PSU Tier List [OLD]

[Stefan Payne]

3 hours ago, lordyogreath said:

don't recommend Seasonic, Evga and Corsair as they are rly expensive here, like s12 seasonic 520w is 73 euros and cooler master mwe 500w is 48 euros and they are both same tier

The S12II-Bronze under 750W is garbage -> loud, bad protected, shitty voltage reglation, avoid that as far as possible.

 

Since you're posting smething abaut Euronen, what about be quiet Straight Power 11 (450W) or maybe Pure Power 10?

They should be available in Europe.

 

Xilence as well, though they are not that great.

 

[Vator]

I have been trying to find good power supply for my computer for two weeks now. But every time that I do find one that's somewhat popular and looks like a good deal, I get slammed by comments from people saying "don't get anything that's under Tier 3". 

In my situation, I guess due to all mining craze, our stores are out of stock on most of the Tier 1 - 3 power supplies. So my question is, is Tier 4 actually bad and how often do components actually die from faulty or low quality power supplies?

 

Here are my current specs:

Motherboard: Asus B350 Prime Plus ATX

CPU: AMD R5 1600X, OC to 3.95GHz at 1.375V, CM T4 cooler

RAM: Corsair 2x8GB 2400MHz VENGEANCE LPX 

GPU: AMD Radeon HD6850 1GB PowerColor

SSD: Samsung 120GB 650 EVO 

HDD: WD 500GB

 

For past 10 months since I built this system I have been using LC power 600W powersupply and never had any problems, power went out multiple times, I ran everything at 100% load multiple times a day,  nothing died, everything is still alive and working fine. The reason why I am getting a new power supply is because of the fan on this PSU started making annoying grinding noise after two years of ownership.

At first I just wanted to get Corsair CX650M because I know few people who run 1080Ti with 1700X and similar high end workstations and they never had any issue what so ever. But because that was sold out everywhere, I jumped to CX650 and looked for that but again stores are out of stock.

If Cooler Master website for calculating how much wattage my system needs is correct, then its about 400W at full load. 

I do plan on upgrading my graphics card to GTX1070 or RTX2070, and adding additional 16GB of ram in future.

 

Current options that are in stock and look like nice deal:
Cooler Master G650M  80+ Bronze

Cooler Master G550M  80+ Bronze

Cooler Master 650W MWE 80+ Bronze

Seasonic M12II-620 EVO (SS-620GM2) 80+ Bronze (from comments above, people already said its garbage)

Cooler Master MWE 550W 80+ Gold

 

Other options that are around my budget but overkill:

Corsair CX750 80+ Bronze

Cooler Master MasterWatt 750W 80+ Bronze

EVGA 750 BQ 80+ Bronze

 

And the two which are in higher Tier but at this point this is $140-150 territory which is really stretching my budget:

EVGA 750 GQ 80+ Gold

SeaSonic 550W FOCUS PLUS Gold

I do not care about how do cables look or how modular the power supply is. I just want the thing to last few years and be quiet. 

I use my computer only for programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and occasionally 3DsMax.

 

Almost all of these have 36-60 month warranty from store.

So if someone can help me pick a decent power supply and give me additional info, I would really appreciate that.

[LienusLateTips]

42 minutes ago, Vator said:

I have been trying to find good power supply for my computer for two weeks now. But every time that I do find one that's somewhat popular and looks like a good deal, I get slammed by comments from people saying "don't get anything that's under Tier 3". 

In my situation, I guess due to all mining craze, our stores are out of stock on most of the Tier 1 - 3 power supplies. So my question is, is Tier 4 actually bad and how often do components actually die from faulty or low quality power supplies?

