Best PSUs (Archive)

[Guest]

Here are the best power supplies for gaming PCs. These PSUs offer the best reliability, performance and protection for your components.


Best PSUs : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3170773/psus.html

 

[vilor]

i see the best of each "category" but i would prefer a value-for-money also category. not everyone can buy a 100+ euros psu for 500/550watt.
as the author may know in many countries like his (and mine) most of "good gaming" pc's get a 500-750 watt psu that is near half the price of those psu's. and i am sure the RM models of Corsair are very good but that means nothing below those is "good enough"?

 

[Kimonajane]

Sticking with Corsair myself on my next build, i7-6700k/GTX 1070, the Corsair RM750x editor recommended is $115 at Newegg and just checked my Newegg wish list, LOL That was the PSU I had already picked out )

 

[joz]

Sticking with my G2 550W.

The King.

 

[littleleo]

Seems like Corsair is very good at sending in models to be evaluated compared to the others. Did I see that right 4 of the 12 units are Corsair? It would be interesting to note out of the top models which are OEM'd by Seasonic, and the other OEMs.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Sticking with Corsair myself on my next build, i7-6700k/GTX 1070, the Corsair RM750x editor recommended is $115 at Newegg and just checked my Newegg wish list, LOL That was the PSU I had already picked out )

There's no reason to get the RM750x over the RM550x. Even the RM550x is fine for two GTX 1070s and your system.

 

[Aris_Mp]

for best performance per buck products you can check the corresponding graph.

 

[tsnor]

THIS is a helpful guide to selecting PSUs (thanks to the people who made it): http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[ac13044]

evga supernove g2 650w psu

 

[HERETIC-1]

To all the people that want to see cheaper PSU's recomended-
PSU IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY BUILD!!!!!!!!!!!!
My recommendation for the most common 500-750 watt range is-
Seasonic G series
EVGA Supernova G2 series.

 

[lunyone]

I want to see best PSU's under $60. That is where most of the market is at anyway. Most people don't spend >$75 on a PSU for a build that is in all likelihood not needing more than 250-300w.

 

[littleleo]

What I hate is the re-sellers that tell me that can buy a great 500w power supply for $20-$25. I keep telling them there is no such thing! You can't build a high quality power supply, package it and ship it in to stores and sell it in that price range. Good quality parts will cost twice that before you get into assembly, paying for packaging and shipping. Endusers I can understand having this fantasy but re-sellers...they should know better.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

What I hate is the re-sellers that tell me that can but a great 500w power supply for $20-$25. I keep telling them there is no such thing! You can't build a high quality power supply, package it and ship it in to stores and sell it in that price range. Good quality parts will cost twice that before you get into assembly, paying for packaging and shipping. Endusers I can understand having this fantasy but re-sellers...they should know better.

This is why I continuously desire a standard for rating power supplies.

 

[Olle P]

To all the people that want to see cheaper PSU's recomended-
PSU IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY BUILD...

I agree, but that doesn't mean it has to be the most expensive part.
For all components the best option is to find what's "good enough".

The PSU must be able to...

• ■ fit inside the case, and■ provide the required amount of power■ through the correct connectors■ without damaging any components■ during the expected lifetime of the computer.

Power efficiency is only interesting if/when all other components are also chosen by order of efficiency before price.

IMO it's plain stupid to place much emphasis on power efficiency in PSU recommendations when it's very toned down in the recommendations for CPU, GPU, motherboards and storage.
There are plenty of PSUs around $50 that are "good enough" without being modular or having a "Gold" or "Platinum" efficiency label.

 

[tsnor]

To all the people that want to see cheaper PSU's recomended-
PSU IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF ANY BUILD...

I agree, but that doesn't mean it has to be the most expensive part.
For all components the best option is to find what's "good enough".

The PSU must be able to...

• ■ fit inside the case, and■ provide the required amount of power■ through the correct connectors■ without damaging any components■ during the expected lifetime of the computer.

