Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

PSUs: The source of DC power for all components in the PC & often a big noise source.

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QUIET!
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Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Tue Jul 28, 2015 1:54 pm

I know 80+ Platinum really isn't budget but I live in a warm area and don't have AC so keeping my temperatures low pays off for me.

Any way, the cheapest I can find is the Antec Earthwatts Platinum 650 watt.

I have heard some good (high efficiency) and some bad (high-ish ripple, noisy fan) and some people recommend an Earthwatts with a fan replacement.

Luckily for me I found a 120mm Noctua fan in the surplus electronics store (it's what I do on my lunch break) so Earthwatts with a fan swap seems like a reasonable and cheap plan.

If there is anything better, let me know.

Please do not suggest a fanless PSU, I'm old school and rely on the PSU fan to extract warm air from my case. It's the only place where I can mount a big, low RPM exhaust fan in my case so a fan in my PSU is a requirement.

I would go with a lower wattage PSU if I could find it cheaper or even the same price. I'm not terribly concerned about a little voltage ripple, it seems to be something that overclockers worry about and maybe reduces service life of heavily loaded systems. Since I do not intend to overclock or run with a continuous heavy load, it should not be a big issue.

Thanks.

Abula
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by Abula » Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:36 pm

There is a new line that just came out from Rosewill that worth investingating more, in the past they have had decent oems with some seasonics and superflower, not sure who makes this new series,

Rosewill Quark-550, Quark Series 550W Full Modular Power Supply with LED Indicator, 80Plus Platinum Certified, Single +12V Rail, Intel 4th Gen CPU Ready, SLI & Crossfire Ready

QUIET!
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:01 pm

After rebate that does look pretty nice and I have a Superflower built Rosewill Capstone that has worked well for me.

I'll have to think about that one.

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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:06 pm

The OEM is Enhance. 1000W version was reviewed @ Jonnyguru and Tom's.

Tom's reviewer's comments don't jive with the rpm vs watts chart. Says quiet up to 500W, but the fan's already maxed out at 500W... <shurgs>

quest_for_silence
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by quest_for_silence » Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:42 pm

QUIET! wrote:I know 80+ Platinum really isn't budget but I live in a warm area and don't have AC so keeping my temperatures low pays off for me.

Platinum is rather pointless: with reference to your main goal, more probably that not it wouldn't add anything noticeable over a really good Gold unit.

CA_Steve wrote:Tom's reviewer's comments don't jive with the rpm vs watts chart.

Not exactly:


CA_Steve wrote:Says quiet up to 500W, but the fan's already maxed out at 500W... <shurgs>

Unfortunately Aris usually doesn't listen to his puppies, just plots the data logger output (and recorded data are comparatively low, despite the supposedly rather high spinning pace): besides, IIRC, the noise graph is plotted using the reviewer's own crossloading procedure, while not using static load levels as in fan graphs (I never fully understood why, I guess Aris thinks it's a somewhat more realistic scenario).

QUIET!
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Wed Jul 29, 2015 9:09 am

quest_for_silence wrote:
QUIET! wrote:I know 80+ Platinum really isn't budget but I live in a warm area and don't have AC so keeping my temperatures low pays off for me.

Platinum is rather pointless: with reference to your main goal, more probably that not it wouldn't add anything noticeable over a really good Gold unit.
I don't think it's pointless and looking at the costs of a really good Gold unit and the low end of Platinum, there isn't much price difference.

That Rosewill is $70 after rebate, it's hard to find a gold for less than $50 and making it a full modular to match the Rosewill will reduce the differential to about $0.

Any way, in a 100 degree summer day (38c for people who can't convert) with an always on PC in an unconditioned apartment, every little bit helps. I have used Gold power supplies quite a bit and they work very well, especially if they are not terribly overrated for the load. Unfortunately the build I'm planning needs a big PSU to cover the GPU load so instead of the modified Dell 80+ Gold units I like, I need more and I don't want to get more heat at idle in the bargain.

