Corsair TX550M Vs Be Quiet! PurePower 530W

Originally I was intending on going for the 650W bequiet! Power Zone Full Modular PSU however after checking there is no way that PSU is going to fit into the intended case, a Bit Fenix Phenom.

So now I'm torn between two power supplies - the Corsair TX550M and Be Quiet! PurePower 530W. Both are only hybrid modular but fall within the PSU limit for the case (160mm). Would anyone know which is a better PSU? Personally I want the build to be quiet whisper (rest of the build found here) but able to support a r9 290 and OC'ing. Both the 650W versions of the PSU's are possible as they are the same size, but I don't want to buying power I'll never use.

Also looking at it, would be going for the RM Corsair series be the better option? Fully modular and gold rated but a fair bit more expensive...

Any suggestions/comments would be much appreciated :)

Does that case limit include the cables? I've seen issues before where the plastic connectors on modular power supplies interfere, even though the power supply itself was short enough. Between those two power supplies, I would probably be inclined to go with the corsair. IIRC the corsair oem for the TX series is CWT and HEC does the purepowers. There's not a great deal to choose between them. I may well just decide based on cost in your position.
Obviously higher efficiency means a cooler power supply, which means a quieter case (as fans are spinning lower) however I'm far from convinced that Gold and above PSUs are worth it as the heat difference is not that great, but only you know your priorities.

Everything I've ever bought from Be Quiet has performed flawlessly.

Everything I've ever bought from Corsair has failed, or in the case of PSUs, developed annoying electrical whine.

To be honest the only corsair power supply I ever bought was removed from rig due to it making unpleasant noises, but I know they do have a lot of happy customers in the TX and up series. Looking at the components in those two power supplies JohnnyGuru showed Panasonic and then Nippon ChemiCon caps throughout the Corsair whereas the BeQuiet has Teapo. My current PSU has teapo, but I wouldn't choose them over either of those other two brands. Neither company has a UK RMA so that wouldn't sway me either way. Yeah, TBH I don't really know which way to call this one

mazty, what is your budget?

Between those two, and though it may not apply to the noise, the TX550M is a better option.

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Originally Posted by Yatagarasu

mazty, what is your budget?

Between those two, and though it may not apply to the noise, the TX550M is a better option.

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Honestly there isn't really a budget - I just don't want to pay more money than something is worth if you understand where I'm coming from?

I understand, but it is easier to help you if you specify your price range (and maybe the place from which you will get the PSU).

Ideally I'd like to keep the cost below £80, and considering the PSU size restraints of the case (160mm depth limit) I think that budget would encompass all the possible PSU's?
As for the place I'd be getting it from, just the standard websites such as scan, overclockers, ebuyer and dabs. I'll be mixing and matching my build from these sites so I'll just get the PSU from whichever is cheapest.

I think I would go for the Cooler Master G550M (£50 @ Ebuyer / £51 @ Scan)
http://skinflint.co.uk/cooler-master...-a1010360.html

As it performs exceptionally well for the price, uses a short case, is modular and competitively price. Review:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/G550M/
Which shows the fan spinning below 1000RPM up to 60% / ~400W. So should be good in terms of being quiet.

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Originally Posted by D1DM

I think I would go for the Cooler Master G550M (£50 @ Ebuyer / £51 @ Scan)
http://skinflint.co.uk/cooler-master...-a1010360.html

As it performs exceptionally well for the price, uses a short case, is modular and competitively price. Review:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/CoolerMaster/G550M/
Which shows the fan spinning below 1000RPM up to 60% / ~400W. So should be good in terms of being quiet.

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Good price, flat modular cables, 5 year warranty and same OEM as corsair....Great find! :clapping: Thanks for pointing that out, think I'll have that as the leading PSU now.

I suggest you get an XFX XTR 550W instead, though a 650W PSU would be somewhat safer, if you want it to support a R9 290 (and overclocking).

Offtopic: Did you choose the Noctua NH-U12S for its aesthetics/size? There are some Thermalright (True Spirit) coolers which are better or equivalent and are cheaper.

