If you want to go gold as above what about EVGA SuperNova G2 550 already mentioned or the new CoolerMaster V550 which has the advantage in that it's small (the G2 550 may be too, my G2 750 isn't.)
The new V550 I think was made by the same company which make power supplies for Silverstone which have a range of among others smaller supplies for smaller cases too I believe.
Nothing wrong with HX i or AX i from Corsair or so either, they are expensive that's all. I don't know what's a decent bronze supply so I really shouldn't comment. Corsair CX M is a popular choice which receives criticism now and then but it may be due to the popularity. If lots of people buy your supply and some have issues then guess what? More issues with that one.
The advantage of going gold over bronze is about 5-7% better efficiency depending on the load of the PSU and whatever you've got ~110 or ~230 volt in the wall. That will provide you with upwards of 8% lower electricity consumption, heat and the more expensive PSUs also come with higher quality capacitors which may last longer.
The advantage of having a weaker supply / just what you need is that efficiency drop when your computer uses very little power relative the capacity of the supply. However very little power (standby) will likely still be very little power whatever it's a 500 or 750 watt supply and on a low power consumption (idle) it will make some difference but the power draw is quite low so I assume it doesn't affect the budget all that much.
One advantage of both high efficiency and low capacity is that that the heat-output will be lower so it can be smaller, have a smaller fan, spin the fan less, what not.
The advantage of having a stronger PSU is that you've got more spare-room if you purchase even more power-hungry components it can handle that. The efficiency of the PSU also drop when it's highly loaded and that difference is on a higher power which mean that the actual wasted electricity and heat is higher. So I guess buying a more powerful one actually may not be worse. Depends on how you'll load it (as in whatever the machine will run games or just sit in sleep mode.)
I've always wanted a smaller computer ever since my friend had a Shuttle one many years ago. The mini-ITX motherboards couldn't hold the amount of RAM I wanted (32 GB) and while micro-ATX cases are much larger than mini-ITX cases that was what I had to deal with. I knew the SuperNova G2 750 wouldn't fit in many of the smaller cases (160 mm PSU length max), I think the CoolerMaster V700 was smaller and it also had a better quality fan (fluid dynamic-bearing rather than ball-bearing), the G2 on the other hand may have been cheaper then, tested slightly better, they also have very good warranties but that may be true for both, yeah, and it also had a eco fan mode where the fan shuts down completely. That's not good for the components though which get hotter than necessarily so while it may be good for the noise (it's very silent even with the fan on) and spare on fan life-time it may be better to have it on anyway, it will also help cool your case in some cases.
Anyway. What I would had done today is likely to go buy one of the CoolerMaster V550, V650 or V750 power supplies. They are high-quality, gold rated and small.
That or a custom PSU for a custom case to get as small as possible
I have no need for 6+ harddrives, 3-5 optical drives and 5-7 expansion cards. If you do then maybe that's not for you.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram