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A prime candidate for the new king of powerful hardware is now available
We're talking about power supplies, of course. For the uninitiated, electricity comes from the wall at 120 V AC (or possibly some other voltage, depending on where you live), and computer components need power at much lower voltages and DC. A power supply does the conversion for you (or at least AC to DC with some voltages), and a computer needs to have one in order to work.
And more to the point, a computer needs a good power supply if you want it to reliably keep working. Some vendors will have high end power supplies that they send out for reviews to try to establish a good reputation, and also sell much cheaper power supplies that are a danger to fry your system.
The occasion for today's post is that Seasonic has launched a new flagship, the PRIME Titanium (their caps, not mine). Seasonic is not one of those vendors who will sell you junk, as even their low end stuff is decent. But for several generations now, from their X-series to their Platinum series to last year's Snow Silent, their top end power supplies have been arguably the best consumer power supplies on the market.
The industry has recently moved from 80 PLUS Platinum (92% efficient) to Titanium (94% efficient) as the top end energy efficiency in power supplies, and a number of other vendors got units out before Seasonic:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007657 601115166
But while some of those are nice, others have only excellent energy efficiency to go with less then excellent voltage regulation and ripple suppression. No matter how efficient it is, a power supply that delivers unstable enough voltages to damage other hardware is junk. Now, I don't know if any of the other Titanium power supplies are that bad, but merely staying in spec isn't enough to justify a premium price tag.
So while Seasonic wasn't the first with a Titanium power supply (nor Platinum), they did take the time to do it right. Behold the glowing Hard OCP review:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/07/21/seasonic_flagship_prime_750w_power_supply_review#.V5ORv1KEB10
It sports voltages that basically don't budge as the load changes, ripple that is barely there, efficiency that touches 94.9% at 120 V, and a high quality fan that you can't even hear. Back it all by a 10 year warranty and make it fully modular, and what's not to like? In this season of paper launches of hardware, it's even available today as the first reviews go up:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151158
Oh, right, that's what's not to like: the price tag. $160 plus shipping for a 650 W power supply. But at least they did make a 650 W version appropriate for gaming rigs rather than starting at something ridiculous like 1200 W. You can get a pretty good power supply for half that price, but that price tag is just about the only real reason to get anything else.
And more to the point, a computer needs a good power supply if you want it to reliably keep working. Some vendors will have high end power supplies that they send out for reviews to try to establish a good reputation, and also sell much cheaper power supplies that are a danger to fry your system.
The occasion for today's post is that Seasonic has launched a new flagship, the PRIME Titanium (their caps, not mine). Seasonic is not one of those vendors who will sell you junk, as even their low end stuff is decent. But for several generations now, from their X-series to their Platinum series to last year's Snow Silent, their top end power supplies have been arguably the best consumer power supplies on the market.
The industry has recently moved from 80 PLUS Platinum (92% efficient) to Titanium (94% efficient) as the top end energy efficiency in power supplies, and a number of other vendors got units out before Seasonic:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100007657 601115166
But while some of those are nice, others have only excellent energy efficiency to go with less then excellent voltage regulation and ripple suppression. No matter how efficient it is, a power supply that delivers unstable enough voltages to damage other hardware is junk. Now, I don't know if any of the other Titanium power supplies are that bad, but merely staying in spec isn't enough to justify a premium price tag.
So while Seasonic wasn't the first with a Titanium power supply (nor Platinum), they did take the time to do it right. Behold the glowing Hard OCP review:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2016/07/21/seasonic_flagship_prime_750w_power_supply_review#.V5ORv1KEB10
It sports voltages that basically don't budge as the load changes, ripple that is barely there, efficiency that touches 94.9% at 120 V, and a high quality fan that you can't even hear. Back it all by a 10 year warranty and make it fully modular, and what's not to like? In this season of paper launches of hardware, it's even available today as the first reviews go up:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151158
Oh, right, that's what's not to like: the price tag. $160 plus shipping for a 650 W power supply. But at least they did make a 650 W version appropriate for gaming rigs rather than starting at something ridiculous like 1200 W. You can get a pretty good power supply for half that price, but that price tag is just about the only real reason to get anything else.
Comments
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
I really like reading quizz's posts. Not all, but most have some decent info.
Thanks Quizzical!
/shrugs
But yeah, if your looking at a bigger budget, if your spending $500+ on a GPU or CPU, or gunning for a high overclock with a $100+ cooling setup and top-end motherboard, wouldn't you want the little bit of insurance that your PSU isn't going to fry it and can reliably provide clean power? Sure, any PSU can fail, but a higher quality one lowers that chance by a lot.
I have 450W Seasonic Gold in my rig right now, and it's a champ, running a 4790k and a 980. I did it because a lot of people were saying "You need a bigger PSU", and all my math kept turning up saying "No you don't". So I decided to put my money where my mouth is. Rig runs great, even with mild overclocks. I push 375-400W routinely out of the 450 capacity, and can even brush against 450 at the wall if I push an overclock, but this psu hasn't had an issue with it at all, and it's been running for almost 2 years now.
I've used a lot of Seasonic Bronzes in builds as well - and just looking at the two from the outside you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference. Even running, the biggest difference between the two (apart from modular cables) is that the Gold runs a bit quieter and cooler than the Bronze level PSUs.
But you can also look at it in a different light...
Each time you have cut in half the number of failures. If you say that the $50 is twice as likely to fail as the $80 unit, which is twice as likely to fail as a $180 unit - then it has a bit of a different context.
Do you ~need~ to spend more on a PSU? No. Just like you don't need to get an i7 over an i5 (or i3, some may say) most of the time. Or you don't ~need~ any graphics over integrated graphics, most of the time.
In full disclosure, I totally made up all those numbers to create an example. I don't actually have any numbers for PSU failure rates. I would like to think they are in the ballpark, but if anyone has actual numbers (like we have for hard drives, for instance), I'd love to see them.
There is another way of looking at it. Look at military electronics and their power supplies. They often have power supplies that can handle a lot more. Like 1000w vs your 450 if it were a pc. Operating near the top of the wattage is "as-if" you are running a car in the red line. It is a longer view of looking at it.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I can't really think of a purpose and justification of such PSU besides enthusiasm.
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If you have expensive components in your PC, it doesn't make sense to cut corners on your PSU, particularly if doing so could put those components at risk.
Nice power supply, though. However, I expect all PC components will be substantially improved and cheaper by the time I'm in the market for a new rig.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
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That was a good read Quiz. Thanks for the info.