Best PSU, Need advice ASAP please.

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R_G_S

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Dec 17, 2012
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Hi guys,

My PSU is dead and I need to buy a new one tonight to get it sent to me for Thurs latest (so I can get it installed by Novatech).

My current rig is this:

QX6700 Extreme @ 2.6GHz (cooled with Zalman 9700)
680iSLI motherboard
4GB Corsair Dominator RAM
GTX 480
1000W Enermax Galaxy PSU - Now dead...
Silverstone TJ07 case
5 HDDs
30 inch Apple Cinema Display

I *may* upgrade shortly to the parts below, but the PSU will need to work with what I have for the timebeing (i.e. the specs above):

CPU: i73930K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 *2011* Dual Radiator CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 Pro
RAM: 32GB Corsair, 8GB DIMMs, quad channel.

I intend to buy the PSU from SCAN here: http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/power-supplies/all

I am considering the following:

Corsair HX1050 Gold, Hybrid Modular (£158), Corsair AX860 Platinum, Fully Modular (£151), Corsair AX1200 Gold, Fully Modular (£207).

Other possibilities are SilverStone SST-ST1200-G (£185) or XFX P1-1050-BFUK Black Edition 1050W (£150) - Both fully modular.

Plese let me know your thoughts as I need to make the purhase this eve. I do not intend to upgrade this PSU for a very long tme, infact I tend to buy the best I can get and then not upgrade for a while generally. I do not want to ever worry about hitting a power limit when upgrading other parts either (hence my current PSU which was bought in 2006). I use the PC for work, full time (which is 3ds Max modelling and Photoshop) and also games.

Fnally, I assume all these PSUs come with the required cables etc?

Thanks very much in advance,


Robert
 
Any of those PSU's are good, although you are going way overkill on the wattage, you would be fine with a 700w. Good plan on not skimping on this PSU, I hope your old one didn't take anything with it. Any of those PSU's will come with the necessary cables for your purposes.
 
Thanks Chugot9218,

I don't know what damage the previous PSU might have done yet... Hopefully only itself.

I know I'm going overboard with the wattage, especially as I don't intend to run a dual card setup, I just don't want to ever even have to think about it when upgrading parts say 2 years from now. I may be using 64GB RAM and 6 fast HDDs though if that makes much of a difference?

Would you recommend the AX range over the HX? Ideally I'd go for a fully modular AX1000W, but that product doesn't exist! What about the AX860 Platinum vs. the AX1200 Gold?

Finally, would all those units work fine with both my existing build and potential upgrade?

Thanks again,

Robert
 
you will not see performance improvements over 8 gigs of ram
with multiple hard drives you can do a raid 5 which is basically combining two hard drives as one to improve speeds and the third drive does a backup because if one of the shared hard drives fails you loose the data. you can read up on raid 0, 1 and 5

modular power supplies are nicer as you have less wire clutter, yes you can purchase the psu and use it in your current rig and down the line you can re use the same power supply after upgrading
 
@alvine

I doubt I'll notice a difference with over 8GB for games, but I’m sure that I will notice a big difference for work. Photoshop and 3ds Max open together with 8192 textures + other progs too… 4GB is pretty fierce right now.

Regarding the PSU I might go for the AX1200 and be done with it. Another option is the 1050W Seasonic X-Series SS-1050XM. I’ve not heard of them before, but I’ve not been looking into PSUs for years. Any thoughts on this compared to the AX1200?

Also I see that Corasir have an AX860i and AX1200i, but these are harder to get hold of and a bit more pricey.
 
Hi guys,

I’ve narrowed it down to either the AX1200 for £192 or the AX1200i for £240. Although this is more than I was intending to spend the reviews of these are very good and as said I’ll be holding onto it for a long time + it will slot nicely into my upgraded system when I do so.

Last couple of Qs then:

Basically: Is the ‘i’ worth the extra £50 and will it work fine with my current mb?
Differences/Improvements that I can think of are the self-test button, fan-less operation, platinum efficiency and digital control + software monitoring. Also, the non ‘i’ version was released in 2010, this is a brand new part (Aug 2012 I believe).
Finally, to hook up the software monitoring you need to connect the PSU to the mb via USB (internal I think). I’m not sure if my current mb has an internal USB connection or can support this/it’ll work fine not connected until I upgrade.

