Article Edit: After speaking to Nanopoint again it appears our wires got crossed and the SilverPower SP1000 PSU was £150 INC VAT not Ex VAT. Scores and article adjusted accordingly.
Make sure you need one of those big boys before you buy one. I got a 650 Watt PSU with my system I built last year w/ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB PC 800 RAM, nVidia 7950 GX2 1 GB, 2x 250 GB SATA drives, TV Tuner, front USB, etc.... and the max power consumption does not peak above 215 Watts. Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S
Originally Posted by Mankz. Where are the PCP&C's and the Silverstones!
Didn't have them at the time of testing. We'll be looking into them in the future but they're not currently on the cards out of the 9 I've got coming to review.
Originally Posted by f00dl3 Make sure you need one of those big boys before you buy one. I got a 650 Watt PSU with my system I built last year w/ Core 2 Duo, 2 GB PC 800 RAM, nVidia 7950 GX2 1 GB, 2x 250 GB SATA drives, TV Tuner, front USB, etc.... and the max power consumption does not peak above 215 Watts. Could have got a 450 Watt PSU and would probably have been fine :-S
That is so true. Sitting next to a machine with an 1100W PSU going full on will be like sitting next to a one bar electric fire. Mind you summer is not too hot this year, so useful for providing background heating. :D
Nice review, and thank you for putting that note in at the beginning about PSU ratings and what people actually need, a lot of people see quad-core and SLi G80's and think they need 121 jigawatts! :p
Interesting about the Corsair PSU, I'll definately move that one higher up the list on my next upgrade. :)
Originally Posted by cosmic That is so true. Sitting next to a machine with an 1100W PSU going full on will be like sitting next to a one bar electric fire.
Thing is, it won't be going 'full on' unless it has a massive amount of peripherals etc.
Isn't it true that a PSU is likely to be more efficient when it's not working near 100% load?
ie, buying a bigger PSU like this and running it at less than 50% load may actually be MORE efficient than getting a 430W PSU and making it work like a slave to maintain your power requirements?
Can you lovely Bit-Techers try running a test like this to confirm or refute this idea? :)
Yea. But there's arguments over it: should you run at PSU at 50-75% and not stress it too hard? Or, do you buy what you need citing that it says it can do that so that's what it should be capable of.
Isn't it true that a PSU is likely to be more efficient when it's not working near 100% load?
ie, buying a bigger PSU like this and running it at less than 50% load may actually be MORE efficient than getting a 430W PSU and making it work like a slave to maintain your power requirements?
Can you lovely Bit-Techers try running a test like this to confirm or refute this idea? :)
The more recent PSUs rated as 80+ efficient provide that rating in the 20% to 80% load range. There are some interesting efficiency measurements on the link below for the Corsair HX520/620 PSU where as you say they are most efficient around the 50% of max load mark. However, given most systems idle around the 100W mark and rarely exceed 250W, that makes the optimum PSU rating about 400 Watt for people not using a pair of power hungry graphics cards in SLI?crossfire mode. For those guys, these big units are OK, as long as they can get rid of all the heat somewhere
Seasonic is a hugely popular brand in the online community, renowned for their very quiet, yet very capable PSUs and at least one member of our own staff swears by them exclusively.
just out of curiosity who would that be? i think id be more tempted to grab to hx 520's then one big
I like the Corsairs PSUs too (since I have one) but I think they're manufactured for Corsair by Seasonic anyway aren't they?
they're deffo made by another company anyway. :)
Originally Posted by cosmic The more recent PSUs rated as 80+ efficient provide that rating in the 20% to 80% load range. There are some interesting efficiency measurements on the link below for the Corsair HX520/620 PSU where as you say they are most efficient around the 50% of max load mark. However, given most systems idle around the 100W mark and rarely exceed 250W, that makes the optimum PSU rating about 400 Watt for people not using a pair of power hungry graphics cards in SLI?crossfire mode. For those guys, these big units are OK, as long as they can get rid of all the heat somewhere
Power hungry SLI and CrossFire needs anywhere between 400-550W in our experience with only a single hard drive, single fan and single DVD drive. Obviously people's setups vary as they add more kit. To be 80Plus certified they need to have an 80+ real efficiency at 20, 50 and 100% load.
Wood: Last time I checked Brett swears by them :D I've always owned Enermax personally.
I can't wait to see the new range of Gigabyte PSU's - it looks amazing.
I agree, Enermax is a good product.
I like reviews like this because a lot of people underestimate the importance of a good PSU, bigger does not necessarily mean better, but price does and I have seen friends with cheap nasty PSU which claim to be 550w, but they not true 550w.
