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Four 80 PLUS Gold Power Supplies Under 450 W, Reviewed

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  • Power Supplies
  • Cooler Master
  • Enermax
  • Corsair
  • Seasonic
Last response: in Reviews comments
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Anonymous
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 12:58:32 AM

Although high-wattage power supplies get most of the glory, we take our hats off to small, efficient solutions offering more practical output. We take four sub-450 W PSUs and run them through our benchmark suite to see if we can determine a winner.

Four 80 PLUS Gold Power Supplies Under 450 W, Reviewed : Read more

More about : gold power supplies 450 reviewed

July 15, 2014 1:13:05 AM

No ripple tests, no noise (not sound) tests, and no oscope shots.... *facepalm*

Readers have been begging for you guys to do a proper PSU test for years. I'm glad to know Tom's has taken the time to listen.

/sarcasm
Score
7
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 1:39:02 AM

they did ripple tests......they load tested them....... that's about as much as most readers need to know, that it wont blow up at 100% load and wont damage components with excess ripple. better than some reviews i have read "we hooked it up to a pc and it worked, give gold award..."
Score
3
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a c 131 ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 5:56:14 AM

Too bad Rosewill did not submit its Capstone for this roundup.

It would have also been nice to see one of Seasonic's TFX units included.
Score
3
July 15, 2014 7:22:07 AM

iam2thecrowe said:
they did ripple tests......they load tested them....... that's about as much as most readers need to know, that it wont blow up at 100% load and wont damage components with excess ripple. better than some reviews i have read "we hooked it up to a pc and it worked, give gold award..."


I lol'd at the operational noise graph because it tells you nothing. What rail(s) are they testing? Who knows? Who cares...

You are welcome to continue to defend the article, but the truth is that nobody takes a Tom's Hardware PSU review seriously. This review doesn't do anything to change that perception. Compared to the depth of analysis that goes into other PC components, it is disappointing to see Tom's continue to ignore the requests of its readers to bring a thorough, full-featured PSU review to the table.

Score
6
July 15, 2014 8:09:49 AM

Ripple and line noise tests are the indicators of whether or not a power supply is made with solid parts or made with parts that just do the job and will probably last about a year of nominal use before releasing the magic smoke. If there's a lot of ripple, then the motherboard's house keeping circuitry is going to do a lot of work to keep stable voltages (especially when a difference of even 0.1V matters).

Yes, these are supposedly made by top-tier manufacturers, but just because they have a reputation in the past doesn't mean they have a clean slate the entire way through.
Score
3
July 15, 2014 8:46:48 AM

I am just happy that we have some reviews of more reasonable P/S. Most people I know aren't running 1000W+.

"In order to keep prices within reason, we settled on an 80 PLUS Gold rating as sufficient to meet our second demand."

I'm also happy with my 80+ Bronze P/S. Frankly, when you're buying smaller output P/S, I really don't know why anyone would need to get a Gold-rated one.
Score
6
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 8:47:38 AM

Is it just me or is $100 WAY too much for a 450W psu......
Score
16
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 11:53:11 AM

Yea I am really confused by the huge price tags here.

I paid like 70$ for a top of the line 660W seasonic platinum PSU after MIR. Needless to say I was patient and waited for a good deal, but I see high quality 650-750W PSUs for 80$ after MIRs regularly.
Score
3
July 15, 2014 11:59:37 AM

Well good quality 400W PSU can be better choice than good quality 600W version. If it works within its best efficiency area.
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 12:06:55 PM

hannibal said:
Well good quality 400W PSU can be better choice than good quality 600W version. If it works within its best efficiency area.


True, PSUs typically operate most effeciently at 80% load. I build gaming rigs though, so 400W is always too small.

I just expected smaller PSUs to be cheaper, that's all.
Score
0
July 15, 2014 12:21:09 PM

There's a big mistake in considering 400W insufficient for gaming. I have a 770 phantom, a 750ti from kfa2 for physx, an i7 2600K at 4,4ghz, various neons, a load of fans, 4 SSDs, 2 black faex 2TB, an asus xonar d2x, and still I can't reach over 420W of power consumption in torture tests, measured with the highest end APC Smart (865W UPS). I have a Corsair 850W Gold, which is a Seasonic rebrand. And I'm ashamed I went so much overkill with my PSU.
This review feels like useless. There's no ripple testing, whatever the second comment user says. Get some review from Guru3D and you'll see.
Based on words I can't compare with other products on other reviews, so this is quite a fail.
Score
5
July 15, 2014 12:23:12 PM

Oh I forgot, I'm building a gaming rig with a PicoPSU 160XT... deal with it
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 12:43:33 PM

Drejeck said:
Oh I forgot, I'm building a gaming rig with a PicoPSU 160XT... deal with it


Haha... well I can beat you on your own games from my cell phone.
Score
0
July 15, 2014 12:59:04 PM

Quote:
Drejeck said:
Oh I forgot, I'm building a gaming rig with a PicoPSU 160XT... deal with it


Haha... well I can beat you on your own games from my cell phone.