 

Here are my current specs:

Motherboard: Asus B350 Prime Plus ATX

CPU: AMD R5 1600X, OC to 3.95GHz at 1.375V, CM T4 cooler

RAM: Corsair 2x8GB 2400MHz VENGEANCE LPX 

GPU: AMD Radeon HD6850 1GB PowerColor

SSD: Samsung 120GB 650 EVO 

HDD: WD 500GB

 

For past 10 months since I built this system I have been using LC power 600W powersupply and never had any problems, power went out multiple times, I ran everything at 100% load multiple times a day,  nothing died, everything is still alive and working fine. The reason why I am getting a new power supply is because of the fan on this PSU started making annoying grinding noise after two years of ownership.

At first I just wanted to get Corsair CX650M because I know few people who run 1080Ti with 1700X and similar high end workstations and they never had any issue what so ever. But because that was sold out everywhere, I jumped to CX650 and looked for that but again stores are out of stock.

If Cooler Master website for calculating how much wattage my system needs is correct, then its about 400W at full load. 

I do plan on upgrading my graphics card to GTX1070 or RTX2070, and adding additional 16GB of ram in future.

 

Current options that are in stock and look like nice deal:
Cooler Master G650M  80+ Bronze

Cooler Master G550M  80+ Bronze

Cooler Master 650W MWE 80+ Bronze

Seasonic M12II-620 EVO (SS-620GM2) 80+ Bronze (from comments above, people already said its garbage)

Cooler Master MWE 550W 80+ Gold

 

Other options that are around my budget but overkill:

Corsair CX750 80+ Bronze

Cooler Master MasterWatt 750W 80+ Bronze

EVGA 750 BQ 80+ Bronze

 

And the two which are in higher Tier but at this point this is $140-150 territory which is really stretching my budget:

EVGA 750 GQ 80+ Gold

SeaSonic 550W FOCUS PLUS Gold

I do not care about how do cables look or how modular the power supply is. I just want the thing to last few years and be quiet. 

I use my computer only for programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and occasionally 3DsMax.

 

Almost all of these have 36-60 month warranty from store.

So if someone can help me pick a decent power supply and give me additional info, I would really appreciate that.

MasterWatt 750 would probably be best.

 

However you can get away with 450W unit, the computer will use no more than about 300W

[STRMfrmXMN]

1 hour ago, Vator said:

 

 

Other options that are around my budget but overkill:

Corsair CX750 80+ Bronze

Cooler Master MasterWatt 750W 80+ Bronze

EVGA 750 BQ 80+ Bronze

 

 

The CX750 or Masterwatt would be fine. Strange that there's no lesser wattage version for either of those?

[Stefan Payne]

2 hours ago, Vator said:

For past 10 months since I built this system I have been using LC power 600W powersupply

Condolences and be happy that your shit still works. That's a pretty bad PSU.

 

2 hours ago, Vator said:

I just want the thing to last few years and be quiet. 

be quiet isn't available in your region??

 

Quote

Current options that are in stock and look like nice deal:

All of those are not desirable and should be avoided, if possible. Especially the S12II-Bronze variants (under 750W). Those are really bad units that compete with the System Integrator units from other COmpanys - wich are better than the Seasonic. Well, no wonder with an 8 year old Plattform...

I'm really not happy with the Options you have.

 

Have you looked at be quiet Pure Power 10, are they available? 

[Vator]

1 hour ago, LienusLateTips said:

MasterWatt 750 would probably be best.

 

However you can get away with 450W unit, the computer will use no more than about 300W

As I said I plan on upgrading my graphics card and few other parts in future so I would like to have some headroom for more powerful parts if needed.
Also most of 400-600W units that are available here are crappy brands like LCPower, raidmax etc.

37 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

The CX750 or Masterwatt would be fine. Strange that there's no lesser wattage version for either of those?

CX750 is literally the only unit from CX series that I could find in stock. Other Corsair stuff is either RMX or 1000W units.

There are few MasterWatt Lite power supplies that are 500 and 600W if I am not wrong, but I don't think that those are actual MasterWatt power supplies, but rather some budget alternatives, so I didn't list those. Also I read bad reviews about them so I would rather take a pass on that one.

