The Power Supply Unit tier list Discussion thread

[Agera One]

How about Antec Neo Series ?

 

[zeyuanfu]

They're supposed to be in Tier 2A or2B, but nobody added them.

 

[MasterMace]

EVGA SuperNova NEX 650 Gold unlisted. Available but no reviews. Should be put into either untiered or Tier 2b.
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FirePower ZT Series is listed as being a Sirtec design, despite it being from Great Wall. Not sure if this affects your tiering.

How can it be put into tier 2B if it's untested and there are no testing reviews? We've seen numerous series with different models that did not have the same indications during testing. Have you tested it?

The 750s were already in Tier 2b, that's why I gave that suggestion after stating untiered. After checking the discontinue model's review, the original NEX650G was tested by Hardocp and Passed, although it did miss Gold in their testing by 0.81%. This was my assuming that the NEX750G was placed correctly.

So it HAS been weighed and measured, and found wanting. Seems maybe they should in fact be Tier 3 units?

If it exceeds ATX spec, it should be in tier 4, tier 3 AT BEST.

^agree. No matter how well the rest of the tests went or how household the name is, if the 12v/5v goes out or regulation limits it should be tier 4. That is what damages components. NO WAY would I ever recommend a unit with a review like that. Hell, even the CX units don't go out of spec, but we don't recommend those for other reasons.

As for the NEX750G, I believe you guys are correct, it should be moved to Tier 4.

Finally, the 5VSB rail had a problem keeping its voltage above the minimum limit that the ATX spec sets during the 110% load test, but we won't take its 5VSB failure into account seriously since we operated the PSU out of its specs on that test; besides, a full load at 5VSB is hard to reproduce during normal operations.

Take note, this is not regarding the 5vSB, it's regarding the 5v rail on crossload tests.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/NEX750G/8.html

It also failed 3.3v Advanced Transient Response on the 2nd test, the first being bad as it was.

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That being said, all 3 of the original models (650G, 750B, 750G) are discontinued and largely unavailable. All 3 of the new models (listed below) are awaiting reviews.

NEX750 G1 120-G1-0750-XR
NEX750 B1 110-B1-0750-VR
NEX650 G1 120-G1-0650-XR

 

[chanuka]

The ECO series was in Tier 2 Class B.

And yes, the Antec VP series goes for the P suffix models as well as the standard models.

What do you mean by the SS ECO series was in Tier 2 Class B ?

And where does the FSP Hexa+ 550W go ?

 

[tiny voices]

Hexa+ 550 looks like a raider so it will be tier 4.

 

[jonnyguru]

My God... This list is horrible.

 

[zeyuanfu]

My God... This list is horrible.

Actually, it's pretty useful.

 

[CGurrell]

My God... This list is horrible.

what's so horrible about it?

 

[Lutfij]

I'm very sure your expert opinion/advice's can be put to good use as you've spent a good amount of time contributing to reviews for PSU's (that rhymes)

Long time no see Jonny!

 

[CGurrell]

I'm very sure your expert opinion/advice's can be put to good use as you've spent a good amount of time contributing to reviews for PSU's (that rhymes)

Long time no see Jonny!

For the record, I recognised the jonnyguru name, but was unsure of legitimacy 😛

It would be great to see what jonny has to say on the list, maybe some units need rearranging

 

[dottorrent]

My God... This list is horrible.

Good lord! Do you not like color man!!?? :O

 

[jonnyguru]

LOL!

No disrespect to whomever has been maintaining this. But the list seems to have a lot of random placement of products.

I'd gladly work on the list, but here's some of the basics I would cover....

"Tier 1" should be reserved for PSUs of server build quality. That would be units from Delta, Flextronics, some Chicony, Etasis, Impervio, etc. So the Antec HCP is cool there, but why is the HCG series in the "tier two"? Some are Delta while others are based on the same Seasonic platform that is represented in "tier 1"?

Example: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story9&reid=357

And what makes the non-Seasonic (FSP built) beQuiet Dark Power Pros "tier 3" while the others are "tier 1"? Honestly? The build quality and reliability are the same, despite the lower wattage units not being made by the "oh so precious" Seasonic factory.

Example: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=291

And you have the CWT made RM Series under "tier 2" and the Chicony made units under "tier 3". They use the same brand of components in each and, if anything, the Chicony units are actually better build quality than the CWT units.

And the CS is listed as having "high inrush current". What does that even mean? Sounds like someone is misunderstand a little bit of the fundamentals, but if someone can provide a link for where that came from, I would gladly help to translate those findings.

That's just off the top of my head... I'm sure there's others.

 

[dottorrent]

To clear a couple of things up -

1 - I manage the tier list. I take only detailed reviews and read them carefully, including your own reviews.

2 - Since reading your comments, the Be Quiet Dark Power Pro P10 Gold, the Antec HCG series and the Corsair CS series have been bumped up to Tier 1 for both Be Quiet and Antec and Tier 2 Class B for the Corsair respectively. It's not that I have Tier 1 for Exclusively Seasonic based units, it's also filled with such OEMs such as Super Flower and one Enermax based unit in the form of the LEPA G1600.

3 - I have placed the Chicony units lower down the list due to some not great design choices, such as L-TEC capacitors. Though the RM1000 (CWT based) is in there due to overheating issues, which Corsair has not addressed yet.

