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

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Mezoxin

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Which warranty. Vendors can have any warranty period they chose to, or are beholden to by laws, the so the vendor/supplier could easily be 3 years, many vendors it's just 1 year. Got exactly nothing to do with manufacturers warranty of upto 12 years on the Primes, that's all Seasonic. Not Venus.

It's a simple procedure. In the first 3 years, anything goes wrong, you take the psu back to Venus. If you do not get resolution, or are refused, you get that in writing and contact Seasonic, send them proof of purchase and the refusal.

After the 3 years, you contact Seasonic directly, again with proof of purchase, or at least the manufacturing date. 0-2yr 364day = Venus, 3yr-12yr = Seasonic.
the cost of shipping + customs/taxes alonew for heavy PSU would render any overseas RMA to be very costly exceeding the price unit , gigabyte in egypt though doesnt require overseas RMA
 

Mezoxin

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there is also the issue of time that egyptian customs take to clear things off , i once had some spare parts for my motorcycle spend a duration of 6 months in the customs office before being cleared , and for no reason that would explain this

and they open everything up to examine it and i think they would probably damage the warranty seal of a psu to make sure there isnt any contraband inside , i remember a friend of mine was sent a box of chocolates for his birthday from overseas , he recieved it after 4 months with the box of chocolates opened the chocolates themsleves were unrapped and the chocolates melted with some complementary ants inside as well
 

Mezoxin

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since i live in Egypt anything i have to send outside the country borders shall be considered international shipping and subject to customs and taxes.

I have found a Corsair RMi850w model for the same price that of the seasonic prime ultra 1000w , i dont need the extra wattage of the latter , but it would be nice to be able to monitor the psu and customize fan control in the corsair

https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2015/08/24/corsair-rm850i-850w-power-supply/6/

Oklahoma Wolf gave it 9.9/10 , but the review was in 2015 , has something changed significantly in psu benchmarking since that ? would you reccomend it ?
 

4745454b

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I know some places have different warranty periods. Might be 10yrs here, and (sometimes much) less than that for other places. It wouldn't surprise me to learn other countries/areas have only a 3yr while we have 10 or 12.

So it's still a sleep state thing? That wouldn't effect DC-DC PSUs though. Because the minor rails are generated by the 12V so to speak it wouldn't matter their load? So why demand that the 3.3V rail comes on after the 12V? It seems odd in this day and age we would still be worried about that.
 

Aeacus

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not 5years like seasonic in my country
I guess you don't know the following about Seasonic PSUs:
Since Warranty Periods may vary depending upon geographic region and product type, it is the responsibility of the consumer to check the exact Warranty Period that is printed on the carton. If you are living in a country where the point of sales entity grants a shorter warranty period than what is stated in the Seasonic Worldwide Warranty Policy or what is printed on the packaging carton of your product, Seasonic will always grant you the longer period of time. According to the European Union Directive 1999/44/EC, resellers in Europe have to provide warranty for a minimum period of two years on the products they sell.
source: https://seasonic.com/support

Meaning that even when you buy Seasonic Focus+, you'd still get 10 years of OEM warranty with your unit.

For example, i bought my Seasonic SSR-650TD from retail store which clearly stated that they, not Seasonic, offers only 2 years of warranty for that PSU. What that means is that within the 2 years of PSU's purchase, i can return it back to the point of purchase (store) and they take care any RMA/issues PSU has. If the 2 years is up, store won't deal with PSU RMA issues but Seasonic will. Which means that if i have any issues with my PSU, i need to contact Seasonic directly (which i don't mind).
Btw, my Seasonic PRIME 650 Titanium has 12 years of warranty, longest given to any PSU at current date. :sol:
 
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Karadjgne

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Actually 12 years is almost pointless. Granted it's an awesome psu, but ppl don't tend to keep a psu that long, it's the wrong color, not the right output, new designs come along, whatever reason.
 
BS. I'm keeping my Prime ultra for 12 years, and then, if I'm still around, I'll replace it. Until then, it will be going in any subsequent builds I do and possibly a lot longer than that if it happens to fail and get replaced while within the warranty period. Unlike other hardware types, I've found that PSU manufacturers tend to fully replace the unit rather than sending a refurbished unit. I'm sure there are exceptions, but for at least about seven or eight units I've had to send for RMA over the last five years, they've all come back as brand new shrink wrapped units.
 

Aeacus

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Same here. I bought my SSR-650TD to last as long as it's warranty period is, not to replace it in 2-3 years time. And since i have 650W unit, it has more than enough connectors for my use.
 

