Comments Locked

38 Comments

Back to Article

  • vol7ron - Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - link

    Nice Martin, I've been looking at upgrading my PSU (550W ultra) and I only like buying the modular connectors. $200 still seems kind of high, but almost in the reasonable range. I'd like it to be $150 :)

    Another thing I might be shopping around for is a new UPS, have you guys reviewed any of those recently?
  • HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    There is a 650W version. Selling for $160 at newegg now
  • jeffbui - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    $138 at ewiz/superbiiz for the 650w version. I couldn't be happier with it.
  • vol7ron - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    I like the plan for the future though, especially with power supplies since they last long.

    My guess was that the next upgrade would be 750W or higher, the real goal was to have an 800W PSU and UPS. My machine probably only currently uses 350W, but I like to have headroom, especially since I keep adding HDs and will probably take advantage of more PCI slots in the future.
  • Souka - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    HX650 or HX750 (both are modular)

    HX650 is $120 at NewEgg, I have it... quiet and works well. Reviews show it to be 80+ Silver. but Corsair chose to be Bronze as their own testing (under very hot conditions) didn't qualify for Silver... Kudos to Corsair.
  • Souka - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Sorry..my bad. Corsair PSU is Silver...almost Gold.

    One important thing about the HX650 and HX750 PSU is that they're just shy of 90% effecient at a VERY wide range of loading.

    True, the Seasonic unit does do better at PEAK efficiency (if using 220v) by a few %, but if you're actually going to use a 750W PSU at any other load than this, the Corsair will save you $$ upfront and in the long run with lower power bills.

    My $.02
  • HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    HX650 is bronze...nothing more than bronze

    HX750 is silver and was originally awarded Gold by 80plus.
  • Franson - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Are you a bot or something? Take your stupid Corsair fanboyism and shove it....!!
  • Souka - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link

    Wow... nice post...
  • piroroadkill - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link

    The HX650 IS a Seasonic design, and I think, by looking at it, the HX750 is a Channel Well design. Regardless, Seasonic was also the OEM for the HX520 and HX620. Seasonic make damn fine power supplies.
  • Londeninfo - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link

    My pc psu have been causing troubling me from many days. Whenever I touch the CPU i feel the electric shock.I cant figure out the problem!!!!
    <a href="http://www.londeninfo.com/">Londen</a&g...
  • Londeninfo - Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - link

    <a href= "http://www.londeninfo.com" > Londen </a>
  • Earthmonger - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Is it okay if I use this review to comment on something I'm getting really tired of seeing in upper class power supplies? It is? Thanks.

    [quote=Martin Kaffei]The cable sleeves are well done and help keep everything looking neat and organized, as does the fully modular cable system.[/quote]

    This. These cables are not well sleeved. Every time I see bare wires on these expensive new units I roll my eyes, and add $40 to the end cost, since I'll have to completely re-sleeve all cables. It's awesome (seriously) that they're going fully modular these days, but for the price premiums, you'd think they would care more about the details.
  • bigboxes - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    How anal are you? If you must cover the last 1/4 inch of wires where they meet up with the connector why don't you just use some additional shrink tubing?
  • Minion4Hire - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Yea, what's the big deal? To my understanding one of the reasons they don't sleeve them to the very ends is to allow greater flexibility and bends in the cable to help make installation easier, which can be especially useful in smaller chassis. The shrink tubing at the end of the sleeve isn't exactly flexible, and would and would "pad" the back of the connectors by several centimeters if they were butting up against it. Better for the cables? Potentially. But I'm willing to bet that the average person would find it to be that much more painful and annoying during installation.
  • Earthmonger - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Quite anal, yes. If a wire isn't completely sleeved, it shouldn't be sleeved at all. It just feels half-assed.

    As for the reduction in flexibility, not all heatshrink is rigid. I have some laying around here that is soft and pliant. Nor does it take several centimeters of heatshrink to do the job.

