tight budget

ard-tullaich · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:19

which power supply
corsair ax1200?
coolermaster 1200 silent pro gold.
Which is the best value what would you go for

pastymuncher · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:20

Are you sure you actually need such a large psu? What are your system specs?

ard-tullaich · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:30

pastymuncher said:
Are you sure you actually need such a large psu? What are your system specs?

Running overclocked 920 to 4gb/3.8gb
6 gb ram soon to go 12gb
a 4870x2 plus single 48701gb in crossfire
6 1tb sata drives, 2 ssd's 120 bigfoots
asus dx2 pci-e
8 120mm led high performance case cooling fans plus 2 230mm case fans
120mm x2 for the cpu cooler
6 cathode 12"tubes
hope this helps

ard-tullaich · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:33

running 2 power supplies at the moment to keep this thing running 850w and a 400w

pastymuncher · 15 Mar 2011 at 15:05

You could probably get away with 1kw but a 1.2kw will give you more headroom.

Just did some checking on your short list and the Corsair is probably the very best 1200w psu that you can buy. All of it's cables are modular and Jonnyguru gave it a 9.8/10. You are also paying for this as it's considerably more expensive.

The Coolermaster is a average psu and cost cutting is evident. It only has 7x modular leads and two of the pci-e leads along with the 24 pin and 2x 8 pin leads are all hard wired. Braiding is not on all cables either. The two pci-e hard wired connectors have extensions which are nor braided at all. The sam goes for the ends of the 2x 8 pin leads. The unit also suffers from ripple. Jonnyguru gives it a 9/10 but only just. He sums it up nicely in his conclusion.

If money was no problem i would take the Corsair anyday.

ard-tullaich · 15 Mar 2011 at 15:23

Thanks for the reply. I agree with your 1200w estamate . I'm not ready to upgrade the graphics yet as i get 64fps average in fraps in crysis warhead every thing maxed out at 1920x 1200 and Fi 2010 gives me 98 average fps in fraps every thing maxed out at 1920x1200. So i will stick with my tri fire for now. Maybe go crossfire with the next gen 7 ati's or even go back to nvidia sli.
IT's just the £100 price difference does it justify it ?

pastymuncher · 15 Mar 2011 at 16:34

It's really only something you can decide on. Have a read of the reviews to compare them. Some pics of the cables in them as well. It's not that the Coolermaster is a bad psu but that the Corsair really sets the benchmark so high. Jonnyguru is the best psu tester in my opinion and he tells it like it is. It is a big price difference though.

ard-tullaich · 15 Mar 2011 at 18:09

The good point about the corsair is i can custom fit the cables and modify them to the correct length and modify the conections with out voiding the warranty.

ard-tullaich · 7 Apr 2011 at 23:57

finally went with the corsair gold ax 1200. Crap wiring though all the wiring supports the power supply fitted to the top of the case so if you mount it at the bottom to use there wiring you have to go up the case then down to your dvd drives and hardrives . scrapped there cables and made my own sata and molex cables. All that thought gone into the power supply and package and they supply duff cables. i.e the connections are upside down

ard-tullaich · 8 Apr 2011 at 00:28

I mean how many people buying this power supply is gonna fit it in a old dated case . 99% of cases now have the power supply fitted to the bottom of the case. How did they get this so wrong