Having watched a TON of GamersNexus videos on PSU. They've usually mentioned that 40% to 45% power load was when the PSU was the most efficient. Figure out your needed wattage and then buy 250% of that. This way the power draw will be 40% of the total and you'll be in that sweet spot.
It was fun to spot you wander in where they were streaming. I was seriously worried the full nerds would fail to go "back to Steve", but Wendell and the Dr fixed it for me!
As Far as I know PCWorld has been a pillar of tech journalism since the 80s . And Gordan has been one of the founding fathers of Maximum Pc(PC Gamer) Magazine since the 90s. Therefore the words "small creator" don't do justice to either of these veterans.
I think Steve is kinda old school in a new school body. His perceptions, his points of view are definitely old school. Add to that his new school life style and Voila.
Thanks @Pcworld for the shout out on the Livestream last night -- Also a big watcher of GN / Jay. etc -- going to be important to manage power usage a lot more gong forward in the UK and North Europe
gotta say, as i'm hitting two years with my 3080 at the end of this month, i really thought I'd gotten away with using my 750w Seasonic Focus (great PSU, btw) for it. that changed a couple of weeks ago with Spider-Man when I hit everything ultra and RT on. bam. trips the PC dead until i unplug and replug. still waiting to see if it's driver-related as the last patch seems to have lessened the occurrences and I get away with more quality. if not, well, 1000w PSU incoming, i guess. UPDATE: actually, i may have stumbled upon a fix that was posted by jonnyguru himself. looks like this particular model from before a certain manufacturing date had issues with noise coming from the Ampere cards being misinterpreted and tripping the PSU. the fix was to either: a) place a ferrite choke on the 12v sense line, b) cut the 12v sense line or c) lock clocks and voltage on the GPU when gaming. I've tried fixes a and c individually- and whaddaya know, it worked! strange that it's only ever happened on Spider-Man in the past two years of owning the card, but hey, if it works, it works!
I'm in the same boat. grabbed a 3080 about 2 months ago. kept using a 750w superflower model, but so far no trips. Still, im 100% aware that a 750w unit may not be enough for my system. im holding out until the new units become readily available, and thinking about 1000w-1600w depending on what I may upgrade to.
The weight thing is based on the idea that a non heavy power supply is usually a bad idea(cutting components/cooling). Not all heavy power supplies are good but almost all good power supplies are heavy. Only the heavy power supplies stand a decent chance of being a good power supply.
I Agree Weight is a Good Marker of Quality. But generally go Brand High End, Corsair, Evga, OCZ. Then Buy Used Good and Long lasting Reliable, For Less money than a Cheap Budget PSU New I have a always done it that way, since around 96. The Worse experience was a Very Budget build, found a 3 year old used $15 OCZ, which was flawless for another six years until the switch went. My Current $25 1yr old used Corsair is now 8 years old and flawless. A a OCZ from my third pc is Still going since the core2
I first look at the rated wattage. Then, I check for +12v amps. I stick with 750w for mid-range (3060, i7) and below. For high-range (3080, Ryzen 9), I go with 1000w. I experienced those power spikes way back in the 2000's. I might go with PSUs below 750w if I stick to PCs with APU/integrated graphics only.
Long long time ago, in around ~1997 (voodoo days), I asked my friend who just got his first job as an electrical engineer, what should I look for when buying power supplies. He said to me, if you have 2 power supplies with the same specs, you should buy the one that is the heavy one. He explained to me why and I was very lucky in all of my builds before internet reviews came along. Nice to see I wasn't the odd one out.
Currently have a Titanium-rated Corsair 850W, fully intended to keep it until ATX 3.0 / ATX 12VO displaced me off of it, but my FTW 3080 has bumped it off a couple of times with transients. With even higher power draws on the horizon, I might end up having to trade up next time I build
Steve having a fanboy moment with Gordon. I remember seeing one issue of maximum PC magazine when i was a kid and then saw few issues in library archive and it brought back old memories. Thank you Gordon for collaborating with Steve from gamers Nexus (and also Intel 😜). Will you be covering new USB 4 2.0 with 80Gbps?
i like those corsair sfx supplies. bought a 600w and the 750w model for a newer build. haven't had a single problem with either one while running upper middle tier hardware.
I remember when youtubers (LTT) were saying just buy a bronze 500w power supply and it is good enough. I ignored that advice and bought a 850w Platinum PSU which has and is serving me well,
Going higher spec on this is not going to hurt. To a large extent, keeping the utilization lower is going to help extend the life span as you're not going to be stressing it as much. There is no upper level on wattage in terms of powering a system. But, at a certain point, the extra capacity is just a complete waste.
The problem with overspecing the PSU is the less % of the total power you use, the less efficient they are. A 1000W PSU in a system the draws only 200W max will be less efficient than a 500W. You can find various tests on the internet showcasing that.
A decent and fast way of checking if a PSU is good would be visiting the PSU Tier List on the cultists web (previous list that was in LTT forum). They have decent methodology that you can read with actual references to back up their rankings.
Been rocking my overkill AX1200 watt Corsair PSU for 12+ years. It is currently driving my new 3080ti and doing awesome. It has lasted through multiple builds and is far from a waist of money.
The funny thing is that those overkill psu's made more sense back in the day when crossfire/sli was still present. Definitely needed that much juice to run those triple sli setups.
same and even in those year have had pc on when the power grid got overload when plants shot down power used without warning, many cheep psu toke out pc in those moments
I overspecced an HX750 in my X58 build back in 2010 with the possibility of doing SLI. The unit died just after the 7 year mark but corsair still honored it (good guy corsair). Still daily driving the replacement in an RTX 3080 machine today, best PC investment I ever made.
Cool video here. Got a few laughs along the way. XD Love the light heartedness of it. I just picked up a new PSU and came across this in my various researching. The short of it really is, if you want to be sure of what you're getting, it's like anything else you buy. You have to research it, thoroughly. I'd never put full faith in "any" sticker on a box, because I know how companies work. They strive for the least possible compliance to achieve that sticker, and not a single thing more than that. If you're looking to buy a critical component like a PSU, which is indeed incredibly critical to your build, well, learn as much as you can about what you're buying, to be sure you're getting what you want, or at least, as close as you can get to what you want. I also just bought a new 1440 165Hz monitor as well, and while there is no such thing as a "perfect monitor" that has no flaws, well, I took a couple days to really dig through things, and find one that I think has the least cons that I can live with. It's just the way the industry works. There is no magic in the world, that can produce an entirely flawless product. It just doesn't exist, no matter the market or industry.
