Best bang-for-your-buck psu?

CGurrell

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Looking for a Good PSU (600W+) to replace my CX500M (Not enough power for my new r9 280x), preferably 80+ rated, Has anyone got any suggestions? I was suggested the XFX 650W XXX Edition for £70 on Amazon (Delivered) by envy14tpe on another thread but thought i would get some more opinions before making a decison :)

EDIT: I was told that the cx500m should have enough power for the r9 280x, but i'll probably upgrade it simply for peace of mind

EDIT 2: I am in the UK
 
There are usually some good deals on XFX, really depends if there is a rebate happening or not. Otherwise it just takes some shopping around on places you'd actually buy from to see when they have a good deal going. Corsair, xfx, seasonic and antec are all the top dogs, otherwise the thermaltake SMART and a couple other specific models are OK also.
 

CGurrell

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Great spot on ebuyer with the EVGA, was looking before on there and couldn't see it, if i was to choose between those two i'd go for the EVGA as it's modular. Any idea how hard it is to change out a PSU? Never done it before lol (I am an uber noob)

Also, on eBuyer there's a Coolermaster 750W 80+ Bronze PSU, I have a cooler master hyper 212 evo CPU Cooler and it's pretty good, are they any good with PSUs?
 

CGurrell

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No rebates in the UK unfortunately :( (I should have pointed out location in the original post, my bad). ModernWarfare (Post above) directed me to an EVGA PSU, do you think they're any good? (Getting multiple opinions lol)
 

CGurrell

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Just been comparing the two, EVGA has 8 PCI-E connectors and "single or quad switchable 12v rail delivering up to 61 amps" (whatever that means), CM has 4 PCI-E connectors and "single 12v rail delivering up to 62 amps". EVGA sounds better to me :p
 
that evga is meh, its OK, but nothing amazing. Its voltage regulation on the 12v rail( for the GPU) varies a decent amount and it's rail for the peripherals actually failed in some reviews, as in it went way out of tolerance. Single rail designs are actually better than multi rail designs as with multi rail you need to pay attention to what you're plugging into each rail and how much it will draw so you don't over draw on the rail. While single rail is just plug and play.
 

Ezoz

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Go with Corsair rm 750 or the higher from rm series the better. It cant fail. Your 280x wants 30amp witch means your cf ready in the future. you will be glad you chosed a psu with one strong single rail.

 

CGurrell

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The problem with the RM750 for me is simply cost. I know it's a great PSU but it's a little out of my range personally.



I've heard it needs 30amps too...
 

Ezoz

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250w for the card itself, you are very right there. The card itself draws about 250 watts which equates to about 21 Amps on the 12v rail. But You will obviously need more current on the +12v rail to power the rest of your system. AMD recommends a 500 watt power supply for the 7970 which should be very similar to the r9 280x. I'd recommend trying to get a power supply with a single 12v rail with at least 30 amps on the +12v rail.

Headroom is Always to prefere! :)

And as previous posters said Corsair is one of the top dogs in the psu game.
 

Ezoz

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Here you have the tech`y answer that confirms my simple to understand answer in my first post:

R9-280X - System in IDLE = 119W * System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 350W * Difference (GPU load) = 231W * Add average IDLE wattage ~10W *Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 241 Watts

- From 350w max results the recommendation: 30A and a 550W psu minimum (350w / 12v)
 

Ezoz

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The specs of rm is awesome, altough i havent tried the rm series myself.
Yes you do pay for brand here but also quality of course. Best is a very relative term. I do trust "ModernWarfare" judgement in this statment "are extremely overpriced. i had a RM850watt then got a silverstone 1000W. mainly because of some form factor faults in it. i would recommend HX AX those are the most powerful ones."

I myself use the hx and it served me well for four years now with frecvent hw uppgrades.
 

Ezoz

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Sorry, im multitasking lika a %¤¤%#" here.

Listen to "ModernWarfare" here. It will do the job but its not a will hold with full performace forever unit.
But its cheaper, that was your issue here. And it has a good enough rail!