HELP, CX500? XFX 450? Budget Gaming Build

Madbro235

Reputable
May 23, 2014
55
0
4,630
Hello, i'm about to build a pc for the first time. It is a budget gaming build and i'm not sure whether
to get the CX500 psu or the XFX450. On this forum people say stuff like it will blow up and crap but i'm not convinced as there's excellent reviews elsewhere. I don't plan on hugely upgrading. (Possible OC and a new fan, in the future)
SO please please please tell me what I should get and why. I'm leaning towards the CX because it provides a lot of watts and Corsair is well known. ( Also Cheaper ).
So Here is my specs!
CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£77.95 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£59.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.45 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.31 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£147.81 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£46.26 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer


:D THANKS IN ADVANCE PLEASE ANSWER, I WILL CHOOSE AN ANSWER I SWEAR!!!
 
Solution


Not very much; The 550W version of the XFX would be better if you intend to upgrade your PC in the foreseeable future.
The Corsair "CX" line reviews well when new, but is made with some inferior Samxon capacitors that can't take heat, and have been cited (e.g. by c.hegge at HardwareInsights) for early failure. The badcaps.org forums also describe these "crapacitors."
The XFX is a Seasonic-built unit and is much better. It is sufficient for a system with any graphics card needing only a single PCIe power cable, like the GTX660. That is the one I would choose.
 
I'd go for XFX. That PSU is made by Seasonic (one of the best), while Corsair doesn't make their own PSUs so some of their models (AX, TX, HX) are good while others are not. The CX units use cheap capacitors which lead to high failure rates and heat issues.
 
Watts is not as important as the amps on the 12v rails.
In this case, the cx500 has 38, the xfx450 has 34.
Either is adequate for your graphics card.
The CX series is a tier 3 unit on this list:
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx?Redirected=true
It is not clear exactly which XFX unit you are looking at but in general, XFX is a higher quality unit.

Overprovisioning a psu is a good idea. It will run cooler and quieter. Usually the cost of a 550w XFX is not so much more, and I would try to do that. Among other things, you will have an upgrade option for your graphics card.