Yes, but this is supposed to be lower end. It's still has all the whistles, so it's more like midrange? I sale prices to be lower, seeing as comparing at retail doesn't seem to have a big price difference. I welcome the practical wattage rain. The high end will probably go all platinum efficiency.
The naming scheme is getting confusing, although I admit I haven't shopped for a PSU in a few years (not since I got the AX750)... First they had VX and HX, then they added AX as a premium line, when did TX happen? (or was that always in between VX & HX?) Now it's RM...
I purchased a TX650 when the Nahalem (i7 920) came out, so it's been a while. They're due for a nice change, and modular? Sounds good to me. It looks like these are based off of the Seasonic G series, though (I'm not complaining).
They figure if they confuse you enough, you'll either go with the cheapest one regardless or the highest end. Either way, they're going to profit because those are the places where they make the most margin since they cheap the cheap out of cheap PSU's on the low end.
I'll let Anandtech know the second I find someone who can even consume all that power and needs a 500+W PSU. Completely ridiculous! Even a latest and greatest latest dual GPU gamer setup is totally on the safe side with a 450W PSU. On the contrary it's almost impossible to source decent 200W PSUs which should be perfectly okay for most systems on this planet.
Actually, 450 watts is nowhere near enough for all but the most power efficient systems. Power supplies are most efficient at half loading, and you can nearly saturate a 450 watt supply with a single high end 7000 series card and mid-range everything else. So unless your dual GPUs are pitifully small, what you've said is a severe understatement. And as for 200 watts being enough for most people, most desktops consume 50-80~ watts idle, if not more. Put even a middling load on a basic system and you'll surpass 200 watts which would cause serious issues on the PSU.
But for the simple fact alone that PSUs are most efficient at 50% loading, should merit the wisest course of action to be buying a PSU with enough capacity to hit 50% load on it's most common loading that isn't irrelevantly small, like idle. That would put the ideal PSU for most systems somewhere in the 550-750 watt range. It also increases PSU lifespan not to be having it near 100% loading.
No, that would not be okay for most dual-GPU setups. A high-end graphics card alone uses 200-250W, before overclocking. CPUs use between 84W for a stock i7-4770 to over 250W with an overclocked i7-3930K or FX-8350. Add in a couple hard drives, SSDs, optical drives, fans and the motherboard and you're easily looking at over 800W of power at load.
Looking at my UPS's lcd screen, i measured my system power load at 480 watts full load.
4770K CPU OC'd to 4.2 Ghz Asus GTX 780 Maximus VI Motherboard Swiftech Apogee Drive II Watercooling 2 SSD's in Raid 2 HDD's in Raid
granted the ssd's and hdd's werent even close to full load, i'd say 500 watts is a safe number. Adding another GTX 780 for a SLI Setup would almost certainly raise that up to 650w......
I doubt you were really pushing even the CPU or GPU as far as possible. Remember, the amount of power these components use doesn't just depend on the proportion of time each core is doing something. It depends very much on the workload itself.
Sure, a 500 watt PSU will probably be enough most of the time, albeit sometimes running near 100% capacity (not a great idea, in general). However, what happens when you hit that random workload with just the right combination of instructions to push everything beyond you're measured 480 watts. Do you really thing it's worth occasionally driving your PSU beyond 100% capacity just to save a few dollars? Just get a PSU with a little headroom.
What a ridiculous statement. There are plenty of people (myself included) who easily push 500W. Besides that, do you not understand the efficiency numbers? Buying a PSU with more overhead will allow you to actually use less electricity, which is important for many of us who leave our computers on 24/7.
My 3960X + 660Ti kill a 450W "dynamic" power PSU. They make a 450W standard power supply cringe. Another video card? Will you pay for my house fire and replacement parts?
For any GPU compute on big GPUs, you're in for a shock. For my OC'ed beast (dual CPU + 4x7970) I hit 1550W easily. For my daily (3960X + two 7950s) I can hit 650W with the right workload, which means I use something near a thousand.
