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If there is one thing in a computer you should not cheap out on, it is the power supply. Buy from Seasonic and buy more power supply than you currently need.

by dman 7y ago

zymhan 7y ago
You say not to cheap out, and then recommend Seasonic. I'd say avoid a brand that was notoriously the cheapest option in recent history.
- Scramblejams 7y ago
  A lot of brands, Seasonic among them, vary from model to model. The last time I felt like I could just blindly stick with a brand was PC Power & Cooling, and they've since been absorbed by OCZ, so... ?
- kalenx 7y ago
  Some Seasonic are probably among the best consumer power supplies you can find (e.g. https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-titanium-power-supply-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-tita...)
- ricketycricket 7y ago
  At the very least, Anandtech seems to rate Seasonic very highly: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-titanium-power-supply-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-tita...
  - kllrnohj 7y ago
    It's not just Anandtech. All reviewers have nothing but praise for Seasonic. They have the best reputation in the industry at the moment and all their PSUs have a 10 year warranty to back it up. Jonnyguru's last Seasonic review: https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2018/07/03/seasonic-prime-ultra-750-titanium-power-supply/6/ https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2018/07/03/seasonic-prime-ult... Literally nothing in the bad & mediocre summary sections, and with nothing but recommendations for the entire series: > Our look at the PRIME Ultra Titanium series has now at last come to a conclusion. We can now definitively say there’s not a bad performer in the bunch, and while all do have some very minor drawbacks I can’t see any reason not to recommend any of them.
    - dispat0r 7y ago
      They actually have 12 year warranty at least for the PRIME TX ones.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- tjoff 7y ago
  You'd be surprised to hear that part from their own brand (which is excellent) many other top tier power supplies from the best brands are actually made by Seasonic.
abstractbarista 7y ago
Is Corsair typically a reliable brand? I usually use them for desktop builds but simply out of habit.
- kllrnohj 7y ago
  Corsair's higher end stuff is good, yes.
- stingraycharles 7y ago
  Corsair is good, I have been using them for high end desktops and low end servers for quite some time. Only one out of ~ 10 I bought ever failed on me, and that was after 2 years of no usage.
- genocidicbunny 7y ago
  Corsair used to (and still might, but I haven't needed to replace my power supply in many many years) use Seasonic as their OEM. So for a long time, Corsair was just rebranded Seasonic. These days I don't know if that's entirely true, so I would at least look at reviews to make sure.
  - wtallis 7y ago
    I'm not sure if any of Corsair's current high-end PSUs are Seasonic; they've definitely done some that aren't. But whether they're using Seasonic or not, Corsair's fairly involved in the design process and set their own specs rather than just taking an ODM's existing design and adding their own logo. They also have a serious test lab where they do their own design validation, and I believe they also do failure analysis on returned products (since that lab's only a few rooms away from where RMAs land).
    - genocidicbunny 7y ago
      I'm sure these days they're far more involved in the creation of their power supplies than they were a decade ago when I last had a need to really research any of this. Anecdotally, Corsair has always been a top-notch company to me. Even when their products go bad, their support is awesome. I had a set of memory sticks appear to go bad, but I couldn't tell if it was my northbridge or the RAM itself. I was a cash-strapped kid, so I didn't have another machine to test with. Corsair sent out a set of known-good RAM sticks for me to test with, at completely no charge to me. When the test revealed that it was indeed the RAM that was going bad, they offered to let me keep the test sticks they sent me until my replacement came in the mail.
AcerbicZero 7y ago
This. I've had great luck with Corsair (who used to source from Seasonic) and after some of my experiences with less quality sources (Thermaltake....eww) I'll never go back. Spending days trying to chase down an intermittent reboot just to find that your 750W PSU is actually shitting the bed around ~350W is a terribly unsatisfying journey.
jrockway 7y ago
My bad power supply was a Corsair 1300W model (noted because others in the thread are offering them glowing praise, whereas I think they're just a nice logo on whatever is cheap this week in Shenzhen.) The working one is indeed a Seasonic ;) I overbuy power supplies because I think, but have not tested, that it will convince them to run the fan at lower speed. This strategy has resulted in quiet, for sure, but I'm not sure that it gets you reliability.
- wtallis 7y ago
  > I overbuy power supplies because I think, but have not tested, that it will convince them to run the fan at lower speed. This strategy has resulted in quiet, for sure, but I'm not sure that it gets you reliability. This theory is sound. High-end power supplies tend to not turn on the fan until reaching 30-50% of their rated maximum output. Fanless power supplies are usually internally using the same components as regular high-end models with 80-100% higher output ratings, but with larger heatsinks. A high-quality oversized power supply with a fan will be silent most of the time, but keep itself cool when necessary. ( I have a semi-passive 750W power supply that has spun up its fan exactly once, when I accidentally shorted two of its power rails together and melted some wires while burning out the PCIe slot I was measuring the power draw through. The motherboard and wires had to be replaced, but the CPU, PSU and PCIe card were all fine.)
yellowapple 7y ago
I always spring for an 80+ Gold or better efficiency rating. My theory is that higher efficiencies require tighter manufacturing tolerances, which means more care has to go into manufacturing and therefore you get a better quality as a result. That theory has yet to fail me.
rarecoil 7y ago
this is not universally true. i bought a new 1000W seasonic prime ultra titanium for use in a hashcat rig not too long ago, and the PSU would immediately switch off when all the cards drew power to 100% (all the cards drew no more than 800W or so at load.) there is a newegg reviewer that experienced similar issues in a system with dual RTX cards. ended up buying an EVGA supply instead and that has been solid, even at 24x7 operation.