Any thoughts before I take the plunge one way or the other?
 


Seasonic makes some of the best power supplies. The AX760, 860 (and previous 750/850) are all based on Seasonic platform designs. The 1050W part seems to be a good choice. The reason why I don't suggest an extremely high wattage PSU is because it won't be as efficient if you aren't applying enough load to it. The i series seem nice, but I highly doubt the features are really practical (as in everyday usage, especially since you won't be tinkering with it constantly). I'll honestly just get the AX860 as thats all you need unless you plan on getting over two graphic cards. If you feel like you really will be upgrading even more later on, then the Seasonic 1050 should suffice.
 
Thanks Cerunnos,

If the price was the same (it's not) would you still pick the AX860 over the AX1200?

860 is newer + platinum certified with fanless operation. 1200 means I can put whatever I like in the rig and never have to think about it. I won't be going x3 SLI though, max two, more likely one monster, 6HDDs and 32/64GB RAM.

Are you sure there's no way I'm going to hit my head with an 860 in future? Will the 1200 be 'bad' at a low output?
 
If you would like to have two cards in SLI with multiple HDDs, then go for the 1050W or 1200W unit. The thing about 1200 when you aren't starting with a highly configured system is that it its not as efficient as compared to a lower wattage unit. Of course its just a few % points, but, I suppose its a personal thing (efficiency).

Eg, the AX1200 does 88.5% efficiency @ ~250W, which is what you might expect with a single card with mild loading, versus 92% @ ~750W, which would be a simultaneous maxed overclocked CPU + 2x graphics card load (which is quite rare). Keeping in mind that you shouldn't constantly be hitting high loads (and idle is a good amount <100W), the actual efficiency value will be much lower.

I would suggest you get something around 1000W if you are sure you'll upgrade and just want to be safe. I personally don't use SLI, so I'll pick the AX860 (the AX760 in fact).

Note.
The figures are pulled fom jonnyguru.com 's review of the AX1200.
 


The best power supply to end all power supplies is this Goliath I like to call Chuck Norris and when you perform the Roundhouse Kick you're left with Jesus.

Regarding your particular choices that you listed, go with the platinum corsair. The only issue with that is what if in the future scenarios, which is why I'd go with the Chuck Norris build.
 
Thanks very much for the explanation.

I'll likely not be going SLI in future, *but* I like to keep my options open 😉. Also I remember in the past we saw some monster one card sandwich solutions.

I'll sleep on it tonight and place the order first thing tom. I saw that Seasonic offer a 1000W Plantium PSU for ~£200 which would've probably been ideal, but can't find any stock and I need to make the purchase ASAP. If it's ony a few % difference in efficiency I *might* just stick with the AX1200 for a bit of futureproof flexibility.

Thanks once again - Really appreciate the help!
 
Hi guys - I still haven't got this thing!

I'm a little worried the AX1200 might be a tad on the the noisy side, whereas the 860 is very quiet/silent. Are you sure I'll have lots of headroom in future with my upgrade rig (spec in top post), even with 64GB RAM, 6 fast HDDs, 6 case fans and a GTX690? I don't honestly think I'll go SLI, but everything else will be pushing it hard.

If in any doubt I'll stick with the 1200.

Thanks


EDIT: Another thought crossed my mind - Whilst I don't bother with SLI now (and generally would always prefer one uber card), I could easily get another GTX 480 for £160 which would possibly give me roughly 680 performace. Then upgade to a single 8XX series when the time comes and SLI it once that flagship card hits ~£160. Repeat the process... I doubt I'd do this with the 480 due to heat possibly, but does this sound like a sensible plan?
 


Noise shouldn't be a problem, PSUs typically only get heard after you put an immense load on them or have high case temperatures (in conjuction with high loads).

I'd say, unless you really need that performance boost now, just wait for the next gen card, as in, do you have games that you can't play smoothly at the moment?
 