 

I should mention that we have better power supplies available but only through random websites where people sell used and new stuff that they bought and brought from other countries. The reason that I am trying not to go with that route is because most of them look pretty sketchy and if something doesn't work, I have to send it back to them, then they send it back to where ever the hell they bought the damn thing from, and that whole process is just pain in the ass. Also most of them offer only one year warranty, which I am not sure how is even possible and even though I would be buying high quality product, I still want to be sure if thing takes a dump on it self for no reason, I can send it back and get a new one in a week.

6 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Condolences and be happy that your shit still works. That's a pretty bad PSU.

 

be quiet isn't available in your region??

At the time I was upgrading from Phenom II 955 so I actually only swapped mobo, cpu and ram, everything else was from old build (PSU, SSD, HDD, CPU cooler and other parts).

Just that upgrade was around 500 euros which was already expensive enough, I wanted to upgrade my powersupply and case as well but I just didn't have enough money at the time.

 

I might be wrong but when I looked at some local computer store websites few months ago, be quiet was available along with smaller EVGA power supplies, but now it's just filled with crap like Raidmax, Falcon and what not.

[DEVVY]

I need some help with chosing my PSU as well.

I'm living in Germany, so energy does cost some money and if i understand things right, going at least for 80+ titanium should be reasonable on a long run?

 

My system:

Intel Core i7-7700k @ 5.0 Ghz

MSI GTX 1070 Ti @ 2150 Mhz

ASUS Z270E 

h115i AIO

16 gigs of ramses

 

My current PSU is 5 year old 80 bronze be quiet pure power 620 W, been through 3 systems, what a champ.

 

My budget is around 150 €, could go bit more but i preffer to stay around or below.

 

Thanks

 

P.S. Currently seeing an offer on 2 year old Super Flower Leadex 80 plus titanium for 140 Euros, worth?

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, Vator said:

 

I might be wrong but when I looked at some local computer store websites few months ago, be quiet was available along with smaller EVGA power supplies, but now it's just filled with crap like Raidmax, Falcon and what not.

What be quiet PSU are available?

The Straight Power 11 is a good option.

 

https://www.aquatuning.fi/cases-hardware/psus/psus-air-cooled/22960/be-quiet-straight-power-11-550w-atx24

https://www.aquatuning.fi/cases-hardware/psus/psus-air-cooled/22221/be-quiet-pure-power-10-500w?c=4022

 

94€ for the Straight Power 11 

 

If you want it cheaper, look for the Pure Power 10.

If you want it better, look for the Straight Power 11

 

450-550W are more than enough, Pure Power 10 500W seems like a good option.

 

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

I need some help with chosing my PSU as well.

I'm living in Germany, so energy does cost some money and if i understand things right, going at least for 80+ titanium should be reasonable on a long run?

 

550W Straight Power 11, Titanium is just too expensive. Its like +20€ for Platinum and another +40€ for Titanium it seems.

And you won't get the +2% higher efficiency backk on your electrical bill.

 

For connections or other stuff, you could get the 750W version, if you really want it...

 

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

My current PSU is 5 year old 80 bronze be quiet pure power 620 W, been through 3 systems, what a champ.

No it is not, as there was never a 620W Pure Power, that's a Seasonic Wattage (or worse).

 

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

My budget is around 150 €, could go bit more but i preffer to stay around or below.

 

P.S. Currently seeing an offer on 2 year old Super Flower Leadex 80 plus titanium for 140 Euros, worth?

No, because its more than you need or want and you're wasting money for nothing.

[DEVVY]

 Thank you for your reply.

On 9/11/2018 at 8:48 PM, Stefan Payne said:

No it is not, as there was never a 620W Pure Power, that's a Seasonic Wattage (or worse).

My bad, wrote it out from memory, it's - be quiet! L8 Pure Power PC ATX Netzteil 630W PCIe P8 CM

 

I also have a dual monitor setup with one of them being ROG SWIFT PG248Q at 180 Hz OC, going for 600+ watts might be reasonable?