I'm using an 750W Etasis power supply that I bought back in 2007 or 2008 for $50 on my current computer and it runs just fine. Only thing I had to do was buy some 8-pin adapter cables for the GPU. It's not modular and pretty like more modern PSU's, but it's as reliable and efficient as any high end PSU they sell today.
You can really see playing to the "heavier == better" instinct in some cheaply made kit that has chunks of metal in it, just to make it feel heavier and thus higher quality. Some well made kit that's light and designed to sit on a surface will do it as well, but that's to give it some mass so it's more likely to stay where you put it.
I've been buying Corsair power supplies for the past twenty years. All my builds have a Corsair 80 Gold now and I've havent had one fail on me yet. The amount of power supplys that I have purchased prior to Corsair was Antec and those did fail on me back in the late 90's.
I have a newer Corsair unit (RM750w) and its holding up great. Before that I used Seasonic 650w unit that Corsair also used as basis for some of their own models at the time if I'm not mistaken - also been holding up great for 7 years now, no issues or coil whine, never had a single failure/shutdown.
1 ) that's the minimum watts your PSU should have : 1.7 x ( CPU wattage + Grafix Card wattage + 50...200watts depending on how many DVD-RW HDD SSD... you have ) 2 ) the protections OPP ( over power protection ) OVP ( over voltage protection ) OCP ( over current protection ) OTP ( over temperature protection ) SCP ( short-circuit protection ) 3 ) ( optional ) if you car about electricity bill , pick the 80 Plus gold platinum or titanium
I had an old PSU in my new gaming PC. It was a 725 watt PUS. X570 MoBo, Ryzen 3800X, RTX Super 2080. The PSU worked for about 2 years. After a while, my PC could hard crash when I started a game. upgraded to a 850 watt Corsair RM850x and no more crashes.
I found Amazon was still selling the older EVGA 1300 G2. It’s very old and a little loud but it actually had an old Johnny guru review on it and he adores it, in addition to 10+ years of proven reliability out on the market. Fits my needs perfectly. It’s like the Toyota Tacoma of power supplies.
Never cheap out on a PSU even on a budget build. My old Corsair AX860i ran for 8yrs 24/7 through many builds and even SLI setups when those Nvidia GPUs usually capped out at 250w each and in all that time it never let me down. Only changed it 2yrs ago as I went with a 5950X build with a Strix 3090 OC so I wanted a new PSU just for piece of mind, especially after knowing about those 3000 series transient issues. Went completely overkill and went with the Corsair AX1600i and so far that's been running for 2yrs straight without a single issue. Wattage is overkill for my needs but one I wanted a PSU that integrated with iCue so I could read the PSU data and I wanted a PSU that was built to a very high standard that should last for many years and builds, at least until ATX 3.0 forces me to upgrade. Could have gone with the AX1200i but that's an aging PSU at this point at the end of its life and the AX1600i was a much newer design anyway.
also what i recommned for a power supply is: get what you need, modualr? semi modular? the config of cables, if its modular which cables you'd use and how they're set up etc, i went with mine bc id use the least amount of cables and use all the connectors available on each one of them, it had high enough wattage, it was kinda new and for what i could research onlñine they had good quality components. also 80 plus gold which matter very little but idk its nice that it's also efficient bc im using my pc like 80% of the time im conscious
The basis behind buying heavy was that it contained a transformer, which would generate an honest, smooth 12 and 5V out of the input instead of chopping up the input 230V and then trying to lower the extreme spikes and fill the gaps which was always half-assed. And it wasn't a difference "this one feels a bit heavier than that one", it was "hold with two fingers" vs "hold with two hands" difference.
PC PSUs have always been switchmode PSUs. That goes back to the Apple ][ days. An iron core transformer capable of delivering the kind of power a PC needs would be as big as a PC PSU by themselves. And it'd be a solid chunk of laminated steel plates and copper coils too. So pretty weighty. Which is why it was never done.
When i started using normal PC hardware as servers and running them 24/7 first hings that started failing where power supplies, hardly anything else breaks. Because i don't want the downtime i started using Seasonic Titanium PSU just because of the 12 year warranty. I do not have one yet that is running the full 12 years but so far the oldest Seasonic is past the lifespan of any other PSU i owned and still working 24/7.
In my opinion, "future proofing" a PSU is simply buying an 850W PSU from a good reputable brand with a gold or higher rating and that is generally regarded as a good PSU and with a good warranty (like Seasonic with 12 year warranty). That will last you a very long time, until there is some change in ATX standards. Normal consumers wont need more than 850W any time soon and enthusiasts don't need to ask this question.
this is why I upgraded my 6yr old EVGA G2 850w gold plus to an EVGA G2 1300w Gold plus. However, I went with the eBay used route, a new one would have been way too expensive. I haven't purchased a high end card yet, I'm patiently waiting for the 40 series. So far (knock on wood) my new PSU is working like a charm with my current gtx 1080.
The only time I had a problem with a PSU was when I bought a very cheap one that was supposed to be 800W, but not certified in any way. That one blew up by just installing an RX480 8GB Red Devil card.
I added an old PSU to my pioneer 7.1 home theatre with the sub being powered by a Sony xplode 500 watt with a Sony explode 1000W sub while living in the country so playing war thunder was really good. never had issues.