Buying power supplies is like buying a car and doing 70mph everywhere. If you buy the one that does 80mph, you'll be punishing the car driving near its top speed. Buy a car that does 150mph, and 70mph is a walk in the park.
I know what you mean though - I can run a 5970+5870 bitcoin miner on a 500W PSU without issue, and it'll work day in day out, and I get a warranty. Though as it's never going to see a workload spike, it's not an issue there
Yep, you must be right. I guess there isn't a market for these PSUs and that's why the companies launch them - they want to squander their resources and have no clue of what the market wants or needs. I admit I'm not in the main stream, but there are people who would like to see even more powerful and efficient PSUs than these - those who run dual CPUs and multiple GPUs on the same motherboard. I'd like to find a fully modular, really quiet 1800W+ PSU that is 80 Plus Titanium so that I can add a fourth GPU for rendering.
IIRC 20A circuits are required in the latest code for in the kitchen; although they're still uncommon outside of it. I think the bigger issue is that a 20A outlet/device requires a different plug than the standard 15A model. As a result to be in code an 1800W PSU in the us would need to come with a cable that couldn't be plugged into normal outlets. The returns from can't be bothered to read the box idiots from it would be prohibitively high.
If you need more than 1500W now you'll need to go dual PSU. You can buy supplemental units that fit into a 5.25" bay; or use two standard PSUs with a control cable to have them both turn on at the same time (a 24pin pass through that connects the power on signals to the second PSU as well). The main caveat is that you'll need to either upgrade your breaker and wiring to support 20A+ or to plug the second PSU to a different circuit.
Nice, I'm glad to see some cheaper PSU's with such features. I'm very happy with my fully modular Seasonic XP660 plus. In hybrid mode it hasn't turned on the fan once for my moderately overclocked system. If these are similar at the prices stated, then they'll be great purchases. I'm particularly glad that they're offering the lower wattage models, however, at the same physical size and such a small difference in price, even those who only need 450w are probably better going for the 650w in the hope that the fan might remain off in hybrid mode.
Wow, guess Seasonic finally has a competitor in the PSU space. I look forward the full review. Would love to see a dual/vs review including Seasonic's new "SS" series that replaces the "X" series of PSU's. These are the only 2 PSU's I know of with a "full silent" mode. But I'd be interested in a competitive comparison between every PSU that has this feature. Given the reasonable pricing I see no reason to ever buy a PSU that isn't fully silent ever again. THANK MOORE!
Corsair doesn't truly compete with Seasonic.. in fact, Corsair re-brands Seasonic PSU's for some of their product lines, though they also use designs from CWT and Flextronics
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maximumGPU - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
doesn't their AX series also have "zero rpm fan mode" when below a certain threshold?EnzoFX - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Yes, but this is supposed to be lower end. It's still has all the whistles, so it's more like midrange? I sale prices to be lower, seeing as comparing at retail doesn't seem to have a big price difference. I welcome the practical wattage rain. The high end will probably go all platinum efficiency.Impulses - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
The naming scheme is getting confusing, although I admit I haven't shopped for a PSU in a few years (not since I got the AX750)... First they had VX and HX, then they added AX as a premium line, when did TX happen? (or was that always in between VX & HX?) Now it's RM...FragKrag - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
TX has existed for a while now...Impulses - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Ok, yeah, and there was also a CX series I think... But why break convention now when they've updated the existing lines multiple times in the past.numberoneoppa - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
I purchased a TX650 when the Nahalem (i7 920) came out, so it's been a while. They're due for a nice change, and modular? Sounds good to me. It looks like these are based off of the Seasonic G series, though (I'm not complaining).Indifference - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Base on realhardtechx the OEM of this PSUs are CWT and Chicony. 750w and 850w variants are Chicony and the rest are CWT.numberoneoppa - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Cool, thanks.Flunk - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
I believe their branding is purposefully confusing, similar to their memory branding.HisDivineOrder - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