Hahahaha yup, given a micro HDMI port. But I'm speaking of a machine capable of challenging the PS4. My old NES 8 bit is going to be revived with the KFA2 750Ti and an i5S processor. Actually I badly wanted the Broadwell architecture but I can't wait 2015...
Score
0
a c 131 ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 1:31:30 PM

I used an i5-3570K and an overclocked HD7970 to mine last year, and it pulled 312W from its UPS. Under a gaming load, the GPU usage would drop, and the CPU usage would be higher, but I'd be surprised if it needed more than 350W-375W. It happened to have a pair of WD Blacks in a RAID1 also, plus a SSD, but no other bling. A 400W PSU is plenty for a competent gamer.
Score
4
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 2:23:40 PM

This is not a Power Supply Review, this is an informercial.

The three most important things to review on a power supply are regulation, ripple suppression, and hot box stability.

My suggestion for Patrick is to go look at CRMARIS and Oklahoma Wolf's PSU reviews to see how a real review is done.

The only way to verify true quality is with hot box torture. That's how you separate the elite PSUs from the turds wrapped in a box.

Score
4
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 2:48:53 PM

The $90 750W SUPERNOVA G2/Superflower Leadex sets the bar for quality PSUs. If your PSU you costs more than that and is less wattage then it is fail.
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 3:02:37 PM

damric said:
The $90 750W SUPERNOVA G2/Superflower Leadex sets the bar for quality PSUs. If your PSU you costs more than that and is less wattage then it is fail.


Unless they buy it for the rating and know nothing else about a PSU, but if you checked out the price links to Amazon, no one is that dumb to spend that much on a small wattage PSU. The CM one is sold by some unknown vender with a $44 dollar shipping! Corsair has some reviews, but that's not for the 450w, they're reviews for higher wattage models.
Score
0
July 15, 2014 3:35:47 PM

Personally if a PSU is 500w or less a gold/bronze/silver rating means little to me as long as it's well made.
Unless it's over that, then personally, the cost of the unit out weighs the savings on the power bill
Score
1
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 5:18:09 PM

xenol said:
Ripple and line noise tests are the indicators of whether or not a power supply is made with solid parts or made with parts that just do the job and will probably last about a year of nominal use before releasing the magic smoke. If there's a lot of ripple, then the motherboard's house keeping circuitry is going to do a lot of work to keep stable voltages (especially when a difference of even 0.1V matters).

Yes, these are supposedly made by top-tier manufacturers, but just because they have a reputation in the past doesn't mean they have a clean slate the entire way through.

you can have a psu with crap components that has great ripple and noise tests and still explodes in 6 months. Visually looking at the inside is the only way to tell if it is mae with decent parts. A cheap capacitor can work just as well as an expensive one, but it wont likely last as long.
Score
3
July 15, 2014 6:02:11 PM

What about the Rosewill Capstone 450W? A cheap, reliable 80+ Gold power supply as well. $60 on newegg and amazon. Just got it days ago, and runs very well.
Score
1
a b ) Power supply
July 15, 2014 6:11:06 PM

ipwn3r456 said:
What about the Rosewill Capstone 450W? A cheap, reliable 80+ Gold power supply as well. $60 on newegg and amazon. Just got it days ago, and runs very well.


That would have crapped all over the other 4 PSUs and ruined the infomercial, pissed off the sponsors, and shut down THW.
Score
0
July 16, 2014 7:12:45 AM

While the tests aren't comprehensive they're pretty much proof positive that anything over 450W is overkill. I run a fairly heavy rig (1090T, 7950, 2 SSDs, 2 HDDs, BD-RW) on a decent 400W PSU and it doesn't have any issues. As long as the rails are sitting within specs under load they're fine, sadly Tom's doesn't seem to understand that voltage under load is important. And $90+ for a 450W PSU?
Score
0
July 16, 2014 2:22:38 PM

"Who the heck wants to spend that much on a 450w PSU? With that amount you can get a PSU with a lot more wattage and still have a 80 Plus Gold rating."

That 80 Plus Gold rating is a bit easier to meet at higher wattage ratings. The following table shows the maximum permitted power dissipation for an 80 Plus Gold rated power supply under low load. The first column is the power supply rating.

360 10.8
420 12.6
450 13.4
750 22.4
850 25.4

In order to achieve an 80 Plus Gold rating for the 360w rated SSR-360GP, Seasonic had to get power usage under 10.8 watts while delivering 72 watts of power output. In contrast, whoever built the Corsair HX750 only had to get the power usage down to 22.4 watts, albeit while delivering 150 watts of output power.
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 16, 2014 7:57:07 PM

Drejeck said:
Quote:
Drejeck said:
Oh I forgot, I'm building a gaming rig with a PicoPSU 160XT... deal with it


Haha... well I can beat you on your own games from my cell phone.

