Modular or Regular?

[Zico]

Is it worth the extra £££ to go modular over regular PSU? What benefits are there between the two types?

The price difference between the Corsair range is almost equal to an extra 100W on a regular PSU compared to a modular at the same cost.

If you end up using all plugs in a modular, this negates the better cable management that modular offers over regular.

Am I missing anything else about modular??

 

[Zico]

Modular PSU's- you only use the cables you NEED to use, by attaching them to the PSU manually. Benefit = less cable clutter, easier management.

Normal PSU's- All cables attached and unremovable. More clutter, harder cable management.

I was going to go for the Corsair TX 650W which isn't modular, but after watching this video review of this modular PSU I changed my mind.

I was considering the Corsair TX 650W for a i5 750 build (mild overclock) + single ATI 5850.

Pending any last minute changes, I've now swapped the PSU for the OCZ 700W modular

 

[Zico]

Case wise, I am planning to re-use an old steel tower case (bought from OcUK in 2002/3 to house an AMD 1700XP setup).

The case should be large enough to house the new build for my step brother:

i5 750
ATI 5850
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3
TBC PSU
2x 2GB G.Skill Ripjaw
Samsung F3 500GB

 

[Zico]

Okay, if that's the choice definitely the Corsair. I've seen several OCZ PSUs blow up, so i'd stay away from them.

Care to mention where and how you've managed to witness such destruction?

I've never seen any PSU's blow up in my many years of PC'ing.

I've only known personally of two cases whereby the user was to blame for nuking a PSU (a friend bought an Alienware system from the US, long before they had a UK setup and before auto switching PSU's were about - he didn't switch the PSU's over after un-boxing and nuked two PSU's).

I believe the term to be captive, as in captive vs modular.

I use captive. Hiding cables is hardly tricky outside of the world of matx computers, and given people watercool matx boxes I'm not sure there's any need even then. Modular cables introduce another break in the connection from psu to components. There is a resistance associated with this, and so a voltage drop. Further, this leads to localised heating of the break, and so enhanced oxidation. This increases the resistance, so the heating effect, so the oxidation, until failure.

Why take the risk that one of the connections is slightly off tolerance, and so this occurs swifter than the norm? To make the case prettier? Bugger that, I'll take one less point of failure over being able to unplug the cables any day.

So if you didn't have an mATX system, I presume you would go for 'captive' over modular then.

The case is definately not mATX and doesn't have a window so the inside is only ever going to be seen when it needs a dusting (no dust filters for the case unless I bodge some up).

 

[Zico]

If your going to spend that much go for the Corsair HX 650W, it's more powerful than the OCZ where it counts on the +12v 52A vs 50A. And better in every other deparment too.

I am thinking that I should have just stuck with the Corsair now anyway.

The argument for modular isn't really winning me over anymore.

 

[Zico]

The Corsair TX 650W was the original PSU that I was looking at before I posted this thread.

To be honest I'm going back towards the Corsair over the OCZ now. In addition I'm looking at getting the 950W Corsair (non-modular) for my own new build (i7 920 overclocked + Crossfire 5870)

 

[Zico]

All over and done with now.

Settled for the Corsair TX 650W.

Full system ordered just a few moments ago:

i5 750
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro V2
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB
500GB Samsung F3
1GB XFX HD5850
Samsung SH-S223B DVD-/+RW
Dell UltraSharp 2209WA 22" Widescreen LCD
Corsair TX 650W