They figure if they confuse you enough, you'll either go with the cheapest one regardless or the highest end. Either way, they're going to profit because those are the places where they make the most margin since they cheap the cheap out of cheap PSU's on the low end.Chugworth - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Unless you've got some ridiculous setup that needs over 500 watts of power, just go with a fanless power supply. NewEgg has several of them.Daniel Egger - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
I'll let Anandtech know the second I find someone who can even consume all that power and needs a 500+W PSU. Completely ridiculous! Even a latest and greatest latest dual GPU gamer setup is totally on the safe side with a 450W PSU. On the contrary it's almost impossible to source decent 200W PSUs which should be perfectly okay for most systems on this planet.garadante - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Actually, 450 watts is nowhere near enough for all but the most power efficient systems. Power supplies are most efficient at half loading, and you can nearly saturate a 450 watt supply with a single high end 7000 series card and mid-range everything else. So unless your dual GPUs are pitifully small, what you've said is a severe understatement. And as for 200 watts being enough for most people, most desktops consume 50-80~ watts idle, if not more. Put even a middling load on a basic system and you'll surpass 200 watts which would cause serious issues on the PSU.But for the simple fact alone that PSUs are most efficient at 50% loading, should merit the wisest course of action to be buying a PSU with enough capacity to hit 50% load on it's most common loading that isn't irrelevantly small, like idle. That would put the ideal PSU for most systems somewhere in the 550-750 watt range. It also increases PSU lifespan not to be having it near 100% loading.
madmilk - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
No, that would not be okay for most dual-GPU setups. A high-end graphics card alone uses 200-250W, before overclocking. CPUs use between 84W for a stock i7-4770 to over 250W with an overclocked i7-3930K or FX-8350. Add in a couple hard drives, SSDs, optical drives, fans and the motherboard and you're easily looking at over 800W of power at load.jasonelmore - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Looking at my UPS's lcd screen, i measured my system power load at 480 watts full load.4770K CPU OC'd to 4.2 Ghz
Asus GTX 780
Maximus VI Motherboard
Swiftech Apogee Drive II Watercooling
2 SSD's in Raid
2 HDD's in Raid
granted the ssd's and hdd's werent even close to full load, i'd say 500 watts is a safe number. Adding another GTX 780 for a SLI Setup would almost certainly raise that up to 650w......
chaos215bar2 - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
I doubt you were really pushing even the CPU or GPU as far as possible. Remember, the amount of power these components use doesn't just depend on the proportion of time each core is doing something. It depends very much on the workload itself.Sure, a 500 watt PSU will probably be enough most of the time, albeit sometimes running near 100% capacity (not a great idea, in general). However, what happens when you hit that random workload with just the right combination of instructions to push everything beyond you're measured 480 watts. Do you really thing it's worth occasionally driving your PSU beyond 100% capacity just to save a few dollars? Just get a PSU with a little headroom.
chaos215bar2 - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
s/you're/your/gnumberoneoppa - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
What a ridiculous statement. There are plenty of people (myself included) who easily push 500W. Besides that, do you not understand the efficiency numbers? Buying a PSU with more overhead will allow you to actually use less electricity, which is important for many of us who leave our computers on 24/7.lmcd - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Oh well it's his house fire.bobbozzo - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Bigger power supplies are LESS efficient at low loads.lmcd - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
My 3960X + 660Ti kill a 450W "dynamic" power PSU. They make a 450W standard power supply cringe. Another video card? Will you pay for my house fire and replacement parts?IanCutress - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
For any GPU compute on big GPUs, you're in for a shock. For my OC'ed beast (dual CPU + 4x7970) I hit 1550W easily. For my daily (3960X + two 7950s) I can hit 650W with the right workload, which means I use something near a thousand.Buying power supplies is like buying a car and doing 70mph everywhere. If you buy the one that does 80mph, you'll be punishing the car driving near its top speed. Buy a car that does 150mph, and 70mph is a walk in the park.