I always check reviews of products before I buy, and I also take note of companies that have a good record of a great quality of their products and how they operate. And for me when it comes to power supply, I tend to go for Seasonic.
also btw the gigabyte psu that blew up was just because they didn't tune the OCP correctly, it blew up bc the ocp limit was too optimistic and probably in their controlled lab it worked ok but then when they started mass producing turned out that components behaved a bit differently than expected and that ocp was too high, i have that same exact psu with a 6800xt and a 3800x, both with heavy overclock and never had a single issue (sadly i do have the old model where the ocp was messed up still, i could send it to gigabyte to get a replacement but that would mean weeks without pc, i wonder if there is a way to flash the updated microcode in it and not have to do all this but warranty void if i do anything to it i guess)
I had a cooler master 80+ gold psu (650W) in a rig that at max could draw around 450W. After about 6 months, the psu would trip off under "heavy" load. A year later it started tripping off while sitting at idle. It's the only psu I've ever had a problem with.
Yes, if your gpu doesn't sound like a hashed guitar riff , it's pissed at you. They transmit data through power hence the identifiable dialup similarities
Nope, you can't future proof your PSU because they keep adding cables. Last year you needed an 8-pin CPU cable, today you need 2x8-pin CPU cables, etc. My daughter had a high-end PSU and still had to purchase a new PSU to get 2x8-pin CPU.
I’m happy with my Corsair 2021 rm1000x 1000 watt gold psu. Aris rated it highly, its a little long but that just helps cooling as components are spread out, and it uses a magnetic levitating fan so it realistically should survive the 10 year warranty. Also has a crap ton of CPU/PCIE plugs on the modular panel( you can use it for either cpu or VGA, some other psu’s split it up to cpu and vga exclusively. Paired it with a nice set of cable mod custom cables and it looks amazing. The custom cables are little expensive, but I plan on bringing this power supply forward for many years and having these custom cables look so awesome and are so much easier to cable manage.
I think the biggest take away from this video is "do your research on your part". Don't be lazy about your choosing your psu and you won't have buyer's remorse.
I got kind of nervous about this since I have a 6 year old 550W SFX-L quality power supply from Silverstone. However. I will probably NEVER go down the route of high-end cards anyway. I mean, with a 6600XT I tend to run Cyberpunk at around 90-120fps at 1440 with FSR 2.0 (mod) set to Quality using balanced settings. I don't feel like I am lacking performance and the card "only" draws ~130-140W. If I set Radeon Chill to 50-90fps the GPU drops down to 60-100W, and the gaming experience on a freesync display is pretty much identical as running the game unlocked.
Ur gonna be fine. I'm on a 6700xt paired with a 9700kf under a 650W PSU and never had any problems running any stress test. And 6700xt can draw around 220W. the 6600xt is super efficient.
ONe thing to note though. I'm using a Corsair RM 650, one of the top rated PSUs by multiple individual parties. I have an undervolted RTX 3080 that uses no more than 200 watts, yet runs better than a stock one. I have no problems.
10:55 You can use a ATX PSU as a ATX 12VO with a 24 pin to 12vo cable adaptor and its already easy to find on the market. So your 10 years old PSU still usable for many years to come.
@@1pcfred My 2012 OCZ ZX 1000W PSU still chugging along after all those years while my pc stays on for a average of 12+ hours a day. And as Steve said himself on the video he still uses a 2009 PSU for some kind of validation. Modern and high quality components last a lot longer than the average life expectance.
@@vitor900000 it would not surprise me if your 10 year old PSU is chugging along now. Just cranking the ripple out these days. As your filter capacitors degrade over time. ESR goes up and capacitance goes down. Throw it on an oscilloscope and test it out. It still outputting power is no indication of its health.
@@1pcfred I didn't say it didn't degrade. Just saying that it has a good chance that it didn't degrade as much as you think considering that it was made with high quality components and may still be far away from being bad / unusable especially when considering that its a high power PSU so it has a lot of head run. As Steve said himself he still uses a 2009 PSU for stuffs.
@@vitor900000 There's only one way to find out. Pull the caps and measure them. Although you can just measure the output too. If the caps are shot it'll show up on a scope. Even if the caps are new the waveforms that come out of SMPS tend to be pretty shocking. So you're starting out in a pretty bad place to begin with. The ATX spec allows for 150 mV which is terrible. A "good" PSU should hold 20 mV though. Measurements should be made at 90% of rated output. That's when it's going to be really bad. The big problem with electricity is that we can't really see the stuff too well with just the naked eye. So there's usually a lot more going on than we're aware of. That's why they make oscilloscopes. So get one.
They're a nightmare! My new Corsair case looks like none of the designers had any idea how my Corsair power supply would be configured. Gotta get all the wires attached ... and then push it into place. Hoping none of them get dislodged.
One fried my motherboard with a 3070ti, and a 650w psu. Luckily it didn't hurt anything else. Upgraded to a 850w but also upgraded to a Ryzen 9 5900x, and a rtx 3080ti. Haven't had an issue so far.
I never smash that bell. What do I want a notification on my phone about a new video for? I'm not going to drop everything and watch it that minute. I'll wait until I have some free time at home to watch, so I can see it on my nice large TV or computer monitor.
I use this one, i think it has what you were talking about: EVGA 750 GQ, 80+ GOLD 750W, Semi Modular You can check the specs on EVGA Good information, i will use it when upgrade
I recently helped my friend build a budget PC (to save her from buying a pre-built from HP or Dell) and I had to convince her not to buy the absolute cheapest power supply she saw because in her words, "I mean, all it does is just plug the computer into the wall". Thankfully she trusted me enough the pay the extra money to get a decent power supply from a reputable brand.
The take away from that seems to be that buying heavy does not guarantee good but buying light is a strong indicator that it is bad (rather like price, expensive may not be good but cheap will be bad).
I just go for the most expensive psu and always keep about 30% overhead, no point in spending so much on parts and being cheap. It’s like feeding your dog bad food.
Make sure whatever you buy has your favorite equivalent of UL testing. Don't assume because you bought it at a reputable place that it does. My sister bought me some LED strip lights that were like small shop lights. She bought them from home depot. I had one in my hands and turned it on just after unboxing it. Sparks flew and I noticed wires were exposed on the light casing. The problem was that I could not reach the power of either the strip nor the power strip it was plugged into and I had to remain very still as the wires were exposed. It was tense. (I know the risks being a computer Engineer). After this experience I looked up it certification. It didn't have any! No UL, no CE nothing!
