PSU reassurance

freddie64

freddie64

freddie64

Soldato
Joined
22 Mar 2008
Posts
4,922
A few days ago my computer would not start. The motherboard has a ON button and that didn't work either.
I tried a spare PSU and it powered up my computer, so thought, OK, dead X850.
Contacted Sesonic about possible RMA (PSU is second hand) and they suggested the Jump start trick with the hybrid switch on normal.
Low and behold the PSU worked. Put it back in the computer and it is working again. (With Hybrid switch in both positions)

Does anyone have any idea what might have happened and if the PSU is still trustworthy?

I understand the trustworthy bit is really up to me, but just looking for opinions.
 
Looking around, it seems a common problem with the X series PSU. (although i have a X650 and that has been faultless)

Also i think i have coil whine on my GPU now so this may be caused by the PSU fault.

I did buy this second hand so not able to RMA unfortunately, so going to buy a new one.

Was considering One of these

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £454.58
(includes shipping: £11.70)



​

is it worth getting Platinum over Gold?
 
it's worth getting platinum over gold if your planning on keeping the PSU for a long time.

they are also built with higher spec components so likely to last longer too.

you will save a few pence every month. which equates to pounds eventually. i have a 450W platinum PSU and it's said to be good for up to 550W peak loads because of the components used. so you can usually spec a slightly lower power on a platinum.
 
All of those psu's are excellent and are all Superflower built. In fact the EVGA versions are almost the same psu as the relevant Superflower unit but with a different fan, no led's and a longer warranty (7 years on the G2 650w and 10 years on the P2 650w). The new EVGA G3 psu's are even better and are based on the Superflower Leadex II platform.

The new Seasonic Focus Plus 650w is well worth a look as well. They are gold rated, fully modular and very compact at 140mm long and have a 10 year warranty. Review here.

Another psu well worth a look is the Bitfenix Whisper M 650w. It's another gold rated, fully modular unit and has a 7 year warranty. It's also very competitively priced. The one downside it has is that the 24 pin cable has a large sleeve over it making it bigger than normal. You can see it towards the bottom of page 2 in this review.

On a side note a 550w psu would be more than enough for your pc. To give you a idea of power draw the pc in my siggy along with several fans, temp sensors, 2x fan controllers and all the watercooling stuff hit a max of just under 300w at the wall when benching with the gpu heavily overclocked. This is with the cpu and memory overclocked as well. Normal gaming use is no more than 252w at the wall. The current gen of Nvidia cards are extremely efficient.

I don't think the premium of platinum over gold is worth it. Unless you are running the pc at 100% 24/7 you will never see the electricity savings to cover the extra cost.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.
I suppose a loose cable is possible but as i have not moved the tower in a while i kind of discounted this.
I did find something online about a possible fault with the overload protection circuit in the X series PSUs.

Thinking if it happens again, i will give EVGA a go.
 
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