Hey man,

Thanks for the info. I think Im going to go with the AX860 - Everyone keeps telling me that it's more than sufficient. I'm not worried about right now, but more 3-6 years from now. But again I'm told it's ample headroom unless going SLI (probs still fine for 2 powerful cards even - I'd never consider tripple-SLI).

The SLI upgrade path was just a thought... I'll prob just stick to a single monster card and make do in between as I am with the 480 now.

I'm choosing the AX860 as pposed to 860i as Dabs don't have that in stock + sometimes I find these extra features (USB monitoring) can cause compatibility issues anyway + the 'base' 860 is a smaller unit so improved case airflow maybe?

I think that's a better bet than the AX1200 (the i version of that is £240, which does seem overkill for my needs) as it's a newer design, more efficient and has the silent fan - even if as you say the fan isn't much of an issue. My PC is pretty loud as is right now, but I'd like to change that with the next upgrade so I don't want to be adding noisy parts if I can help it.

Large amounts of RAM doesn't affect power requirements much I take it?

EDIT: Well, I've gone with the AX860, hope it lasts me well 😉.
 
The AX860 non i should technically be a slightly better choice because it a Seasonic versus the Flextronics (from my understanding). The Seasonic platforms are pretty quiet. I have the much older X750 (two generations ago) and it is still running fine, quiet, even if I add in a second card to stress it. It should last you quite some time, 7 years warranty if I remember correctly. Each stick of RAM only adds a few more W to the power consumption, same for HDD/SSDs. If you stick with efficient cards, 2x SLI/XFire (eg, 670s) should be possible with the 860 provided you aren't trying to do extreme overclocks.
 
Hey Cerunnos,

Yes it's based on a Seasonic design, glad to hear you think that's better 😉.

I was set on the AX1200 this morn, but again read a few complaints regarding the fan noise + obviously its a much older model than the 860. Contemplaited the 1200i, but it just didn't seem worth it pricewise for what I need - basically designed for tri and quad SLI systems.
I don't *think* I'll ever go SLI to be honest, but I want to be 100% sure that I'll have no probs with other upgrades over the coming years. As I've said I don't want to think 'should prob be ok...' rather; 'I have a *huge* amount of headroom and don't even need to think about it at all 😉' Hopefully the 860 will do that. On top of that I don't OC anything as I need stability and longevity from my parts (and am not knowledgeable enough in this area if something went wrong).

Novatech said it'll run the spec below + whatever single card I like without getting close to the limit and future hardware wouldn't cause any issues either, the bigger PSUs are really just for SLI and mainly over x2 SLI. Would you agree?

CPU: i73930K
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 *2011* Dual Radiator CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 Pro
RAM: 32GB/64GB Corsair, 8GB DIMMs, quad channel
HDD: 6 High RPM drives, possibly +1 SSD.
GPU: Any single card, or dual single (GTX 690)

Thanks as always for the help.
 
From what I've been reading you're more likely to see power requirements come down in coming years. The push to make processors and such more efficient for battery life on mobile devices and make it less expensive to run big server farms and data storage facilities will bring advances to personal computer hardware.

In my experience 99% of people who say they want to leave room for the possibility that they will try SLI one day, never do. Mostly because unless you're an extreme type of gamer (ie: willing to shell out big bucks for a few extra frames and better shadows and multiple huge high res monitors) one good graphics card will always do a great job and be more cost effective. Unless you have a huge budget for this sort of thing or a very understanding spouse:)

I'm personally looking for a good 650-700 watt psu to take me through the next 5-7 years. Probably 2 or 3 Mobo/CPU/GPU changes. I go top shelf on the things that stay like the case/psu and look for the sweet spot, tech/price-wise on everything else.
 
@Chester,

Yeah hopefully this PSU will last me. As you say, I doubt I'll go SLI so the new AX860 is prob better for me than the AX1200. Well it's what I got, so let's hope so anyway! 😛.

Funny thing is it wasn't actually the PSU that was dead, rather the GPU. Got an msi GTX 680 Lightning to replace the GTX480. Hope it lasts better than the previous two cards. I tend to buy high end, but not upgrade for a long time.

Cheers,


Robert
 
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