Unofficial PSU Ranking List (What's the best PSU to buy?)

**Bamboo** · 01-19-2008, 01:06 PM

This thread has been going on for a while over at firingsquad.com's hardware forums, and thought I would pass it on to you all. Make sure you read the whole thread (it is only 2 pages), so you understand why things are where they are.
My Corsair is in tier #2, but I got it because of the modular cables. Might help some of you looking to build soon.

http://forums.firingsquad.com/firing...read.id=111309

Acreo Aeneas · 01-19-2008, 01:40 PM

Heh, that list already exists in one form or another in my head.

If you look, the Tier 1 list, most of the brands listed there are/were server PSU manufacturers. They have to be reliable and high quality.

+rep for the information since it's very helpful to many first time builders.

**Superfast** · 01-19-2008, 01:48 PM

For those that also are interested in quiet psu's and computers you can read more here:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html

Acreo Aeneas · 01-19-2008, 04:31 PM

Nice Superfast. It's a great place for reviews. Very detailed and they also do a good job at explaining all the technobabble that companies use.

Could we get this thread stickied?

**1er** · 01-19-2008, 07:15 PM

I recently bought a Corsair PSU at 450w, it's silent and cool.

I used to own a 500w PSU by some company I forget the name of, but it was too noisy.

Long Bow · 01-24-2008, 11:26 AM

I have the Corsair 620 and love it. I did a lot of research before buying it and it showed outstanding results. It can even handle 8800GTX in SLi. Modulare and quit as well. I believe its internals are from a teir one manufacturer as well?

I know from my research that it is better then most of those teir 2 PSU's. Good list though. People need to be sure not to skimp on the PSU, quality is important.

stickyjeans69 · 01-25-2008, 05:30 PM

wooohoooo i have a pc power and cooling, it's top notch and Tier 1 Huzzah

**birdie_in_Texas** · 01-29-2008, 05:58 PM

mine is the Ultra X-Pro, and came asn an OEM in my Ultra micro case...it has been a freakin awesome PSU..i never thought it would hold up as it has..

**Bamboo** · 02-07-2008, 08:43 AM

New review of 8 different 700 watt + PSUs

Eight power supply units encounter The Beast

Acreo Aeneas · 02-08-2008, 04:30 AM

I'd like to add that in addition to the richly detailed review in the above link, the last page (Conclusion) also offers links to previous reviews and articles that stress the importance of a quality PSU.

Nice find Bamboo.

Edit: Wish I could give you +rep, but it seems I need to wait after giving some away this week.

Tonk · 02-17-2008, 02:39 PM

teir 3 doesnt really make sence, all the teir3 are very respectable psu brand/models, they just arent the PREMIUM model from said brand, they are just as reliable as teir 2 counterpart (same brand, diff model) just dont come with all those extras, i have had antec psu for 3 computers now, no problems whatsoever, my first was a 400w trupower, which i replaced not because it was bad, but because with a new video card and overclocking cpu, on top of 4 hard drives and 4 fans, wasnt pumping enough juice, my second was a 550 trupower trio (antec as well) which i only replaced when i built my new system which i didnt re-use anything good post tho

this post is not meant to be negative, but to inform that the PSUs in teir3 are very respectable, and by no means are they un-reliable

marstein · 02-17-2008, 02:48 PM

I have had good experiences with Antec. The TruePower 550 has worked for years in my machine. We had to RMA a 350W Antec PSU for my wife's computer, but this one has worked fine for a year now too.

sc1ence · 02-21-2008, 02:05 AM

plenty of those tier 5 units will give people solid service for years on a nice budget.

**Bamboo** · 02-21-2008, 09:33 AM

And a few of them will fry your system or give you constant reboots that cause you to think something like the CPU is going bad, forcing you to do days of trouble shooting.
We have talked about it numerous times in this forum.
A bad PSU can be very hard to catch sometimes and it is worth spending the extra $20 and getting something reliable.
Plus, the cheep ones are well known to claim they put out a certain watt, and then under testing can barley muster half what they claim. Why on earth would you spend money on something that says it will put out 650 watts on the box, and in reality as soon as you start gaming it drops to 400 watts or less.
Crap ones also have horrible efficiency, so you end up paying more for you electric bill and have a nice little space heater in your computer case.
You get what you pay for!

**CingularDuality** · 02-21-2008, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamboo

And a few of them will fry your system or give you constant reboots that cause you to think something like the CPU is going bad, forcing you to do days of trouble shooting.
We have talked about it numerous times in this forum.
A bad PSU can be very hard to catch sometimes and it is worth spending the extra $20 and getting something reliable.
Plus, the cheep ones are well known to claim they put out a certain watt, and then under testing can barley muster half what they claim. Why on earth would you spend money on something that says it will put out 650 watts on the box, and in reality as soon as you start gaming it drops to 400 watts or less.
Crap ones also have horrible efficiency, so you end up paying more for you electric bill and have a nice little space heater in your computer case.
You get what you pay for!

There are lots of computer components where I'll say "parts is parts", but Bamboo speaks the truth here. The PSU is one area where you really get what you pay for. Sure, with a lower quality PSU, you might get lucky and have no problems, but the odds of having problems is astronomically greater. And power problems are notoriously tricky to nail down. They're often subtle and intermittent, and they almost always make it look like something else is the culprit. Windows BSOD with Win2K or later? Chances are it's a power problem.