[SOLVED] Are Cooler Master MWE PSUs good?

[necroheadbanger]

So I've already asked for some help buying a new PSU and after a lot of research I've found some Cooler Master MWE Series PSUs, but only the 500W ones.

Looking at a PSU Tier List on Linus Tech Tips forums, it seems to be certainly decent, but not that good. Taking in mind that I'm in a budget and I need to find the cheapest PSU that's not crap, I'm starting to consider buying this one, but I don't know if it's reliable at all. Would it support a simple build of I3-9100F + GTX 1050 + 8GB DDR4?

I've also looked everywhere for Corsair CX PSUs and could only come up with one place which sells one; it's located in my city (which is rather incredible), but they only have a 750W model and it costs like $120 USD which is far beyond my budget.

Answers and suggestions are welcome.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Question Are Cooler Master MWE PSUs good?

No, not really. And forget about the "tier list" on LTT. It's garbage. The one we USED to have here was enormously more accurate, and it had major flaws itself.

You don't need a tier list. You just need to know the pros and cons of the units you are considering for purchase and you can decide that for your self. This will help.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[necroheadbanger]

No, not really. And forget about the "tier list" on LTT. It's garbage. The one we USED to have here was enormously more accurate, and it had major flaws itself.

You don't need a tier list. You just need to know the pros and cons of the units you are considering for purchase and you can decide that for your self. This will help.

Discussion - PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

Below you will find MY standard list of recommended power supplies and beyond that this thread is intended as a landing place for questions or discussions regarding specific units, platforms or related PSU tech, all of which are all welcome to be discussed here. If it's related to power supplies...

forums.tomshardware.com

Yeah I've checked the list previously, but sadly none of the "good" PSUs listed there are either available where I live or inside of my budget.

EDIT: Checked even more and there's a incredibly huge shortage of any good PSU, even at higher prices.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What country are you in and what is your budget in your NATIVE currency?

Are there specific retailers you are required to order through, or are you limited to local shops?

 

[necroheadbanger]

What country are you in and what is your budget in your NATIVE currency?

Are there specific retailers you are required to order through, or are you limited to local shops?

I'm in Argentina, my budget can probably go up to $5000 ARS more or less.

I'm pretty much forced to buy from stores within the country, because anything bought from outside the country gets a newly applied %30 tax, and adding the shipping cost and customs tax (which is %50 of the total value of the product), importing anything would be stupidly expensive.

The best places I've seen to buy stuff from are probably CompraGamer, ArmyTech and Linio. There are many other stores that are spread through the country and sell their items online; there's a hardware finder page called HardGamers which will show you results for what you search throughout most hardware stores available. I've already tried to find anything good more than once with that page but came up with no good results within my budget.

The best PSUs vailable that I've found are Seasonic Focus series and EVGA SuperNova series, there aren't any other high-end PSUs, and there are many low-end PSUs that are apparently terrible.

An important thing I'll say; I'm more concerned about the safety of all my components than the wattage of the PSU and how far it can be pushed, I don't pretend to overclock my CPU, only maybe my GPU slightly with Afterburner if needed. The only upgrades I plan to do in a relatively short term are probably doubling my ram from 8 to 16GB, and probably getting another HDD or buying a cheap SSD.

Today I've talked with some friends and they recommended me these 3 models:

Cougar VTE500 (Costs around $5300)
Gigabyte PW400 (Costs around $3100)
Gigabyte P650B (Costs around $4900)

I've got a friend who runs a i7-7700k - GTX 1080 Ti - 32GB DDR4 build with the last PSU I've mentioned and also streams while playing some AAA titles like AC Odyssey with everything pretty much on Ultra and the PSU hasn't been a problem at all. It looks like a fine PSU if I may say so.

The PW400 doesn't seem to be a bad PSU either, at least that's what some non-so-professional reviewers have said about it, but the price of it doesn't inspire me any confidence.

