How much would you pay for a Modular PSU over a Non Modular?

[aidanjt]

Personally I love the lower mounted psu cases, they allow the top to be used for additional extraction fans around one of the hottest areas of a case (the cpu area) and as the psu tends to be one of the single heaviest parts in a case moving it to the bottom helps lower the center of gravity of the case, thus increasing the stability of a case.

I think two (or 3 if the PSU is dual 80mm) extraction fans is more than plenty for exhausting hot air. And I can't say I've ever seen a top mounted case being very unsteady.

[malfunction]

I also highly dislike the tendency of chassis manufacturers to place the power supply at the bottom of the case which has forced PSU manufacturers to lengthen the CPU's 12v cables, again, increasing resistance and only serving to disrupt power.

All of this is creating bizarre airflow patterns in the case.

I rather like the idea of compartmentalised cases - keeping the PSU in a separate chamber (usually in the bottom of the case) to keep the PSU temps low and the PSU efficiency high.

it only takes 1 dead 120 fan for the PSU to go *bang*

I've never seen a PSU fan fail now I come to think about it. Have seen plenty of case fans, GPU fans, and CPU fans die (in that order from high to low) but I've never seen a dead PSU fan. Not saying it doesn't happen just that I've yet to see it.

Maybe someone should ask Antec to make a dual fan (push pull) version of their CPX form factor PSUs?

[Zak33]

I like modular. I hate the vast array of excess cables of a non modular, tucked into every spare orrifice to get them out of the way.

PCI express power leads... some machines need one, some two, some three, some four.. and a good PSU will outlive a motherboard and cpu/video set up if it's a good one.

Molex and SATA power leads abound, and some people need them and some not...

and in a small ish form factor case, such as my Sugo, space is all important.

I like a large fan in the psu, because many small form factor pc's have the psu over the heatsink, and it is an essential part of the cooling of the case, and two of them would be good, especially if they were both under utilised under most of the time. Then if one failed the other could increase in speed and you'd hear it and investigate AND it would still be safe
I see no reason why modular can't be properly reliable.

Connections should be good for 10 or 11 removals and we're not gonna need to do it that many times!

[jim]

I would always take a modular, my cable management is bad enough without a load of additional ones in the way.

Also a P180 is really bad for power supply cables - there's a 120mm fan placed right in front of the PSU which gives you virtually no room to route the cables properly. Take it out though, and the hard drives get very hot at the front of the case. They fixed it in the P183, so it was definitely a mistake, but it makes a modular power supply essential.

[Saracen]

But the additional few inches of cable or additional connector adds a tiny amount of resistance, hardly noticable in the grand scheme of things. Just seems like a poor excuse not to like modular power supplies.

80mm fans aren't as efficent as a 120mm fan, and also louder, so why bother with that?

Whoever said they lose modular cables, clearly doesn't look after their belongings...

I agree about the effect of an extra few inches of cable being nominal, and that wouldn't worry me at all.

But modular connectors are different. However you look at it, it is a joint, and so is a point of weakness. And if the surfaces of the connectors get dirty, or corroded, or even just oxidised, resistance can go up a lot.

Would it be enough to affect performance? Maybe not. But my electronics background is of applications where it's rather more sensitive to such things, such as high current draw RF amplifiers, and more especially, RF feeder cable, and a good rule to work by there is not to put any connectors in unless you need to.

I'm not saying modular are the spawn of the devil or a design disaster or anything. What I'm saying is that I don't see them as offering me any benefit that would justify paying a premium on the price for, and in fact, for two otherwise identical PSUs, at the same price, where one is modular and the other not, I'd go for the non-modular every single time, and just tie unused cables neatly out of the way.

I don't have any cases, in my current collection of a dozen or so, where that can't be done, but I accept that with specialised cases like ultra-small or HTPC, it might be different. But for me, that's a reason to select a different design of power supply designed for such applications, rather than to go modular. Or perhaps, in an extreme situation, I'd go for a non-modular PSU and just "customise" it to completely remove extraneous cables that were superfluous to an possible use and in the way.