I am open to new ideas and movement so please feel free to send me any PMs for any changes to still be done.

 

[jonnyguru]

3 - I have placed the Chicony units lower down the list due to some not great design choices, such as L-TEC capacitors.

L-TEC capacitors are no better or worse than the CapXons used in the CWT builds.

Though the RM1000 (CWT based) is in there due to overheating issues, which Corsair has not addressed yet.

What overheating issues? I haven't heard of any and if there were some that needed to be address, I think I'd know. 😉 Gotta link?

 

[dottorrent]

(edit)

Apologies, old sources from the older units.

Now about the caps. I generally don't accept such low end capacitors in a high end unit, as do some reviewers. Here are a few quotes on the RM750 and 850w variants -

TechpowerUp - "The filtering caps in the secondary side are provided by Ltec—not our favorite choice. We think Corsair should use higher quality caps here since this unit usually runs in passive mode. Time will tell if they were right to trust Ltec caps or whether many units will be RMAed instead."

HARDOCP - "Scattered around this PCB and surrounding area we find capacitors from Taicon and Ltec. Moving to the modular interface, we see that the modular interface is once more very clean but there are a few standard Ltec capacitors in an area where these will get zero airflow. The capacitor selection, in general, is interesting on the secondary but it is certainly not the good kind of interesting."

Yourself - "Gag. Most of the output filtering on this unit uses Ltec capacitors. That's not tier one or even tier two for me... that's just about bottom rung. Remember that great big deal about ten years ago where some company started using a flawed electrolyte formula, and they started failing left and right? That was Ltec, right in the middle of it. Now, they have improved since then, so it's not like we're dealing with the old days when Fuhjyyu equipped Antecs often meant you'd be buying a new power supply in a year. Chicony knows their business well enough to make even crap capacitors last forever. Heck, they're just like Delta in that regard, who also uses Ltec a lot.

Even so, my scoring methodology is clear - I gotta score against it."

Sorry man, but after reading some of this, they should ideally stay in Tier 3.

(Another note - Can't edit tier list now, buggy forum editor)

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

JONNYGURU is the Best on the net , none better.

 

[jonnyguru]

Yourself

That's my site, but that was Jeremy that wrote it. Not me. But I digress....

Read what I said. Ltec is no better or worse than the CapXons used in the CWT built units. I didn't say they were as good as NCC or Matsushita. They're not "great", but shouldn't be the root cause of the unit failing in < 5 years. To have the units from two different OEMs show up in two differe tiers simply because one has one Chinese brand vs. another doesn't make much sense to me when the performance, efficiency, warranty, etc. are identical.

 

[dottorrent]

I will move the units back to Tier 2 A, when this editing bug has been resolved.

I wish not to start an argument on what choices I've made on this list. I haven't exactly got the massive expertise as you have. I'm only 20 and work very hard just to live these days and you're like 55 and you have 20 years experience (correct me if I'm wrong).

Like I have said, you can suggest me any changes you would like to see, as I am always open to new ideas.

 

[Novuake]

Yourself

That's my site, but that was Jeremy that wrote it. Not me. But I digress....

Read what I said. Ltec is no better or worse than the CapXons used in the CWT built units. I didn't say they were as good as NCC or Matsushita. They're not "great", but shouldn't be the root cause of the unit failing in < 5 years. To have the units from two different OEMs show up in two differe tiers simply because one has one Chinese brand vs. another doesn't make much sense to me when the performance, efficiency, warranty, etc. are identical.

Unless they run hot, so if that review is accurate and inadequate airflow would become a problem. Then I would put it in Tier 2b... But yeah, can not say if the airflow really is an issue.

@dottorrent

No argument at all. I am sure jonnyguru is just trying to help,

 

[Skylyne]

I'm wondering if Jonny would be interested in helping to keep this list updated. Just a thought. I've been wanting a tier list to show up on JonnyGuru, but I know that would be a seriously daunting task for those who are already very busy.

 

[dottorrent]

An update -

As of now, I won't be updating the tier list due to a rather unusual bug which apparently the title isn't 3 words long.

I hope for this bug to be fixed ASAP so I can update it again.

Thank you.

 

[jonnyguru]

I'm wondering if Jonny would be interested in helping to keep this list updated. Just a thought. I've been wanting a tier list to show up on JonnyGuru, but I know that would be a seriously daunting task for those who are already very busy.

I'm taking Christmas off with no plans, sooo.....

 

[CGurrell]

An update -

As of now, I won't be updating the tier list due to a rather unusual bug which apparently the title isn't 3 words long.

I hope for this bug to be fixed ASAP so I can update it again.

Thank you.

Could you maybe copy the list into a reply, edit it and post it so we sort of have an idea of what it will look like once the editor is fixed?

 

[CGurrell]

I'm wondering if Jonny would be interested in helping to keep this list updated. Just a thought. I've been wanting a tier list to show up on JonnyGuru, but I know that would be a seriously daunting task for those who are already very busy.

I'm taking Christmas off with no plans, sooo.....

This could be interesting...

Oh just a quick question, if you were to do this, would really bad information on the box be grounds for downgrading a unit? All I have to say is XFX and you should understand what I'm getting at 😛 Great units but their box design department needs, well lets be nice lets say "re-educating".

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

XFX is SEASONIC.