Hahahaha yup, given a micro HDMI port. But I'm speaking of a machine capable of challenging the PS4. My old NES 8 bit is going to be revived with the KFA2 750Ti and an i5S processor. Actually I badly wanted the Broadwell architecture but I can't wait 2015...


Sounds cool honestly. I wish I had the money and motivation to try a project like that myself, but I would probably just get discouraged with spending that much money to have a lesser performer than my current build.
Score
0
July 16, 2014 10:04:30 PM

Anyone who is in the slightest knowledgeable about the internal build quality of PSUs will understand that Corsair's RM series are to be avoided unless one desperately wants the passive fan profile and full modularity. The 450W is understandable because most systems will hit considerable load most of the times, meaning that the fan is on and actively cooling the caps (which are of terrible quality; CapXon may be acceptable in a budget PSU but not a $100 80+ Gold semi-passive unit, and definitely not in a PSU that's not even actively cooled).

All the models over 450W should really be discontinued as the RM series' pricing places it in direct competition with Seasonic's X series, which is far superior in quality and brings full modularity as well, even though it's not passively cooled. There's a reason why fanless PSUs have large heatsinks and top-of-the-line caps and components, and Corsair doesn't seem to understand that not all PSU buyers will fall for its "high quality capacitor" BS marketing.
Score
1
a b ) Power supply
July 17, 2014 4:10:19 PM

Drejeck said:
There's a big mistake in considering 400W insufficient for gaming. I have a 770 phantom, a 750ti from kfa2 for physx, an i7 2600K at 4,4ghz, various neons, a load of fans, 4 SSDs, 2 black faex 2TB, an asus xonar d2x, and still I can't reach over 420W of power consumption in torture tests, measured with the highest end APC Smart (865W UPS).


Onus said:
I used an i5-3570K and an overclocked HD7970 to mine last year, and it pulled 312W from its UPS. Under a gaming load, the GPU usage would drop, and the CPU usage would be higher, but I'd be surprised if it needed more than 350W-375W. It happened to have a pair of WD Blacks in a RAID1 also, plus a SSD, but no other bling. A 400W PSU is plenty for a competent gamer.

Absolutely. Most of the new system build help threads have PSU capacities recommended that are far more than they would ever need.


ddpruitt said:
While the tests aren't comprehensive they're pretty much proof positive that anything over 450W is overkill.

Generally speaking, I do agree with you. Anyone looking for a multi-GPU setup, and/or a hungry OCing CPU will want and need a little more capacity. Also, it seems that quality 380W - 450W units aren't a whole lot cheaper than good 550W units, so I can understand someone spending $5 - $10 more "just-in-case." I typically draw the line around 650W. You need a really good, specific reason to need more capacity than that.
Score
0
July 18, 2014 11:54:30 AM

If *ahem* -SOMEONE- *ahem* wasn't so adamant about getting free power supplies for their friends they might actually open one up and tell you how long these suckers will last you. It would be nice to see how bad (or good) the soldering is, and what components are built into these PSUs. Shame on you *ahem* someone, calling yourself an enthusiast site. There are better places to find reviews on power supplies. I'm disappointed but I've come to expect this mediocrity.
Score
-1
July 21, 2014 6:40:10 AM

Quote:
Is it just me or is $100 WAY too much for a 450W psu......


Yea... low wattage for most gaming rigs (or at least ones that people plan on upgrading sometime in the future which is almost all)
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 29, 2014 5:45:17 AM

Can anyone link me to an article that describes the equipment Tom's uses to tests PSUs? Also the methodology that they use would be nice. I've been looking around for some piece of equipment to suspect power supplies in my shop and all I can find are very expensive $3,000+ testers, which clearly doesn't make economic sense for a small guy like me. :( 
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 29, 2014 2:51:19 PM

druid157 said:
Here's the said 400W Seasonic unit on Newegg for $43 for those who like their PSU reliable at a low price tag.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That model doesn't have any PCIe cables. That's the problem I run into most when looking at sub-450W PSUs. I don't want to run anything huge on it, but quality 400W units can easily handle 270X class GPUs and a moderately OC'd i5. Yeah, you can always run the 4-pin cable adapters to the GPU, but I like cleaner cabling than that.
Score
0
a c 131 ) Power supply
July 30, 2014 6:51:33 AM

Maybe Seasonic will update some of those older models to add a PCIe cable; after all even their 360W "G" unit has one.
Score
0
a b ) Power supply
July 30, 2014 12:11:10 PM

Onus said:
Maybe Seasonic will update some of those older models to add a PCIe cable; after all even their 360W "G" unit has one.

I'd like to see most manufacturers do that. Even if it's just a single 6-pin cable.
Score
0
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