I was reading the Gigabyte ODIN and it comes with some very good features.
If it does what it claims it does, then I think that we will all have better choices.
Also, apparently it comes with 4x PCI-Express cables, each supporting 6&8-pin connectors for your graphics now that is cool.
We've got an ODIN GT coming which is brand new and has software control as well as all the latest cables. They'll be available "soon" afaik. We're getting one of the first in the country to review.
Thx for the reply, I will keep my eyes open for your review - around when?
Apparenlty you can "control" the PSU and it comes with 4 therometers - something like that!
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi We've got an ODIN GT coming which is brand new and has software control as well as all the latest cables. They'll be available "soon" afaik. We're getting one of the first in the country to review.
Software control of a PSU - I am going to look into this some more. Had just about made up my mind to go with a Corsair HX520, but this sounds interesting.
Originally Posted by I_think_I_know Thx for the reply, I will keep my eyes open for your review - around when?
Apparenlty you can "control" the PSU and it comes with 4 therometers - something like that!
Will it go up against other PSU?
We're going to be completing the testing later this month but instead of publishing one big group test, we think it's going to be better (and more timely) to drip feed the power supplies out as individual reviews. :)
I was a little surprised to see the Enermax Galaxy spoken of so highly - the company I work for has recently sworn off the Galaxys as we've had too many problems with them failing. We're Seasonic fans for the most part, they've been much more reliable for us. :)
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Didn't have them at the time of testing. We'll be looking into them in the future but they're not currently on the cards out of the 9 I've got coming to review.
PCPCs have only just come available too :P
That is so true. Sitting next to a machine with an 1100W PSU going full on will be like sitting next to a one bar electric fire. Mind you summer is not too hot this year, so useful for providing background heating. :D
Lol, so true, most people over spec their PSU, adopting a 'bigger is better' mentality
total waste of money unless you have a massive hard drive array or some obscenely expensive gfx setup
Which is my whole argument for the entire review XD
And thanks for including the fabled Enermax unit in the comparison :)
Lol, sorry bud, haven't even read it yet, was just meandering through threads :D
The PCP&C has a single monster 12v rail instead of 4 smaller ones
afaik the PCP&C is also rated at 1kw for higher temps and 24/7 use
and the PCP&C is, well, its a PCP&C :D
I did not know that, is it designed to cut off at >620w, or does it just keep on going?
Interesting about the Corsair PSU, I'll definately move that one higher up the list on my next upgrade. :)
Isn't it true that a PSU is likely to be more efficient when it's not working near 100% load?
ie, buying a bigger PSU like this and running it at less than 50% load may actually be MORE efficient than getting a 430W PSU and making it work like a slave to maintain your power requirements?
Can you lovely Bit-Techers try running a test like this to confirm or refute this idea? :)
The more recent PSUs rated as 80+ efficient provide that rating in the 20% to 80% load range. There are some interesting efficiency measurements on the link below for the Corsair HX520/620 PSU where as you say they are most efficient around the 50% of max load mark. However, given most systems idle around the 100W mark and rarely exceed 250W, that makes the optimum PSU rating about 400 Watt for people not using a pair of power hungry graphics cards in SLI?crossfire mode. For those guys, these big units are OK, as long as they can get rid of all the heat somewhere
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page4.html
just out of curiosity who would that be? i think id be more tempted to grab to hx 520's then one big
they're deffo made by another company anyway. :)
Power hungry SLI and CrossFire needs anywhere between 400-550W in our experience with only a single hard drive, single fan and single DVD drive. Obviously people's setups vary as they add more kit. To be 80Plus certified they need to have an 80+ real efficiency at 20, 50 and 100% load.
Wood: Last time I checked Brett swears by them :D I've always owned Enermax personally.
I agree, Enermax is a good product.
I like reviews like this because a lot of people underestimate the importance of a good PSU, bigger does not necessarily mean better, but price does and I have seen friends with cheap nasty PSU which claim to be 550w, but they not true 550w.
I was reading the Gigabyte ODIN and it comes with some very good features.
If it does what it claims it does, then I think that we will all have better choices.
Also, apparently it comes with 4x PCI-Express cables, each supporting 6&8-pin connectors for your graphics now that is cool.
Anyone know when the ODIN is available in the UK?
Apparenlty you can "control" the PSU and it comes with 4 therometers - something like that!
Will it go up against other PSU?
Software control of a PSU - I am going to look into this some more. Had just about made up my mind to go with a Corsair HX520, but this sounds interesting.
We're going to be completing the testing later this month but instead of publishing one big group test, we think it's going to be better (and more timely) to drip feed the power supplies out as individual reviews. :)
This was a very useful article, keep on rocking!