If there is one thing in a computer you should not cheap out on, it is the power supply. Buy from Seasonic and buy more power supply than you currently need.

by dman 7y ago

If there is one thing in a computer you should not cheap out on, it is the power supply. Buy from Seasonic and buy more power supply than you currently need.

zymhan 7y ago

You say not to cheap out, and then recommend Seasonic. I'd say avoid a brand that was notoriously the cheapest option in recent history.

Scramblejams 7y ago
A lot of brands, Seasonic among them, vary from model to model. The last time I felt like I could just blindly stick with a brand was PC Power & Cooling, and they've since been absorbed by OCZ, so... ?
kalenx 7y ago
Some Seasonic are probably among the best consumer power supplies you can find (e.g. https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-titanium-power-supply-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-tita...)
ricketycricket 7y ago
At the very least, Anandtech seems to rate Seasonic very highly: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-titanium-power-supply-review https://www.anandtech.com/show/11252/the-seasonic-prime-tita...
- kllrnohj 7y ago
  It's not just Anandtech. All reviewers have nothing but praise for Seasonic. They have the best reputation in the industry at the moment and all their PSUs have a 10 year warranty to back it up. Jonnyguru's last Seasonic review: https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2018/07/03/seasonic-prime-ultra-750-titanium-power-supply/6/ https://www.jonnyguru.com/blog/2018/07/03/seasonic-prime-ult... Literally nothing in the bad & mediocre summary sections, and with nothing but recommendations for the entire series: > Our look at the PRIME Ultra Titanium series has now at last come to a conclusion. We can now definitively say there’s not a bad performer in the bunch, and while all do have some very minor drawbacks I can’t see any reason not to recommend any of them.
  - dispat0r 7y ago
    They actually have 12 year warranty at least for the PRIME TX ones.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
tjoff 7y ago
You'd be surprised to hear that part from their own brand (which is excellent) many other top tier power supplies from the best brands are actually made by Seasonic.

abstractbarista 7y ago

Is Corsair typically a reliable brand? I usually use them for desktop builds but simply out of habit.

kllrnohj 7y ago
Corsair's higher end stuff is good, yes.
stingraycharles 7y ago
Corsair is good, I have been using them for high end desktops and low end servers for quite some time. Only one out of ~ 10 I bought ever failed on me, and that was after 2 years of no usage.
genocidicbunny 7y ago
Corsair used to (and still might, but I haven't needed to replace my power supply in many many years) use Seasonic as their OEM. So for a long time, Corsair was just rebranded Seasonic. These days I don't know if that's entirely true, so I would at least look at reviews to make sure.
- wtallis 7y ago
  I'm not sure if any of Corsair's current high-end PSUs are Seasonic; they've definitely done some that aren't. But whether they're using Seasonic or not, Corsair's fairly involved in the design process and set their own specs rather than just taking an ODM's existing design and adding their own logo. They also have a serious test lab where they do their own design validation, and I believe they also do failure analysis on returned products (since that lab's only a few rooms away from where RMAs land).
  - genocidicbunny 7y ago
    I'm sure these days they're far more involved in the creation of their power supplies than they were a decade ago when I last had a need to really research any of this. Anecdotally, Corsair has always been a top-notch company to me. Even when their products go bad, their support is awesome. I had a set of memory sticks appear to go bad, but I couldn't tell if it was my northbridge or the RAM itself. I was a cash-strapped kid, so I didn't have another machine to test with. Corsair sent out a set of known-good RAM sticks for me to test with, at completely no charge to me. When the test revealed that it was indeed the RAM that was going bad, they offered to let me keep the test sticks they sent me until my replacement came in the mail.

AcerbicZero 7y ago

This. I've had great luck with Corsair (who used to source from Seasonic) and after some of my experiences with less quality sources (Thermaltake....eww) I'll never go back. Spending days trying to chase down an intermittent reboot just to find that your 750W PSU is actually shitting the bed around ~350W is a terribly unsatisfying journey.

jrockway 7y ago

My bad power supply was a Corsair 1300W model (noted because others in the thread are offering them glowing praise, whereas I think they're just a nice logo on whatever is cheap this week in Shenzhen.) The working one is indeed a Seasonic ;) I overbuy power supplies because I think, but have not tested, that it will convince them to run the fan at lower speed. This strategy has resulted in quiet, for sure, but I'm not sure that it gets you reliability.

wtallis 7y ago
> I overbuy power supplies because I think, but have not tested, that it will convince them to run the fan at lower speed. This strategy has resulted in quiet, for sure, but I'm not sure that it gets you reliability. This theory is sound. High-end power supplies tend to not turn on the fan until reaching 30-50% of their rated maximum output. Fanless power supplies are usually internally using the same components as regular high-end models with 80-100% higher output ratings, but with larger heatsinks. A high-quality oversized power supply with a fan will be silent most of the time, but keep itself cool when necessary. ( I have a semi-passive 750W power supply that has spun up its fan exactly once, when I accidentally shorted two of its power rails together and melted some wires while burning out the PCIe slot I was measuring the power draw through. The motherboard and wires had to be replaced, but the CPU, PSU and PCIe card were all fine.)

yellowapple 7y ago

I always spring for an 80+ Gold or better efficiency rating. My theory is that higher efficiencies require tighter manufacturing tolerances, which means more care has to go into manufacturing and therefore you get a better quality as a result. That theory has yet to fail me.

rarecoil 7y ago

this is not universally true. i bought a new 1000W seasonic prime ultra titanium for use in a hashcat rig not too long ago, and the PSU would immediately switch off when all the cards drew power to 100% (all the cards drew no more than 800W or so at load.) there is a newegg reviewer that experienced similar issues in a system with dual RTX cards. ended up buying an EVGA supply instead and that has been solid, even at 24x7 operation.