 

[Archaic59]

I looked through the 3 sites you mentioned and wow, your choices are really limited. The only PSU I found worth spending money on was the Seasonic Focus Gold at Compra Gamer but the price is high. Linio has a couple Seasonics but prices even higher than Compra Gamer and ArmyTech doesn't have much to offer. I'd like to recommend the Seasonic S12III but it's outsourced junk from what I've been reading. I don't know much about Gigabyte PSU's so maybe someone else here has some info on them to offer.

 

[necroheadbanger]

I looked through the 3 sites you mentioned and wow, your choices are really limited. The only PSU I found worth spending money on was the Seasonic Focus Gold at Compra Gamer but the price is high. Linio has a couple Seasonics but prices even higher than Compra Gamer and ArmyTech doesn't have much to offer. I'd like to recommend the Seasonic S12III but it's outsourced junk from what I've been reading. I don't know much about Gigabyte PSU's so maybe someone else here has some info on them to offer.

Only thing I could find

Are gigabyte power supplies good?

Hi, Are gigabyte power supplies good? Is Gigabyte G750H better than Corsair TX650M? http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13706 http://www.overclockers.ua/power/gigabyte-gp-g750h/ http://www.orionpsudb.com/news/gigabyte-gets-back-into-psu-business-new-80-gold-series-by-cwt-appears...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sorry, but those three units are all trash.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?14993-Gigabyte-P650B-Review-gecid

https://forums.voz.vn/showthread.php?t=6679221


Sorry, but I wouldn't use, or recommend using, any of those three for ANYTHING other than a door stop. Fact.


Of ALL the power supplies listed there, I think if I were you, much as I wouldn't recommend either of them to anybody in most regions, I'd look at the Seasonic S12III 500w, or if you can find one, a Seasonic S12II 520w but if you use one of those you will need to disable the C6/C7 low power state in the BIOS because you have a Haswell or newer Intel system.

I know there are Antec units available in many shops in South American regions like Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, because I've helped people from those regions in the past who've been able to get ahold of them, so that might be worth looking into. Not all of them are good, but many are.

Unfortunately, you're choices are ultimately between not good and bad for the most part. I'm very surprised there are no Corsair units available on any of those sites.

 

[necroheadbanger]

I'd look at the Seasonic S12III 500w, or if you can find one, a Seasonic S12II 520w

I was thinking the same, in fact I can get a S12III, but you are the one who wrote that the Seasonic S12III should be avoided in the post you linked earlier, so I'm a bit confused right now. I could only find S12III though, not a single S12II or M12II.

I know there are Antec units available in many shops in South American regions like Argentina

The only one I've managed to find is a Antec 650W High Current which is $5400, so it's probably within my budget, but is literally the only one I've been able to find in all of the pages I've searched (which are way too many) and I don't know if the seller is trustable or not, he doesn't has a rating in the page and doesn't even answer questions. Its description of the product lacks any vital information too.

https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.a...cking_id=c22dd98a-3f49-4d18-95e6-4482feb6edb4

I'm very surprised there are no Corsair units available on any of those sites.

There were once, but they are all sold out and since now there's this %30 tax to anything you buy from another country, I'm pretty sure nobody is going to import any new PSUs because they'll simply have to sell them at very high prices and most people just simply don't care or don't want to spend much money in a PSU.

Like, if I can't get my hands on anything that's barely good or at least decent, I'll just go with that P650B because at least I know someone has it and it has worked fine so far, so I'll guess I'll go with the devil I know.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You're right, I did, but that's assuming you have better options. In this case, I'm not sure you do. I don't recommend those units, but if you can't get something better then at least if you get one of those and get one that is a few hundred watts greater than what you could actually ever need with this system, you might stand a chance of not having issues with it.

