthetic benchmark), you will never pull more than 300w. Your CPU is 95w max, and your video card is 105w max.

 

[UsandThem]

Also, one thing of note:. The 550w G2 was $20 cheaper yesterday. You now can get the 650w G2 for less.....That's the reason why I ended up getting the 650w version myself.

 

[Muse]

Also, one thing of note:. The 550w G2 was $20 cheaper yesterday. You now can get the 650w G2 for less.....That's the reason why I ended up getting the 650w version myself.

Where are those prices available? Where did you buy? I paid $79.99, free shipping for my 550w G2. They wanted $89.99 for the 650w G2. It was B&H.

I believe that the 550w G2 has 10 year warranty.

 

[UsandThem]

Where are those prices available? Where did you buy? I paid $79.99, free shipping for my 550w G2. They wanted $89.99 for the 650w G2. It was B&H.

I believe that the 550w G2 has 10 year warranty.

The prices must have changed again from when I last looked, as it is showing $85 now. The 550w was on for $59 yesterday because I gave a build quote from PCpartpicker for someone in general hardware.

EVGA warranty lengths are a little confusing. They only offer a 10 year warranty on their G2 lineup for units 750w and above. For the 550w and 650w units, it is "only" a 7 year warranty.

 

[UsandThem]

I don't know if you already ordered the G2, but Newegg has a solid deal on a Seasonic right now for $45 after MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...151118&cm_re=SSR-650RM-_-17-151-118-_-Product

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I don't know if you already ordered the G2, but Newegg has a solid deal on a Seasonic right now for $45 after MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...151118&cm_re=SSR-650RM-_-17-151-118-_-Product

I think I paid more like $70 for that unit. We have one of them in my Bro's i5-3570K system that I built around 2014.

I usually follow a price-point rule-of-thumb: "Higher is better" or "always budget $100." But I know the brand and various models, so I jumped on it.

 

[UsandThem]

I think I paid more like $70 for that unit. We have one of them in my Bro's i5-3570K system that I built around 2014.

I usually follow a price-point rule-of-thumb: "Higher is better" or "always budget $100." But I know the brand and various models, so I jumped on it.

Very true sometimes, but this Seasonic received a 9.8 at JonnyGuru. At $45, the price/performance of this unit is off the chart. If I needed a PSU anytime soon, I would have jumped on it myself. Heck, I don't need one and I still debated buying one.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=348

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow, semi-modular. Even without the $15 rebate, at $60, it seems like a decent deal. I'd jump on it for my server (current running a RaidMax modular), but I don't have that much money in my account.

 

[Muse]

I don't know if you already ordered the G2, but Newegg has a solid deal on a Seasonic right now for $45 after MIR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...151118&cm_re=SSR-650RM-_-17-151-118-_-Product

You said you thought that even the EVGA 550 G2 was more power than I'd need, maybe overpowered? Well, this at 650w would seem to be even more so. Anyway, would this be a sensible buy for a backup? Seems to me it's not a bad idea to have a PSU in reserve just in case.

It's true I may rebuild the box in not too distant future with more modern components. Current crop mobo and CPU, RAM, etc. Don't know that I'd need more power than I do now (when I assemble the stuff I have now, or will after I receive my G2), but maybe.

 

[UsandThem]

650w is overkill for your build, but it's a highly rated PSU at a great price. It's still very efficient, and you still are at 88% efficiency at a 135w load. At its most efficient point (between 268w to 332w), it is at 90%. That's not a whole lot of difference in wasted power.

But if you don't need it anytime soon, it's probably best just to buy one when you need it. There's always good sales on various units throughout the year. But I too like keeping a moderately priced unit on hand for testing/back-up purposes as well. I have a EVGA B1 as a back-up right now that I got for around $25, if I remember correctly.

 

[Muse]

I ordered that SeaSonic SSR-650RM 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply. I figure I need a backup PSU. I'm limping along right now because I don't have a backup and it happened to me once before that my PSU died and fortunately I had a backup. So, this will be my backup. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Once you get your PSU, I'd be more than happy to help you get that mobo going. If you need any help, that is.

 

[Muse]

Once you get your PSU, I'd be more than happy to help you get that mobo going. If you need any help, that is.

