PSU Tier List [OLD]

[Stefan Payne]

41 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Can you guys identify which model of HX750W I have? Pic attached. It's the blue label and it's roughly 10 years old. I'm not sure if it's the one referenced in the Tier 2 list as "HX Old" or if it's a different model since I believe there's been a few revisions over the years.Si

Just look at the Label.

If it states Silver, its the oldest one.

If it states Gold, its the last generation.

But since you said its 10 Years old, I'd guess its the Silver one. 

AFAIR the Silver one is longer (180mm) than the Gold one. But I'm not really sure...

 

41 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Also read that some models of the HX series was downgraded from 80+Gold to 80+Silver - was that a result of production change or was the actual rating for existing units changed?

The official Rating for the first ones were Silver while tested gold at 80plus.

The reason for the downgrade is that it wasn't guaranteed by the manufacturer that all units would be Gold, thus going down to silver...

 

That happens from time to time. AFAIR the lower wattage (4x0W) be quiet Straight Power E8 was the same thing. And 500W+ also almost reached gold....

[Clyne]

On 5/12/2018 at 10:43 AM, STRMfrmXMN said:

550W is enough for that. I'd just not put the 8800 in there since PhysX is useless.

So just when I was going to buy the TX550M, went OOS rip. 

I was thinking about this PSU instead, it's tier 2 on the list. Cheaper than the TX550M after rebate...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074ZKXM72/?tag=extension-kb-20&th=1

[Stefan Payne]

16 minutes ago, Bubblewhale said:

So just when I was going to buy the TX550M, went OOS rip. 

I was thinking about this PSU instead, it's tier 2 on the list. Cheaper than the TX550M after rebate...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074ZKXM72/?tag=extension-kb-20&th=1

No, get a gold one.

Bitfenix Formula is an option.

[Clyne]

18 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

No, get a gold one.

Bitfenix Formula is an option.

Think I might just wait out on a sale with some 550W-650W gold PSU(Seasonic G, Focus/Plus, G2/G3, TX), unless I can get that deal with the G3 750W for $80 again. 

[Clyne]

On 5/14/2018 at 9:13 PM, Stefan Payne said:

No, get a gold one.

Bitfenix Formula is an option.

I ended buying the TX650M for $45 new, I know you hate 650W PSUs but it's the same price as I was going to buy the TX550M for. 

[Dabombinable]

Will the number of peripheral/pcie connectors for the wattage be taken into consideration at some point, because it could indicate troubled with reaching the full rating. This is the jankiness that is required to run 2× low power cards semi stable on my VS650. Which has less connectors than a lot of similarily priced 500/550W units.

 

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

 on my VS650. Which has less connectors than a lot of similarily priced 500/550W units.

Yes, wich is why its not really that good and we recommended a better PSU....

But what are you doin and why?!

[Biggerboot]

4 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

Will the number of peripheral/pcie connectors for the wattage be taken into consideration at some point, because it could indicate troubled with reaching the full rating. This is the jankiness that is required to run 2× low power cards semi stable on my VS650. Which has less connectors than a lot of similarily priced 500/550W units.

 

 

- The old VS doesn't have that many connectors because it's old. (Ok, not the most technical explanation, but that was considered good for the time)
- Physx card?
- Oi, that cable management and dust.  I'd clean out that case real good and try to get more airflow going.

Sorry if none of this answers your question directly.  If anything, the second card isn't doing much, so I don't think you're necessarily giving the PSU more than it can handle.  But molex could be another point of failure.

[Dabombinable]

56 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yes, wich is why its not really that good and we recommended a better PSU....

But what are you doin and why?!

I use the 650ti to power a second screen (and to do opencl /CUDA tasks while I'm playing games), taking a fair bit of load off my GTX 970 at times.

4 minutes ago, Biggerboot said:

- The old VS doesn't have that many connectors because it's old. (Ok, not the most technical explanation, but that was considered good for the time)
- Physx card?
- Oi, that cable management and dust.  I'd clean out that case real good and try to get more airflow going.

Sorry if none of this answers your question directly.  If anything, the second card isn't doing much, so I don't think you're necessarily giving the PSU more than it can handle.  But molex could be another point of failure.

The fans and components themselves don't have much dust on them (air filters on the intakes), and there is ample airflow with the current setup. And as for cable management-that can wait for a new case+PSU (going with a TX650M, and the current case is actually a wreck).

