If I had a budget of £160 Would the right choice be the RM1200e

Anooshorseville

Anooshorseville

Anooshorseville

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This is my ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM £

All I care about is performance and absolutely NOTHING else.

This is to drive a 5090, Ryzen 7800X3D, 2x NVME, 3 case fans, 2 cpu cooler fans, and that's it.

SO, if there is something cheaper I am happy to look at that, BUT, I'm absolutely OBSESSED with frametimes and (NO, ZERO, ZIP) stuttering, so I don't want to be questioning my PSU when these occurrences happen, which, they absolutely always do unless it's like, Doom Eternal or one of the other many tremendously well coded games.... (I obviously won't be playing Borderlands 4....)

Monitor is Samsung 65" 144hz HDR S90D QD-OLED.

I think that's all I can think of RN, any advice would be extreeeeemly appreciated since reading reviews on PSU's a lot of things like transient response and 12v this n that, I basically don't understand so I am looking for a PSU which will do what I want, (and just not let the side down after breaking my finances on a 5090)

I was originally looking at the NZXT C1200W because I feel like Corsair PSU's are not what they used to be 5-6 years back.
 
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It's reading things like this in a reviews...

  • I want to see a larger difference in OCP and OPP triggering points between hot and cold conditions
  • 12V transient response when the PSU is at light loads needs improvement
  • Efficiency at normal and light loads needs boosting
  • APFC converter needs tuning for higher PF readings at 115V
  • The 3.3V rail needs tighter load regulation

I'm just like.... Ummmmmmmmmmm So - this means my games will stutter/underperform unless I spend more? If you get my point..... It's all just too much to understand for me as to how it actually affects ACTUAL real world performance (That was for the negatives of the NZXT C1200 in a review)

It's too much, I don't understand, hence, I have decided to ask here - any help hugely appreciated.
 
Anooshorseville said:
It's reading things like this in a reviews...

  • [..snip..]

I'm just like.... Ummmmmmmmmmm So - this means my games will stutter/underperform unless I spend more? If you get my point..... It's all just too much to understand for me as to how it actually affects ACTUAL real world performance (That was for the negatives of the NZXT C1200 in a review)

It's too much, I don't understand, hence, I have decided to ask here - any help hugely appreciated.
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Is this from hwbusters? The reviews that Aris does are very thorough and he is looking at everything, from the perspective of design and engineering, rather than just: "can it play my games good?".

Usually, earlier in the conclusion he will give you his perspective more generally, based on the PSU's price and other competing PSUs.

Most of the negatives that he identifies aren't hugely relevant for the average user, unless he says that it is a major problem (in which case the PSU will not be recommended!).

To answer your question: no, you do not have to spend money on a premium PSU to avoid stuttering.

Anooshorseville said:
since reading reviews on PSU's a lot of things like transient response and 12v this n that, I basically don't understand so I am looking for
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Transient response is how the PSU handles sudden increases/decreases in load (e.g. when a game goes from the menu).

If the transient response is poor, then the rails might go out of spec, which can lead to obviously bad things, like crashes, or less obvious, like high ripple and added stress on the connected devices.

When the PSU is operating at consistent load, e.g. you're just racing around a race track for an hour, the transient response is not important.

Anooshorseville said:
Efficiency at normal and light loads needs boosting
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This means that the PSU isn't very efficient when at low load (relative to the capacity) and is pretty common across both cheap and expensive PSUs and low efficiency (e.g. bronze rated) and high efficiency (e.g. platinum) PSUs.

This is of more concern if the PC will be running at idle for long periods and light load is likely to refer to around 5%-20%.

I'd expect normal load for a PSU to be around 30%-70%. Gold or higher rated PSUs have very little real world difference (e.g. 0.5-2%) in their efficiency when operating at this level of load.

Efficiency doesn't impact the PC's performance, just your power bill.

Anooshorseville said:
The 3.3V rail needs tighter load regulation
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This is usually a goal rather than a requirement, e.g. "I would like" rather than "it must". If the regulation is really loose (goes out of spec) then the PSU would be best avoided (and Aris will say so).

Anooshorseville said:
I want to see a larger difference in OCP and OPP triggering points between hot and cold conditions
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I believe the rationale here is that when a PSU is running at high temperatures, it is under greater stress and so the protection features need to be more uhm, protective.
 
Fantastic information and VERY appreciated you took the time to help me out here,

I was wondering if you could tell me where the RM1200e would come up short for my use and as to why I should opt for the Phanteks Amp GH 1200w instead, what exactly would make the difference.

As I said I can find almost no information or reviews on the PSU's you recommended so vehemently ABOVE the RM1200e.

I absolutely ask in earnest, since the 5090 is BANK BREAKING for me (but, damn 4K) and I don't want to lose out in ANY TINY WAY to saving £40 or something on a PSU, but I also don;t want to spend extra for NO reason.

Hope you understand. And thank you again.
 
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Anooshorseville said:
As I said I can find almost no information or reviews on the PSU's you recommended
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I can't speak for pastymuncher's opinion, but the HCG Pro is derived from Seasonic's Vertex (the platinum rated version) which is a very solid PSU. It has few downsides/compromises and uses decent parts, which Seasonic stands behind with a 12 year warranty (Antec's HCG Pro only gets 10 years, though it is also cheaper).
 