If you can get an Antec High Current Gamer for 400 over the budget you indicated, I'd find a way to save the extra money and get that unit. It's far better than anything else available to you except units that are way outside your budget. That isn't one of the newer style High current gamer units, or one of the better older ones, but is IS the same as the Seasonic S12II 620w, which is group regulated so it has that against it, but it is much better than anything else I'm seeing on those websites except the much more expensive units. Whether they are trustworthy as a seller or not, I understand, and that's something you'll have to determine. Don't sell yourself out and throw your money away on something that is a scam just to try and get a decent unit. Try local shops. Sometimes you can find a very good unit used, which might be a better option than a POS unit new.

I would not go with that Gigabyte unit in any case. It is a horrible power supply regardless that you know somebody with one that hasn't had problems, yet.

Absolute worst case scenario, go with the Seasonic S12III or the Thermaltake Smart series, and get a unit that is in the 550-650 range if possible so that even if the unit is not able to sustain it's full rated capacity, it won't matter, because your system isn't going to pull that much anyhow. Truthfully you only really need a very good maybe 350-400w unit for that system. Anything 450w or higher that is a good unit would be plenty. Anything 550w or higher that is a mediocre unit, will work. Anything that is crap, is still crap, no matter if it's 1000w.

 

[necroheadbanger]

Anything 550w or higher that is a mediocre unit, will work. Anything that is crap, is still crap, no matter if it's 1000w.

Do you think aThermaltake Smart 700W is mediocre or crap? (I'll guess it's crap but I still feel like asking just in case) I've been told that it's an awful unit, so right now I'm still thinking on either getting that S12III 500 or if I can a 600, which should in theory be fine.

I'll ask around the city and search for some hardware stores to see what they have; there's a small hardware store some blocks from my house so I could start asking there, although I'm pretty sure their prices are going to be quite high.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's VERY mediocre. It's not quite crap, but it's not very great either. For your system, it should be ok so long as there are no problems with manufacturing defects, since it is much higher capacity than you would ever need for this graphics card. Again, it's not something I'd normally say yes to, but given your circumstances you could certainly end up with something much worse. Personally, I'd REALLY try to look around for something better first though.

The cheap but serviceable units you want to look for will primarily be Seasonic S12II 520 or 620w, or any other units that come in the 520w or 620w flavors because those will all be based on the Seasonic S12II platform.

The Gray label Corsair CX or VS units. Do not consider the VS or CX units with green or orange lettering. Gray label only.

Antec VP series, High current gamer or True power classic.

Rosewill Capstone M or Quark series.

Thermaltake toughpower, any flavor.

Be glad to say yay or nay regarding any unit you might be considering so long as you are able to wait until I have a chance to check this post throughout the day.

 

[necroheadbanger]

Personally, I'd REALLY try to look around for something better first though.

I've been looking around every single day for the past 2 weeks. I've just been informed that a local store has some XFX units. I don't know what you think about them.

The cheap but serviceable units you want to look for will primarily be Seasonic S12II 520 or 620w, or any other units that come in the 520w or 620w flavors because those will all be based on the Seasonic S12II platform.

I've searched far and wide for a S12II or M12II but I couldn't find any, anywhere, only S12III. The only one I could find is used and the buyer seems to have already sold it so no luck.

I've searched for 520w and 620w units and the only ones I could find are SFX and Jalatec, which aren't certified and are really cheap, which doesn't inspire me any confidence at all. They seem to be re-branded Cooler Master PSUs, as the stickers on the PSU are in Spanish and there's no mention of CM in them. They seem to be quite old too.

The Gray label Corsair CX or VS units. Do not consider the VS or CX units with green or orange lettering. Gray label only.

The only CX I could find has a gray label, it's the 750W one which is beyond my budget. VS models are all the 2012 ones.

Antec VP series, High current gamer or True power classic.

Only that Antec I mentioned is available, but as I said before I don't trust the buyer a single bit and it's the only one in all of the online stores, which is somewhat concerning.

Rosewill Capstone M or Quark series.

The only Rosewill I could find are Hercules series and they are between $45000 and $65000.

Thermaltake toughpower, any flavor.