[OrionFOTL]

7 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

This is the jankiness that is required to run 2× low power cards semi stable on my VS650. Which has less connectors than a lot of similarily priced 500/550W units.

Which similarily priced 500/550W have more than two 6+2pin connectors?

Even top end 550W hardly ever have more than 2x6+2pin. 

[Dabombinable]

8 hours ago, OrionFOTL said:

Which similarily priced 500/550W have more than two 6+2pin connectors?

Even top end 550W hardly ever have more than 2x6+2pin. 

Look at the amount of molex+sata connectors, and their location. Only 4x SATA and 4x molex, with only 2x of those cables supporting 3.3V devices due to not being on the start of the molexchains.

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/34990/thermaltake-litepower-450w-power-supply

 

The VS650 only has 1x berg connector over that $47 AUD 450W PSU. That's why I think it should have been a 450-500W unit, with a higher thermal rating.

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/Power/vs-series-config/p/CP-9020051-NA

[Dabombinable]

@OrionFOTL

Corsair CX450M vs Corsair VS650 at the same price. The CX450M only lacks 1x floppy and Molex connector. And its 80plus Bronze not 80plus white:
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/41579/corsair-cx450m-450w-80-plus-power-supply

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/22271/corsair-vs650-atx-power-supply

 

 

Edit: Hell, even this 400W Silver unit at the same price effectively lacks the same connectors over the VS650, and it has 5x SATA
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/38616/be-quiet-pure-power-10-400w-power-supply

[Stefan Payne]

9 hours ago, OrionFOTL said:

Which similarily priced 500/550W have more than two 6+2pin connectors?

Even top end 550W hardly ever have more than 2x6+2pin. 

 The 550W I know of that have 4 PCIe connectors are either highest End or a bit older.

Well, FSP Hydro X seems to be decent.

Here a list of PSU:
https://geizhals.de/?cat=gehps&xf=1248_550~394_4

 

1 hour ago, Dabombinable said:

Look at the amount of molex+sata connectors, and their location. Only 4x SATA and 4x molex, with only 2x of those cables supporting 3.3V devices due to not being on the start of the molexchains.

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/34990/thermaltake-litepower-450w-power-supply

 

The VS650 only has 1x berg connector over that $47 AUD 450W PSU. That's why I think it should have been a 450-500W unit, with a higher thermal rating.

https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/Power/vs-series-config/p/CP-9020051-NA

Yes and?
That's not a secret. That's listed on the Product page...

So you should have known before you bought it.

 

And the Berg Connectors aka Floppy Connectors aren't used much these days. So doesn't matter really.

[Dabombinable]

4 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

 The 550W I know of that have 4 PCIe connectors are either highest End or a bit older.

Well, FSP Hydro X seems to be decent.

Here a list of PSU:
https://geizhals.de/?cat=gehps&xf=1248_550~394_4

 

Yes and?
That's not a secret. That's listed on the Product page...

So you should have known before you bought it.

 

And the Berg Connectors aka Floppy Connectors aren't used much these days. So doesn't matter really.

I bought it in store as I needed to replace the 450W/500W peak included with case PSU as I was getting my GTX 970. And it cost me $140 and was used by the store in their builds. At the time all I'd heard was that Corsair were good with PSU, because at that point the last PSU that I'd bought (and installed myself) was an old 200W Codgen and that was back before SATA or the 4/8 pin EPS connector were a thing.

[awesomegamer919]

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-supernova-650-g3-psu,5533-6.html

 

"The PSU shuts down with 77.82A on its +12V rail. We suspect that this is not because of over-current protection on this rail, but due to under-voltage protection.

In our opinion, this PSU's over-power protection is set too high; it should kick in at around 120-125% of the maximum-rated capacity to keep the +12V rail within spec."

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-supernova-850-g3-psu,4930-6.html

 

No test of 12V when OPP/UVP triggers, but the same 140% OPP makes me nervous...

[Dabombinable]

I'm kind of curious where Antec EA550G would sit.
http://store.antec.com/earthwatts-gold/earthwatts-gold-pro-550w.html\

 

There doesn't seem to be any in-depth review of it (and no mention of the fan bearing type), but they seem willing to back it with a 7 year warranty so that'd cover a sleeve bearing failing over time.

