Seasonic X or Corsair HX & what rating

new psu time and this is the most head scratching and changing of mind that i've had for a while.


originally looked at the xfx units - but the hideous green fan has put me off. coolermaster's were in with a shout but they fell by the wayside. so that has left the last 2.

firstly is the all conquering corsair hx750 and in the opposite corner is the seasonic x-650. i'm looking at these 2 purely from a price point at the moment. could you give me arguments for and against both, like the hx is slightly more powerful - thus a bit more headroom for w/c. but the x can run virtually silent, and that is something i'm looking for is real quietness.

it will have to power this lot:

q9450 - stock at the moment with an h50 bolted on
p5q-deluxe
1 samsung 320gb f1
1 samsung 250gb spinpoint
xfx 4870 1gb
1 dvd rw+-*&^%$............or anyother symbols you can throw in a title :)

& 3 230mm fans in the case.

psu calculator says that 430w would be enough and even with a clocked cpu and w/c no more than about 460.


so max budget is £115-120 - it's already gone up by £30 (mainly as i got the money from my old e6750 i sold).

modular - fully if possible

needs to be fairly quiet

enough headroom to cover w/c set-up - future, although it will prob be for cpu only.



or any other psu's you care to mention - all taken into consideration :mrgreen:

Go for what is cheaper. 500W is ample for that setup.

Cosair - tried and tested, but relatively old generation. So, great for reliability etc. but not as efficient as more modern units, so higher bills or perhaps more importantly more heat, depending on your priorities.

Seasonic-X, new generation. Not so well tried and tested because new, but these latest higher end supplies seem to give very good figures at the test station - efficient, very low ripple etc, which should mean they are very stable. But long term reliability is an unknown.

A cheaper option to consider is the XFX Pro series - no more green fan, and internals seem to be similar to the new seasonics (albeit not modular). Not as quiet.

The Be Quiet top end range are however very quiet, typical new gen PSUs. Same applies to the NZXT 80 GOLD range as well.

But ignore PSU calculator - you'll be drawing 200-300W with that rig, so make sure your chosen rig is most efficient for that load.

Seasonic's X-series was comfortably the best PSU's a few months back. That's not going to have changed. They're brilliant.

Seasonic make Corsair's better PSUs, but the HX750 is made by CWT (which while good isn't as good as Seasonic's X-series ones... personally I'd buy Seasonic's M12II series over it too).

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Originally Posted by nibbler

Go for what is cheaper. 500W is ample for that setup.

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taking into account headroom for w/c set-up? i know won't add to much.

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Originally Posted by kalniel

Cosair - tried and tested, but relatively old generation. So, great for reliability etc. but not as efficient as more modern units, so higher bills or perhaps more importantly more heat, depending on your priorities.

Seasonic-X, new generation. Not so well tried and tested because new, but these latest higher end supplies seem to give very good figures at the test station - efficient, very low ripple etc, which should mean they are very stable. But long term reliability is an unknown.

A cheaper option to consider is the XFX Pro series - no more green fan, and internals seem to be similar to the new seasonics (albeit not modular). Not as quiet.

The Be Quiet top end range are however very quiet, typical new gen PSUs. Same applies to the NZXT 80 GOLD range as well.

But ignore PSU calculator - you'll be drawing 200-300W with that rig, so make sure your chosen rig is most efficient for that load.

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the seasonic x has got great write up's everywhere, the jonnyguru review is an example. never heard/had experience of nzxt as a psu manufacturer - more fans and other stuff. are they generally good? again with be quiet, heard of but no experience of. i saw the xfx core units yesterday and they look a damn sight better than the black's. but it's a case of hiding whats not used on them with no modular cabling.

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Originally Posted by this_is_gav

Seasonic's X-series was comfortably the best PSU's a few months back. That's not going to have changed. They're brilliant.

Seasonic make Corsair's better PSUs, but the HX750 is made by CWT (which while good isn't as good as Seasonic's X-series ones... personally I'd buy Seasonic's M12II series over it too).

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buy the m12 over what? the x or the corsair?


i must say, like the look of the enermax revolution's -purely on an aesthetic level , but could never justify price or need for one.





jeeeeeeeeezzzz.....................my heads getting pickled :surprised:

Watercooling would just be pumps and fans which would be 30-50w?

enermax is a very very good brand. Mine is silent and modular and stable.

now i've seen 2 more, abeit slightly more price wise.

enermax modu 87+ 600w - just ozzzzzzzes niceness

&

NZXT Hale90 650/750 - if for nothing else, the white paint finish



:telephone:

Also the Fractal Design Newton R2 is very good
And the Xigmatek units where good (although hard to find)
I think you'd be pretty safe with any of the ones mentioned

You have to remember that your cpu and gpu take up nearly 80% or more of all power demands.
Most other things are minimal.
Most water cooling pumps are around 18w
Hard drives around 20w which while still low can factor in with a large raid array (5+ drives)
120mm fans are about 1.5-2 watts, and thoes big fans (200mm+) are around 3.5 watts

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190751

Solid product, excellent price, more than enough power for you, top notch brand. Unfortunately not modular but still worth considering

Hawker

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Originally Posted by SuicidaL

buy the m12 over what? the x or the corsair?