Screams at phone: "Ok Google. Text my sister that she needs to come over so she can unplug the lights." Google: "I found three references to burn gel, would you like to know more?"
@@FakeGordonMahUng Yes Exactly right! Whatever you do don't ask Alexa she'll just order you a My Little Sister doll... Although I bet that doll has never burned someone so maybe that's the most helpful course of action.
@@billschannel1116 It does make me wonder what the virtual profiles of us Googs/Ama/App/Face has on us really is. We assume all powerful AI always listening, but damn, it can't even do the most simple thing so it probably has these hideous caricatures of us stored away. True monsters all because it's misunderstanding what we're saying most of the time.
@@FakeGordonMahUng I worked for Microsoft for 14 years, I've been buying their products for almost 40. I've had most of their services. They are my primary email, browser, and search engine. I always used my live ID on everything. So the day I requested Microsoft to send me my data I was shocked that it was 1 screen that mentioned a type of headache I get and a few (not even all) my MSN news settings. We are a long way off from any ai that knows me well enough to be useful.
Been 100% fine with a 5950x and 6900xt with a Corsair 750watt SFX power supply. It's never been issue for my usage and gaming tbh. However if there was a 900watt SFX I'd get that tbh just to allow some headroom for spikes in case or future use. Tbh it also 80+ Platinum and so although still efficiency at that point the circuitry is generally above decent at that point to hit requirement.
Corsair's higher end psus are really well made, and personally I think they look great too. Not overstyled or edgy, just very focused and sober. Design matches build quality.
Multitasking while gaming (ie using a second monitor with TH-cam or any other 3d app running like Cura (3d printer slicing software)) really triggers OCP on my psu fast. What we need is Gamers Nexus to take apart power supplies and let us know which psus are cheaping out in components that are supposed to help in transient times (ie output filtering / capacitance). pleaseeeee 🙏
It's to bad JonnyGuru went to work for corsair. His revieuws where the best. Something happened with the website a lot or all the old reviews are gone T_T. But that was the place to compare PSU's and really know you had a good one. Hope GN can fill that gap tot her with HardwareBusters.
I have an Antec 750 Bronze. Had it for quite some time. I have been upgrading my system over the years and now running R 5600x with a RTX 380. So far the only crashes I get is in MS FS2020 when I walk away and something goes wrong. 😂
I feel you could if summed it up by saying adding up your wattage of parts vs what power supply you get. Build cones to 500 watts maybe get 650-700 to be safe. Etc
I bought a Corsair TX750 back in 2009, even tho i replaced it for first gen ryzen it still today powers my daughters 10400f build. And from what i can tell, if the fan doesn't fail it should have many years left. Decent quality Psu and Case are imo the hardware that can outlast most other components.. I just replaced my 2013 Corsair Vengeance C70 with a Lian Li Lancool 3 but only because i couldn't fit my new 280mm aio, I'm still keeping the C70 as again its fine for the kids.
the question is was wanting them to answer is what about the capacity. Future proofing for a better GPU and so on. Even worse i don't know what are the reliable places to get the real power consumption of components since TDP is related to how much heat are they designed to generate buy they even lie on that anyway.
12700k and 3090FE on water with fair overclocking on both... I went 1200w Silverstone and I only ever see 625w on gaming load. The most I have ever seen was ~730w total with a harsh overclock and CPU&GPU benchmarks running. Keeping my 850w EVGA might have been okay?
Making videos with you guys is the most entertaining part of every event. Even better now that Adam eggs Gordon on so much!
Adam gets all the eggs to throw at Gordon from PC World's The Full Nerd Discord channel
Good Interactions Between You Two. Well done.
Having watched a TON of GamersNexus videos on PSU. They've usually mentioned that 40% to 45% power load was when the PSU was the most efficient. Figure out your needed wattage and then buy 250% of that. This way the power draw will be 40% of the total and you'll be in that sweet spot.
I'm glad that you guys at pc world and gamer nexus to debunk these power supply fanboy myths
choosing a power supply has now become a political issue
It was fun to spot you wander in where they were streaming. I was seriously worried the full nerds would fail to go "back to Steve", but Wendell and the Dr fixed it for me!
It’s always fun to watch tech Buddha and Jesus making videos together
banger comment tbh
XDDDDD
Ultimate tech knowledge and wisdom🔥🔥🔥
Dang he looks like Gordon Liu from 36 chambers of shaolin. What a coincidence his first name is the same.
How nice of Steve to collab with a small creator like PCWorld!
As Far as I know PCWorld has been a pillar of tech journalism since the 80s . And Gordan has been one of the founding fathers of Maximum Pc(PC Gamer) Magazine since the 90s. Therefore the words "small creator" don't do justice to either of these veterans.
@@DeuxVitae Chill brother.
@@DeuxVitae I guess this was a joke and a quite funny one :)
@@DeuxVitae That's the joke.
My Bad....😁
It's always fun seeing you and Stephen interacting... Old School and New School 🤘🔥🔥
I think Steve is kinda old school in a new school body. His perceptions, his points of view are definitely old school. Add to that his new school life style and Voila.
Stef'an
Steve is so humble around people lol. Quality of a gentleman right there.
He's a legit stand up nerd.
yep
Thanks @Pcworld for the shout out on the Livestream last night -- Also a big watcher of GN / Jay. etc -- going to be important to manage power usage a lot more gong forward in the UK and North Europe
I really enjoyed this and feel Gordon and Steve worked well together bouncing questions and answers off each other. Informative and fun.
Steve is a priceless treasure and must be protected at all costs.
a protective swarm
Yay Gordon. I live my Corsair Titanium AX1500i & AX1600i PSUs
“Go by weight” and next every cheap PSU is coming with lead “for radiation shielding” 😂
gotta say, as i'm hitting two years with my 3080 at the end of this month, i really thought I'd gotten away with using my 750w Seasonic Focus (great PSU, btw) for it. that changed a couple of weeks ago with Spider-Man when I hit everything ultra and RT on. bam. trips the PC dead until i unplug and replug. still waiting to see if it's driver-related as the last patch seems to have lessened the occurrences and I get away with more quality. if not, well, 1000w PSU incoming, i guess.