And i really don't want to stick with be quiet lineup tbh.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

I need some help with chosing my PSU as well.

I'm living in Germany, so energy does cost some money and if i understand things right, going at least for 80+ titanium should be reasonable on a long run?

 

My system:

Intel Core i7-7700k @ 5.0 Ghz

MSI GTX 1070 Ti @ 2150 Mhz

ASUS Z270E 

h115i AIO

16 gigs of ramses

 

My current PSU is 5 year old 80 bronze be quiet pure power 620 W, been through 3 systems, what a champ.

 

My budget is around 150 €, could go bit more but i preffer to stay around or below.

 

Thanks

 

P.S. Currently seeing an offer on 2 year old Super Flower Leadex 80 plus titanium for 140 Euros, worth?

Corsair RMx, EVGA G2/G1+/GQ, SeaSonic Focus+ Gold, Bitfenix Whisper M (Do not buy the Formula, it is not modular, which despite @Stefan Payne's objections IS a big deal), anything T1 or T2 really is fine, 550w will be enough for that system

[Vator]

5 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

What be quiet PSU are available?

The Straight Power 11 is a good option.

 

https://www.aquatuning.fi/cases-hardware/psus/psus-air-cooled/22960/be-quiet-straight-power-11-550w-atx24

https://www.aquatuning.fi/cases-hardware/psus/psus-air-cooled/22221/be-quiet-pure-power-10-500w?c=4022

 

94€ for the Straight Power 11 

 

If you want it cheaper, look for the Pure Power 10.

If you want it better, look for the Straight Power 11

 

450-550W are more than enough, Pure Power 10 500W seems like a good option.

If I had option to choose a unit from bequiet I would have listed it as an option, but nothing from them is available right now. 

The only way I can get any of those is to go through people who I mentioned in comment above. The ones that bring parts from other countries. I am trying to avoid working with those people because as I said warranty is trash and if something breaks its pain in the ass to get a new one.

I would gladly just order it online but tax and other trash like border fee or what ever, will add the hell up in cost. Tax alone will be 20% of products value, and then add the shipping as well.

I should have mentioned that I am from Serbia, hence the poor availability and expensive parts.

 

Also the term "I want it to be quiet" probably has different definition to everyone. I don't need anything to be dead silent, I was perfectly fine the way that LC trash worked, so if I can get something that will be the same way or even better, that's what I am aiming for. Also my case is 8 years old Thermaltake V3 so there is little to no noise cancellation. My M20X mute the outside noise anyways.

 

I am not trying to be ignorant or anything like that, I know very little about power supplies, but when on one side people tell me to get something and then someone comes and says its not good. Who do I believe when there is no evidence from either of those two sides on why is one good and why is that same one bad. 

 

Either way, thank you for replying.

[OrionFOTL]

If you have limited stock, just give us links to online stores you can use. 

[Vator]

9 minutes ago, OrionFOTL said:

If you have limited stock, just give us links to online stores you can use. 

This one gathers products from pretty much every store in my country https://www.eponuda.com/kompjuteri-napajanja-cene?prikaz=line

10k RSD is $100. I am trying to get something that's around that price tag. 

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

 Thank you for your reply.

My bad, wrote it out from memory, it's - be quiet! L8 Pure Power PC ATX Netzteil 630W PCIe P8 CM

 

I also have a dual monitor setup with one of them being ROG SWIFT PG248Q at 180 Hz OC, going for 600+ watts might be reasonable?

No, 550W is more than enough

 

1 hour ago, DEVVY said:

And i really don't want to stick with be quiet lineup tbh.

Why?
they are great!

You get a great fan, possible the best that ever was in PSU, low fan RPM and pretty good Support in Germany...

 

And I really don't understand why there are people flaming that company so much, especially since its one of the last one remaining German IT Companys. 

 

And they aren't as big as people claim, worldwide they are a smallish company, so the claims about Monopoly are utter nonsense from People who have no clue what they are talking about.

