Simple PSU question

Jupiter · 17 Dec 2010 at 17:35

Corsair CX600w v.s Corsair TX650w

Could get them for exactly the same price, but which one?

It will be powering this:

Phenom II 955

460 GTX 1gb

Western digital 500gb

Coolermaster 430

Asus M4A78LT-M

Cooler master hyper tx3

Corsair 1333mhz RAM

I wont be overclocking

Ideas?

cmndr_andi · 17 Dec 2010 at 17:47

TX 650W without any doubt.

It is a better quality, higher efficiency and more powerful unit.

Guardsmon · 17 Dec 2010 at 18:01

agreed as above the TX650 is a far far far better PSU.

gillywibble · 17 Dec 2010 at 18:19

As stated.

Jupiter · 17 Dec 2010 at 18:23

Is 650w too much for my build though?

skylineboy · 17 Dec 2010 at 18:25

I would say so but you don't really know what you might upgrade. Plus it gives you some extra wriggle room as good quality psu's generally last a while.

Grimley · 17 Dec 2010 at 19:44

skylineboy said:
I would say so but you don't really know what you might upgrade. Plus it gives you some extra wriggle room as good quality psu's generally last a while.

This. You can never have too much power as far as a power supply is concerned. a good quality PSU is a good investment as you can carry it over to your next upgrade when it happens. You can also take capacitor ageing into account as well, but according to the brief reading about this subject on various PC discussion forums on the web the jury is out on that.

That & the fact that:

TX650 = 5 Year warranty
CX600 = 2 Year warranty.

Guardsmon · 17 Dec 2010 at 20:59

DFP123 said:
Is 650w too much for my build though?

650W too much in comparison to 600W? That extra 50W is hardly much of a difference, its more that the PSU is just far better.

j.col · 17 Dec 2010 at 21:02

Guardsmon said:
650W too much in comparison to 600W? That extra 50W is hardly much of a difference, its more that the PSU is just far better.

+1

cmndr_andi · 17 Dec 2010 at 21:16

DFP123 said:
Is 650w too much for my build though?

Actually - with PSUs its reasonably tough to get an overkill one. This is because even though a good quality 650W PSU will happily run a 650W system, that really isn't what you are aiming for.

The main point to realise is that PSUs are most efficient at around 50% load (for the 650W that is 325W). Since 350W is around what a quad core, GTX 460 system draws at load - then having a 650W PSU means that the PSU is running at a nice efficiency and saving you money (and producing less heat and noise) compared to buying a PSU that is running at 100% capacity.

Also, having a big PSU means you can upgrade in the future and not worry if your system will have enough power.

Aretenon · 17 Dec 2010 at 21:18

I'm not even a fan of the Corsair TX650, but frankly I think it is a bit insulting to mention the CX600 in the same sentence as a TX650.

I think you should also look at the XFX Pro 650W Core Edition, as that is higher quality than the TX, higher efficiency, etc. Don't know how it compares in price to the Corsairs for you tho.

DFP123 is right about a 650W PSU being far too much for the system he is thinking about, I think he could run his system on a really high quality 400W PSU if it has enough PCIe connectors, the Silverpower Green Power 400W can do this. Not saying I recommend it, but I don't think his system would typically be at 50% utilization of a 650W PSU. It would in fact be rather rare.

cmndr_andi · 17 Dec 2010 at 21:20

Aretenon said:
I think you should also look at the XFX Pro 650W Core Edition, as that is higher quality than the TX, higher efficiency, etc. Don't know how it compares in price to the Corsairs for you tho.

+1 Those XFXs are nice seasonic made units.

Also the Antec TruePower New Modular 650W is worth a shout too -another really nice PSU at a decent price.