PSU comparison

[DeeBrad]

Hey all,

I would be extremely grateful if one you gurus could tell me which of these PSU's would be the best buy?

1: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/antec-h...34238-pdt.html

2: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-...-quiet-fan-atx

Will be used for gaming with a gtx 570 and 2500k. Any info would be great!

[Noxvayl]

I'd get the Antec PSU(first choice), cheaper and has a better certification; it also has a good review from Anandtech> http://www.anandtech.com/show/4343/a...0-good-bargain

[D1DM]

I would also buy the Antec HCG-520 before I'd buy the Corsair GS600.

[doyll49]

Just guessing but think you might want a bigger PSU..
You might want to calculate PSU wattage needs:
http://support.asus.com/PowerSupply.aspx?SLanguage=en

[Pob255]

Not for a single gx570 and i5 2500k he doesn't, unless he's got some massive 10 drive raid array or going for a record overclock, 500-600w would be plenty and have head room to spare.

That psu calculator isn't very good as they go, it's doing a lot of rough rounding up, so the result is only in jumps of 50w
However for a basic setup on it
i5 + gtx570 + 2x ram sticks, 2x drives + 4x fans = 450w according to it.
I don't know why they've included USB's as USB2 max current is 2.5w, USB3 does have a max of 25w but not while carrying data, when carrying data the max is currently 4.5w

Yes they are looking at increasing it to 100w but that would be as part of a new standard revision and not currently in effect.

[doyll49]

Agree Pob255 except if using USB to charge your phone, Kindle, etc. I think 450w on a 520w PSU means shorter life as capacitors age, rated capacity drops and they fail. The difference in energy consumption of a 500w PSU vs 650w PSU is minimal.

[Ulti]

Well with what he's got I doubt he'll draw more than 300W on gaming load anyway and 100W on idle/web browsing/office.

[doyll49]

Maybe.

I use a plugin monitor on my system with 145w idle and 350w at or near 100% load encoding... and it toasted an Antec EarthWatts 430 and an OCZ 500 SXS.. each lasting a couple of weeks... i7-920 OCéd yes, but no hi-end GPU.. and monitor not even on when encoding as I use remote desktop. Put Corsair TX650 v2 in and 6 months later no problems. Changed to TX750 v2 hoping it would be quieter when I changed cases but same PSU fan noise.

[Noxvayl]

The key to power supplies(PSU) is the amount of Amps they can mange on the respective rails, especially if you are overclocking. A 400-600W PSU with only 1x 12V rail rated at ~20A is not going to manage with the system you mentioned doyll49, but a 400W PSU with 2x 12V rails each rated at ~20A will be fine. Current(Amps) is what causes the wear and tear in components so if they are at or near full capacity for their rated current then they will likely fail as you described.

The Antec HCG 520W can manage 40A on it's single 12V rail and 24A on the 3.3V and 5V rails which leaves plenty of capacity spare; the 80Plus Gold certification also means the quality of the components are top notch to be able to achieve above 87% efficiency between 20-100% load.

[choco]

i would go for the antec. thats what i have.

[watercooled]

Yeah the Antec is what I'd choose; it's easily more than enough.

If a system pulling 350w peak destroys 2 PSUs in a row you've either been incredibly unlucky and received two faulty units, you live in an area with bad power quality (frequent surges/over-voltage/etc) or it's overheating somehow; a quality 500w unit is designed to provide 500w constantly. Capacitor ageing isn't something you have to pay an awful lot of attention to - capacitors in quality PSUs are already very over-spec'd and decent caps won't age fast, polymer caps barely age at all.

Charging USB devices isn't going to make any notable difference, pulling an amp or two on the 5v rail.

Also, most modern power supplies have a single 12v rail, the rails you see quoted on the box are just OCP limits placed on the same physical rail. Some high power units may have two truly separate rails, but the vast majority don't. However, some cheaper PSUs will only supply a relatively small amount of current on the 12v rail, say 380w on a 500w supply but since modern PCs use 12v for most of the power hungry components, it's less useful than a design which allows most or all of the current to be pulled from 12v, as in DC-DC designs for instance.

[dilson]

Might be worth looking at the CX500 as is very reasonably priced and would cope with your demands.