"Review My Build"...

[edd1234]

I know you get what you pay for - but would anyone be able to suggest any decent 650w PSUs for under £70, or even £60. I find it difficult to tell what is considered good, when there is little on the manufacturers or sellers webpage or specification that gives it away. The cheaper the better really, but nothing that would be considered sub-par, or risky. What about these two?:

http://www.ebuyer.com/264511-ocz-zs-...-ocz-zs650w-uk
http://www.ebuyer.com/410557-fractal...-psu-in2b-650w
Would I really notice the difference between one of the more expensive, better-known brands and something like this?:
http://www.ebuyer.com/386117-x-power...su-x-power-700

Thanks for the help.

[dacads]

I wouldn't recommend any of those..XFX is a good starting point as their PSUs are made by Seasonic.

[Mehta23]

Yeah. I'm gonna have to see the prices for 600W XFX PSU's....

[edd1234]

I am aware the corsair and the x power aren't great but all the tiered power supply lists such as the one on jonnyguru and eggxpert rank the ocz zs fairly high.
I'll have a look at XFX.

[scaryjim]

I'll give you a clue about the x-power: it's a 700W PSU for £40. The OCZ ZS is a 650W PSU for £65.

How well built do you think the x-power is?

Here's the thing - you might get away with it. Modern computers actually draw very little power. Hexus just reviewed a pre-built today, with a stock i7 3770k and a GTX660, and it only pulled 191W in gaming. There's every chance that even a cheap PSU will power a modern gaming rig without burning out.

But there are other factors than just how much power a PSU can supply. It needs to maintain good regulation over voltages and minimize any variation (ripple). A cheap PSU won't necessarily do that well, and those fluctuations of voltage and ripple can cause cumulative damage to your expensive components. It's never worth skimping on a PSU (a good PSU could actually follow you through several upgrades, like a good case and monitor).

EDIT: if you want a reasonable modular* PSU, how about http://www.ebuyer.com/283834-be-quie...ular-psu-bn180 - 430W, semi-modular (the 24pin and 4/8pin connectors are fixed), decent quality, £48. Hexus reviewed its 630W big brother: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/psu/44...r-l8-630w-psu/ and found it to be a decent PSU.

*ah, it wasn't the OP asking about modular. None the less, Be Quiet are starting to make a reputation for themselves in terms of well-built, inexpensive PSUs...

[Mehta23]

Thanks for the advice! Would you recommend this PSU over the Corsair CX600M?

[scaryjim]

Hmmm, don't really know enough about the differences to be sure. CAT's the person for that comparison really, or one of the other Hexites who know their PSUs.

[MrJim]

Oh right. It's not that the CX is bad... It's just that there are better alternatives... Anything Modular?

Well, for about the same price as the CX750, you could get this:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-...et-fan-atx-psu

or

http://www.cclonline.com/product/461...620W-/PSU1244/

Not quite as powerful, but then even with a 7850 or 7870, a 750W PSU is a bit overkill really. The Antec is also made by Seasonic, by the way...

[jimbo02816]

Consider a 7870 XT tahiti card. They use the tahiti core and are quite a bit faster than a 7870 and rival the 7850 when overclocked. Newegg has them on sale now for $239 minus 13% promotional so you're talking about $212..PLUS they giving away 2 games Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider. I have the PowerColor version of this card and it rocks. P9512 in 3dmark 11 overclocked.

[kkxlynx]

build sounds good!

[Phaz0r18]

Looks like this si going to be a fairly sweet build...