power supply Best (Semi) Modular Power Supply for 501~600W

[TaxxiDriver]

I need a power supply that can handle higher than 500W. I prefer semi-modular or fully modular power supplies. All I need is bronze rating. Here are what I'm thinking of buying at the moment:

 

1: EVGA B3 550W, bronze, fully modular, 130mm Long Life Sleeve Bearing, 5 year warranty, $60 (Amazon)

2: Corsair CXM 550W, bronze, semi-modular, ?, 5 year warranty, $60 (Amazon)

 

Both look fine, but I'm not sure which one is better, or whether there are better options other than the two. I considered Seasonic M12II 520 but the product seems quite old (not being sold in my country anymore), 1 star rating in Amazon was too high, and the extra 30W would be useful when I later buy something like Vega 56 a few years later, possibly with undervolting.

 

Any idea or recommendation would be appreciated

[LienusLateTips]

M12II is also a good option even though it's quite old. I would go with the B3 550 because they are similar in quality but it's fully modular.

[STRMfrmXMN]

30 minutes ago, TaxxiDriver said:

I need a power supply that can handle higher than 500W. I prefer semi-modular or fully modular power supplies. All I need is bronze rating. Here are what I'm thinking of buying at the moment:

 

1: EVGA B3 550W, bronze, fully modular, 130mm Long Life Sleeve Bearing, 5 year warranty, $60 (Amazon)

2: Corsair CXM 550W, bronze, semi-modular, ?, 5 year warranty, $60 (Amazon)

 

Both look fine, but I'm not sure which one is better, or whether there are better options other than the two. I considered Seasonic M12II 520 but the product seems quite old (not being sold in my country anymore), 1 star rating in Amazon was too high, and the extra 30W would be useful when I later buy something like Vega 56 a few years later, possibly with undervolting.

 

Any idea or recommendation would be appreciated

Both those options are fine but the EVGA is fully modular. Question though: What are you powering that actually demands 500W since you *insist* you need something that is 500W or higher and also insist that you only need a certain efficiency (which isn't something you should really be worried about until you get into expensive, power-hungry multi-GPU setups that consume 700W+)? If you're powering something like a 1080 Ti and a 7700K I'd recommend something of higher quality for a PSU (those two parts might consume around 450W under load). If you're powering a more average PC like a GTX 1070 and Ryzen 5 then your system won't even breach 300W.

 

You also say something about buying a Vega 56 down the line. I'm going to wager a bet that you'll probably not want to do that considering that I don't think they'll be around for more than a year and a half or so.

 

 

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, JDE said:

M12II is also a good option even though it's quite old.

Why do you recommend a unit that's way worse than the ones TaxxiDriver is looked up?!

M12II is an old old, group regulated unit with only the basic protection. That means that it does NOT have OCP, does NOT have Undervoltage Protection on +12V because it doesn't have a dedicatet VCC input and also UVP on minor rails is rather useless. For the price you have to pay for the M12-II, it's the worst you can get. I'd rather buy a Cooler Master Master Watt Lite than a Seasonic M12II because the Cooler Master has working protections and is probably way quieter than the Seasonic...

 

There really isn't a reason for that unit no more...

 

Well, under 750W of course. The 750 and 850W units are DC-DC with a decent protection IC and OCP and UVP on all rails. That's a different story, but 620W and lower is just not good no more...

 

From the two of those:
I'd prefer the EVGA, because the fan of the Corsair spins a bit too high for my taste (AFAIR it's around 900rpm or so)...

 

52 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Question though: What are you powering that actually demands 500W

Not really...

Because there are rarely any high quality PSU under 550W...

 

The only ones I know of, that are in production:
Bitfenix Whisper M, 450W

be quiet Straight Power 10 and Pure Power 10, 400W

Cougar GX-S, 450W

And some SFX units...

[STRMfrmXMN]

6 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

 

Not really...

Because there are rarely any high quality PSU under 550W...

 

The only ones I know of, that are in production:
Bitfenix Whisper M, 450W

be quiet Straight Power 10 and Pure Power 10, 400W

Cougar GX-S, 450W

And some SFX units...

Well the Corsair CX450 would be fine for the vast majority of people which is why I ask OP that question.

[TaxxiDriver]

Thanks for the inputs, guys.

 

FYI, the system I'm thinking of doesn't require that much power, which I'm fully aware of. I play relatively old games anyway, so RX 560 + 75hz ips freesync monitor is all I need at the moment. But I'm not sure if I'll want to play more demanding games later, and higher-end AMD card seems to be power hogging, so I just wanted to be prepared for it. Vega 56 was just an example of the case. I do programming so I'll buy a decent CPU, which means CPU won't be a problem at that time.

 

17 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Well the Corsair CX450 would be fine for the vast majority of people

 

CXM 450 is only $5 less than the power supplies I've mentioned, and the electricity bill won't make much difference at this point anyway, so I think paying a bit more and be future-proof + better quality is a better idea.

[LienusLateTips]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Why do you recommend a unit that's way worse than the ones TaxxiDriver is looked up?!

M12II is an old old, group regulated unit with only the basic protection. That means that it does NOT have OCP, does NOT have Undervoltage Protection on +12V because it doesn't have a dedicatet VCC input and also UVP on minor rails is rather useless. For the price you have to pay for the M12-II, it's the worst you can get. I'd rather buy a Cooler Master Master Watt Lite than a Seasonic M12II because the Cooler Master has working protections and is probably way quieter than the Seasonic...

 

There really isn't a reason for that unit no more...

 

Well, under 750W of course. The 750 and 850W units are DC-DC with a decent protection IC and OCP and UVP on all rails. That's a different story, but 620W and lower is just not good no more...

 

From the two of those:
I'd prefer the EVGA, because the fan of the Corsair spins a bit too high for my taste (AFAIR it's around 900rpm or so)...

 

Not really...

Because there are rarely any high quality PSU under 550W...

 

The only ones I know of, that are in production:
Bitfenix Whisper M, 450W

be quiet Straight Power 10 and Pure Power 10, 400W

Cougar GX-S, 450W

And some SFX units...

There's always the SeaSonic G.

[turkey3_scratch]

1 hour ago, Stefan Payne said:

Not really...

Because there are rarely any high quality PSU under 550W...

 

The only ones I know of, that are in production:
Bitfenix Whisper M, 450W

be quiet Straight Power 10 and Pure Power 10, 400W

Cougar GX-S, 450W

And some SFX units...

FSP Hydro X 450W don't forget.