I know what you mean though - I can run a 5970+5870 bitcoin miner on a 500W PSU without issue, and it'll work day in day out, and I get a warranty. Though as it's never going to see a workload spike, it's not an issue there
Gadgety - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
Yep, you must be right. I guess there isn't a market for these PSUs and that's why the companies launch them - they want to squander their resources and have no clue of what the market wants or needs. I admit I'm not in the main stream, but there are people who would like to see even more powerful and efficient PSUs than these - those who run dual CPUs and multiple GPUs on the same motherboard. I'd like to find a fully modular, really quiet 1800W+ PSU that is 80 Plus Titanium so that I can add a fourth GPU for rendering.bobbozzo - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
20A circuits are so rare in the US that is is extremely unlikely anyone is going to offer a consumer PSU over 1500W.DanNeely - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
IIRC 20A circuits are required in the latest code for in the kitchen; although they're still uncommon outside of it. I think the bigger issue is that a 20A outlet/device requires a different plug than the standard 15A model. As a result to be in code an 1800W PSU in the us would need to come with a cable that couldn't be plugged into normal outlets. The returns from can't be bothered to read the box idiots from it would be prohibitively high.DanNeely - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
If you need more than 1500W now you'll need to go dual PSU. You can buy supplemental units that fit into a 5.25" bay; or use two standard PSUs with a control cable to have them both turn on at the same time (a 24pin pass through that connects the power on signals to the second PSU as well). The main caveat is that you'll need to either upgrade your breaker and wiring to support 20A+ or to plug the second PSU to a different circuit.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
danielfranklin - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
I tripped the overload on my Antec 750w the other day with a 2500K @ 4.7ghz and 2 x 7970 reference cards.nevertell - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Use responsibly and beware of sudo and rf.MrCommunistGen - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Clever! Took me a second but all of a sudden it was "I see what you did there"bobbozzo - Saturday, September 14, 2013 - link
Hi, do you know who the OEM is?MelvisLives - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
any idea on the size of these? they look a fair bit longer than the old tx power suppliesMelvisLives - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
never mind, seen it in the article now, i was just blind, they are really long though, 160mm for the low end and 180mm for the high power onesJDG1980 - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
Sounds like these could potentially be a nice choice, but I'd like to know who the OEM is first.RdVi - Sunday, September 15, 2013 - link
Nice, I'm glad to see some cheaper PSU's with such features. I'm very happy with my fully modular Seasonic XP660 plus. In hybrid mode it hasn't turned on the fan once for my moderately overclocked system. If these are similar at the prices stated, then they'll be great purchases. I'm particularly glad that they're offering the lower wattage models, however, at the same physical size and such a small difference in price, even those who only need 450w are probably better going for the 650w in the hope that the fan might remain off in hybrid mode.everex11 - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
my Aunty Brianna got an almost new red Jeep Cherokee SUV from only working part time on a computer... go to this website......www.pick85.com/Hrel - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Wow, guess Seasonic finally has a competitor in the PSU space. I look forward the full review. Would love to see a dual/vs review including Seasonic's new "SS" series that replaces the "X" series of PSU's. These are the only 2 PSU's I know of with a "full silent" mode. But I'd be interested in a competitive comparison between every PSU that has this feature. Given the reasonable pricing I see no reason to ever buy a PSU that isn't fully silent ever again. THANK MOORE!owan - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link
Corsair doesn't truly compete with Seasonic.. in fact, Corsair re-brands Seasonic PSU's for some of their product lines, though they also use designs from CWT and Flextronicsjust4U - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
YepTrying to find out which company actually makes these..
just4U - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Quick Question here.. are these power supplies being made by Seasonic???Rocket321 - Tuesday, September 17, 2013 - link
Zero RPM (silent) fan mode is awesome, I hope this becomes a checkbox item for every PSU in the next year.