Okay guys, regarding your 1110W+ recommendations - what's going on here? Have you completely forgotten about the EVGA Supernova P2 1200W? It's $235 on amazon (http://j.mp/1yhscwf), i.e. cheaper than your value recommendation, and quality wise it's top of the line - trading blows with the AX1500i. On johnnyguru the supernova and the ax1500 are the only two power supplies with a perfect score. I mean honestly, it's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned - unless you want to pay more than $100 extra for corsair link (or whatever their monitoring software is called).
I haven't been paying that much attention to the high-wattage PSUs since most components have gotten quite energy efficient lately, but the P2 1200W and G2 1600W models from EVGA look like an incredible value at their current price points. Thanks for pointing them out! I'm not sure I'll ever build another 1000W+ monster rig, but if I do, I would definitely consider those units.
Sea Sonic makes the CS Corsair PSU's...That isn't a bad thing plus, Corsair has a good warranty policy, return it for a replacement or, give them a credit card and they will ship out a replacement right away as long as they receive the defective unit.
I too am curious why none of the new EVGA G2 or P2 series PSUs made the list. They perform well, are based on a good platform (Super Flower Leadex), and are very competitively priced. The 850 G2 is regularly around or less than $100.
Well, they did say part of their choice is based upon their subjective opinion. So I imagine they didn't want to do an exhaustive review of every segment to make sure they had the most current leaders in the category.
I second this. EVGA got a hold of Gold and Plat Leadex, and to recommend based on brands (I see a lot of Corsair PSUs that shouldn't really be there, like the HX750, which is basically discontinued, not that incredible, and suffers from a lot of coil whine) defeats the whole purpose of a Anand guide. The G2 750 and 850 are undeniable and untouchable on the price-performance spectrum. The P2 1200 received a perfect 10 from Jonny and an outstanding recommendation from crmaris, yet costs much less than both the SS-1200XP3 and AX1200i. This makes me wonder exactly how much time and research went into this guide.
I feel like this guide should have been a highlight of the current leaders in each category. Oh wells. However, I do agree with the recommendation of the AX1500i. It has no equal at the moment.
"PSU, a device that is directly responsible for the longevity of all the components it powers."
It's responsible in the sense that if it catches on fire and burns the computer down that will destroy the other components, but is there any evidence that purchasing your high end model in a given price range would actually lead to meaningfully longer longevity compared to your still-solid cheaper option? I suspect it's as useful as buying a computer desk made of titanium since a steel desk is directly responsible for the longevity of components via keeping them from collapsing onto the ground.
Longevity: Better build quality means it's going to last longer. Higher temperature rating: A PSU that's rated to output at a higher temperature is going to withstand high temperatures without any detriment to performance or longevity. Lower ripple: Any AC ripple not filtered by the PSU has to be filtered by components further along the line. This causes additional stress to those components when they should be handled by the PSU itself. Better voltage regulation: Most voltages used by components need to be regulated to voltages other than what's provided by the PSU directly. If the voltages from the PSU fluctuate too much, the VRMs down the line needs to compensate for it and this can cause unnecessary stress on those components. ...
Efficiency: Higher efficiency means less AC is consumed to produce the same amount of DC power. Also, there is less heat "waste" after the conversion from AC to DC. ...
I'd have personally recommended the superflower 750W unit by Evga. The SuperNOVA 750 G2 has some of the highest review scores in the industry, and comes in at 40-60 cheaper than the Corsair AX760. You will be hard pressed to find a better PSU in that range..
Of course I am a little ticked with Corsair these days on the PSU front but that's just me. The AX line is not as good as it was when Seasonic was making it for them and they've bumped the prices up substantially for .. as far as I am concerned.. units that are inferior.
Well, in fairness all the holiday guides so far are more like a "quick note" run down of what's out there and what Anandtech wants to highlight. I am ok with that.
"The TDP does not represent the actual power requirements of a component and it is next to impossible to place every single component of a system under maximum stress simultaneously. For example, the recommendation for a system with an overclocked Intel G3258 at 4.5GHz, a single nVidia Geforce GTX 770, one SSD, and four HDDs is over 460 Watts, while this system hardly gets close to 300 Watts with everything at maximum stress."
An easy way to get a realistic sense of how much PSU you need would be to get a kill-a-watt and find out how much energy your current model uses at idle & load. Then compare how power hungry the parts are for your new system compared to your current system.
Recommended fanless Seasonic is crapp, buy Silverstone Nightjar instead, maybe dont have extra japanies capacitators, but have at least decent heavy heatsinks..
