Power Supply Advice

hoom

hoom

Veteran
Whats the go-to these days for PSUs?
Used to be Silverstone were the go-to but I'm totally out of the loop on PSUs.

I'm considering bumping my R5 5600X + 6700XT to an R7 5800X3D + 7800XT.
My current 650W CoolerMaster PSU is probably a bit marginal for the current setup but would be definitely underspec for that.
I don't think it needs to go into the kilowatt range, I'm not suddenly going to be buying a top end GPU/CPU but I guess 850W or so?
 
There are quite a few psu calculators out there
I used be quiets (it only recommends be quiet of course)
5800X3D + 7800XT, 2 sticks of ram 1 nvme, 1 sata, 1 pata + 4 fans
700w = 80% load
750w = 75% load
850w = 66% load

did neweggs one that estimates wattage
5800X3D + 7800XT, 32gb ram, 1 sata, 1 pata
usage = 600 - 699 Watts
As for go-to I dont think you can go wrong with any reputable brand
 
Seasonic never let me down. I ran my 13600K + RTX4070 on my very old (12+ years) 520W Seasonic S12II for a while with no issues. My UPS says I use like 300-400W when gaming.

Your intended specs don't look that power hungry unless maybe you OC the GPU heavily. I don't know if that's possible on the 7800XT. In any case, 750W should be well more than enough for you.
 
Seasonic from me aswell, I think they used to be the oem for corsair at some point. I've also used some corsair ones in some family builds (3 or 4) and none of them have had problems. The only psu i've had die in the last 10 years was a silverstone sff psu, which got replaced with a corsair sff that's still going.

I normally go with a gold efficiency rating and I normally go a bit higher than I need wattage wise to try reduce fan speed/noise and keep it in the efficiency sweet spot.
 
im a corsair boy

wrt wattage the only thing i would be wary of is going too low if you want to "survive" spikes in transient power draw. sometimes a cpu or a gpu or both can spike and double their current wattage and if your psu isnt rated for that, you will trip over wattage protection and it will shut down

most (all?) current, well-made psus will survive as in not be destroyed but if you have enough max wattage you will also not shut down because the limit for the protection is high enough
 
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Bludd said:
wrt wattage the only thing i would be wary of is going to low if you want to "survive" spikes in transient power draw. sometimes a cpu or a gpu or both can spike and double their current wattage and if your psu isnt rated for that, you will trip over wattage protection and it will shut down

most (all?) current, well-made psus will survive as in not be destroyed but if you have enough max wattage you will also not shut down because the limit for the protection is high enough
Click to expand...

You'll pay a premium for them, but the modern ATX 3.0 power supplies are great in this regard.
They're specifically engineered for enormous short term overload capacity for GPU power spikes, and while they are more expensive watt-for-watt, you often get better real world efficiency because you don't have to oversize the power supply nearly as much as with the previous generation ones, and can buy one much closer to your 'average' load.

While there are some exceptions, for the most part if it has a native 12VHPWR connector, it's going to be ATX 3.0 rated.

Thermaltake has a good writeup here: https://www.thermaltake.com/atx3-pcie-gen5-read
 
the other thing to think about is that a psu can be re-used in new pc builds because if you bought a good one and it has enough wattage and amperage etc, it has the potential to be in like 2-3 computers, depending on how often you upgrade or rebuild
 
T2098 said:
You'll pay a premium for them, but the modern ATX 3.0 power supplies are great in this regard.
Click to expand...
Yeah I had to replace my PSU recently. Not because my Seasonic failed, but that it wasn't powerful enough for the 3090 I got at the tail end of Ampere. It was only 700w and my PC would shut off under certain loads. I ended up getting a 1000w ATX 3.0 to future proof myself.
 
Bludd said:
the other thing to think about is that a psu can be re-used in new pc builds because if you bought a good one and it has enough wattage and amperage etc, it has the potential to be in like 2-3 computers, depending on how often you upgrade or rebuild
Click to expand...
Yup! PSU are a long term investment that is going to be powering all the really expensive bits. Don't go cheap on it. Value oriented is how I go with them, but never cheap. Always get something good in a PSU.

Got my son a 1300w EVGA a few years back with a 10 year guarantee for only around $130us and it's a nice one. Hunt for a deal, but make sure it's a solid PSU.
 
I only get Seasonic PSUs with 10 or 12 year warranties now. I've never had to use the warranty. :p

Love the reliability, clean signal and quietness.

Regards,
SB
 
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I wouldn't just trust any consumer facing brand specifically as the line variance can be very high. Most of the consumer facing brands are really just out sourcing to other OEMs that might not have a direct consumer presence. Even someone like Seasonic which does manufacture I believe has some lines that are outsourced (as in not made by Seasonic themselves).

Because of this you'd really need to look at the specific PSU itself. However at the same time I wouldn't get too caught up into the numbers of those reviews, it's has to some extent veered into just marketing including the detriment of the consumer (not sure if you remember a time when in cable caps were in vogue to game the ripple numbers that get bandied about which made them much harder to manage). You should looking at good enough with no major flaws basically.

750w now I believe is roughly the enthusiast mainstream with going up to 850w not being much more in terms of cost (or other factors like noise). So anything there even for quality units is fairly reasonable. I believe 1000w+ is likely where you the premium starts (your market dependent of course).

Off hand the more detailed PSU review sites now are I guess Techpowerup, I think PCPer has some decent tests but I don't know how much coverage they do. If you use those "tier lists" that get recommended I would always cross reference them and don't take them too precisely.

Tom's Hardware for awhile had maybe the new standard with reviews but the guy left to focus on Cybenetics a bit back (if you're wondering Cybenetics is another certification standard for PSU efficiency as an alternative to 80+, and also has a noise standard as well), but he seems to have done a new contributing article this month that might be of interest - https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html
 
Why ? they generally are more expensive you often need a bracket in an atx case to make the screw holes line up and often need extension cables because they are designed for small cases and they have smaller fans I dont think having a bit more room in your case outweighs the downsides
 
Davros said:
often need extension cables
Click to expand...
This is a really good point. I put an sfx one in a rather poorly designed atx case years back so I could have some room for the cables and still keep the hdd cage in. Now it worked but I had to get extensions for everything except the sata power cable.
 
davis.anthony said:
Get an SFX power supply.

ATX units aren't really needed these days except for monster builds.
Click to expand...
Having seen your setup, I understand that thought. However, replacing a PSU in an existing setup, likely in a mini/mid tower, it's not very viable.
 
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