PSU Buying guide

[Super Nade]

After seeing many people asking for opinions on PSU's I've decided to write up a list of units I would feel comfortable using. I'll keep this terse and short, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I did a lot of research about this, so I'd like to share my experience with you guys. I learnt a lot from Okhlahoma Wolf about PSU's so its best if I start off with what is on his list. My Edits are in Red.

• Okhlahoma Wolf's List of recommended OEM's in order of reliability

1. Zippy (Superb regulation, good efficiency and exceptional built quality!)
2. Etasis (Silverstone fanless, ST56ZF, ST75ZF, ST85ZF)
3. Win-Tact (PC P&C Turbocool)
4. Lite-On (Supermicro/Ablecom) This is my current unit. You can find a small review of it HERE (link).
5. Delta (some Chieftec units)
6. Seasonic (PC P&C Silencer, Corsair, Antec Neo HE).[ The silencer series brings PCP&C's superb QC at a budget price, to the table. Starts at $140]
7. AcBel Polytech (some Coolermaster)
8. Enhance (Akasa, Silverstone except fanless, ST56ZF, ST75ZF, ST85ZF)
9. Seventeam (some Thermaltake and MGE units)
10. Jou Jye (AMS)
11. Wintech (Ultra except X-Connect)
12. Andyson (Hiper, AC Ryan, Aerocool - these get overrated sometimes)
13. Topower (Tagan, BeQuiet, Mushkin, Epower, A+GBP) [The Mushkin 550W is just crap.]
14. Heroichi/HEC/Compucase (some Thermaltake)
15. CWT (Antec except Neo HE)
16. Enermax
17. Superflower/TTGI
18. Inwin/Powerman

I would characterize a poor design as follows (or things one should look for, in no particular order):-

• Quality of Caps. Cheap caps imply shorter life span. Higher the ESR, more likely the impact on regulation.
• Size of the Caps. Most complaints with regulation and ripple are due to undersized primary or secondary caps.
• Insufficient cooling. This is a biggie. You would want to keep the unit cool for obvious reasons (i.e keep components within their working temps).
• Poor quality Voltage regulators. Although this issue is almost a non-issue these days, you still find the occasional burn out.
• Poor quality inductive elements i.e chokes and transformers. Imporoper winding or using smaller guage wires as the winding. Rare.
• Poor soldering. This is very very common.
• Bad circuit design. Really, there is not much you can do here, unless you are willing to do a complete rebuild.
• Poor PCB's being used as the logic board. This is not critical, but worth a mention.
• Under sized rectifier diodes. I don't understand why didoes are still being used instead of composite bridge rectifiers. Diodes also need to be cooled.

These are the points I think are pertinent.

Points to note before you buy a PSU:

1. Figure out what you intend to power. This is very important if you are on a tight budget.
2. Do NOT skimp on quality. Poor PSU's would just hose your entire rig.
3. Look for a beefy single 12V rail (> 30 A) if you plan on running SLI or CF
4. Try to identify the OEM of the unit. You cannot go wrong if you pick a good OEM.

S-N

[Deadman93723]

What about OCZ Powerstream units?

[cadaveca]

Powerstream=ToPower.

[Super Nade]

All new OCZ units i.e the GamerX ones are Fortron. The older ones are Topwer, whose build quality, frankly has been all over the place. No surprise OCZ dropped them.

[cadaveca]

Got the Mushkin 550w Topower unit here myself...didn't pay for it thankfully

[z3speed4me]

just wondering...fans on psu's, should they blow IN or OUT???

[cadaveca]

blow in, to take heat away from the heatsinks contained inside

[Super Nade]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Got the Mushkin 550w Topower unit here myself...didn't pay for it thankfully

Careful mate, that is a crap unit. Open it up and you will see all Asia X caps.

[cadaveca]

Actually, I beg to differ. Jenpo PLUS Asisa-X in mine. Main caps are Jenpo tho as are many others.

[Daniel ~]

Copied to "OUR FAQ" for permenate accessabilty! ":O}

[Super Nade]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Actually, I beg to differ. Jenpo PLUS Asisa-X in mine. Main caps are Jenpo tho as are many others.

When did you buy yours? If you can post a few pics of them, I'll try to see if your's is a different revision. The Primary ones are ASIA X right?

Thanks Daniel. Not sure if this little blurb merited permenant status, but then you have been very kind in the past.

[Daniel ~]

'That will do pig, that will do."
(The movie Babe) ":O}

[cadaveca]

Originally Posted by Super Nade

When did you buy yours? If you can post a few pics of them, I'll try to see if your's is a different revision. The Primary ones are ASIA X right?

Thanks Daniel. Not sure if this little blurb merited permenant status, but then you have been very kind in the past.

Mine was mailed out from mushkin this past friday. The main caps are Jenpo, as are the ones for the 3.3 rail. The remainder are mostly Asia-X, with one or two Jenpo's thrown in. The rest of the components remain the same as seen in jonnyGURU's review of this psu. There are a couple of pots on the 12v-rail-split too, i might add. It's also ran @ 11.2 on the 12v, by DMM...shoulda shut down by then i think...but anyway...

[Redroar]

I've had relatively good luck with my 500w Aspire. Pretty reliable volts, but the efficiency isn' very good. Quiet, too.

[Super Nade]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Mine was mailed out from mushkin this past friday. The main caps are Jenpo, as are the ones for the 3.3 rail. The remainder are mostly Asia-X, with one or two Jenpo's thrown in. The rest of the components remain the same as seen in jonnyGURU's review of this psu. There are a couple of pots on the 12v-rail-split too, i might add. It's also ran @ 11.2 on the 12v, by DMM...shoulda shut down by then i think...but anyway...

JonnyGURU posted a video of the 12V line doing the disco on his Cold test #5. It was really funny

[Super Nade]

Check this thread out. Things are not looking good for the way Mushkin are handling things. I'm quite disappointed with them.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=472241

[cloasters]

Originally Posted by z3speed4me

just wondering...fans on psu's, should they blow IN or OUT???

Which fan? Older PSU's had one internal fan that drew air from inside the case and then exhausted it out of the back of the power supply. Modern power supplies usually sport a a large intake fan on the bottom that draws air from inside of the case, and an 80mm fan in the back of the PSU that assists the airflow by blowing the warmed air out of the back of the PSU.

[Rondog]

http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/18933 - I believe the Thermaltake Toughpower 750W deserves a mention. Simply because...IT DOES. It comes with 4, yes count 'em FOUR 12V lines rated at 18A each.

Sounds like an ass kicker to me!

[cadaveca]

any thermaltake PSU over 650w is fairly decent, unlike some of thier previous units...it was a crap shoot before, but not so much now. Thermaltake has provided me with some of the stablist PSU's I have ever seen.

[Super Nade]

Originally Posted by Rondog

http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/18933 - I believe the Thermaltake Toughpower 750W deserves a mention. Simply because...IT DOES. It comes with 4, yes count 'em FOUR 12V lines rated at 18A each.

Sounds like an ass kicker to me!

I'd like to mention that typical heavy duty systems require units with a single 12V rail. In an XTX CF or 7900GTX SLI, quite often, we have current draw well over 18A on a single line. Is the OEM still Sirtech for the TT units?

The Toughpower unit looks decent on paper.