 

And you yourself have proven that they aren't unreliable either.

48 minutes ago, Vator said:

This one gathers products from pretty much every store in my country https://www.eponuda.com/kompjuteri-napajanja-cene?prikaz=line

10k RSD is $100. I am trying to get something that's around that price tag. 

https://www.eponuda.com/kompjuteri-napajanja/sama-armor-550w-80plus-gold-napajanje-cena-406006

That one looks good.

 

Was the first one I've seen there. 

[Vator]

7 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

https://www.eponuda.com/kompjuteri-napajanja/sama-armor-550w-80plus-gold-napajanje-cena-406006

That one looks good.

 

Was the first one I've seen there. 

Well thank you for recommending that one, I actually threw it out because I have never seen that brand before, 80+ gold rating at that price and not seeing that brand ever get recommended or even be included in this Tier list made me think it's just another trashy product. I will look it up and see comments from other people.

 

Also just to make it clear, electricity is cheap here, matter of fact we have few systems in house that are used on daily basis for work and what not, so 80+ gold or higher isn't a priority as much as the quality and reliability of actual power supply is.

 

[Stefan Payne]

7 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Corsair RMx, EVGA G2/G1+/GQ, SeaSonic Focus+ Gold, Bitfenix Whisper M (Do not buy the Formula, it is not modular, which despite @Stefan Payne's objections IS a big deal), anything T1 or T2 really is fine, 550w will be enough for that system

Modular or not is a question of taste!

Its the same as when you would say that a Car is garbage because its white. 

 

And there are also other things you miss. Like the volume that the connectors take. And that the  modular ones are usually a lot longer.

In the Whisper M Case its either 160 or 165mm for the Whisper vs 140mm for the Formula.

 

 

As for the Cables:
Formula 450 comes with 2 Peripherials (both identical), one PCIe Connector with 2 Connections and the usual 4+4 pin CPU and 24pin ATX.

 

So in a worst case scenario you need all the cables anyway, so there isn't anything to save.

With a S-ATA less system, its 2.

 

In the end, its for everyone to decide if they want a 20€ cheaper though hardwired unit or a fully modular one for 20€ more... 

[comicsansms]

8 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Do not buy the Formula, it is not modular, which despite @Stefan Payne's objections IS a big deal

Just stop it already. We know you don't like non-modular PSUs, so you can shut up about it.

 

As Stefan and many others have already said,

• it adds more failure points
• it allows for user error to put in the wrong cable killing everything in their system (which it does happen, I know people who have exclusively bought Corsair PSUs and didn't realise the old HX had different cables to the new HX, so mixed their modular cables for those 2 PSUs).
• It can can cause voltage drop
• It will reduce the PSUs efficiency
• It costs more
• It requires the PSU to be longer
• The unused cables will likely be lost. I have seen many people who put their unused cables in their PSU box, forget that they are there, and throw out the box. So that 750W PSU that they bought because they wanted to SLI, now they cannot, because they don't have the cables they need.

Modular PSUs are good when you have a higher wattage PSU, so you don't end up with 6 unused cables flopping around in your case. But for lower wattage PSUs, it is pointless. You can stop poking the fire.

[LienusLateTips]

10 hours ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Corsair RMx, EVGA G2/G1+/GQ, SeaSonic Focus+ Gold, Bitfenix Whisper M (Do not buy the Formula, it is not modular, which despite @Stefan Payne's objections IS a big deal), anything T1 or T2 really is fine, 550w will be enough for that system

Just stop. Modularity causes extra points of failures, and makes the PSU longer. Sorta like the colour of your computer case, it's based on taste when wattage is so low. My 450W PSU only has 2 modular connectors, one being PCIE.

 

9 hours ago, Vator said:

Well thank you for recommending that one, I actually threw it out because I have never seen that brand before, 80+ gold rating at that price and not seeing that brand ever get recommended or even be included in this Tier list made me think it's just another trashy product. I will look it up and see comments from other people.

