Which PSU should I buy?

They’ve switched up their OEMs. These guys don't actually manufacture much themselves; they’re essentially just a brand slapping a logo on someone else's hardware. It used to be that Seasonic handled their power supplies—and by most accounts, they were top-tier. Nowadays, they outsource to mid-range manufacturers like CWT, Chicony, or Great Wall. Don't get me wrong, their high-end stuff is solid, but these budget lines like the VS series—which is a lower tier than they ever offered before—are just cheap Chinese knockoffs. They aren't total junk, mind you, but there are definitely worse out there. Bottom line: your current power supply has absolutely nothing in common with modern Corsair units; it's much more comparable to an old-school Seasonic build.

LC Power is really stepping up their game—their new Gold series is fully modular, and based on the pricing we're seeing over in Europe, it shouldn't break the bank here in the States.

http://www.lc-power.com/en/product/n...e/gold-series/

Quick question for the group. I just picked up an HP desktop, and it’s sitting there with a Corsair 350w power supply inside. I haven't really heard much about them, but since this was a pretty high-end machine when it was bought, I’m assuming the components are decent enough. I'm thinking about dropping a GTS 450 in there, but I have some reservations about whether the power supply can actually handle it. My other options are either an 8800GT, a GTS, or maybe a 4870.

Current specs are an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 4GB of DDR2, and a 160GB SATA drive.

The label on the PSU specifies that the combined 12V rail shouldn't exceed 300W.

Corsair... what's the deal with this one?

Delta might actually be one of the most elite OEMs on the planet when it comes to power supplies; I highly doubt their quality is anything less than top-tier.

crimsonstag84 said:Delta might actually be one of the top-tier OEMs globally when it comes to power supplies; I highly doubt there's any issue with quality.

👍Thanks. Now that I've taken a closer look, it actually says made in USA🙂 lol.

Thanks!

What’s the consensus on the Fortron Raider? I’m finding a frustrating lack of reviews online—mostly just red flags—and the few I do find aren't exactly glowing. People toss around words like "durable" and "quiet," but then they start complaining about poor voltage regulation. It’s clearly positioned as an entry-level, budget unit. Yet, despite that, sellers here in the States swear by it. Does it actually hold up in the real world, or is it all just marketing hype?

Benjamin Wilson4 said:What's the verdict on the Fortron Raider? There's barely any info online (red flag), and what little I found isn't great. People mention durability and quiet operation, but also crappy output quality. It’s clearly an entry-level/budget unit. Yet, sellers here in the States act like it's some holy grail—does it actually hold up in the real world?

I've used almost nothing but Fortron power supplies for the last 15 years. Had three of them... all three died, but long after the warranty expired.
First rig, it popped after 6 years.
Second one, 8 years.
Third one (ran it alongside the second), lasted 7.
Right now I'm using an Antec unit just because I needed something immediately and it was the only thing in stock at my local Best Buy. Otherwise, I'd be back on Fortron.

A 5-year warranty and 80+ Bronze certification should be enough proof for me that the thing is fine.

Most of the reviews out there cover the older version of the Raiders, which has the 80+ Bronze rating. I haven't seen much coverage specifically for these 80+ Silver models yet. It seems slightly less efficient when it comes to voltage regulation and ripple, though honestly, it stays well within the ATX specs. At the end of the day, it’s just a standard midrange unit, but it offers pretty solid value for the money.

Fortron Raider S 650w is almost a steal for what you pay, but honestly, the Fortron Raider S 750w is pretty garbage...

I never really looked into the 550w version, but since I've got one sitting at my wife's place right now, I'll check back in with some actual thoughts after 7 or 8 years pass.😬

crimsonstag84 said:The reviews actually cover the older revision of the John Doe, which carries an 80+ Bronze rating.