Modular might be convenient, at least for some people, but for me, it's a convenience that goes against my rather purist preferences as to how these things should be done, and I certainly wouldn't pay a premium for it. I would, however, pay a premium, if I had to, and go to a PSU make/model that wasn't modular if that was the only way to avoid it.

[arthurleung]

I would always take a modular, my cable management is bad enough without a load of additional ones in the way.

Also a P180 is really bad for power supply cables - there's a 120mm fan placed right in front of the PSU which gives you virtually no room to route the cables properly. Take it out though, and the hard drives get very hot at the front of the case. They fixed it in the P183, so it was definitely a mistake, but it makes a modular power supply essential.

I find the opposite. The P180 is perfectly fine for non-modular, all the excess cables fits nicely in the empty space under the PSU that doesn't affect the airflow. Using a modular PSU prevents you from using the lower chamber fan.

Usually prices hit me at absolute terms instead of relative so I'd usually pay around £10 more. To me, modular cables are a godsend as PSUs nowadays have so many unnecessary connectors; e.g. I don't need 10 molex connectors and 8 SATA connectors nor do I need 4x PCI-E connectors.

The reason why there are 10 molex and 8 SATA is that you bought a PSU too powerful for your need.
I just use a relatively low-powered PSU with at most 4 SATA power and 4 molex, split the molex connectors to SATA power headers to feed 8-10 hdds. The case fans are (Yate Loon) powered by motherboard fan headers (splitted by molex so 1 header drive 2-4 fans).

Why can't the manufacturers make semi-modular PSU which means a fat molex cable get to the middle of the case then fan out from there.

Or even better, get the case manufacturers to put molex headers on the side-panel / frame and have integrated cables. get a 10cm length cable to connect from the PSU to the case "input" header, then have a backplane style hdd tray to power the HDDs, and some "output" headers right next to the 5.25" slots.

[woody_294]

The reason why there are 10 molex and 8 SATA is that you bought a PSU too powerful for your need.
I just use a relatively low-powered PSU with at most 4 SATA power and 4 molex, split the molex connectors to SATA power headers to feed 8-10 hdds. The case fans are (Yate Loon) powered by motherboard fan headers (splitted by molex so 1 header drive 2-4 fans).

Why can't the manufacturers make semi-modular PSU which means a fat molex cable get to the middle of the case then fan out from there.

Or even better, get the case manufacturers to put molex headers on the side-panel / frame and have integrated cables. get a 10cm length cable to connect from the PSU to the case "input" header, then have a backplane style hdd tray to power the HDDs, and some "output" headers right next to the 5.25" slots.

1. Not if you're running a heavily overclocked system with 2 or 3 HDD's, or on the other hand you may be building a NAS style device with lots of HDDs, the modular approach lets manufacturers cater for both these situations without the annoyance of the former having lots of extra cables.

2. That only moves the connector, not eliminating anything.

3. Lian-Li do this, but it's a premium option that casts a fair amount to manufacture for a case, that's why you pay a premium amount

[Pob255]

Yes I was just going to say that if you want to build a gaming focused pc, say an i7 with 2 high graphics cards and only a couple of hard drives, then you'll be hard pushed to use a lower wattage psu, and if you get a higher wattage psu with enough pci-e leads then you'll also get loads of sata and molex connectors on 3 or 4 leads as well, when all you'd want is 3 sata connectors on one lead.

There's also some PSU'd that are semi-modular.
the Antec Earthwatts 750W springs to mind here, sorry it's not an 80mm fan version.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=163
There's 2 pci-e, 3 molex, 3 sata and 1 floppy connector which are all fixed cables in addition to a fixed 8pin eps and 24pin atx.
Additional sata, molex and pci-e are modular.

[Ulti]

The reason why there are 10 molex and 8 SATA is that you bought a PSU too powerful for your need.

With my previous PSU, a Corsair CX400W, it had 8 molex connectors and 6 SATA connectors along with 1 PCI-E connector and 2x 4 12V pin connectors (used together as 8pin). I only used one molex connector for one of the case fans for my elcheapo case and 2 SATA cables (1 for HDD, 1 for DVD drive). That leaves 7 molex and 4 SATA cables... Luckily though as my el cheapo case had a top mounted case, I could stuff all the cable above the DVD drive.

