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Need new PSU recommendation

SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 527
Have an old 2015 build system with sea sonic g series 650 ssr-650w 80+ gold in a atx mid tower case that I think is going bad.

Some games I go into and system just crashes to reboot with the ASUS power surge warning, turned off the surge protection in bios to check if that was causing any issue but still crashes system on certain games.

intel core I7 4790K 2 16gig ram GeForce 1080 couple SSD so pretty sure 650w psu is more than enough. So 650w replacement for the recommendations.

Thanks all.




Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,353
    First, have you overclocked anything?  If so, then the overclock may have become unstable, and reverting to stock settings may fix the problem.

    Second, it's likely that the power supply isn't your problem.  While any component can eventually go bad, my guess is that it's more likely a motherboard problem than a power supply problem.  That's just a guess, though.

    Third, the good power supply review sites that I used to rely on have generally stopped doing reviews or even shut down entirely.  As vendors have discontinued old lines and launched new ones, that means that most of what's available doesn't have good reviews for it.  Seasonic has always been good in the past so they probably still are, but I've seen enough shenanigans from most other vendors not to trust them without a good review of the particular unit that you're looking to buy.

    Fourth, that's a strange "2015 build" with a video card that didn't launch until 2016.  I realize that you can upgrade a video card later, but it would be unusual to buy a new video card a year after building a computer, and then keep that new card for five years.  Unusual isn't impossible, of course, and there may have been good reasons to do that.

    Fifth, how much money do you want to sink into upgrading a six year old computer rather than replacing it outright?  Or at least, that's what I'd usually ask.  Unfortunately, this is a pretty terrible time to buy a new computer.  With the Ethereum miners buying up all of the cards with more than 4 GB of memory, the cheapest such card GeForce or Radeon available on New Egg right now is $500--and that's for a GTX 1060, which is much slower than what you already have.  So I sure hope that the problem isn't a failing video card, which it could be.
    [Deleted User]Sandmanjw
  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 527
    edited February 2021
    No overclock, and had a 980 gpu but got a deal on a 1080, think it was in 2017? or so? so replaced the 980. Was just listing the things to show an idea of power needs i had.

    Other than ssd's added, the vid card was only thing replaced in the original build.

    But i have not been looking at hardware for long time so no idea on a PSU to try.

    And i know of the bad timing, why i am gonna get a PSU to try, if it turns out not to be that i will most likely keep it anyhow for a new system i build when the timing is better.

    Not gonna mess with a new system right now with the craziness going on either way. If the PSU is not the issue i will just wait for a better time to finish a new build.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,353
    Here's Seasonic's new generation:

    https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-core-series-core-gm-650-650w/p/N82E16817151244

    It's probably good just because it's Seasonic, but I can't find any reviews of it.  Here's their previous generation, which is a little more expensive:

    https://www.newegg.com/seasonic-focus-650-gold-ssr-650fm-650w/p/N82E16817151202

    Two generations ago would be the power supply you already have.  Those are both semi-modular.  You can get fully modular, but it's more expensive, and I think it's kind of dumb to make the motherboard and CPU power connectors modular, as if you'll sometimes not need them.
    Sandmanjw[Deleted User]
  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 527
    Thanks for the help Quizzical, always make it easy. Ordered the 2nd one.

    Hope this is the issue, but if not still will use it for a build later anyhow.
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    Can’t really go wrong with Seasonic right now. Good choice.
    [Deleted User]
  • Abscissa15Abscissa15 Member UncommonPosts: 69
    edited February 2021
    I quite agree. Even some of the top Corsair PSU's are actually manufactured at Seasonic. Decent cable selection with those units as well. Good luck !
    [Deleted User]
  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,412
    edited February 2021
    In general for PSUs, the more money you pay at a given wattage, the more stable PSU you will get. Everything is made by the same 5 companies anyway with different stickers. The difference between a FSP and Seasonic is that FSP is willing to make budget PSUs where Seasonic wants to protect it's reputation.
    The two things to worry about are corporations who start to ruin their reputation to get higher profit margins, and vendors selling flash instead of quality.
    The days of Diablotek nearly 100% risk of an electrical fire are long past over. In general a PSU will last you the life of your mobo as long as your house electrical and surge protection is in order.
    [Deleted User]
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,353
    Cleffy said:
    In general for PSUs, the more money you pay at a given wattage, the more stable PSU you will get. Everything is made by the same 5 companies anyway with different stickers. The difference between a FSP and Seasonic is that FSP is willing to make budget PSUs where Seasonic wants to protect it's reputation.
    The two things to worry about are corporations who start to ruin their reputation to get higher profit margins, and vendors selling flash instead of quality.
    The days of Diablotek nearly 100% risk of an electrical fire are long past over. In general a PSU will last you the life of your mobo as long as your house electrical and surge protection is in order.
    There are still some awful power supplies out there.  I'd bet against this being able to deliver its rated 600 W in spec for very long under real world conditions, for example:

    https://www.newegg.com/coolmax-zx-600-600w/p/N82E16817159143

    But while the power supplies that are nearly guaranteed to fail aren't as common anymore, you don't want one that has a 10% chance of causing trouble in the next few years, either.

    As you say, most power supplies are manufactured by one company, then marketed and sold by another.  The problem is that a lot of companies start by selling a high end power supply that they send out for reviews to try to get a reputation as a good brand.  Then over the years, they fill out their lineup with much lesser units, often ranging down into the lower end region that you'd like to avoid.