UPDATE: actually, i may have stumbled upon a fix that was posted by jonnyguru himself. looks like this particular model from before a certain manufacturing date had issues with noise coming from the Ampere cards being misinterpreted and tripping the PSU. the fix was to either: a) place a ferrite choke on the 12v sense line, b) cut the 12v sense line or c) lock clocks and voltage on the GPU when gaming. I've tried fixes a and c individually- and whaddaya know, it worked! strange that it's only ever happened on Spider-Man in the past two years of owning the card, but hey, if it works, it works!
I'm in the same boat. grabbed a 3080 about 2 months ago. kept using a 750w superflower model, but so far no trips. Still, im 100% aware that a 750w unit may not be enough for my system. im holding out until the new units become readily available, and thinking about 1000w-1600w depending on what I may upgrade to.
My 2009 beQuiet 680W Straight Power still going strong with my power modded RTX 3080.
@@MicroageHD that sounds like a bad situation waiting to happen lol
You need a new PSU for your set up.
Just hang on and get a Rev. 3 PSU.
The weight thing is based on the idea that a non heavy power supply is usually a bad idea(cutting components/cooling). Not all heavy power supplies are good but almost all good power supplies are heavy. Only the heavy power supplies stand a decent chance of being a good power supply.
I Agree Weight is a Good Marker of Quality. But generally go Brand High End, Corsair, Evga, OCZ. Then Buy Used Good and Long lasting Reliable, For Less money than a Cheap Budget PSU New
I have a always done it that way, since around 96. The Worse experience was a Very Budget build, found a 3 year old used $15 OCZ, which was flawless for another six years until the switch went. My Current $25 1yr old used Corsair is now 8 years old and flawless. A a OCZ from my third pc is Still going since the core2
I am a man of simple needs: I see Gordon and Steve, so I click "like".
me also do this
I first look at the rated wattage. Then, I check for +12v amps. I stick with 750w for mid-range (3060, i7) and below. For high-range (3080, Ryzen 9), I go with 1000w. I experienced those power spikes way back in the 2000's. I might go with PSUs below 750w if I stick to PCs with APU/integrated graphics only.
Gordon advertising for other channels by saying subscribe and smash that bell was hilarious.
Long long time ago, in around ~1997 (voodoo days), I asked my friend who just got his first job as an electrical engineer, what should I look for when buying power supplies. He said to me, if you have 2 power supplies with the same specs, you should buy the one that is the heavy one. He explained to me why and I was very lucky in all of my builds before internet reviews came along. Nice to see I wasn't the odd one out.
Unfortunately there's been cases of psu brands using weights to make it heavier
Missed the combo Gordon + Steve soo much!
Happy events are back only for that :D
Currently have a Titanium-rated Corsair 850W, fully intended to keep it until ATX 3.0 / ATX 12VO displaced me off of it, but my FTW 3080 has bumped it off a couple of times with transients. With even higher power draws on the horizon, I might end up having to trade up next time I build
Steve having a fanboy moment with Gordon. I remember seeing one issue of maximum PC magazine when i was a kid and then saw few issues in library archive and it brought back old memories.
Thank you Gordon for collaborating with Steve from gamers Nexus (and also Intel 😜).
Will you be covering new USB 4 2.0 with 80Gbps?
i like those corsair sfx supplies. bought a 600w and the 750w model for a newer build. haven't had a single problem with either one while running upper middle tier hardware.
Gordon X Steve is a crossover I always like to see.
Tom’s Hardware’s PSU reviews are really in depth. I just started researching a PSU buy and was impressed.
Shoutout to Cybenetics and the team behind it, Hardware Busters 🏴🏴🏴
Followed the advice and put just a red brick in my case. I can now run 2x3090Ti in SLI.
Thanks Steve
If you would have put a green brick in you could have gotten 3x 3090Ti in there. Red bricks work best on AMD builds.
I remember when youtubers (LTT) were saying just buy a bronze 500w power supply and it is good enough. I ignored that advice and bought a 850w Platinum PSU which has and is serving me well,
Going higher spec on this is not going to hurt. To a large extent, keeping the utilization lower is going to help extend the life span as you're not going to be stressing it as much. There is no upper level on wattage in terms of powering a system. But, at a certain point, the extra capacity is just a complete waste.
The problem with overspecing the PSU is the less % of the total power you use, the less efficient they are. A 1000W PSU in a system the draws only 200W max will be less efficient than a 500W. You can find various tests on the internet showcasing that.
Bough a used Corsair hx1050 back in 2014 for 120cad to experiment with SLI. RMAed it in 2020, got an hx1200 as a replacement. Money well spent
A decent and fast way of checking if a PSU is good would be visiting the PSU Tier List on the cultists web (previous list that was in LTT forum). They have decent methodology that you can read with actual references to back up their rankings.
Wow! It's Gamer, from GamersNexus!
Been rocking my overkill AX1200 watt Corsair PSU for 12+ years. It is currently driving my new 3080ti and doing awesome. It has lasted through multiple builds and is far from a waist of money.
LoL, I did the same a decade ago.
The funny thing is that those overkill psu's made more sense back in the day when crossfire/sli was still present. Definitely needed that much juice to run those triple sli setups.
@@dcxSpartan117 Upcoming GPU's and CPU's also consume a lot of power.
high end evga or corsair 1000w to 1300w 80p platinum rated my 3 rules for not messing up on a psu
same and even in those year have had pc on when the power grid got overload when plants shot down power used without warning,
many cheep psu toke out pc in those moments
I overspecced an HX750 in my X58 build back in 2010 with the possibility of doing SLI. The unit died just after the 7 year mark but corsair still honored it (good guy corsair). Still daily driving the replacement in an RTX 3080 machine today, best PC investment I ever made.
Cool video here. Got a few laughs along the way. XD Love the light heartedness of it. I just picked up a new PSU and came across this in my various researching.
The short of it really is, if you want to be sure of what you're getting, it's like anything else you buy. You have to research it, thoroughly. I'd never put full faith in "any" sticker on a box, because I know how companies work. They strive for the least possible compliance to achieve that sticker, and not a single thing more than that.