    I do prefer individually sleeved cables though. Wire clusters aren't flexible enough, whereas I can bend a flat double-row of individuals right around a 90 degree without issue.
  • 7Enigma - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    What a poor comment. The purpose of sleeving is for better air flow and easier access to components. The terminal ends are kept free for better connectivity.

    You can glitter up your case/components all you want to satisfy the anal inner-you, but for the rest of us, I think we find this more than acceptable sleeving.
  • bigboxes - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    I know what you are talking about. I just find you are a tad unrealistic. If you want bling then maybe you're looking at the wrong mfg. Seasonic is for the enthusiast. It's fairly plain, but well built and engineered. I prefer function over form and I still think it looks good. Of course I don't have a window or lights in my case. I like quiet. I have sleeving mesh and shrink tubing, but the sleeving on this unit (and all Seasonic PSUs) is top notch. I have sleeved up to (and even over) the connector before. I just think you are asking too much from the mfg in this case. Sounds like you are going to redo whatever someone else does because you have certain tastes that only you can live up to. And that's tottally understandable. I'm sure most people think I'm too anal over my builds too. :)
  • HOOfan 1 - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    If I saw bare wires...I would stay very far away from the PSU...talk about short circuits....

    Luckily, these wires aren't bare, they are covered in plastic isulation.

    Smartass remark out of the way, there is no way to extend the sleave all the way to the end, the wires would have to be individually sleaved, or done like the flexforce cables...individually sleaving them would raise the price exponentially.
  • MrSpadge - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    What an amazing comment!

    (1) you need to spot the "missing" sleeve at the end of the cables
    (2) you have to recognize it as something you don't like
    (3) you have to seriously consider fixing it for 40$ in case you'd want to buy this PSU

    I'm not sure anyone else on this planet could fulfill all 3 ;)
  • MadMan007 - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    I hope they come out with some milder wattage units for those of use running 'normal' systems with a single GPU and maybe some non-ragged edge CPU and GPU overclocks. 83% efficiency at 10% of load is great.
  • 7Enigma - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    This was going to be my comment as well. I build average systems with the highest performance/$ so currently have a C2D with 4870 and will be looking in the next year to make the jump to quad cpu /5XXX gpu. With the fantastic idle consumption of both cpu and gpu the amount of time at or below that 20% level for this PSU is considerable.

    Give me the 500w version that is 85% @ 100w for <$125 and I'm sold.
  • jonup - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Genuin question (not being surcastic):
    What is the big obsession with efficiency? 85% vs 87+%? Does it really matter?
    I use a OCZ's modular power supply and at full load (OCCT PSU) voltages remain stable, it's quite and I do not justify paying extra $100 for 3-5% efficiency. It's not like I am using $30 PSU. What am I missing?
  • Alexstarfire - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Lower power bills. IF you maxed out a 750w then a 3% difference equates to at least 22.5w. Sounds like nothing, but if you leave your computer on 24/7 it adds up pretty fast. That's 540w per day so let's say 1Kw every 2 days. $.10, obviously this will vary the most since cost per Kw of electricity varies depending on location, every 2 days, that's roughly $18 per year.

    I doubt most would get anywhere near this, but expecting about $10 per year could be realistic depending on your computer specs and usage habits. So if you can get an extra 3-5% for less than $30-$40 then it's probably worth it. Though that's assuming the PSU lasts that long. If you can get more than 5% then it's probably almost always worth it. :P

    Lots of variables that really just depend on the individual. Very useful for someone like me that does a ton of gaming and video conversions.
  • LordanSS - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Since we're on the topic of wattage and efficiency, I was wondering if I could get input from people about what "good", wattage would be for a PSU running a quad-core CPU (125W TDP, thereabouts), a 5970 (or wattage-equivalent video card combo) and 3 to 4 7200rpm mechanical HDDs?

    I was initially thinking about going with an 850w PSU, but if I can get "lower" with a big enough headroom for future component upgrades (like GPUs, that might consume more power), that'd be good.

