Recommended Power Supplies

• Updated March 14, 2009 - Added Nexus Value 430 and Silverstone ST45NF
• Updated Dec 20, 2008 - A slew of changes - Added Seasonic M12D-850W, Sparkle Power SPI250EP, TX650W. SilverStone Decathlon DA700, Antec Signature 650.
• Updated March 16, 2008 - Added Corsair TX650W.
• Updated March 2, 2008 - Added Seasonic MII-430 & SII-380, Enermax Modu82+ 625; retired several now-discontinued models, and shuffled rankings as necessary.
• Updated Aug 16, 2007 - Added Corsair VX450W
• Updated July 28, 2007 - Added two models to recommended lists and retired a few older now-discontinued models

Dec 1, 2006 by Mike Chin

Until today, these recommended PSU lists were part of the Power Supply Fundamentals article. The lists and the fundamentals article have been separated for practical reasons. The single article was just getting too long and cumbersome. Separating them means it's a bit easier to update them more frequently. You're strongly urged to read Power Supply Fundamentals for a fuller understanding of the complexities around power supplies.

PRODUCTS CHANGE, often without notice. The information provided here is accurate at time of posting, but there is no way to guarantee that the samples we review are exactly the same as the ones you buy. There are just too many variables. For a bigger sampling, please check the SPCR Forums for comments by owners/users.

Guide to the Lists

The recommended PSUs are now divided into 4 categories:

• PSUs rated between 250W and 400W,
• PSUs rated for 400W or more,
• Fanless PSUs and
• PSUs rated for less than 250W.

PLEASE NOTE that positioning on the list is determined primarily by the NOISE assessment, but this does not mean that a PSU is simply "better" than another because it is at a higher rank. In some cases, slightly higher noise but better power delivery may be a smarter compromise. Until we have a way to dynamically display data by different weightings -- without making this totally complex or undeliverable via web bandwidth -- the simple 2-dimensional table will have to suffice.

The Criteria Columns:

First Column: Manufacturer and model number

Q: Simply stands for quality. It is our assessment of the product's overall design, performance and build quality, not including noise. Ranked from 1-10, 10 being perfection. A number rank followed by "?" indicates we have not fully verified the assessment.

Noise: The amount and quality of noise the PSU makes with a typical load in a noise-optimized PC.

Ranked from 1-10:

• 10 = completely noiseless,
• 9 = effectively inaudible (usually this means <22 dBA@1m with a very smooth character and no hum, buzz or intermittent sonic effects)
• 5 = very quiet (~25 dBA@1m with a benign acoustic signature), and
• 1 = borderline quiet (~30 dBA@1m).
• In this scale, 1 describes a usable PSU for a noise-reduced PC and quieter than the average PSU, which would have to fall into the negative numbers like -1, -2 and so on. We won't worry about that because we'll never recommend such noisy PSUs. Keep in mind that a noise-reduced PSU ranked at 1 may still be quieter than the other noise sources in many "standard" computers.
• A number rank followed by "?" indicates we have not fully verified the assessment. Any audible coil buzzing is noted in the comments.

Keep in mind that we strongly weigh the acoustic performance at <200W when ranking the units for noise. This is because systems typically do not draw more than 200W, even at maximum power. Those seeking quiet systems should do everything possible to minimize power draw because low heat makes low noise much easier to achieve. For higher power PSUs, the noise performance >200W is considered as well, but the <200W is still weighted more heavily, because the vast majority of systems run at much less than full load >90% of the time. (Typically, the load is about at idle 90% of the time.)

This helps explain why a fanless PSU gets a rating of 9 when the quietest fan cooled units can get a rating as high as 8. In actual use, the difference is very marginal, as the system using a fanless PSU still needs an exhaust fan which may actually have to spin slightly higher than the one in a similar system with a fan-cooled PSU. It is only when systems with the quietest fanned PSUs are pushed beyond the 150~250W ramp-up point of their fan controller that they become significantly louder than systems with fanless PSU. However, the fanless PSU system will be more stressed thermally unless it has airflow from case fans -- in which case, their acoustic advantage shrinks again.

Comments: The Quality & Noise ratings are incomplete without these comments. The comments are dated by month and year at the end of the entry.

The source of the information upon which our opinion is based is also cited here: It is almost always Reviewed, Article or Firsthand knowledge gleaned by Silent PC Review staff. If reviewed or written about in a SPCR article, the link will take you to the article.

The Price provided here is only a rough market price guide, or if not widely available, the manufacturer's suggested retail price, in US $. MSRP is marked with an asterisk (*) following the price.

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New entries are in darker yellow rows.

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Please go to the next page for the Retired Recommended PSUs.

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Articles of Related Interest
Power Supply Fundamentals
Power Distribution within Six PCs
Desktop CPU Power Survey, April 2006

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