If you're looking to buy a critical component like a PSU, which is indeed incredibly critical to your build, well, learn as much as you can about what you're buying, to be sure you're getting what you want, or at least, as close as you can get to what you want.
I also just bought a new 1440 165Hz monitor as well, and while there is no such thing as a "perfect monitor" that has no flaws, well, I took a couple days to really dig through things, and find one that I think has the least cons that I can live with.
It's just the way the industry works. There is no magic in the world, that can produce an entirely flawless product. It just doesn't exist, no matter the market or industry.
Cybenetics never heard of it but glad I know now. Both my SFX PSUs are A for my SX700-PT and A- for my SF750 Platinum. So not terrible.
I'm using an 750W Etasis power supply that I bought back in 2007 or 2008 for $50 on my current computer and it runs just fine. Only thing I had to do was buy some 8-pin adapter cables for the GPU. It's not modular and pretty like more modern PSU's, but it's as reliable and efficient as any high end PSU they sell today.
You can really see playing to the "heavier == better" instinct in some cheaply made kit that has chunks of metal in it, just to make it feel heavier and thus higher quality. Some well made kit that's light and designed to sit on a surface will do it as well, but that's to give it some mass so it's more likely to stay where you put it.
I've been buying Corsair power supplies for the past twenty years. All my builds have a Corsair 80 Gold now and I've havent had one fail on me yet. The amount of power supplys that I have purchased prior to Corsair was Antec and those did fail on me back in the late 90's.
I have a newer Corsair unit (RM750w) and its holding up great. Before that I used Seasonic 650w unit that Corsair also used as basis for some of their own models at the time if I'm not mistaken - also been holding up great for 7 years now, no issues or coil whine, never had a single failure/shutdown.
1 ) that's the minimum watts your PSU should have : 1.7 x ( CPU wattage + Grafix Card wattage + 50...200watts depending on how many DVD-RW HDD SSD... you have )
2 ) the protections
OPP ( over power protection )
OVP ( over voltage protection )
OCP ( over current protection )
OTP ( over temperature protection )
SCP ( short-circuit protection )
3 ) ( optional ) if you car about electricity bill , pick the 80 Plus gold platinum or titanium
I distinctly remember a show where Gordon extolled the virtues of the bargain basement power supplies.
I had an old PSU in my new gaming PC. It was a 725 watt PUS. X570 MoBo, Ryzen 3800X, RTX Super 2080. The PSU worked for about 2 years. After a while, my PC could hard crash when I started a game. upgraded to a 850 watt Corsair RM850x and no more crashes.
Awesome teamwork!
I found Amazon was still selling the older EVGA 1300 G2. It’s very old and a little loud but it actually had an old Johnny guru review on it and he adores it, in addition to 10+ years of proven reliability out on the market. Fits my needs perfectly. It’s like the Toyota Tacoma of power supplies.
Never cheap out on a PSU even on a budget build. My old Corsair AX860i ran for 8yrs 24/7 through many builds and even SLI setups when those Nvidia GPUs usually capped out at 250w each and in all that time it never let me down. Only changed it 2yrs ago as I went with a 5950X build with a Strix 3090 OC so I wanted a new PSU just for piece of mind, especially after knowing about those 3000 series transient issues. Went completely overkill and went with the Corsair AX1600i and so far that's been running for 2yrs straight without a single issue. Wattage is overkill for my needs but one I wanted a PSU that integrated with iCue so I could read the PSU data and I wanted a PSU that was built to a very high standard that should last for many years and builds, at least until ATX 3.0 forces me to upgrade. Could have gone with the AX1200i but that's an aging PSU at this point at the end of its life and the AX1600i was a much newer design anyway.
also what i recommned for a power supply is: get what you need, modualr? semi modular? the config of cables, if its modular which cables you'd use and how they're set up etc, i went with mine bc id use the least amount of cables and use all the connectors available on each one of them, it had high enough wattage, it was kinda new and for what i could research onlñine they had good quality components. also 80 plus gold which matter very little but idk its nice that it's also efficient bc im using my pc like 80% of the time im conscious
The basis behind buying heavy was that it contained a transformer, which would generate an honest, smooth 12 and 5V out of the input instead of chopping up the input 230V and then trying to lower the extreme spikes and fill the gaps which was always half-assed. And it wasn't a difference "this one feels a bit heavier than that one", it was "hold with two fingers" vs "hold with two hands" difference.
PC PSUs have always been switchmode PSUs. That goes back to the Apple ][ days. An iron core transformer capable of delivering the kind of power a PC needs would be as big as a PC PSU by themselves. And it'd be a solid chunk of laminated steel plates and copper coils too. So pretty weighty. Which is why it was never done.
When i started using normal PC hardware as servers and running them 24/7 first hings that started failing where power supplies, hardly anything else breaks. Because i don't want the downtime i started using Seasonic Titanium PSU just because of the 12 year warranty. I do not have one yet that is running the full 12 years but so far the oldest Seasonic is past the lifespan of any other PSU i owned and still working 24/7.
In my opinion, "future proofing" a PSU is simply buying an 850W PSU from a good reputable brand with a gold or higher rating and that is generally regarded as a good PSU and with a good warranty (like Seasonic with 12 year warranty). That will last you a very long time, until there is some change in ATX standards. Normal consumers wont need more than 850W any time soon and enthusiasts don't need to ask this question.
this is why I upgraded my 6yr old EVGA G2 850w gold plus to an EVGA G2 1300w Gold plus. However, I went with the eBay used route, a new one would have been way too expensive. I haven't purchased a high end card yet, I'm patiently waiting for the 40 series. So far (knock on wood) my new PSU is working like a charm with my current gtx 1080.
The only time I had a problem with a PSU was when I bought a very cheap one that was supposed to be 800W, but not certified in any way. That one blew up by just installing an RX480 8GB Red Devil card.
This was simply delightful. Looking forward to video with Wendell too.
I added an old PSU to my pioneer 7.1 home theatre with the sub being powered by a Sony xplode 500 watt with a Sony explode 1000W sub while living in the country so playing war thunder was really good. never had issues.
