PSU tier list 2.0

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Thanks for the extra info on the TR2 S/Ns! I am curious to find which one I have. I have found at least one review of a TR2 700w (on hardwaresecrets.com) that concludes it is middle of the road but not terrible or dangerous.
 


Hardware Secrets reviewed the P/N: TR-700P, Model: TR2-700AH2NFB. It has a 3 year warranty and is made by FSP.
 


Get the Model/Serial Number for the PSU.
 
Turkey, try this for a psu read if you haven't already Link

When electrons travel down a wire, they create a magnetic field. It's the basis for electromagnets, coils, transformers etc.

Oh, and PFC circuitry (in english) is a cleaner. The power you get from the wall is typically dirty power. It contains harmonics, differing phases, rf frequencies, even networking traffic and/or dsl leftovers etc. PFC circuits are designed to kill most of that, so (in the US) you get a clean 60Hz 120v supply to the psus rails. Active PFC is a powered circuit that's much more complicated, more effective and more efficient, so costs more to produce, which means it's usually found in higher tier, higher cost units. Passive PFC is a couple of caps and coils which add very little to overall cost and isn't all that efficient, but does work, sort of. Usually found in cheaper, lower tier units. Chances are good that more than a few tier5 units have neither type
 
Hmmm, I always thought of the line filter as the cleaner; what the PFC circuit does has certain "cleaning" (e.g. sags) as a welcome consequence. A PFC circuit causes the sine waves for voltage and current to align. When they are different, the consumer doesn't see much difference, but power companies see much heavier loads; it's a requirement now in much (if not all) of the EU.
 
TR2's should be avoided like the plague. Period. I had one a long time ago and I just had to chuck it out of my house - before I found a sacrificial animal(buyer) I explained to him all the cons of owning it(there were no pro's so I had half as much to say to him 😀 ).
 
List Update November 1st 2015

HERE YE HERE YE!

The list has been updated after a stupidly long time.


Tier One


Corsair
Corsair has a huge winner with their revised RM Series, with both new RMi units, the 650w and 850w, and the RM1000x garnering a great bit of praise from Jeremy (OklahomaWolf) at JonnyGuru. It seems Corsair does take criticism very seriously and as a result, gone are the days where you found an overheating RM power supply or one with poor quality capacitors. And in their place are some of the best quality units available from Corsair.


Tier Two


Andyson
Andyson once again on a roll with the Platinum-R 850w. Passed pretty much all the trials at the proving grounds of JonnyGuru. Using high quality parts, but some unknown capacitors from a company called Zhenhua (I hope I didn't butcher anything). Now it's in Tier Two because Zhenhua Capacitors haven't been proven yet. Unless there are reports of them causing house fires or exploding without reason, these units stay at Tier Two.

Cyonic
A new company emerged from out of nowhere (No RKO memes please) and have done excellently with their first units, the AU-550x and the AU-650x. Based on Seasonic's G Series platform, they have done well at JonnyGuru and HardOCP. Tier 2 because, you know, Seasonic G series units. And if a platform of a different make of PSU is pretty much the same as the base model, it is in the same tier.

Thermaltake
Thermaltake continues to improve with their new ToughPower Grand 1200F. Built by Sirfa, which is an odd choice considering their new units consists of Enhance engineering, it did quite well in HardOCP's tests. However, be warned with the fan grill. Thin metal doesn't go well with a fan, especially when a maniac is at the wheel of a delivery van, bending it. besides that, it's a Tier Two product.


Tier Three


Silverstone

Silverstone hasn't done very well with their new Strider Gold V2 model, the Strider Gold S 750W v2. Now this isn't Sirfa's fault, because it's a good unit, aside from the below average voltage regulation, but please be advised that some units will come with a frayed SATA cable. Now this is not safe enough to be in Tier Two because of this. Until Silverstone improves the quality of the Heat Shrink or the plastic encased around the wires, it stays in Tier Three.


PSU cleanup 2016

Starting January 31st, the PSU cleanup 2016 will be performed. All units discontinued from September 2013 and older will be removed. I will put a notice up on the list to advise regular viewers.