Really interesting article and points, though I'm STILL left confused by what I really need LOL.
I'd NEVER do more than 2 GPUs and probably 2-3 hard drives max. BUT, those 1-2 GPUs are always going to be top of the line or close to it.
I plugged in specs for two GTX 780 TIs + an Intel 6-core, etc., and it's acting like that needs around 1000 watt PSU? (I did 780s as they draw more than a 980 and realistically in the future you know there's going to be cards that draw that much again.)
Dell has you going from an 850 watt PSU to a 1500 one if you get two video cards on an Area 51...according to the calculators it might actually need 1000 or a bit more for that, I don't know...
Regarding the peak power usage, most of the time when I'm running a system it's nowhere near that, but realistically it needs to be able to run 100% pegged out on everything for games that end up using that, or for video encoding while doing something else, or for Folding @ Home, etc...
There are review sites that report full system power consumption. I've linked one below that uses an i7-3960X with 780 TI SLI, and they're reporting 617W with the GPU in full stress. You'd probably be more than good with a nice 750-850 watt PSU.
Note that the peak efficiency is at roughly 50% load, so by that measure a 1000W PSU isn't really a bad bet.
That said, I've been running a variety of GPUs (no more than two at a time) with an i7-4770K with a mild overclock off a Corsair CM650 for the past year or so without trouble. Load power draw with two R9 290X is close to 600W when gaming, but of course that's not accounting for efficiency losses. If the wall power is 600W, this is an 80 Plus Gold PSU so it should be at roughly 87% efficiency. That means the output power is "only" 522W, while idle power is more like 60-90W (depending on the GPUs being used).
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2late2die - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Okay guys, regarding your 1110W+ recommendations - what's going on here? Have you completely forgotten about the EVGA Supernova P2 1200W? It's $235 on amazon (http://j.mp/1yhscwf), i.e. cheaper than your value recommendation, and quality wise it's top of the line - trading blows with the AX1500i. On johnnyguru the supernova and the ax1500 are the only two power supplies with a perfect score. I mean honestly, it's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned - unless you want to pay more than $100 extra for corsair link (or whatever their monitoring software is called).mrcaffeinex - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I haven't been paying that much attention to the high-wattage PSUs since most components have gotten quite energy efficient lately, but the P2 1200W and G2 1600W models from EVGA look like an incredible value at their current price points. Thanks for pointing them out! I'm not sure I'll ever build another 1000W+ monster rig, but if I do, I would definitely consider those units.Cellar Door - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
I'm very disappointed with this recommendation as well, the table looks like a big advertisement for Corsair.gsuburban - Saturday, October 17, 2015 - link
Sea Sonic makes the CS Corsair PSU's...That isn't a bad thing plus, Corsair has a good warranty policy, return it for a replacement or, give them a credit card and they will ship out a replacement right away as long as they receive the defective unit.RazrLeaf - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I too am curious why none of the new EVGA G2 or P2 series PSUs made the list. They perform well, are based on a good platform (Super Flower Leadex), and are very competitively priced. The 850 G2 is regularly around or less than $100.romrunning - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Well, they did say part of their choice is based upon their subjective opinion. So I imagine they didn't want to do an exhaustive review of every segment to make sure they had the most current leaders in the category.tabascosauz - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I second this. EVGA got a hold of Gold and Plat Leadex, and to recommend based on brands (I see a lot of Corsair PSUs that shouldn't really be there, like the HX750, which is basically discontinued, not that incredible, and suffers from a lot of coil whine) defeats the whole purpose of a Anand guide. The G2 750 and 850 are undeniable and untouchable on the price-performance spectrum. The P2 1200 received a perfect 10 from Jonny and an outstanding recommendation from crmaris, yet costs much less than both the SS-1200XP3 and AX1200i. This makes me wonder exactly how much time and research went into this guide.RazrLeaf - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I feel like this guide should have been a highlight of the current leaders in each category. Oh wells. However, I do agree with the recommendation of the AX1500i. It has no equal at the moment.Sunrise089 - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
"PSU, a device that is directly responsible for the longevity of all the components it powers."It's responsible in the sense that if it catches on fire and burns the computer down that will destroy the other components, but is there any evidence that purchasing your high end model in a given price range would actually lead to meaningfully longer longevity compared to your still-solid cheaper option? I suspect it's as useful as buying a computer desk made of titanium since a steel desk is directly responsible for the longevity of components via keeping them from collapsing onto the ground.
jonnyGURU - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Longevity: Better build quality means it's going to last longer.Higher temperature rating: A PSU that's rated to output at a higher temperature is going to withstand high temperatures without any detriment to performance or longevity.