I always check reviews of products before I buy, and I also take note of companies that have a good record of a great quality of their products and how they operate.
And for me when it comes to power supply, I tend to go for Seasonic.
also btw the gigabyte psu that blew up was just because they didn't tune the OCP correctly, it blew up bc the ocp limit was too optimistic and probably in their controlled lab it worked ok but then when they started mass producing turned out that components behaved a bit differently than expected and that ocp was too high, i have that same exact psu with a 6800xt and a 3800x, both with heavy overclock and never had a single issue (sadly i do have the old model where the ocp was messed up still, i could send it to gigabyte to get a replacement but that would mean weeks without pc, i wonder if there is a way to flash the updated microcode in it and not have to do all this but warranty void if i do anything to it i guess)
I had a cooler master 80+ gold psu (650W) in a rig that at max could draw around 450W. After about 6 months, the psu would trip off under "heavy" load. A year later it started tripping off while sitting at idle. It's the only psu I've ever had a problem with.
I open them up to inspect the topology used and fets and caps used.
There's a limit to how much power you can draw from a receptacle. Modern PC power supplies are approaching that limit these days too.
Yes, if your gpu doesn't sound like a hashed guitar riff , it's pissed at you. They transmit data through power hence the identifiable dialup similarities
Nope, you can't future proof your PSU because they keep adding cables. Last year you needed an 8-pin CPU cable, today you need 2x8-pin CPU cables, etc. My daughter had a high-end PSU and still had to purchase a new PSU to get 2x8-pin CPU.
I’m happy with my Corsair 2021 rm1000x 1000 watt gold psu. Aris rated it highly, its a little long but that just helps cooling as components are spread out, and it uses a magnetic levitating fan so it realistically should survive the 10 year warranty. Also has a crap ton of CPU/PCIE plugs on the modular panel( you can use it for either cpu or VGA, some other psu’s split it up to cpu and vga exclusively. Paired it with a nice set of cable mod custom cables and it looks amazing. The custom cables are little expensive, but I plan on bringing this power supply forward for many years and having these custom cables look so awesome and are so much easier to cable manage.
I hear really good things about Corsair PSU's, they have Johnny working for them from JohnnyGuru who used to produce the best PSU's on the internet.
Please, more of this type of guides! This is quite informative
I think the biggest take away from this video is "do your research on your part". Don't be lazy about your choosing your psu and you won't have buyer's remorse.
I got kind of nervous about this since I have a 6 year old 550W SFX-L quality power supply from Silverstone. However. I will probably NEVER go down the route of high-end cards anyway. I mean, with a 6600XT I tend to run Cyberpunk at around 90-120fps at 1440 with FSR 2.0 (mod) set to Quality using balanced settings. I don't feel like I am lacking performance and the card "only" draws ~130-140W. If I set Radeon Chill to 50-90fps the GPU drops down to 60-100W, and the gaming experience on a freesync display is pretty much identical as running the game unlocked.
Ur gonna be fine. I'm on a 6700xt paired with a 9700kf under a 650W PSU and never had any problems running any stress test. And 6700xt can draw around 220W. the 6600xt is super efficient.
ONe thing to note though. I'm using a Corsair RM 650, one of the top rated PSUs by multiple individual parties. I have an undervolted RTX 3080 that uses no more than 200 watts, yet runs better than a stock one. I have no problems.
10:55 You can use a ATX PSU as a ATX 12VO with a 24 pin to 12vo cable adaptor and its already easy to find on the market. So your 10 years old PSU still usable for many years to come.
Filter capacitors degrade over time so using an old PSU is false economy.
@@1pcfred My 2012 OCZ ZX 1000W PSU still chugging along after all those years while my pc stays on for a average of 12+ hours a day.
And as Steve said himself on the video he still uses a 2009 PSU for some kind of validation.
Modern and high quality components last a lot longer than the average life expectance.
@@vitor900000 it would not surprise me if your 10 year old PSU is chugging along now. Just cranking the ripple out these days. As your filter capacitors degrade over time. ESR goes up and capacitance goes down. Throw it on an oscilloscope and test it out. It still outputting power is no indication of its health.
@@1pcfred I didn't say it didn't degrade.
Just saying that it has a good chance that it didn't degrade as much as you think considering that it was made with high quality components and may still be far away from being bad / unusable especially when considering that its a high power PSU so it has a lot of head run.
As Steve said himself he still uses a 2009 PSU for stuffs.
@@vitor900000 There's only one way to find out. Pull the caps and measure them. Although you can just measure the output too. If the caps are shot it'll show up on a scope. Even if the caps are new the waveforms that come out of SMPS tend to be pretty shocking. So you're starting out in a pretty bad place to begin with. The ATX spec allows for 150 mV which is terrible. A "good" PSU should hold 20 mV though. Measurements should be made at 90% of rated output. That's when it's going to be really bad. The big problem with electricity is that we can't really see the stuff too well with just the naked eye. So there's usually a lot more going on than we're aware of. That's why they make oscilloscopes. So get one.
They're a nightmare! My new Corsair case looks like none of the designers had any idea how my Corsair power supply would be configured. Gotta get all the wires attached ... and then push it into place. Hoping none of them get dislodged.
Great video - thanks!
I was going to say i love gordon i gamers nexus videos but its steve in a pcworld video
One fried my motherboard with a 3070ti, and a 650w psu. Luckily it didn't hurt anything else. Upgraded to a 850w but also upgraded to a Ryzen 9 5900x, and a rtx 3080ti. Haven't had an issue so far.
I love old outdated power supplies, they make great work bench testers and not too afraid to burn them out since they are dirt cheap.
I hope Gordon does a "blowing up power supplies" series when the 4090 comes out :p
Steve and the guys from Gamers Nexus are the best.
Still using a 850 W ancient (8years or so) PSU from corsair and it handles my 3080 just fine.
I never smash that bell. What do I want a notification on my phone about a new video for? I'm not going to drop everything and watch it that minute. I'll wait until I have some free time at home to watch, so I can see it on my nice large TV or computer monitor.