    Thanks in advance.
  • sviola - Wednesday, December 29, 2010 - link

    Try using this tool:

    http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.j...
  • ekerazha - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    On the contrary, the JonnyGURU review says the Seasonic X-Series performance are better than the Modu87+ series performance... who is wrong?
  • C'DaleRider - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    Given that AT always has spurious results in their load testing when compared to other reputable power supply testers, like at JonnyGuru, HardOCP, and Hardware Secrets, I'd tend to think AT still has yet to set up their Chroma properly.

    The aforementioned sites all showed a 1% voltage regulation on all rails yet AT has the 5V rail at 5%......inferior testing from AT. And when will AT learn those graphs are almost worthless? I'd really suggest going to JonnyGuru and look at charts with numbers, so you can see what the actual load being put on the power supply during testing and what stability the various rails demonstrated, along with actual captures from the oscilloscope of the ripple/noise generation and captures of the overshoot transient tracings.

    AT, while great at motherboard, cpu, and video card testing, is waaaay behind in power supply testing and while better than some sites, is almost becoming worthless in their results, esp. when compared to more reliable testers on the web.
  • ElBurroMaron - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    *lol* and what exactly makes you the expert? Just because you don't understand the graphs you conclude they're bad? And you think testing with a shoddy 3k Sunmoon is so much better than doing it with a 30k Chroma?

    I'd also love to see o-scope shots and a little more on loading scales but hey, maybe it'll still come one day. Maybe asking nicely and suggestion what could be added is better than posting such a stupid comment as yours?
  • MrSpadge - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    I got my Modu 87+ 500W for 110€ and it's just perfect for me.. I love it! Kind of.
  • cmdrdredd - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    I use an HX1000 Corsair PSU in my system, I would have bought this unit because it's higher quality but they don't make more than 750watt units in this series. Why not?
  • 529th - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link

    The 750 should put most machines today in the most efficient part of the efficiency curve.

    With the 650 model you hit the highest efficiency of 92.1% between 269-292; and most systems draw around there when gaming. My i7 920 (stock clocks,) 5870 (stock clocks,) 6g 1333 1.6v, was right between there; and I'm glad I chose the 650w model. Even then if you are doing a little overclocking, you stay within the 90 percentile between 134w - 588w which is solid. So given the 750w model you can assume another 100w added to the 588w and you'll still be in the 90 percentile which is darn good!

    Of course, not all machines are running stock clocks.
  • 529th - Wednesday, April 14, 2010 - link

    JonnyGuru did a great review on the[rul=http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReview...]Seasonic X-650[/url]. The ripple suppression on these things are top notch. Check out page 3.

    Isn't he still a mod here?
  • MamiyaOtaru - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link

    Got the 750 on ebay for 148 (with shipping) after cashback. Was quite a steal considering the MSRP

    power draw at the wall went from 153 to 123 at idle. Quite the change from my old aerocool zeroDBA.
  • jayce - Thursday, April 15, 2010 - link

    Are power supply manufacturer’s going to be moving towards switching topology between lower and higher loads?
    Given the trend in CPU’s/ GPU’s to use power gating and hard disk controllers spinning down disks when idle, are we going to be seeing power supplies which provide high efficiencies in 50w-150w and 400w+ in the case of a 750w power supply.
  • Bitgod - Sunday, April 18, 2010 - link

    I put together a new system using my old HX620 and I was getting squealing from various components. I decided to take a chance and try a new PSU and I knew I wanted one that was more efficient. I'd seen some of the pics of the inside of the X750 and fell in love with it, it's so clean. So I coughed up the money to get one, and luckily it was worth it because all the squealing noises went away. And it's also drawing less power according to the kill-a-watt tester I plugged it into. So, it's pricey, but if you want a good PSU, this is it.
  • Salsoolo - Thursday, June 3, 2010 - link

    thats a fine psu
    90+ all over over, thats amazing
  • jed22281 - Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - link

    I don't suppose any one could offer some thoughts based on my needs outlined in this thread of mine?
    http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6...
    Much appreciated if anyone can!

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now