Lower ripple: Any AC ripple not filtered by the PSU has to be filtered by components further along the line. This causes additional stress to those components when they should be handled by the PSU itself.
Better voltage regulation: Most voltages used by components need to be regulated to voltages other than what's provided by the PSU directly. If the voltages from the PSU fluctuate too much, the VRMs down the line needs to compensate for it and this can cause unnecessary stress on those components.
...
jonnyGURU - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
Efficiency: Higher efficiency means less AC is consumed to produce the same amount of DC power. Also, there is less heat "waste" after the conversion from AC to DC....
ROXANNA LASSEN - Sunday, August 16, 2015 - link
Great Article. Thanks for the info. Does anyone know where I can find a blank "PSU buyers guide Form" to fill out?just4U - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
I'd have personally recommended the superflower 750W unit by Evga. The SuperNOVA 750 G2 has some of the highest review scores in the industry, and comes in at 40-60 cheaper than the Corsair AX760. You will be hard pressed to find a better PSU in that range..Of course I am a little ticked with Corsair these days on the PSU front but that's just me. The AX line is not as good as it was when Seasonic was making it for them and they've bumped the prices up substantially for .. as far as I am concerned.. units that are inferior.
deadlockedworld - Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - link
This should have been segmented a little more. Fanless should have been a separate category.Another needed category is form factor - Silverstone makes a top-notch SFX PSU for small builds that should be noted.
As for value... all Seasonic all the time. They are the OEM for most of the good ones.
just4U - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Well, in fairness all the holiday guides so far are more like a "quick note" run down of what's out there and what Anandtech wants to highlight. I am ok with that.Glaurung - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
"The TDP does not represent the actual power requirements of a component and it is next to impossible to place every single component of a system under maximum stress simultaneously. For example, the recommendation for a system with an overclocked Intel G3258 at 4.5GHz, a single nVidia Geforce GTX 770, one SSD, and four HDDs is over 460 Watts, while this system hardly gets close to 300 Watts with everything at maximum stress."An easy way to get a realistic sense of how much PSU you need would be to get a kill-a-watt and find out how much energy your current model uses at idle & load. Then compare how power hungry the parts are for your new system compared to your current system.
ruthan - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Recommended fanless Seasonic is crapp, buy Silverstone Nightjar instead, maybe dont have extra japanies capacitators, but have at least decent heavy heatsinks..RazrLeaf - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
The irony in your comment is that the Nightjar is OEMed by Seasonic, and based on the same platform as Seasonic's own fanless PSUs.chrnochime - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
spouting clueless nonsense FTW.Wolfpup - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Really interesting article and points, though I'm STILL left confused by what I really need LOL.I'd NEVER do more than 2 GPUs and probably 2-3 hard drives max. BUT, those 1-2 GPUs are always going to be top of the line or close to it.
I plugged in specs for two GTX 780 TIs + an Intel 6-core, etc., and it's acting like that needs around 1000 watt PSU? (I did 780s as they draw more than a 980 and realistically in the future you know there's going to be cards that draw that much again.)
Dell has you going from an 850 watt PSU to a 1500 one if you get two video cards on an Area 51...according to the calculators it might actually need 1000 or a bit more for that, I don't know...
Regarding the peak power usage, most of the time when I'm running a system it's nowhere near that, but realistically it needs to be able to run 100% pegged out on everything for games that end up using that, or for video encoding while doing something else, or for Folding @ Home, etc...
RazrLeaf - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
There are review sites that report full system power consumption. I've linked one below that uses an i7-3960X with 780 TI SLI, and they're reporting 617W with the GPU in full stress. You'd probably be more than good with a nice 750-850 watt PSU.http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gtx_780_ti_sl...
JarredWalton - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Note that the peak efficiency is at roughly 50% load, so by that measure a 1000W PSU isn't really a bad bet.That said, I've been running a variety of GPUs (no more than two at a time) with an i7-4770K with a mild overclock off a Corsair CM650 for the past year or so without trouble. Load power draw with two R9 290X is close to 600W when gaming, but of course that's not accounting for efficiency losses. If the wall power is 600W, this is an 80 Plus Gold PSU so it should be at roughly 87% efficiency. That means the output power is "only" 522W, while idle power is more like 60-90W (depending on the GPUs being used).
bryanlen - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
It works great.http://www.stocksdepo.com/