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PSU brands?

S

-Slacker-

Golden Member
I'm curious as to what PSU brands are considered good/reliable besides the usual (Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, Nexus, Thermalake)...


EDIT:

Basically I'm looking for a decent PSU that's priced within reason and can hold up against this setup:

*Asrock M3A785GHX 128 M motherboard
*Athlon II x3 440 CPU
*2 slots of DDR3
*2 x HD5770
*normal 500gb HDD
*DVD+RW
*2 case cooling fans
 
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Err are you just trying to bring up the cheapest possible stuff? RaidMax is terrible and always has been.
Sirtec is very hit and miss at best. I would not buy any of their stuff just because it's too much russian roulette.
Also Thermaltake's old/cheap stuff was not good either. Only their mid and high end products are what I'd call good.
 
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Ok so I gather that it's Corsair, Antec, SeaSonic, Nexus, PC power & cooling and BFG is some of the stuff that I should be looking for.

Are Chieftec PSU's any good? Looking at their general specs they seem decent but then again I don't really know much about this sort of thing...

edit:

tomoyo said:
Err are you just trying to bring up the cheapest possible stuff?
Click to expand...

Nah I read the stickies and got my fair share of horror while watching some video reviews on cheap PSU's as they ignited into a firework show well before they reached their advertised limits ... it wasn't the cheapest stuff that was on my mind, just ...like ... normal priced stuff, like ... I don't know ... reasonable pricing?

How about this one?

http://www.pricespider.com/compare-...-550-watt-bp550plus-ecbp550-plus-1377853.html

It's not an earthwatts but it's still an Antec...
 
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^Not completely decided yet but something like this:

-Athlon II x3 440 CPU
-Ati Radoen HD5850, but I would like to have some extra leverage for when Ati launches it's HD6xxx chips, so I don't want to go with the bare minimum wattage...
-1 500GB HDD, 1 DVD+RW
-A couple of case fans

edit: wait, scratch that ... I think I'm actually gonna go for a 2xHD5770 setup (crossfireX)
 
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Doesn't OCZ own PC Power & Cooling? As such, aren't OCZ PSU's manufactured by PCP&C? If so I'd think OCZ would be another good brand, but I don't hear people here talk about them much.
 
Rosewill (Newegg's in-house brand) puts out some pretty decent PSUs. This isn't always the case, but I know many people who've had good luck with them (including myself).
 
hondaf17 said:
Doesn't OCZ own PC Power & Cooling? As such, aren't OCZ PSU's manufactured by PCP&C? If so I'd think OCZ would be another good brand, but I don't hear people here talk about them much.
Click to expand...

OCZ owns PC P&C, but PC P&C doesn't even manufacture their own PSUs.

PC P&C's PSUs are (or were seeing as there haven't been any new PC P&C PSUs produced in MONTHS) made by Seasonic for the Silencer and Wintact for the Turbo-Cool lines.

OCZ PSUs are made by FSP, Sirfa and at least one made by Impervio and one made by CWT.

BTW PSU reliability is best evaluated on a model by model basis instead of a company wide basis. There are many companies who produce some good stuff and some crap.
 
I have Enermax which is solid, I got a 720watt that was rated good on HardOCP and Anand liked them as well when they did roundups.

Is Antec a good brand. I used to think they are quality. But the last one I had was replaced twice under the 3 year warranty, which is fine but I now hear co workers and friends say avoid them unless you get the Eco green models.

I remember hearing the bad PSU's were a lot lighter than the quality ones, anyone else hear that? Not easily to know the weight when you buy online.

Seasonic is top 3 brand since they actually make the PSU units instead of rebadge parts like most. Other ***panies use Seasonic parts i understand.
 
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JimKiler said:
I have Enermax which is solid, I got a 720watt that was rated good on HardOCP and Anand liked them as well when they did roundups.

Is Antec a good brand. I used to think they are quality. But the last one I had was replaced twice under the 3 year warranty, which is fine but I now hear co workers and friends say avoid them unless you get the Eco green models.

I remember hearing the bad PSU's were a lot lighter than the quality ones, anyone else hear that? Not easily to know the weight when you buy online.

Seasonic is top 3 brand since they actually make the PSU units instead of rebadge parts like most. Other ***panies use Seasonic parts i understand.
Click to expand...