Neither BeQuiet nor Corsair manufacture their own PSUs, but both design and out source - The Corsair seem to be made by Channel well, the BeQuiets by Topower.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-...w-32187-4.html

The mfr is to some extent irrelevant if the QA and QC procedures are specified and followed by the designers. I have a Corsair HX650, which has behaved without problems, and BeQuiet also have a good reputation.
however, what do you mean by "Best" - best quality, best performance (regulation, efficiency, current/rail) value for money?

Either PSU will probably fulfil your requirements, so you can either go by the detailed specs or if value for money is your criteria, go for the one you can get at lowest cost.

The category "designers" is a little iffy in that article, it really should be broken into 2 or 3 categories.
1 - full design, these are fairly rare these days, companies who fully design their psu's and have someone else make them, tagan and pc power & cooling used to and enermax does for some of it's units.
2 - self alteration design, this is where this is where the company take an OEM unit and redesigns bits of it, normally the housing, wire connector layout, maybe ask to swap out the capacitors, pwm unit IC's and such, or just ask for the pwm to be reprogrammed to tweak the voltage regulation.
3 - OEM alteration, this is one step up from just rebranding, here the company ask the oem to provide a unit with certain specs and the OEM takes an existing unit and tweaks it to meet the given specs.

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Originally Posted by Yatagarasu

I suggest you get an XFX XTR 550W instead, though a 650W PSU would be somewhat safer, if you want it to support a R9 290 (and overclocking).

Offtopic: Did you choose the Noctua NH-U12S for its aesthetics/size? There are some Thermalright (True Spirit) coolers which are better or equivalent and are cheaper.

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That's a really nice PSU but where on earth is it stocked?! Also something that is confusing is that the size for it varies. XFX don't state the size (yet the 550W and 750W are the same), and scan has a completely different size for it. I'm waiting on a reply from XFX with regard to the size, but haven't heard anything in a few days.

As for the NH-U12S, it was a bit of both. As the Maximus Impact is a bit of a pain for heatsinks, Noctura have confirmed it will fit onto the board with the RAM I'm looking at getting. Plus the nickel heatpipes are quite nice :)

Ebuyer have the XFX XTR 550W last I checked.
http://www.ebuyer.com/618812-xfx-550...u-p1-550b-befx

[H]ardOCP have tested the 750W version and he said the unit was ~168mm deep, which agrees with what Scan have listed (170mm), so I would be inclined to believe that.

I'd watch XFX if I were you, my current power supply is going back because its fan is unbearably loud and I can hear it through game sounds.

Dylzan, that model, which has been around for a while, is known for its fan issues, despite being a solid unit on the electrical part.

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Originally Posted by mazty

That's a really nice PSU but where on earth is it stocked?! Also something that is confusing is that the size for it varies. (...)

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It is on sale at dabs.com and at scan.co.uk. The latter has misleading product images, since it is the P1-550B-BEFX model, whose official specs you can find here ("PSU Dimension (cm) : 8.6 x 14.0 x 16.0").

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Originally Posted by Yatagarasu

... whose official specs you can find here ("PSU Dimension (cm) : 8.6 x 14.0 x 16.0").

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The ATX PS/2 spec requires a PSU to be 150mm wide. None of those dimension measurements is 150mm.

So if we are going to look beyond the fact that XFX have not provided useful dimensions, we can interpret/guess that the unit is either 140mm deep (which is very unlikely if it uses a 13.5cm fan - which is does). Or 160mm, which at least one reputable review site, who do bother to measure things, disagrees with, stating that it is ~168mm deep.

IMO it is too large to be comfortably used in a Bitfenix Prodigy, unfortunately.

Hybrid modular is better for cable management in recent experience, as the important and big cables are to the side, and can be put behind the case a lot easier, and it looks cleaner.

That all depends on the PSU, there's no fixed definition as to what is "hybrid modular" or "modular"
Modular used to mean a psu with only the 20+4pin and 4/8pin connector attached, although some also had pci-e 6+2pin cables attached as well.
The first PSU called hybrid modular to my knowledge was the Antec TruePower which had 20+4pin cable , separate 4pin and 8pin cables, two pci-e 6+2pin cables, one sata power cable and one 4pin molex cable all hard wired to the psu with additional modular pci-e, sata and molex cables.
PSU's where all the cables where modular where called fully modular.