PSU tier list 2.0

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Put it to you this way. If you can't Google a review, and I'm not talking amazon buyers reviews I'm talking a 3rd party pro who has torn it apart after testing, then chances are good the company already knows it's junk and doesn't bother sending one for testing and have the whole pc world know it's junk for a fact. Find a psu that's reviewed and come to a decision based on what's in the review.
 
You give me no options then. Both PSU are granted with 80 plus gold, this give no indication to be at least reliable? Any other thing i find in the budget will be 80 plus bronze or below and no review either.
 


80 plus certificate doesn't say anyhing or matters much at all. Very overrated. Plenty of poor 80 plus gold PSU's out there.

Choose from Seasonic, Super Flower, EVGA GS/G2/B2/GS, Rosewill Capstone, XFX. Plenty of choice.
 
80+ Gold or bronze is a voluntary certificate. It's just saying that the psu is somewhere over 80% efficient at 20/50/100% loads. Has absolutely nothing to do with how good a psu really is. I'd take a Seasonic bronze unit over a thermaltake gold any day of the week. Or vice versa I'd take an Evga gold2 over a thermaltake bronze. There are several bronze units, xfx, Seasonic, SuperFlower, Evga b2, Antec HCG-M that are much higher quality of design, performance, build and reliability than any gold or platinum on tier3 or below.

Companies will throw 80+GOLD at you, because it sounds so much better than 80+Bronze, when reality is its still a hunk of junk with an exaggerated title.
 
I know the 80 plus certificate is about the efficiency only, but to my layman knowledge i thought than when PSU reach a higher efficiency that mean there is better quality components in all means, so that give me some route to choose a high 80 plus cetificate since there is no review about specific PSU.

You guys are using a too high standards, probably because are from rich countries, i'm not, so my standard is the gold i can find inside the junk. So if i find something which will no blow my setup is fine.

I find a Corsair RM650 for the budget, will this pass the test?
 


Yeah It's good enough.
 
If it's a new RM 650, then yes, it's good. Corsair recently overhauled the RM series but kept most of the names. The older 650 was decent, just had to watch the temps at close to full load.

To get higher efficiency just means there is more circuitry in the psu to help do that. You could have a very well made hammer that's been good for years but it's not very efficient at pounding rocks all day. Move up to a electric chipping hammer is much more efficient, but if it's a real cheap piece of crap tool it may not last a full day of pounding rock. End result is your old, faithful hammer will last year's, if inefficient, but still gets the job done while that nice shiny efficient hunk of junk chipping hammer sits at home. Dead.

A psu is exactly the same. Some bronze units are like the old faithful hammer, they are just well made and last for years, and some efficient gold units really are so poorly made they don't last long at all.
 


Yeah but there is an actual company that does the actual verifications. So they're not really all voluntary, most are legitimately certified.
 
Sure, sure they are. (Looks elsewhere to hide smile.)

They test a few sample units, then after that it's just assumed that all the units that follow live up to the same specifications and quality as those units that were tested, which often, is not the case. 80plus should NEVER be used as a sign or indication of quality, to any degree, nor paid any attention to, unless it's on an already known to be good platform.


http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/power-supplies-with-fake-80-plus-badges/



http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/10/04/80_plus_irrelevant_to_you_when_buying_psu/#.VlkK1vmrRhF


 
Hi there, I posted a thread over on systems about a prebuilt I bought recently. It's not here yet, so I don't know what PSU will arrive in it. I only know that it's 500 W and that might not be enough. All the specs are here:

www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2872898/bought-pre-built-worried-psu.html

Replacing the PSU may affect the warranty, so I'd keep the original PSU around so I can toss it back in if I have to send the PC back at any point. I was going to wait until the PC got here to look into ordering a new PSU, but if it seems very likely that I'll need to put in a new one, I'd rather order it during the black friday sales and save some money. The only problem is, I don't know the size of the PSU that comes with the prebuilt. Am I just going to have to wait til it gets here to buy a replacement PSU?
 


When you look at PSU reviews where the reviewer tests in 10% or 20% load increments, there usually is a fairly smooth progression between test points and this is simply because it is how things tend to be. The magnetic and electric properties change in a generally highly predictable and smooth way which makes it very difficult for any properly designed device to show strange curves... if a device does have erratic output, it means there is either an engineering or manufacturing failure.

While the 80+ certification only tests at certain load points, the specification does require that efficiency be at least that good between points and I would bet my shorts the certification process does test at many more points than what the specifications require.

-InvalidError
Click to expand...


Testing is done at both high and low temps, and at different load points. Still, it doesn't indicate quality unless the quality of the platform is already acceptable.
 


I would contact HP customer support and ask them what form factor the power supply and case are then come back and let us know if you want a recommendation. I cannot find any information indicating what form factor that unit is, although I suspect it's probably uATX which is a micro-ATX form factor. I am by no means certain of that though. It could be another small form factor like TFX, SFX or flexATX. HP has even been known to use some proprietary form factors in the past.
 
Well it does ce with a 980ti,and I highly doubt HP has gone to the expense to custom engineer a 980ti pcb that'll fit in a slim ff. Chances are it's at most a micro tower or mini tower as that's popular with HP, so uATX or mITX mobo would be my guess. Probably a standard ATX psu, although I did see an Evga pc that had a 500w TFX psu, so I looked around and couldn't find a single TFX that size anywhere else. Couple 450s and a Seasonic 400 was it. I believe for this build its probably a larger case, mid ATX.

Bah, just went shopping for a 750xt, every review says you have upto a 970, Op gets a 980ti and HP only puts a 960 now. HP really irritating me right now.
 
Actually, the majority of HP desktops I've ever worked on were micro-ATX cases that could either accomodate a standard ATX power supply or required an mATX power supply. Plus, a whole bunch of proprietary crap, same as with Dell, Compaq, E-machines and Gateway.
 
Yeah, the psu in my old dell 8400 was a hair smaller than a standard ATX and had these stupid clips cut into the top surface. Needless to say a small hammer and a chunk of 2x4 took care of that right quick when the psu needed replacing.
 


:lol:
 
It's amazing really, the lengths ppl go to to customize the insides of the case. Sooped up cpu OC, jumbo sized gpus, mega psus, lighting, liquid cooling etc etc etc. And do absolutely nothing to the case other than a couple of decals. It's so easy to add a custom window, make a 140mm fan slot from a 120mm, make channeling to hide psu wires. Hell, my gpu support is the slide ruler from my circular saw beaten straight, sanded and painted. Easy. So yeah, hammer + 2x4 and that psu fits like a glove. The screws are in just because I felt they should be, the psu sits so tight, its grounded every which way from Sunday. I once did a micro tower where I sunk a full ATX psu in the front of the case floor, turned the fan upside down, so the psu became an intake, gutted an old psu and used the psu case as a fan shroud as the exhaust. Used to trip ppl out seeing a wireless psu through the window that seemed to be working just fine.
 
The possibilities are literally endless. May the mod movement live forever. Seems these days though every imaginable feature is being included with cases and the only real need aside from changing the aesthetic appeal of the outside is picking one with the features you want. For older cases though, yeah, they can be beaten into submission.
 
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