Is Power Supply good for Overvotage?

[Vitric9]

I am using a cheaper PSU right now and I am buying a new one tommorow. I would like to know if the HX850 or it's Seasonic Counter part, high qualuity enough for overclocking and overvolting if need be? I have been giving a liittle more voltage to my graphics card to get it to run at 80% power. I might get the AX860 because it is not as long which is as I read a very good PSU

 

[jimmysmitty]

The HX850 is fine but it is gold rated. The AX860 is better as it is platinum rated meaning it will run at higher efficiency. As well 850/860W is more than enough power if it is a single GPU.

I would go for the AX860 (I have a AX860i and love it) as they have a fanless mode at low usage and as well are considered some of the best PSUs on the market right now, until the new Titanium rated ones hit.

 

[babachicken]

Yes, the AX 860 is great for overvolting and such things, but so is the HX, the AX just has a higher efficiency rating than the HX.

 

[bdiddytampa]

What else are you running on your rig? you won't need all that power unless you have an SLI setup...

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

HX or AX all great units.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The $150 HX has better lil bit better voltage regulation and lower ripple than $180 AX making it a bit more stable overclocking platform.....I don't pay any attention to Silver / Gold ratings....here's why .... lets say ya use puter 30 hours a week

Gold = 90% efficiency
Silver = 88%

Say average load is 425 watts ....

30 hours x 425 watts / 90% x $0.10 per kwh/1000 watts per kwh = $1.42
30 hours x 425 watts / 88 % x $0.10 per kwh/1000 watts per kwh = $1.45

With a $30 cost difference, it will take ya 1000 weeks or about 19 years to get ya $30 investment back..... not exactly a worthwhile ROI.

 

[jimmysmitty]

The $150 HX has better lil bit better voltage regulation and lower ripple than $180 AX making it a bit more stable overclocking platform.....I don't pay any attention to Silver / Gold ratings....here's why .... lets say ya use puter 30 hours a week

Gold = 90% efficiency
Silver = 88%

Say average load is 425 watts ....

30 hours x 425 watts / 90% x $0.10 per kwh/1000 watts per kwh = $1.42
30 hours x 425 watts / 88 % x $0.10 per kwh/1000 watts per kwh = $1.45

With a $30 cost difference, it will take ya 1000 weeks or about 19 years to get ya $30 investment back..... not exactly a worthwhile ROI.

I decided to look that up and the AX is showing better ripple (less) than the HX:

HX850W:

AX860:

The review:

http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-professional-series-hx850-power-supply-review_2037/6

http://www.legitreviews.com/corsair-ax860-modular-power-supply-review_2100/6

The AX860 also has better voltage regulation that is cleaner and more consistent. And it would make sense as in order to get Platinum certification, you normally use better components that are of higher quality.

And while the load information from the PSU is fine, it matters more what the load from the wall is and a higher efficiency PSU will use more of what is actually coming from the wall than a Gold/Silver would.

That's not to say that the HX is a bad PSU, just that the AX860 is superior as will be the next version based on the Titanium efficiency rating.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Nice info jimmy

 

[Vitric9]

Wow nice chart...I am sold on the AX series. The AX860 is more expensive but I just really believe that these PSU's are very important because I kind of went cheap on the power supply just because I had to RMA one and I wanted to get my PC built that day.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Wow nice chart...I am sold on the AX series. The AX860 is more expensive but I just really believe that these PSU's are very important because I kind of went cheap on the power supply just because I had to RMA one and I wanted to get my PC built that day.

Once I saw a post with someone asking why they should pay for the name brand PSU. I guess that's the line of thinking that people have since there are name brand things (dish soap for example) and there are generic brands which are the same.

There is no such thing in computers. Companies charge more and that normally means they have better performance and better reliability.

The PSU is one of the most important parts. You do not want to go too cheap as lower quality components will have all kinds of adverse affects such as higher voltage droop, less stability and possibly if the PSU dies, it can take other components with it.

I built a system in 2007 and I wasn't as savvy with PSUs back then. I bought a BFGtech PSU. The company no longer exists. But just to give you an idea of quality, I had my new system with the BFGtech PSU and my wife had my old system with a Thermaltake PSU (also a decent brand). We had a power surge that cut the power for about 15 seconds. My wife's system didn't even shut off.. Mine, the PSU died. Was not even a year old.

Bought a Corsair TX850W and I just replaced that with the AX860 for my new build. The TX850W is still good and it is about 6-7 years old.

Quality never hurts with computer components.

 

[Vitric9]

Wow nice chart...I am sold on the AX series. The AX860 is more expensive but I just really believe that these PSU's are very important because I kind of went cheap on the power supply just because I had to RMA one and I wanted to get my PC built that day.

Once I saw a post with someone asking why they should pay for the name brand PSU. I guess that's the line of thinking that people have since there are name brand things (dish soap for example) and there are generic brands which are the same.

There is no such thing in computers. Companies charge more and that normally means they have better performance and better reliability.

The PSU is one of the most important parts. You do not want to go too cheap as lower quality components will have all kinds of adverse affects such as higher voltage droop, less stability and possibly if the PSU dies, it can take other components with it.

I built a system in 2007 and I wasn't as savvy with PSUs back then. I bought a BFGtech PSU. The company no longer exists. But just to give you an idea of quality, I had my new system with the BFGtech PSU and my wife had my old system with a Thermaltake PSU (also a decent brand). We had a power surge that cut the power for about 15 seconds. My wife's system didn't even shut off.. Mine, the PSU died. Was not even a year old.

Bought a Corsair TX850W and I just replaced that with the AX860 for my new build. The TX850W is still good and it is about 6-7 years old.

Quality never hurts with computer components.

I ended up getting the AX760 on newegg I decided that I am going to save up for a better GPU in a while instead of getting another GXT 770 which plays all the games that I play fine and has plenty of CUDA cores for performance in Adobe CS6 programs. So I think that the AX760 has enough juice to overvolt my CPU and my GPU is locked at 1.212v. I noticed the power usage was low and the temps were pretty low even running Heaven 4.0 and Valley 1.0( 65° C after overclock) but I Don't like the idea of overclocking CPU with my current PSU. I was going to get the HX850 but It is bigger and an older model. Also the price of the AX860 was like $40 more than the AX760 on newegg.ca. I really don't get that we have the same value on the Dollar as the U.S. but every thing is more expensive here plus we don't have any Microcenter stores. And there is higher taxes in the part of the country where I live.

 

[jimmysmitty]

That sounds fine. So long as you don't plan to run two super power hungry GPUs in CFX or SLI the AX 760 should serve you just fine and will have the same performance as the AX860, just lower watts.