    The effect that they're trying for is kind of like someone seeing a review that a GeForce RTX 3090 is really fast, so he decides to buy Nvidia, and ends up getting a GeForce GTX 1650 that he can actually afford.  (Well, could have afforded before the Ethereum miners went nuts.)  Except that the only "problem" with the GTX 1650 is that it isn't very fast, or at least, not compared to an RTX 3090.  It's not liable to fry your system like a bad power supply, and for that matter, could easily be more reliable than an RTX 3090 just because it has so much less heat to deal with.

    Most power supply vendors don't really have a reputation to protect.  Even companies that are well-known for other products like Corsair or EVGA have no qualms about selling mediocre power supplies.  At one point, EVGA even got caught sending out a ringer for reviews, as someone bought one of their lower end units at retail, opened it up, and found that it was an entirely different platform made by a different company than the one they sent for reviews.

    Seasonic has been in the power supply business for many years and has never played shenanigans like that, or at least, has never gotten caught doing it.  For that matter, Seasonic handles review samples at least in the United States by paying New Egg to ship a random unit from their stock to the reviewer, just as a way to demonstrate that they're not sending out a ringer.  It's not just ethics, either; Seasonic makes good money off of enthusiasts willing to pay for their brand name, and that can disappear forever if they get caught cheating their customers.  No other power supply vendor has an analogous reputation to protect in the first place.

    It's so hard to tell what you're getting when power supply vendors play those games that I've given up on recommending anything besides Seasonic anymore.  Even though there are other companies that sell just as good of products and for comparable prices, it's too hard to tell which ones are good and which aren't.
    [Deleted User]Arglebargle
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,888
    Quizzical said:
    Cleffy said:
    In general for PSUs, the more money you pay at a given wattage, the more stable PSU you will get. Everything is made by the same 5 companies anyway with different stickers. The difference between a FSP and Seasonic is that FSP is willing to make budget PSUs where Seasonic wants to protect it's reputation.
    The two things to worry about are corporations who start to ruin their reputation to get higher profit margins, and vendors selling flash instead of quality.
    The days of Diablotek nearly 100% risk of an electrical fire are long past over. In general a PSU will last you the life of your mobo as long as your house electrical and surge protection is in order.
    There are still some awful power supplies out there.  I'd bet against this being able to deliver its rated 600 W in spec for very long under real world conditions, for example:

    https://www.newegg.com/coolmax-zx-600-600w/p/N82E16817159143

    But while the power supplies that are nearly guaranteed to fail aren't as common anymore, you don't want one that has a 10% chance of causing trouble in the next few years, either....
    My personal opinion is that for lower powered PSUs if it doesn't reach at least 80+ Bronze efficiency then it's trash. For higher powered PSU's (800W or above) if it doesn't reach at least 80+ Gold then it's trash.

    I know those efficiency ratings don't tell everything. But generally if the PSU has below average efficiency, then efficiency is not the only thing it's below average at and that PSU should be avoided.
    [Deleted User]
     
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,353
    I have an Antec Truepower New 750W one in the rig in my signature, and I never had a single problem with it.

    A power supply calculator says that your PSU is largely enough for your rig: https://outervision.com/b/MdZhRF

    That's an old Seasonic power supply.  It's also more than ten years old, so it's probably long since off the market by now.
    [Deleted User]
  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    edited February 2021
    Most people with Diablotek power supplies probably never had a problem with theirs either.

    I’m not discounting your experience or the quality of Antec, just saying that one piece on anecdotal evidence doesn’t say a lot, for PSUs in particular where they can appear to be working just fine but be putting out crappy power quality.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,353
    remsleep said:
    This is what my main gaming rig is running 

    https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Power-Supply-Units/axi-series-config/p/CP-9020087-NA

    total overkill - but have never had any issues with it
    $560 is a lot to spend on a power supply.  You probably got it for cheaper than that, but still.  It takes some really weird needs to justify spending $200+ on a power supply.
    [Deleted User]
  • SandmanjwSandmanjw Member RarePosts: 527
    Oh well, shortly after I ordered the new PSU the system completely died. Was not the old PSU, by the way. I would guess it was the MB, but did not want to spend money on such an old system.

    Built a mostly new Ryzen 5 5600x system now, had to over pay a bit for the 5600x, but not too much. Keeping the 1080 for now so CPU was only thing I had to shop around for to find one not priced too bad.

    Think this will be the first AMD CPU I have ever had. See how it goes:)

    Thanks all.
  • Abscissa15Abscissa15 Member UncommonPosts: 69
    Good luck !
    If you have a x570 board, then keep an eye open for BIOS revisions to correct the intermittent USB connection drops which some are experiencing.
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,888
    Sandmanjw said:
    Oh well, shortly after I ordered the new PSU the system completely died. Was not the old PSU, by the way. I would guess it was the MB, but did not want to spend money on such an old system.

    Built a mostly new Ryzen 5 5600x system now, had to over pay a bit for the 5600x, but not too much. Keeping the 1080 for now so CPU was only thing I had to shop around for to find one not priced too bad.

    Think this will be the first AMD CPU I have ever had. See how it goes:)

    Thanks all.
    If you were certain it was the motherboard, you could have just bought one from ebay at like $60. As opposed to paying what is likely more than $400 for new CPU + mobo + RAM.

    But if you weren't certain that it was because of motherboard, then it's often better idea to upgrade system rather than buying old components that might or might to fix the problem.
     
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