And that's all folks. Hope you all had a great Halloween. I know I did 😉
 
Shenzen Zenhua Ferrite&Ceramic Co. is a China based company and a world leading supplier of tantalum capacitors. In many ways tantalum is superior to aluminum caps, unlimited shelf life, better current ability, smaller, more stable, very small usage degradation etc. Only one real downside. Because the tantalum dielectric is so thin, its susceptible to voltage spikes which can and will make the cap explode into self sustained flames.

Common use in laptops.
http://www.capacitorguide.com/tantalum-capacitor/

In a psu this would mean higher amp ability per rail, more stable ripple and voltages, basically a higher Guage of psu. As long as the caps don't suffer spikes, or you will see a burning wreck.

Think I'll reserve judgement on that andyson reliability for a minute.
 
We should also talk about how Corsair deserves to be in the lower tiers as well. Their revised CX line is a joke. They are changing all but the CX750, which is BY FAR in a way the most horrible of the line. I can't believe Corsair would do this. They changed the packaging and marketing for the CX units and call them quality and they already have the "new" cx750 for sale at Microcenter for MORE than the old one despite it being EXACTLY the same PSU. They did this because the CX750 is their best seller and they can make a BIGGER margin on it by saying the whole CX line is re-vamped but leaving the CX750 crap.

Corsair has lost all my respect as a company. They are stooping so low and it's BS.

Its completely ridiculous how they are pushing their worst quality PSU. This is just as bad as Coolermaster faking 80+ certs like 6 years ago.

I'm done with Corsair. I don't care how good their other PSUs are. They do not get my business ever again.

It is also worth noting that the RMi units are overpriced for what they are. You can get an EVGA P2 for less money. There is no point to buy any Corsair PSU unless you are TRYING to buy the brand, which is ridiculous.
 
Ya know, I've seen Seasonic reps, Intel reps, AMD reps, even a rep for Kingston ram on these forums, all of whom were very helpful, knowledgeable about their product and tried to answer clearly any questions or fears or qualms us readers thought to throw at them. Which I think is great. It shows me, the consumer, that those companies have a care about their products and how they affect me.

What I'd like to know, especially with this relatively long bout of CX bashing, and this news as brought forth by tiny voices, just where is Corsair in answer to all this?
 
There actually was a Corsair Rep post in a thread on Toms about 2 months ago. Kind of blew me away because I too have discovered how bad the Corsair CX and VS series power supplies were. I did a post below his to the effect of "Wow! A rare Corsair Rep post!!", and he never responded to that, and I have not see any additional posts from them since.
 
The only place I go for power supply reviews is Hardwaresecrets. Gabriel Torres (the owner and creator of the site) is the only guy on there who does power supply reviews. Other people review CPUs, motherboards, cooling systems, etc. but Gabriel Torres only does PSU reviews. Why? Because he knows more about power supplies than anyone on any other review site. I am not a fan of johnnyguru as I am of Gabriel Torres. Johnnyguru tests a lot less stuff whereas Gabriel goes into much more depth on the power supply.

What do you guys prefer? Hardwaresecrets or Johnnyguru? Johnnyguru just seems so much less professional to me. The reviewers on Johnny will say stuff like "Here are the nice sleeved cables. I like the look of this power supply. The green goes well with the black" whereas on Hardwaresecrets Gabriel is informing you of the AWG of the wiring, the number of capacitors used in the transient filtering, the exact diodes used in the power supply, and ever main component in the filtering, rectification, power factor correction, and secondary stages.

@TinyVoices: Sometimes I think we do the same thing here on Toms. I feel like every tech site has their own "hate lists" and "love lists". I do think the Tier list needs refreshed to a 3.0. Totally redone.
 
I'm not a Johnny fan at all. I won't trust any review form someone who works for a company that sells PSUs.

EVGA is soon to release the HEC based 700b. This is going to be hilarious. People will put it in high end PCs and hilarity will ensue.

EVGA has done some stupid things as well and has lost alot of my respect. Them secretly farming out the manufacturing of some of thier SuperFlower units made me so angry.
 
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