Need advice on new PSU

Nexus43

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Hi

My Antec 850w PSU has packed up, could anyone recommend a good PSU to replace it, my desktop is used for gaming and normal everyday use and the Antec has served me well for years.

I have seen this http://www.scan.co.uk/product.aspx?ProductId=38627 on scan wonder if it would be any good for my needs.
It is also on today only.

Thanks in advance.
 
The Coolermaster is OK but I think something like the Corsair HX850 at £126.74 or the XFX 850W at £129.42 are better power supplies.
 
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Firstly, what is your PC spec? I very, very much doubt you need an 850W PSU. This Corsair 650W would power all but the craziest of specs - we're talking SLI/Crossfire graphics cards and a top-end OCed CPU with several HDDs and maybe water cooling to exceed 650w...

This would do for most systems at less than half the price of those PSUs above.

But let us know that spec first so we can better advise.
 
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CX600 :rolleyes:

OK, I submit, that would do but they aren't the best?

You're either a PC user or an enthusiast, there is a difference in quality although it may not show until you either push your system hard on the GPU front or overclock.

TX or better for me!
 
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CX600 :rolleyes:

OK, I submit, that would do but they aren't the best?

You're either a PC user or an enthusiast, there is a difference in quality although it may not show until you either push your system hard on the GPU front or overclock.

TX or better for me!

All Corsair PSUs are stable and reliable, that's all that's required 9/10 times.

Is an 'enthusiast' likely to come on a forum to ask for PSU advice?

Point is we should know a lot more about the situation before recommending something extremely high end. You wouldn't recommend a GTX 690 to someone who came on looking for a 'new graphics card' without first checking he didn't have a decent spec to compliment it, would you? :)
 
All Corsair PSUs are stable and reliable, that's all that's required 9/10 times.

Is an 'enthusiast' likely to come on a forum to ask for PSU advice?

Point is we should know a lot more about the situation before recommending something extremely high end. You wouldn't recommend a GTX 690 to someone who came on looking for a 'new graphics card' without first checking he didn't have a decent spec to compliment it, would you? :)

He asked for a replacement for his Antec 850W and that's exactly what was offered? ;)
 
He asked for a replacement for his Antec 850W and that's exactly what was offered? ;)

Indeed, but to offer the best advice it's always better to have all the information, in my opinion. No harm in asking for more info... there's every chance the old PSU was 'over-specced'.
 
Thank you both for the advice given I did not mean to cause any disagreement, my old PSU was overspeccd for what I have but I did not want to go any lower than 850, anyway I had to make a decision on Friday to make sure I had one by Today, so after reading some reviews I went for the Coolermaster, hopefully I have chosen correctly. Thanks again for your help.
 
Currently the best value for money is the Corsair CX750M. It's a modular 750W PSU that has 4 PCIe connectors, very good reviews all around, excellent quality and you can find it for around £70.
 
Thank you both for the advice given I did not mean to cause any disagreement, my old PSU was overspeccd for what I have but I did not want to go any lower than 850, anyway I had to make a decision on Friday to make sure I had one by Today, so after reading some reviews I went for the Coolermaster, hopefully I have chosen correctly. Thanks again for your help.

Went with the coolermaster in the end and very pleased with at the moment, thanks for everyone's help.
 
Good to hear.

Although, I don't believe for a second that a 650W PSU would power all but the top top top end of specs, as stated above.

My 3GB 580 Phantoms in SLI coupled with the entire system would buckle with a 650W PSU.
Do the math.
Brush up on Watts and Amps required etc.

So yeah, better to be careful what you say. Some might even believe it.

680 in SLi is said to be capable under 750W PSU - But again this is risky. Better to go slightly above and be safe.

The 6xx series are a lot better at power management.

Anyway - Good to hear you've got a PSU - I just bagged a 1200W Platinum Modular PSU for £150 and was well chuffed. Arrived today.

Prob wont go in my build for a few months lol
 
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Good to hear.

Although, I don't believe for a second that a 650W PSU would power all but the top top top end of specs, as stated above.

My 3GB 580 Phantoms in SLI coupled with the entire system would buckle with a 650W PSU.
Do the math.
Brush up on Watts and Amps required etc.

So yeah, better to be careful what you say. Some might even believe it.

*Pretty rude and presumptuous there. I'll reply with a suitably rude response.*

Oh yeah, coz SLI/Crossfire is a typical system :rolleyes:

You also seem to have completely skipped my entire point - one needs to know what the user's spec requirements are before one recommends any PC component willy-nilly. But I digress...

For years 'PC enthusiasts' have been mislead by marketing from PSU companies to believe they need a much higher PSU rating than they do so people buy more expensive PSUs and upgrade more often. These mislead people then frequently offer mislead advice to others on forums and the misinformation spirals. In actual fact, CPU and GPU manufacturers constantly produce more efficient components so power requirements don't actually go up much, if at all, with every GPU or CPU development cycle.

I'd like to know how you do your maths because I actually monitor real-world, load power draw using a reliable power meter on the PCs I've built and also from reliable and industry renowned technical sources such as The Tech Report. Not just estimates (which is essentially what your 'maths' is) or quoting some guy on a forum.

Power draw of the following very high-end system under load:

Core i7-3820
Radeon HD 7970 CHz CrossFire
16GB (4 DIMMs) DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
OCZ Deneva 2 240GB SATA
= 545W. Yes. For the whole system. Under load. Also, as it's a mains power draw figure it actually includes PSU inefficiencies on top. :smashin:

power-load.gif


Link to the source article

Would I recommend a 650W PSU for the above? Of course not. You want some overhead as no PSU is 100% efficient (though that is taken into account above as stated) and people swith such systems often have a couple of mechanical HDDs, water cooling, OCing etc. on top. But how many people have a system of the above spec? And if they did, I doubt they'd be on an AV forum asking which PSU they should get (no offence whatsoever intended to the OP). The above spec is one of the few times anyone would ever need a PSU above 650W, no matter what you've been led to believe by PSU marketing types or your rudimentary 'maths' ;)

Anyway - Good to hear you've got a PSU - I just bagged a 1200W Platinum Modular PSU for £150 and was well chuffed. Arrived today.

Prob wont go in my build for a few months lol

Speaks volumes :thumbsup:
 
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You're backtracking on your following statement -

"...This Corsair 650W would power all but the craziest of specs - we're talking SLI/Crossfire graphics cards and a top-end OCed CPU with several HDDs and maybe water cooling to exceed 650w..."

Try to be clear in the first instance.

Is Guru3d not reliable? Or even bit-tech? They use equipment to test efficiency too! Or is it all fake and sponsored? *rolleyes*

I could go on and on but I cant be arsed.

A power meter is not the only gimmick to use to test load and efficiency. The equipment required is darn expensive if you really want accurate outputs.

Finally, you dont even know what type of system i'll be using my PSU to power? So what "volumes" does it speak?
 

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