Karadjgne

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Well my G2 is now out of warranty, the 550w only got 5 years unlike its bigger brothers, and when I can afford to build a new pc, it'll probably get retired. Since that's not gonna happen until Windows 20 is out.....
 

LukeSavenije

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since this is the only place i can rant over recommendations, as much as i disagree with it.

a couple rants, which might've been mentioned before (by me and others)

<rant>
We didn't get any OCP results because our unit died during the OPP test, meaning either that this particular sample had a problem or OPP is set very high. Note that we conduct these tests at normal ambient temperatures, below 30°C.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-supernova-1000-g3-psu,4941-6.html

why would you recommend a g3 on that alone? then something comes added with that

OTP is set very high in our opinion, since we had to apply a huge thermal load on the secondary side to trigger it. The bulk cap's external casing nearly melted during our OTP evaluation.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-supernova-850-g3-psu,4930-6.html

you disqualify the s12iii based off that it's partly produced by RSY. then i recommend you write off the complete low end of Seasonic, as they're also partly produced at RSY (s12ii, m12ii, m12ii evo), and i don't know for what part, but from what i've heard SuperFlower also does part of it's production at RSY.

what's exactly wrong with FSP and EVGA? FSP has shown to make some amazing units for Listan (Be Quiet), even if those were mostly custom designs by bq themselves. heck, even evga themselves now have one of the better SFX units on hand with the GM. the g5 1000w has ripple issues, but there's nothing directly wrong with the lower wattage units, as they're based off (or at least close to my eye) to be quiet's power zone design, which was for a budget oriented unit just fine. maybe g5 wasn't meant to be a followup to the g2/g3 line.

speaking about g3, if you like it so much, why not start recommending the Leadex III? this is pretty much the fixed design version of the G3, even if it still is set high for my likings and the 750w has shown some ripple issues as well

CX/CXM green is internally the same as the current CXM 2015/17 on 750w+

what's wrong with CWT GPU/GPS?

does it have to be from a company that has been providing stuff for years so you don't give new players working together with the usual big OEMS like CWT, GW, FSP and so on a chance?

Single rail<Multirail, especially above 650w

realhardtechx hasn't been updating for a long time now

Focus FX has huge ripple issues, start shifting people over to GX/GM if it turns out okay

CX and CXM are not the same, and CX should always be chosen above it for the topology alone

AXi can't be beaten by prime, heck... i'd currently take something Delta GM based over it

what is selective about BQ if only 2 units are somewhat problematic? (pure power 11 300/350w), what makes it have a disadvantage over the others? because it's German?

Fortron/source isn't the only company that is part of FSP group

Cooler master has a unit that beats the crap out of most units you daily mention here, being the V platinum 2019, based off delta's GM platform, with that masterwatt, MWE v2 (if reviews turn out okay), Masterwatt Maker, Masterwatt maker MIJ and Masterwatt are in their class not horrible options, thermaltake does have some decent options including Toughpower Grand Gold, Toughpower Grand Platinum, iRGB Plus, DPS Gold and GF1. masterwatt lite just dropped that far because they had no UVP, and that's the thing i've been warning for that can happen on S12ii/M12ii and many other group regs with no or partly UVP.

I thought to have seen an actual decent chieftec a while back, but i don't recall the model

HEC/compubase/cougar is stupid to write off, as they are a major oem which can make decent units

same with High Power/Sifra

Xilence is part of the same company as Be Quiet, and has as decent units the performance X and A+

Raidmax once came close, but forgot otp on their 1200w 80+ titanium unit
</rant>

thanks for reading
 

Mezoxin

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So today I bought the Corsair RM-850i , couldn't resist being able to monitor my power consumption / efficiency when Idle or Gaming , my PSU temp and having Control over Fan speed and noise ,
I knew I was sacrificing the premium of a simiraly priced but better platforms such as the HX-750 and seasonic prime ultra gold 1000w for that feature but i felt it was a more tangible upgrade than higher effeciency or wattage for my needs

Corsair has bumped up the warranty of the PSU to 10 years on the new version and its printed on the box the warranty provider is the same as seasonic here giving the same warranty options (3 years local warranty)

I have a couple of questions :
  1. the psu comes with the Multirail configuration enabled , should i keep it this way or switch to a single rail configuration ?
  2. On the Default fan profile the fan didnt spin at all when i was playing the witcher 3 for about 15 mins and the temp of the psu didnt exceed 37.5 c and maximum power in was around 320w and power out was 307w with an effeciency of 93% . when switching the fan profile to a preloaded custom fan profile The PSU was very silent under same load conditions with fan only ramping up to around 740 rpm and temp not exceeding 30c , which fan setting is preferable ?
 

