TR Forums

So, first off, here are my personal requirements. I like less expensive, I like quality (and established) brands, and I like to use the lowest wattage I can get away with.

That being said, I have just built a 4970 box with an Nvidia 950 (8 pin PCI-e), 1 SSD, 1 HD, and two optical drives (BD, DVD-RW).

I haven't built a box in 7 years. Last box was an AMD.... Phenom II x4 960? So then, I prefer getting something at least 80 Plus. I do have an adapter cable that converts two 6 pin PCI-e's into 1 8-pin. I prefer to shop either Newegg or Amazon. Everything else just seems to be a shell of what they used to be.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

cheers

edit
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=440

Corsair's mid-range units are probably worth a look as well.

$80 -20MIR EVGA 210-GQ-0650-V1 (54 A @+12V, 80+ Gold, modular) looks like a good choice, if you believe in MIRs. It's reviewed here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=454

My second option would be the $75 SeaSonic SSR-550RM (45 A @+12V, 80+ Gold, modular), reviewed here:
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... y&reid=323


Here are few others to look at, if neither of those models suits your fancy:
80+ platinum (92% efficient at half load):
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-powe ... 20p20650x1
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-ea550

80+ gold (90% efficient at half load):
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... y-ssp450rt
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... y-ssr360gp
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-powe ... -210gq0650
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... y-ssr550rm

80+ bronze (85% efficient at half load):
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... 00etbronze
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... -s12ii430b
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... 00esbronze
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... 00etbronze
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic- ... i520bronze

I'm on the wrong side of the pond but your system peak power draw is going to be about 250W (probably 175W typical gaming) so you can afford to look at better quality units because you don't need high power ratings.

Pretty much anything with an 80+ Gold certification has to be decent; it's practically impossible to build a bad power supply and meet the criteria, so just hunt for anything 80+Gold under 500W and pick whatever is on sale at the best price.

Looking at Newegg the two most sensible value options are the EVGA 650W and the Seasonic 550W that JAE linked above. There are cheaper Thermaltakes and a bunch of refurbs, but I wouldn't ever recommend those to anyone.

You cant normally get two 6pins on anything lower 500-ish Watt PS.

They calculate the PS 12 volt rail assuming the PCI-E ports are provided 75 Watts, CPU,... That 950 isnt pulling 75 Watts from PCI-e and 150 Watts from 8pin, most likely its fake, or to be less headache for OEM, they use 8 pin to force you to have real PS(and just use a little) and or pull all power directly from PS and not worry about crappy MB overloading its VRMs and such. As long as you have a good 400-ish watt PS, i would use a 6 pin splitter and than 2x6 pin to 8 pin converter to get the 150 Watts from the single line. All benchmarks show around 75-125 way OC-ed watts usage. They now have no power cable 950s coming out, better voltage regulators, higher binned gpus, not super leap in tech.

Like Chripsy_ says, 250 Watts. You can re-use your PS if you like it. otherwise, i only add to get one with at least 120mm fan and idles the fan when below certain temperature or load if you're gonna pay for good one.

FYI, non cheating PS says it provides 400 watts(ignoring how much of that is on 12 volt rail(s)), thats to the PC, so assuming its 80% efficient at 100%, thats 500 watt from wall. Is how you should calculate power usage.

What anotherengineer said. The EVGA G2 line is definitely top quality (I have a G2 550). The only potential issue I've seen with it is that the fan is ball bearing and makes a touch more noise than hydraulic bearing fans, but I'm usually very picky about that and I find it acceptable, so it can't be too bad. (Also it's got a mode where it shuts down the fan when it's not needed, if that appeals to you.)

Don't go with the P2. It's basically the same thing as the G2, but somehow in boosting the efficiency they hurt the reliability (there are far more failure reports in reviews of it).

The EVGA GQ that JAE pointed out looks solid from a reliability perspective, but it's made by FSP and looks very very similar to an FSP platform I've seen ludicrous coil whine issues with. AFAICT, FSP's proprietary PFC controller has issues and accidentally does lots of stuff at lower frequencies than it's supposed to (usually this stuff is supposed to operate at 20+ kHz for this exact reason), and tons of noise comes out of the main PFC inductor. When this started becoming an issue on mine, I couldn't replace it right away, and had to coat the offending inductor in hot glue just to make it tolerable. It kept getting worse, and the hot glue only kept it tolerable for a bit. Eventually I figured out it was thermally dependent, and I put a space heater under the (mesh) desk the computer was on to shut it up (mostly) until I could replace it. Even with the hot glue, I have never heard coil whine a tenth that bad from anything else. I've seen another of these FSPs since, and it wasn't anywhere near as bad, but it was doing the same basic thing.

Thanks much, all. Ordered the EVGA 650 GQ. It's got the 8 pin pci-e connector, and 80+ gold. Got it with Prime shipping, so it will be here tomorrow.