There are plenty of TT Toughpower but the cheapest one is $8460, it's far beyond what I can afford and I'm not going to get that money in a small amount of time (can't remember if I mentioned it, but I'm fresh out of high school and I won't land any job until like march or so, if I get any).

 

[Darkbreeze]

WHICH XFX units? The older XFX units are good, pretty much exlusively Seasonic built. The newer ones, which are the XT series, should be avoided. The rest of them, which are the TS, XTR and Pro series, are good, and made by Seasonic.

The ONLY Rosewill units worth using are the Quark and Capstone M, with the M being an important factor because there are Capstone G units made by Enhance that are not good like the ones made by Super Flower.

 

[necroheadbanger]

WHICH XFX units? The older XFX units are good, pretty much exlusively Seasonic built. The newer ones, which are the XT series, should be avoided. The rest of them, which are the TS, XTR and Pro series, are good, and made by Seasonic.

The ONLY Rosewill units worth using are the Quark and Capstone M, with the M being an important factor because there are Capstone G units made by Enhance that are not good like the ones made by Super Flower.

I'll know by tomorrow which models they have.

And about Rosewill, I've searched more and yeah, there are no Rosewill PSUs around here, and if there are, they must be in some kick-ass builds and must have been bought from eBay and imported, which nowadays isn't a good option at all.

All the people I've ask have unreliable PSUs; one friend as a 850W Sentey model from 2013, some have Gigabyte, EVGA, and other terrible brands. As much as I'm tempted to just say Removed and buy whatever I find that looks mildly decent, I know my luck and I'm pretty sure I'd be that one in a hundred that buys a dead PSU or his PSU just goes boom out of nowhere, so I don't want to take any chances.

I'll get back to you once I have any other finding.

 

[Darkbreeze]

As to EVGA, are there any of those available around there at all? If so, which models and capacities? EVGA has great and crappy models, and some that are somewhat just in the middle.

 

[necroheadbanger]

As to EVGA, are there any of those available around there at all? If so, which models and capacities? EVGA has great and crappy models, and some that are somewhat just in the middle.

I can only find B1, W1 and N1 models within my budget. Up to 650W models.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, you don't want those. I'd just go with the S12III if you can't find a decent XFX locally. They aren't "Seasonic" type quality, but they are still probably better than most the options available to you.

Find out about what XFX units are available first though. Might be able to scoop a decent unit.

 

[necroheadbanger]

Yeah, you don't want those. I'd just go with the S12III if you can't find a decent XFX locally. They aren't "Seasonic" type quality, but they are still probably better than most the options available to you.

Find out about what XFX units are available first though. Might be able to scoop a decent unit.

So I asked through social media and they just told me they have a "Corsair XFX 500W", they didn't specify more. It's $6700 so it's not within my budget anyway.

 

[Nigel Spike]

So I asked through social media and they just told me they have a "Corsair XFX 500W"

If you asked them about a car, they would probably reply they have a Ford Volkswagen P1800.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yeah, I wouldn't buy anything from a seller that said they have a "Corsair XFX" since those are entirely different brands.

Hold that thought though, I might have another member from Argentina who has a line on some EVGA GQ units that are reasonably priced. So let me see about that and I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

 

[necroheadbanger]

Hold that thought though, I might have another member from Argentina who has a line on some EVGA GQ units that are reasonably priced. So let me see about that and I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

That would be amazing!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Well, unfortunately they too are well beyond your budget, so not much help there either. Sorry man.

 

[necroheadbanger]

Well, unfortunately they too are well beyond your budget, so not much help there either. Sorry man.

Yeah, I thought so; I was looking at a publication of an EVGA GQ and it was around 18000 or something like that.

I won't stop searching and trying to find what's best for me. Maybe, with some luck, I might be able to extend my budget a bit more and then I'd be able to get something mildly decent perhaps, otherwise I'll stick to the S12III.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nah, these were around seven to nine thousand, but that's still two to four thousand more than your budget.