[Champman99]

I wouldnt buy a non-modular PSU for my main build anymore I dont think. My cable management tends to be pretty dreadful, so anything that can help = good.

As far as the premium I'd pay, i voted for £15+, but really its a % thing. £15 on a £100 PSU, but £7.50 on a £50 PSU?

[jim]

I find the opposite. The P180 is perfectly fine for non-modular, all the excess cables fits nicely in the empty space under the PSU that doesn't affect the airflow. Using a modular PSU prevents you from using the lower chamber fan.

Fair enough... I've had a couple of modular PSUs in here over the years and it's worked with the fan in there. I guess the part I forgot is the fact that the non-modular PSUs don't protrude so much with no plugs on the ends of the cables to plug in, so they have much more clearance before the fan in the first place.

[Clunk]

Modular for me.

If I'm given the choice of the "same" PSU, modular and non modular, I'll take the modular one for convenience sake. Would I pay a slight premium? Yes probably, but not a lot.

I've used lots of PSUs over the last few years and had a few failures in both modular and non modular, I don't honestly believe that making a PSU modular makes it any less reliable, at least not in in my experience unless it's poorly done. All the modular units of mine that have failed, haven't failed because they were modular, the faults have ranged from being incompatible with the latest range of motherboards (when they shouldn't have been), to failing fan controllers.

The only time I've ever had a problem with connectors or connections on a PSU has been on non modular units, coincidentally.

[MadduckUK]

id pay "almost" 100w, but i am yet to own a modular psu because the gap is always too big, i got a 750w for a hell of a lot less than the comparative 650w modular, if it was close i would be tempted but tucking cables out of the way isnt the end of the world. id prefer not to but id rather a better psu that pully-offy cables


the poll should probably be a % rather than a fixed price

[peterb]

I was sceptical about the advantages of modular power supplies (or to be technically correct) PSUs with modular connectors!) so I bought one to see what all the fuss was about. Given that the main mobo connectors are hard wired anyway, and that those are the leads that carry the most current, the introduction of contact resistance and the resuting voltage drop doesn't arrise. The ability to choose the peripheral connectors that I do need - SATA or Molex, and the number and combination, I feel is useful, and gicven hat the current requirement of a hard drive is unlikely to be more than one amp on either rail, and given that one connector is not going to supply more than 4 devices, that is only 4 ampsmax. assuming a worst case contact resistance of 0.01 ohm, that is only going to be 40mV drop, which is negligible, even on a 5 v supply.

Of course in an ideal world, the ability to customise the PSU for the precise requirement would be ideal, but that again adds complexity, so for me a modular PSU is a good compromise - but not worth more than a £5 or £10 premium.

[Funkstar]

Modular psupplies all the time for me.

I have a non-modular one in my livingroom HTPC and it is a complere pain in the neck to keep all the useless suff out of the way. All I need is the main ATX connector, 12v motherboard supply and two SATA connectors, one for the DVD and one for the 2.5" hard drive. The single fan in there comes from the motherboard.

In my server I have a modular supply so was able to pack away all the PCIe and Molex cables and just have the motherboard ones and a bunch of SATA cables. I even ordered a few extra cables from Germany so each PSU connector/cable is powering a single SATA drive cage.

It's just a shame the extra cables are not easy to get ahold of, may not be standard through a range and there isn't a better selection of accessory cables. It would be even better if there was a standard for modular connectors so that third parties could produce custom cables and mor variation. For instance very long or indeed very short ATX cables would be good. Would make for much nicer system internals.

[UseItNow]

I don't know, I am more swayed towards the modular PSU's but having recently built a rig in a Silverstone SG03B with the Corsair CX400W, I can't really complain about non-modular as yes the build is a bit tight for space but I've tied away the spare cables with ties out the way and it doesn't seem to have affected temps at all from the looks of it.

The E4500 is running at 19ºC/20ºC at idle with a stock Intel cooler, yes an Intel cooler, I was surprised, at load it's barely hitting above 34ºC/36ºC, this read with CoreTemp. I've got to say this was before the cold weather, I've not used the rig in a about a week.

I'd probably still go for a modular only if the price difference was very small, I'd be more inclined on the perforance/quietness and internals of a PSU.