PSU: Corsair CX450M vs. Super Flower Golden Green HX 450 and Cooler Master G450M

The former option, the tier list, can never be right. It's because what units are "good" or "bad" depend on the end user. For example, let's say you take into account the fan noise. Perhaps that fan noise affects what tier that unit gets placed into. Then you have an end user who is looking to purchase a power supply that he will use in a computer deep in the basement cellar where no one ever is and where noise is isolated. He may see that it is in a lower tier, not realizing that it's in that lower tier because it has a screamer fan, even though fan noise is not a factor at all for him. That could affect his decision and cause him to purchase a different PSU, even though the screamer one would have been ideal for him. For a gamer? No, probably not a good PSU. But it depends on the end user.

Take the next oddball who runs a gazillion hard drives or other specialized configuration that just so-happen to put more load on the minor rails. In that case, this whole "12V is the most important" placement and determination of tiers would end up as a sticky mess for that PSU shopper. Or what if the PWR_OK signal being dropped at a low voltage is taken into consideration in your tier list, but the end user who just-so happens to be buying a PSU owns a quality UPS that has a low transfer time which gets that AC back before the voltage even drops out of spec? In that case, AC_LOSS to PWR_OK would not be of any concern to him, yet it may have affected the placement of some of the units he is checking out on the tier list.

It all depends on the exact end user and his or her configuration. It is possible to create a tier list targeted toward one exact person. So if Jimmy doesn't care about noise and runs 30 hard drives and has a UPS with low transfer time, a tier could be formed called: Jimmy's Power Supply Tier List. Obviously, you can't make a tier list toward each individual end user; it just doesn't work! Different users have different requirements and standards. They run different configurations and care about different things. Jonnyguru, you say it won't be subjective at all, but it will be subjective because it is making assumptions and biases that the tier list will be ideal for every single person buying a PSU, but it depends on the end user.

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