Anooshorseville said:
Fantastic information and VERY appreciated you took the time to help me out here,

I was wondering if you could tell me where the RM1200e would come up short for my use and as to why I should opt for the Phanteks Amp GH 1200w instead, what exactly would make the difference.

As I said I can find almost no information or reviews on the PSU's you recommended so vehemently ABOVE the RM1200e.

I absolutely ask in earnest, since the 5090 is BANK BREAKING for me (but, damn 4K) and I don't want to lose out in ANY TINY WAY to saving £40 or something on a PSU, but I also don;t want to spend extra for NO reason.

Hope you understand. And thank you again.
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By and large, the Corsair RMe series is an entry level "modular/gold" PSU for Corsair. It used to be decent, however Corsair changed the platform/OEM that builds the internals and saw a notable decline in quality.

The HCG Pro is one of if not the best PSU's on the market right now based upon the Vertex platform as stated by Tetras.

The Phanteks model mentioned by Pastymuncher is also a solid bit of kit albeit not quite as high end of a platform. I'd happily use either and have in fact ran the HCG Pro with a 5090 in a build I put together for a relative, it's a fantastic premium feeling bit of kit that never misses a beat.

As an aside, I'd also recommend undervolting your 5090 when putting things together, most will be just fine limited to 450w with little to no performance loss and it comes with a bunch of benefits. Lower temps, noise, power use, and it drastically decreases the chances of running into problems with the 12VHPWR connector/cable. Doing so would also make this a more viable option for your stated use, although even without an undervolt it'd be fine:

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £136.98 (includes delivery: £7.99)​
 
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If I may offer a non technical advice, since you have clearly invested a bunch in the other parts I would wait a few weeks/months and opt for the ‘better’ or maybe slightly more premium option HCG above.

As you say £40, you can probably wait a little and when you get paid snag one for just over £200… Not ‘required’ but you want to be happy/fully confident it’s spot on by the sounds of your post above.

Thought I’d give that perspective, but solid info given above if not :)
 
Thanks you all very much for the input - I'm well aware I'm gonna get laughed at but....

I bought the Corsair HX1500i (2025) 4th gen.

This was due to availability and being able to spread the cost
 
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Tetras said:
Why would we laugh? Looks like a decent PSU.

True, they're expensive, but then, so is your PC.
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I caught it for £239 and could spread the cost interest free so I just went for it, if I received a lot of push back or any new (bad) information about it was given to me I could have just returned it.

- now I just have to hope it fits in my Pure Base 500DX :/ it's hecka long!

With a 10 year guarantee and being 1500W - I should not need to think about PSU's for the foreseeable future.
 
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Anooshorseville said:
- now I just have to hope it fits in my Pure Base 500DX :/ it's hecka long!
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From what I can see on their website, you have plenty of clearance, but the clearance changes depending on the presence of a bottom fan. I don't know what they're referring to by "bottom fan" though.
 
Anooshorseville said:
I caught it for £239 and could spread the cost interest free so I just went for it, if I received a lot of push back or any new (bad) information about it was given to me I could have just returned it.

- now I just have to hope it fits in my Pure Base 500DX :/ it's hecka long!

With a 10 year guarantee and being 1500W - I should not need to think about PSU's for the foreseeable future.
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That's one of the problems you'll often run into with certain higher wattage PSU's. They're physically very large, and I'd argue unnecessarily so for consumer use even for top tier GPU's given even the 5090 will run just fine on a good 1000W unit. It's the sort of thing you'd keep between multiple builds due to warranty etc, but what if you wanted to downsize or took a fancy to midi-case that didn't quite have the room?

I'm not saying you made a bad decision because it's a very powerful and capable PSU, but I'd want to eke out every year of warranty from something like that over multiple builds and I'd struggle to justify that being the case over the course of a decade.
 
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It fits GREAT!

NO issues at all, unlike getting my Gigabyte Gaming OC 5090 in.... Crapped myself initially since it was just toooooo long to go in, but all I had to do was pull an angle to get it past the first hurdle, and now it fits absolutely fine! ;D

Not played much yet only BFV and Stellar Blade, both native 4K, 120 for SB, and 141 for BFV - all maxed, well configured HDR and colour, and just....

Yes.

PC is still flat on it's side though since I need to decipher this GPU support bracket thing before I stand it upright ha (I'm..... Sure I'll get to it today)
 
Gray2233 said:
It's the sort of thing you'd keep between multiple builds due to warranty etc, but what if you wanted to downsize or took a fancy to midi-case that didn't quite have the room?

I'm not saying you made a bad decision because it's a very powerful and capable PSU, but I'd want to eke out every year of warranty from something like that over multiple builds and I'd struggle to justify that being the case over the course of a decade.
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I'm all good, not gonna worry about a 0.001% chance sudden need to downsize the size of a PC. Nobody has said anything bad about the Gen 4 2025 HX1500i, um, ANYWHERE, that I can see, so, I'm pretty happy with my choice with ALL things considered.
 
You got yourself a quality PSU with Corsairs great waranty service if needed .


Atm you can pick up the NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1 for £140 or the MONTECH Century II - 1200W 3.1 for £120 if anyone else is in the market.
 
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