[comicsansms]

34 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

I'm kind of curious where Antec EA550G would sit.
http://store.antec.com/earthwatts-gold/earthwatts-gold-pro-550w.html\

 

There doesn't seem to be any in-depth review of it (and no mention of the fan bearing type), but they seem willing to back it with a 7 year warranty so that'd cover a sleeve bearing failing over time.

It's Seasonic Focus Gold IIRC.

[Dabombinable]

1 minute ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

It's Seasonic Prime IIRC.

Ok. SO it should be significantly better than the VS650 and 2015/2016 CX850M, and probably tier 2 depending on the fan. Good to know, and I'm definitely getting one to go with the case I picked out.
And I can see what you mean after looking up the Prime Ultra 550W:
http://www2.seasonic.com/product/prime-ultra-550-w-gold/

The exact same current on the rails

@STRMfrmXMN

The EA550G is part of the earthwatts series BTW.

[STRMfrmXMN]

4 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

@STRMfrmXMN

The EA550G is part of the earthwatts series BTW.

Ah yes, because power supplies were not made confusing enough by EVGA!

[Princess Luna]

@STRMfrmXMN @jonnyGURU There seems not to be any reviews easily accessible of the Zalman ZM-750ARX 80 Plus Platinum

 

Thing is there's one of these units still sealed in its box, it was actually on the storage long forgotten as a backup alternative bought like 2 years ago at my brother's work place.

 

And currently he is setting up a new render farm (Blender Cycles) with second hand used parts with focus on CUDA Acceleration due to the increase in demand.

 

The computer he is putting together features an i7 3970X on an Asus Sabertooth X79 and will count with 2 TITAN X Maxwell along side as many HDDs as it has of SATA3 ports. We've been quite certain to use this PSU but considering this machine can not suffer down times once it's up and running and Zalman is not exactly the best brand out there just wanted to make sure how you feel about it.

[OrionFOTL]

51 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

@STRMfrmXMN @jonnyGURU There seems not to be any reviews easily accessible of the Zalman ZM-750ARX 80 Plus Platinum

It's Enhance 13XX platinum series, same as Rosewill Quark 550-750W. It uses full bridge primary side topology with an LLC resonant converter and synchronous rectification with DC-DC converters on secondary side, so it's still cutting edge. It's actually somewhat beefier than things like EVGA G3 or Corsair RMx, since those use half bridge on their primary sides.

 

There's a rough test at Anandtech here. There's also a review of Quark 1000W on Tom's Hardware here, but it uses a bigger version of the 13XX platform with a bigger transformer and +12V rectifiers soldered on the underside of the main PCB, instead of being bolted to the secondary heatsink on sub-850W versions. 

And yeah, it's a great PSU to use in a high power PC.

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

There seems not to be any reviews easily accessible of the Zalman ZM-750ARX 80 Plus Platinum

 

Looks very not bad.

 

 

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, OrionFOTL said:

.

That was a lovely insight thank you kindly!

3 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

Looks very not bad.

Eh "good enough" for me.

 

Thanks it relief my conscious, as I said the person who bought it done so without any knowledge about it, it was on a trip to Paraguay where computer hardware is a lot cheaper than it is here in Brazil.

[STRMfrmXMN]

3 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

@STRMfrmXMN @jonnyGURU There seems not to be any reviews easily accessible of the Zalman ZM-750ARX 80 Plus Platinum

 

Thing is there's one of these units still sealed in its box, it was actually on the storage long forgotten as a backup alternative bought like 2 years ago at my brother's work place.

 

And currently he is setting up a new render farm (Blender Cycles) with second hand used parts with focus on CUDA Acceleration due to the increase in demand.

 

The computer he is putting together features an i7 3970X on an Asus Sabertooth X79 and will count with 2 TITAN X Maxwell along side as many HDDs as it has of SATA3 ports. We've been quite certain to use this PSU but considering this machine can not suffer down times once it's up and running and Zalman is not exactly the best brand out there just wanted to make sure how you feel about it.

Orion beat me to it, but it's that familiar Enhance platform. Wasn't sure where I saw it but yeah, looks like a Quark.

[MEC-777]

New Cougar GX-F 750 review on TPU. Seems decent. 

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cougar/GX-F750/