For a premium of $0-$20.00 I want to see if there is a point.

quest_for_silence
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by quest_for_silence » Wed Jul 29, 2015 12:24 pm

QUIET! wrote:I don't think it's pointless and looking at the costs of a really good Gold unit and the low end of Platinum, there isn't much price difference.

There's often quite a leap in performance and quietness (even if for 50-70 USD you're talking of "budget" units, not really good ones): at any rate, you may think what you prefer, but there's likely no difference, measure your ambient temp with a gold and a platinum unit and see.

An example of "budget" Gold unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817438049 , an example of a better unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817438053

QUIET! wrote:the build I'm planning needs a big PSU

Really?

QUIET!
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Wed Jul 29, 2015 2:16 pm

My typical budget 80+ Gold PSU is a surplus or used Dell unit of around 240 watts and probably under $15 (not including shipping). The place I get them from is pretty good, the "used" PSUs look about like a new one, probably takeouts from unsold new stock...

I can look them up on Plug Load Solutions to get the 80+ report and I don't buy unless they have the 80+ Gold (or sometimes Silver) mark on the information label.

Those are fine for a low power build, probably a lot better than a 450 watt PSU on a system that pulls about 150 watts max. I'll call that about 65% of rated load.

The system I'm planning includes a GPU with a 175 watt TDP and a motherboard that can do SLI/Crossfire. With one GPU, the max load could be close to 250 watts so a 400 watt PSU would be fine but a dual GPU might bump that up around 400 so a 550+ watt PSU is what I'm looking for. If it idles at 5% of it's rating, I want it to be efficient there. Recently designed PSUs seem better at that because idle loads keep getting lower and lower over time and in general, most Platinum designs are newer than Gold designs and the efficiency numbers are higher too.

I will say that previously I thought a Platinum rating was well in to the range of diminishing returns but with a premium of zero, I think that makes Platinum PSUs a smart move.

pod03
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by pod03 » Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:21 pm

Your focus appears wisely to be efficiency at idle/low loads. For that and your other requirements I suspect that a Cooler Master V550S http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cool ... 50S/6.html is still the best choice despite being Gold rather than platinum. I have had the V450S over a year now and it is pretty quiet and I have had no problems with it. If you can get an OEM ~400W Titanium do let me know where from.

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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Jul 30, 2015 12:19 am

QUIET! wrote:most Platinum designs are newer than Gold designs and the efficiency numbers are higher too.

It's not the case of the EarthWatt (I can't say anything about the Quark, though Rosewill replaced the Capstone/Tachyon for cost reasons, so it's likely a lower quality unit).

QUIET! wrote:I will say that previously I thought a Platinum rating was well in to the range of diminishing returns but with a premium of zero, I think that makes Platinum PSUs a smart move.
It depends: currently in the enthusiast market (which is not the case of refurbished Delta-made boxes for OEM) Platinum still comes at a premium (compare the Corsair HXi vs the Corsair RMi).

BTW the EarthWatt is an old platform (it is a tweaked 2011 FSP Aurum), which is probably not well suited for typical Haswell-like loads (around 77% at 40W-230V: compare that to a gold-rated CM V550S, which is around 87% at the same level, or to the EVGA 550 GS, which is around 82%, as typical for similar Seasonic designs). Again, I can't say anything about the Quark.

With 115V AC your mileage may vary (lower loads have a comparatively slightly higher efficiency than with 230V mains, but on the other hand higher loads show off a lower efficiency).

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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Thu Jul 30, 2015 1:17 pm

Where did you find the idle info for the CM V550S?

If it has that much advantage at idle, it's a better choice.

pod03
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by pod03 » Fri Jul 31, 2015 12:02 am

The idle efficiency is detailed in the link that I posted: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cool ... 50S/6.html

QUIET!
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Re: Which ~budget 80+ Platinum

Post by QUIET! » Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:24 am

It seems like Enhance is the OEM for both the Cooler master and Rose will.

I will have to investigate more closely but at least I have two good options.

Thanks.

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