I use this one, i think it has what you were talking about:
EVGA 750 GQ, 80+ GOLD 750W, Semi Modular
You can check the specs on EVGA
Good information, i will use it when upgrade
Corsair is my go too! My 3070 hasn't had issues with 2018 650W so far in Doom Eternal, or anything else. I do need to upgrade my ryzen 5 3600 cpu!
I recently helped my friend build a budget PC (to save her from buying a pre-built from HP or Dell) and I had to convince her not to buy the absolute cheapest power supply she saw because in her words, "I mean, all it does is just plug the computer into the wall". Thankfully she trusted me enough the pay the extra money to get a decent power supply from a reputable brand.
The take away from that seems to be that buying heavy does not guarantee good but buying light is a strong indicator that it is bad (rather like price, expensive may not be good but cheap will be bad).
I just go for the most expensive psu and always keep about 30% overhead, no point in spending so much on parts and being cheap. It’s like feeding your dog bad food.
Nice video. I didn't actually need the advice but hey I like the content.
Gordon and Steve are funny. You could do a Competition - who can build the best SFF PC under 2000 bucks. or do some Live stream together.
EVGA sent me a $200 off coupon in an email a few years ago, that's how I chose my power supply lol.
Make sure whatever you buy has your favorite equivalent of UL testing. Don't assume because you bought it at a reputable place that it does.
My sister bought me some LED strip lights that were like small shop lights. She bought them from home depot. I had one in my hands and turned it on just after unboxing it. Sparks flew and I noticed wires were exposed on the light casing. The problem was that I could not reach the power of either the strip nor the power strip it was plugged into and I had to remain very still as the wires were exposed. It was tense. (I know the risks being a computer Engineer). After this experience I looked up it certification. It didn't have any! No UL, no CE nothing!
Screams at phone: "Ok Google. Text my sister that she needs to come over so she can unplug the lights." Google: "I found three references to burn gel, would you like to know more?"
@@FakeGordonMahUng Yes Exactly right! Whatever you do don't ask Alexa she'll just order you a My Little Sister doll... Although I bet that doll has never burned someone so maybe that's the most helpful course of action.
@@billschannel1116 It does make me wonder what the virtual profiles of us Googs/Ama/App/Face has on us really is. We assume all powerful AI always listening, but damn, it can't even do the most simple thing so it probably has these hideous caricatures of us stored away. True monsters all because it's misunderstanding what we're saying most of the time.
@@FakeGordonMahUng I worked for Microsoft for 14 years, I've been buying their products for almost 40. I've had most of their services. They are my primary email, browser, and search engine. I always used my live ID on everything. So the day I requested Microsoft to send me my data I was shocked that it was 1 screen that mentioned a type of headache I get and a few (not even all) my MSN news settings. We are a long way off from any ai that knows me well enough to be useful.
@@billschannel1116 True, but they still build virtual versions of us that are grotesque creatures searching for headache medicine and burn gel.
Great discussion between you two, as always. Would love to see Steve pop-up on the Full Nerd once in awhile!
After buying a gigabyte psu and learning a lesson, I now filter to only seasonic and hope they stay good
Been 100% fine with a 5950x and 6900xt with a Corsair 750watt SFX power supply. It's never been issue for my usage and gaming tbh. However if there was a 900watt SFX I'd get that tbh just to allow some headroom for spikes in case or future use.
Tbh it also 80+ Platinum and so although still efficiency at that point the circuitry is generally above decent at that point to hit requirement.
Corsair's higher end psus are really well made, and personally I think they look great too. Not overstyled or edgy, just very focused and sober. Design matches build quality.
Multitasking while gaming (ie using a second monitor with TH-cam or any other 3d app running like Cura (3d printer slicing software)) really triggers OCP on my psu fast. What we need is Gamers Nexus to take apart power supplies and let us know which psus are cheaping out in components that are supposed to help in transient times (ie output filtering / capacitance). pleaseeeee 🙏
Gordon!!! I haven’t seen a vid from you in years
Started watching your channel because of Steve but you guys do good stuff!
It's to bad JonnyGuru went to work for corsair. His revieuws where the best. Something happened with the website a lot or all the old reviews are gone T_T. But that was the place to compare PSU's and really know you had a good one.
Hope GN can fill that gap tot her with HardwareBusters.
broadcasting from the beige dimension
Wasn't there an interview with that power supply guy who said some manufacturers add weight to their PSUs so they feel more premium
I have an Antec 750 Bronze. Had it for quite some time. I have been upgrading my system over the years and now running R 5600x with a RTX 380. So far the only crashes I get is in MS FS2020 when I walk away and something goes wrong. 😂
When will all the ATX 3.0 PSUs come out? I'm hoping Seasonic will have a good 1300watt+ by Zen 4 is released.
I feel you could if summed it up by saying adding up your wattage of parts vs what power supply you get. Build cones to 500 watts maybe get 650-700 to be safe. Etc
I have had these problems with a 5950x / 6900xt build and a 1000w platinium silverstone psu
That’s a bummer.
My Silverstone SFX 1000W PSU is handling my 5800X3D and reference 6950 XT well so far.
I always buy Seasonic. I've had several of them over the years and never had a problem.
I bought a Corsair TX750 back in 2009, even tho i replaced it for first gen ryzen it still today powers my daughters 10400f build. And from what i can tell, if the fan doesn't fail it should have many years left. Decent quality Psu and Case are imo the hardware that can outlast most other components.. I just replaced my 2013 Corsair Vengeance C70 with a Lian Li Lancool 3 but only because i couldn't fit my new 280mm aio, I'm still keeping the C70 as again its fine for the kids.
the question is was wanting them to answer is what about the capacity. Future proofing for a better GPU and so on. Even worse i don't know what are the reliable places to get the real power consumption of components since TDP is related to how much heat are they designed to generate buy they even lie on that anyway.
in germany picking a powersupply is easy you add cpu and gpu powerdraw + 100-150w and buy bequiet
You guys managed to catch a dead drop in the background. 1:08
12700k and 3090FE on water with fair overclocking on both... I went 1200w Silverstone and I only ever see 625w on gaming load. The most I have ever seen was ~730w total with a harsh overclock and CPU&GPU benchmarks running. Keeping my 850w EVGA might have been okay?