I caught onto that tonight after digging around a bit deeper. Apparently, they bumped up the build quality for the Silver version. Well, we'll see. My priority is reliability. I am sick and tired of seeing rigs where, after four years of heavy use, you get those annoying random hard resets because the voltage drops—just pure component fatigue inside the PSU.

Alright folks, I’m in urgent need of some advice. A buddy of mine is looking for a new power supply unit. Right now, he's running a 1500W Thermaltake, but his rig keeps shutting down randomly, and I'm fairly certain the PSU is the culprit here.
Here is the current build specs:
2x GTX Titan
Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.67 GHz Quad Core
1x 120GB Patriot SSD
1x 1TB HDD
1x 3TB HDD
Thermaltake liquid cooling setup (not sure on the exact model)
One small 80mm fan
One 120mm fan
Two optical drives—one LG and one Lite-On, I think
Gigabyte X58A UD9 motherboard (not overclocked, pretty much stock)

Just to clarify, my suspicion leans heavily toward the power supply because this whole shutdown issue tends to trigger specifically when he's deep into a heavy rendering job or mid-game.

Have you double-checked your CPU and GPU temperatures yet? Thermal throttling can definitely cause sudden shutdowns under heavy load. This is a major investment, and you really shouldn't be guessing when you need to be 100% certain before making moves.

I'm guessing the CPU isn't overheating? It seems unlikely the power supply is the culprit since the build isn't even pulling half its capacity under full load. Is there any warranty left? I wouldn't recommend buying this blindly. Anyway:

Honestly, all of this just makes me nervous because it’s definitely not cheap to fix, and we already checked the temps—they seem perfectly fine, staying around 140 degrees Fahrenheit until they hit about 140... wait, let's say 140ish tops.

My first thought was the power supply when he mentioned the rendering process; I know that's when the power draw peaks, so maybe the unit is finally starting to fail. Otherwise, the Titans are linked via SLI and running fine, so perhaps the issue lies somewhere within that setup.

I actually have a PSU tester lying around, though I'm not entirely sure what kind of insight I'll get from it. If I run it and all the parameters come back green, then I'm still stuck.

There's no warranty left on it, either.

Correction: it doesn't actually shut down, it just force-reboots.

It’s crucial to note whether you're checking those temperatures while under a full load—specifically right before the system restarts, whether you were mid-render or deep into a gaming session. I’d suggest testing it with just one GPU installed. This should lighten the load on the power supply (though I have my doubts that's the root cause), and you'll certainly get lower temps than when you have two cards sandwiched together right next to each other.

Everything seems perfectly fine on my end—temperatures are holding steady in that sweet spot of 50-60%. But, turns out I was slightly mistaken when I spoke to him earlier; it appears this whole restart issue is happening exclusively within Adobe Encore while it's busy burning a DVD. Honestly, I’m completely baffled now, haha. I suggested he run a heavy load stress test and just let it rip for about thirty minutes to an hour to see if we can catch it in the act.

Man, could be the PSU. I've seen cases where the output rails get fried, so as soon as it tries to pull any real load, the whole thing just dies...

Also, just a thought, have you checked Event Viewer yet? Might actually find something useful in there.

http://prntscr.com/cck79v
http://prntscr.com/cck7en
It's telling me it just died on me.
Heh.

Let them try testing component by component. It might not even be the power supply; could just be one of those Titan cards acting up. They should try running with just a single Titan, unplug the DVD drive and all that other junk, and if the crashes keep happening after all that, then they can blame the PSU. For example, if it still crashes with only one Titan, or if both Titans work fine individually but fail when paired together.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...tory6&reid=486

Here’s the breakdown on the CXxxx-M V2 series—those 'grey' models we’ve been suggesting lately. They're actually quite solid, though I guess that sleeve-bearing fan is a bit of an eyesore.

In my opinion, this 450W unit for $143 is probably a better buy than the Hyper 500 W. It uses higher-quality components overall, and when you look at the numbers, the 12V rail output is basically a wash (450W vs. 456W on the Hyper).