Thanks, I may well have some questions. I'm new to lots of stuff going on with system building. I have done it a few times. Will see how it goes. Never done PCIE. I'm seeing 2 sets of SATA connectors on he mobo. A set of 2 (black?) and a set of 6 or 8 (red?). I'm figuring maybe have my 120GB Intel 180 SSD on a black one and the other connected to a WD 3TB Red 5400 RPM drive (have two of them sitting in a box ordered some weeks ago). The red SATA? I have an SATA DVD burner that I guess will go to one of those. Not sure what I'll do with the other WD Red 3TB. I have a 3.5" drive case that I think I'll put it in and use that for HDTV recordings, is my idea now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, there's a set of six SATA ports (yellow, I think) that are connected to the Intel ICH9R controller, and then two purple SATA ports, connected to the "GSATA" (Jmicron) controller.

There's an independent BIOS setting to set the Intel ports to (IDE / AHCI / RAID), and the GSATA ports to (IDE / AHCI).

I was setting the GSATA ports to IDE mode, and connecting DVD drives to those, and then setting the Intel ports to AHCI, and connecting SSDs and HDDs to the Intel ports, for performance reasons.

 

[Muse]

Yeah, there's a set of six SATA ports (yellow, I think) that are connected to the Intel ICH9R controller, and then two purple SATA ports, connected to the "GSATA" (Jmicron) controller.

There's an independent BIOS setting to set the Intel ports to (IDE / AHCI / RAID), and the GSATA ports to (IDE / AHCI).

I was setting the GSATA ports to IDE mode, and connecting DVD drives to those, and then setting the Intel ports to AHCI, and connecting SSDs and HDDs to the Intel ports, for performance reasons.

Ah, thanks. So, I'll get better performance if I do it like you did? I presume that the Intel ports you set to IDE will be for IDE devices? How does that work? The connection on the board is SATA.

I have an IDE and also an SATA DVD burner. I could use either. I also have some IDE HDs. I figured to abandon those, just copy data from them to other HDs, either my NAS or the internal WD 3TB SATA drive I'm going to install. However, if there's IDE functionality on the board and I have the space in the box and am unconcerned about the additional heat or energy usage, I could leave at least one IDE drive in there. Right now, I have 3 IDE drives in there: 120, 160 and 200GB. I think the 200 and the 500GB SATA drives in there are registering "Caution" with Crystaldiskinfo, however.

I figured to install the OS (maybe in more than one partition, and likely XP Pro) on the SSD. I'm thinking to not browse or do email with that machine to keep it a clean HTPC/HDTV machine. It will save me the expense of buying Win7, which looks like it could be more than $150. The crucial app, the HDTV card's app, needs to run in XP mode anyway, so why not just run XP and work around the security concerns by not browsing or doing email with the machines... what's what they are telling me on the card's thread.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Interesting. I had that Gigabyte EP45 UD3R board. It died. It died from a power-supply that went south. The PSU was a Seasonic, but it wasn't for a defect in manufacture that it died: if you let a computer sleep for days at a time, it will take its toll of a PSU eventually, which must continue powering the RAM without benefit of cooling.

I'm in the habit of buying Seasonic PSUs or brands/models that are rebadged Seasonics.

Use the Extreme Outervision PSU calculator online to determine the wattage you need:

Extreme Outervision

These days, a 650W unit serves fine for a 2x SLI rig, unless we're talking about Titan cards.

 

[Muse]

Interesting. I had that Gigabyte EP45 UD3R board. It died. It died from a power-supply that went south. The PSU was a Seasonic, but it wasn't for a defect in manufacture that it died: if you let a computer sleep for days at a time, it will take its toll of a PSU eventually, which must continue powering the RAM without benefit of cooling.

I'm in the habit of buying Seasonic PSUs or brands/models that are rebadged Seasonics.

Use the Extreme Outervision PSU calculator online to determine the wattage you need:

Extreme Outervision

These days, a 650W unit serves fine for a 2x SLI rig, unless we're talking about Titan cards.

I had no idea that putting the box into suspend puts a strain on the PSU. Are you sure of that? There's only going to be 2x 2GB = 4GB of DDR2 in there.

I worked up a calculation using Extreme Outervision advanced tool and it came up with this for me.

I said I was going to use the box for 2 hours/day. Actually, I use it more on weekends, figured that on average 10 hours on weekends, 4 hours for the rest of the week. Actual usage could be quite a bit less on average.

I received my EVGA Supernova 550 G2 today. It's still in shrinkwrap.

Recommended by the calculator:

EVGA 500 W1, 80+ WHITE 500W, 3 Year Warranty, Power Supply 100-W1-0500-KR

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ah, thanks. So, I'll get better performance if I do it like you did? I presume that the Intel ports you set to IDE will be for IDE devices? How does that work? The connection on the board is SATA.

No, the SATA controller ports are for SATA devices. They can operate in two different controller modes: IDE (compatible) or AHCI (native SATA).

There are also one or two (physical) IDE ports on that board. Those are for IDE devices.