Current models of Antecs vary in quality from mediocre to excellent. Some Antec PSUs are made by Seasonic and they are solid PSUs. The Truepower New series are just as good as any competeing power supplies from Corsair or Thermaltake or PC Power and Cooling..the only PSU in the wattage range of the Truepower New that I can think of that is clearly better than the Truepower New is the Seasonic X Series.

The 650W and 750W Earthwatts and the Signature and CP PSUs are made by Delta. The CP and Signature PSUs are pretty much top of the line PSUs, there aren't many better made by anyone.

Electronics are often going to have units that are duds, it is the nature of the beast. You stated that you liked that Enermax, well that series that you linked to was infamous for failing after a year, because they used a caulk in it which became conductive after heating and cooling cycles.
 
I have a silverstone psu its pretty nice and has a 3 year warranty.....my brother had a cooler master it died in about a year and a half.
 
HOOfan 1 said:
You stated that you liked that Enermax, well that series that you linked to was infamous for failing after a year, because they used a caulk in it which became conductive after heating and cooling cycles.
Click to expand...

I am okay with paying the $12 shipping a couple of times if this one is no better than my last Antec. I do not hate Antec after it died since I did get replacements.
 
-Slacker- said:
Ok so I gather that it's Corsair, Antec, SeaSonic, Nexus, PC power & cooling and BFG is some of the stuff that I should be looking for.

Are Chieftec PSU's any good? Looking at their general specs they seem decent but then again I don't really know much about this sort of thing...
Click to expand...
They're made by "Hi Power" (or is it "High Power", I forget). I think that they are overrated. I had either a 350W or a 400W, powering my Athlon XP1800+ rig, with two HDs, and four opticals, and when I added an X850Pro AGP card to my rig, it started shutting down once I went into 3D mode. You could hear the HDs spinning down and resetting due to too little power for their motors.

I put in a SuperFlower 500 or 550W, and it has been running fine since, even after I updated the mobo and CPU to an 865G board and an E4400.
 
Yeah don't forget enermax. Their galaxy and revolution lines are top notch. I keep a galaxy 850 for backup and am using a corsair hx1000.
 
VirtualLarry said:
They're made by "Hi Power" (or is it "High Power", I forget). I think that they are overrated. I had either a 350W or a 400W, powering my Athlon XP1800+ rig, with two HDs, and four opticals, and when I added an X850Pro AGP card to my rig, it started shutting down once I went into 3D mode. You could hear the HDs spinning down and resetting due to too little power for their motors.

I put in a SuperFlower 500 or 550W, and it has been running fine since, even after I updated the mobo and CPU to an 865G board and an E4400.
Click to expand...

High Power is just the retail presence of Sirfa. Some Chieftecs are also made by CWT.
 
Corsair for the win, they make robust and quality power supplies.

Personally over the years the following PSUs have died on me:
Antec
OCZ
Coolermaster
 
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PianoMan said:
I thought PC P&C always manufactured their own PSU's, but just got acquired by OCZ (subsidiary, marketing, and distribution)? Or did I miss something?
Click to expand...

No...they have never manufactured their own power supplies.

Seasonic, Wintact and at one time Sparkle have made them
 
i had this on my old PC, which is still running since 2005. My old AMD 64 athlon 64 PC runs 24/7 and i never had issues with.
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817194001

__________________________________________________________________________
|Asus Rampage II X58 | Core i7 920 2.66 (3.2g) C0/C1-SLBCH | Corsair Dominator 6G (DDR3 1600) | WD VelociRaptor 300 | EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216/55nm/675mhz-SSC Edition | Window 7 Ultimate 64bit | Supreme X-Fi | PC Power & Cooling 750W | Thermalright Ultra eXtreme 120 Black P/P with Noctua 120's | Dell 2408 WFP (Rev A02) | Silverstone TJ-07 | LG H20L Blu-ray SATA |
 
-Slacker- said:
What about Sirtec and Raidmax?
Click to expand...
1. Not that good.
2. mostly crap.

But you're too focused on brands.
The truth is that almost every brand has crap and also pretty decent to excellent Units, so it's useless to say 'go for brand X, they're good'.

Coolermaster is a fine example: the low end Units with pPFC are mostly crap, the GX Series isn't that good but the 500 to 700W Silent Pros are pretty good, the 850W and above are still OK...
 
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