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Given my praise of the X-series I thought that would be fairly obvious, but reading back I could see it was less so. Yes, I meant over the Corsair. :)

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Originally Posted by SuicidaL

now i've seen 2 more, abeit slightly more price wise.

enermax modu 87+ 600w - just ozzzzzzzes niceness

&

NZXT Hale90 650/750 - if for nothing else, the white paint finish



:telephone:

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Yes, both awesome. Really like the Enermax personally, if you have the $$$ then that would be in my top two :)

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Originally Posted by kalniel

Yes, both awesome. Really like the Enermax personally, if you have the $$$ then that would be in my top two :)

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there are only so many $$$$$$$ unfortunately.


this really starting to pickle me head a bit. think about it then leave it so not to pickle myself and go back later and then do the same thing............again, it only take a couple of mins to - decisiveness is my middle name :)

I take it you have seen that there are various PSUs on scan today only
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

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Originally Posted by nibbler

I take it you have seen that there are various PSUs on scan today only
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

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i have seen them. still not making my life any easier :surprised:. what would be you opinions on the list availible? the NZXT hale90 650 stands out, as does the 750 and the x-750 both a bit more than i would want to go - really £120 absolute max i think , or it will get silly.

I'd save a bit of cash and get a 520W unit personally, but hey :D

Theres one on the market place here! (520w that is)

I would get that one if buying again.

i take it the here! was supposed to be a link.............................doesn't work if it was :)

:Oops: sorry for essay ... psus ... clearly something i care about lol :oops:

Personally I would avoid the bequiet psus being sold cheaply on ebuyer, I looked into those about 6 months ago on review sites and found that some bequiet psus are very good but some are very poor and the ones ebuyer were selling weren't the good ones.

As I was on a tight budget I decided to go for a 600w coolermaster M silent whisper, it cost 60 odd quid i think. I have a similar-ish setup to yours and I will be getting a h50 in the near future. It's not an amazing psu if you look at review websites but it is incredibly quiet and very cheap there is also a 700w version I believe.

Couple of random things to think about which I became aware of when I was looking at psus about 6 months back.

If you want a modular power supply because you have a small microatx case and want to save space, get one of the modular silverstone strider ones and buy the short cable kit to go with it called the pp05. In a nutshell that is what i wish i had done :(, bought that cable kit but only works with silverstone psus i think ... it doesn't work with my coolermaster one anyway.

In fact if I had the money to spend on a psu you do that is the one I would get the 750W Silverstone ST75F-P, Strider PSU, Silent, 100% modular, 80 Plus Silver it is on the today only section on scan along with a lot of other psus! That psu has decent enough effeciency, is quiet, fully modular with the option to buy different cables depending on what case you have and ample wattage and ampage, plus has very good reviews.

With regard to power efficiency and wattage, I can see lots of people in the posts above saying get a 750w+ psu with ok power efficiency and others saying get a really efficient 500watt one. This is my view, if you are getting a gold rated psu to save money rather than to save the environment then think carefully about how long you are going to have the psu for. The x-750 is gold rated and one of the quietest most efficient power supplies at that wattage on the market. The silverstone one I recommended is 40 pounds less though has a similar wattage output plus ampage and is just as reliable according to jonnyguru (the silverstone got 9.5 on performance and the seasonic got 10). The 40 pound price premium is ultimately down to the fact that one is semi passive and has gold efficieny rather than silver. Now in a full system you won't hear the difference between the x-750 and the silverstone strider 750, jonnyguru described it as "mostly silent", so then you are effectively paying 40 quid for the gold power efficiency. Now if you look at the product page for the silverstone unit you can see maximum efficiency of 89% is at 50% load so roughly 325 watts, which is roughly what your system would draw playing a game maybe, the MAXIMUM efficiency for the seasonic unit is 90, 1% more. My point is basically don't go for gold over silver just to save money because it will take you along time to recoup it, it simply isn't worth it imo.

Which brings me onto my next point, as you can see from the graph that unit and most others as far as i am aware are most efficient and therefore still very quiet around 50% load therefore I would say a 750w unit is ideal because you will get your desire for quietness pretty much guaranteed at that price point and wattage regardless of which unit you go for and you will also get some headroom for future upgrades.

Finally last short point high efficiency doesn't necessarily equate to higher quality ... usually it does, but not always, just look at the antec signature series.

You may already know those things, sorry if you do, I didn't and i wish someone told me 6 months ago ... hope some of that helps.

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Originally Posted by SuicidaL

i take it the here! was supposed to be a link.............................doesn't work if it was :)

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Its the classified from DDY.