Power efficiency is only interesting if/when all other components are also chosen by order of efficiency before price.

IMO it's plain stupid to place much emphasis on power efficiency in PSU recommendations when it's very toned down in the recommendations for CPU, GPU, motherboards and storage.
There are plenty of PSUs around $50 that are "good enough" without being modular or having a "Gold" or "Platinum" efficiency label.

Sometimes you win with more efficient PSUs (in addition to maybe a generally higher quality unit if you go gold or platimum.)

I have a few media servers. They are on old PSUs (being old servers repurposed). I could save $5-$10 a year by moving to an 80+ PSU. I don't worry about it, but if I was building a new media server I'd be using a gold PSU. It pays for itself.

I cure cancer with my PC and my media servers in the winter (BOINC client). Based on the article linked below I likely spend an extra $10-20 over the 6 months each year i run the boinc client on the PCs with the old PSUs, but I get some of that back on reduced oil needed to heat the house. Pure $ and Cents, I could likely save money by swapping in new seasonic gold psus if the PCs last another 4-5 years. No chance I'm doing the work.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/143029-empowered-can-high-efficiency-power-supplies-cut-your-electricity-bill/3

p.s. add to your list of what a PSU must do:
* low ripple, etc and tight voltage regulation to avoid transient errors
* enough hold up time to survive until my UPS kicks in, even at high load
* low noise from fans (and low electrical noise if the word noise make you think of that rather than sound)
* Protection for over current, over power and short-circuit

 

[superninja12]

can someone explain me what ripple is in noob language for a poweruspply?

 

[Olle P]

Sometimes you win with more efficient PSUs...

I couldn't agree more.
Perhaps you missed that my main complaints in the previous post was two-fold, with one aspect being that Tom's part recommendations emphasis efficiency as somewhat important only for the PSU. Saving a few percent power loss in the PSU is irrelevant if you use it to feed a relatively inefficient CPU and GPUs.

Example: A Platinum PSU feeding a pair of GTX Titans will draw more power than a basic 80+ feeding a GTX 1080 doing the same job.

p.s. add to your list of what a PSU must do:
* low ripple, etc and tight voltage regulation to avoid transient errors
* enough hold up time to survive until my UPS kicks in, even at high load
* Protection for over current, over power and short-circuit

These are implied in the "without damaging other components" bullet, although hold up is irrelevant to me. (I don't use UPS and have a generally very stable power feed to my wall sockets.)

* low noise from fans

Also a "nice to have" that's mostly omitted in Tom's recommendations for GPUs (which, of course, do not recommend specific cards in the first place).

can someone explain me what ripple is in noob language for a poweruspply?

Ripple is a high frequency component(s) in the "DC" output from a PSU.
Ideally the output should be a stable single voltage, but due to the way it's produced it can't be. At constant load the output has a small AC component that should be about 0.02V or so, peak-to-peak.

 

[tsnor]

OH. Yep, I missed it. Makes sense. "Perhaps you missed that my main complaints in the previous post was two-fold, with one aspect being that Tom's part recommendations emphasis efficiency as somewhat important only for the PSU. "

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Orion has an efficiency savings calculator http://www.orionpsudb.com/efficiency-calculator

 

[Burn0u7b]

Me personally, my builds are defined by the PSU. I have a corsair 1200i (i meaning it has the corsair ilink) it is a great power supply and with the corsair utility, i can monitor the efficiency, and move power around plus control the fan. Under heavy load, my power supply pulls a max of 465W. My system specs consist of a nVidia GTX 1080 FE overclocked, Intel Core i7 6700k overclocked to 4.9ghz, corsair H110i cpu cooler, Asus Extreme VIII motherboard, 32gb ddr4L 3400, 2 250gb SSD's in RAID, 2 2tb mechanicals in raid (WD Blacks) I used to have a GTX 980 Ti before it died i saw a huge power drop once i put the 1080 in. I was pulling at max load around 250W more with the 980. the most expensive components on my builds are the vid card, the motherboard, psu, chip.