 

Also just to make it clear, electricity is cheap here, matter of fact we have few systems in house that are used on daily basis for work and what not, so 80+ gold or higher isn't a priority as much as the quality and reliability of actual power supply is.

 

The SAMA Armor is in the tier list as the "VIVO 24K Gold" as it was branded in North America. 

[awesomegamer919]

1 minute ago, LienusLateTips said:

Just stop. Modularity causes extra points of failures, and makes the PSU longer. Sorta like the colour of your computer case, it's based on taste when wattage is so low. My 450W PSU only has 2 modular connectors, one being PCIE.

 

The SAMA Armor is in the tier list as the "VIVO 24K Gold" as it was branded in North America. 

Nope, the Vivo is the Forza gold, not the Armor

[Stefan Payne]

1 hour ago, LienusLateTips said:

The SAMA Armor is in the tier list as the "VIVO 24K Gold" as it was branded in North America. 

The Sama Forza PRO seem to have a Sanace Fan.

While that's bullshit for Consumers as 2BB is pointless and FDB superior in a Consumer 

 

http://www.expreview.com/17672-3.html

 

The normal Sama Forza doesn't seem that good but I'd still prefer it over some other units:

http://www.133845.xyz/39557-2.html

[VIVO-US]

7 hours ago, awesomegamer919 said:

Nope, the Vivo is the Forza gold, not the Armor

Yes, and they were some really great units for the cost!  I wish they had sold well enough for us to continue carrying them, but oh well.  The Armor series is newer, and I wouldn't be surprised if they're as good as anything you'd get from Super Flower, FSP or any of the other top rated manufacturers.

 

The sleeve bearing fan by Aobos used in the Forza series was a concern to some of the reviewers, but so far, we haven't had even a single fan failure reported in any of our units.  You'd be surprised at how long a good quality sleeve bearing will last.  The failure rate of the PSUs themselves has also been remarkably low.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

13 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

And there are also other things you miss. Like the volume that the connectors take. And that the  modular ones are usually a lot longer.

In the Whisper M Case its either 160 or 165mm for the Whisper vs 140mm for the Formula.

What of it? I'm not aware of any case that can fit a 140mm PSU but not a 165mm one

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

11 hours ago, Comic_Sans_MS said:

Just stop it already. We know you don't like non-modular PSUs, so you can shut up about it.

 

As Stefan and many others have already said,

• it adds more failure points
• it allows for user error to put in the wrong cable killing everything in their system (which it does happen, I know people who have exclusively bought Corsair PSUs and didn't realise the old HX had different cables to the new HX, so mixed their modular cables for those 2 PSUs).
• It can can cause voltage drop
• It will reduce the PSUs efficiency
• It costs more
• It requires the PSU to be longer
• The unused cables will likely be lost. I have seen many people who put their unused cables in their PSU box, forget that they are there, and throw out the box. So that 750W PSU that they bought because they wanted to SLI, now they cannot, because they don't have the cables they need.

Modular PSUs are good when you have a higher wattage PSU, so you don't end up with 6 unused cables flopping around in your case. But for lower wattage PSUs, it is pointless. You can stop poking the fire.

 - PSUs rarely fail anyway (good ones anyway)

- RTFM

- That's fair I guess

- And?

- Not really

- And?

- Stupid people do that, those of us with shelves don't do that

- What does "lower wattage" v. "higher wattage" mean? At 450W it's not great but it's fine, but 550w's usually come with two PCIe cables; and you'll have to deal with that damn Molex cable, and usually an extra SATA chain at 550w

[Vator]

Well, thank you all for recommending me some quality units, I will look them up a bit more and go from there.

So far this is probably the longest time I have spent on picking a part for my computer.

[VIVO-US]

3 hours ago, Vator said:

So far this is probably the longest time I have spent on picking a part for my computer.

It's a good part to spend some extra time researching.

I've heard of too many times where someone used a poor quality PSU, and then due to the lack of safety features built in, it destroyed the entire computer when it failed.