LukeSavenije

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Aris disagrees with that notion.
good for aris

but i mean, ask me, ask JG (of course biased a bit here, but since AX is a prime you could try), ask Aegis, Stefan Payne, PSUGuru, Ebasler, Dattestbench, Aden and many more, and they'll say the same as i do

one of the reasons i can give is that it's flextronics, churchill if you wondered. Flextronics refuses cheap stuff, so there's not much bad to find out there

heck, the only consumer flextronics units out there are corsair, as all the others are server units
 
I'll post this again, since I added a good amount to it.

AXi can't be beaten by prime, heck... i'd currently take something Delta GM based over it

Aris disagrees with that notion. He seems to think that the Prime titanium (And therefore the Prime ultra titanium) units are the best on the market today regardless of capacity. If you know somebody that knows better than he does, and these units score the very highest Cybenetics ratings possible, I'd sure like to know who you think that is?



I could probably disabuse you of most of the notions you've stated above, but I just don't think it's worth my time because for one, most of them are irrelevant. If a unit is good enough, and lasts, and you get your money's worth out of it, then other considerations are probably not important. And two, you probably wouldn't listen or believe anyhow since like most people you already have your mind made up and feel as though you know what is "right" and what is "wrong", so trying to argue against that is senseless, especially when nobody really cares.

That's exactly why I've simply recommended units that we know are good for most users and they can then determine for themselves whether a higher cost unit makes sense or is desirable to them, rather than saying this unit sits ups here and this one sits down here, because there is a lot less room for argument when simply saying "fit for this use" than there is when saying better, worse, best, not good, ugly, unsafe, perfect, or a variety of other terms that are all subjective based on too many criteria to absolutely put anything distinctly above or below anything else. Obviously, some units are crap and some units are very good, with some units that are somewhere in between. Knowing THAT, is all most users care about anyhow. Anything beyond that, is either being too nitpicky and detail oriented to ever make a decision about anything without having somebody to hold your hand in order to do it, or personal preference, or epeen measuring, or simply not being willing to do the work of reading reviews for themselves where there is a desire to know specifically whether one unit might be a better choice than another, when both are at least basically good.

Then there is also the price factor. Myself, and most others, see little reason to pay way more for a unit that might have a marginally better platform than a unit that already is very good and is capable of doing everything you need it to do, unless of course that more expensive unit meets some aesthetic criteria requirement that the other does not. I'm never against choosing components based on looks IF that unit is otherwise fit for the purpose to which it will be used and is of recommendable quality.

What I am against, is reading the opinions of people on PSU snob forums and taking those opinions as fact without confirmation from somebody like Jon, or Aris, or OW, or Gabe Torres, that can confirm that the science and data backs that opinion up. Claims of a platforms capability do not equal reality in a LOT of cases, and reviews of identical units don't always turn out the same much as with the EVGA B3 units which Oklahoma wolf gave a glowing 9.3 score for, but Aris found was a pile of junk because none of the three B3 models he tested could even pass testing at all without blowing up.
 
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good for aris

but i mean, ask me

Well, if you're putting yourself in that list of names you provided, you're not at all full of yourself or anything, are you? What do you know and what have you done that makes your opinion more relevant than Aris, who is probably THE MOST respected reviewer in the industry. I don't think even Jon or OW would deny that.
 

LukeSavenije

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Well, if you're putting yourself in that list of names you provided, you're not at all full of yourself or anything, are you? What do you know and what have you done that makes your opinion more relevant than Aris, who is probably THE MOST respected reviewer in the industry. I don't think even Jon or OW would deny that.
alright

then take your own way, i was willing to argue

but if this is the best a mod can do
 
I'm just saying. Seriously, had you made an argument that included some of the lesser known but still well respected names, and shown evidence that they are of the same opinion, and left your name out, it might have been a bit more believable. Maybe. I sure as hell wouldn't put my name, or even practically any of the regular participants from JG or other sites with rather knowledgeable people in this area, in the same hat as Aris. Maybe Jon and maybe OW, maybe a couple of others. That's just a remarkably overblown sense of self worth in this area to me. Sorry, not meant as an insult. Obviously you have some knowledge in this area, more than many people, but it's clearly not at that level.

And being a mod has absolutely nothing to do with anything other than making sure the forum stays clean, on track and free of as many problems as we are able to do. It has nothing to do with anything else. People who think moderators are some elevated race of all knowing, perfectly behaved, demi god status geniuses are just obviously not understanding reality. We are just normal people who volunteer our time to help to do the dirty work that is necessary to make sure the place doesn't turn into a cesspool, like some other sites are, and that is all we are.