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Tiqabar45Tiqabar45 Member UncommonPosts: 17

Not to be a stickler, but I'd guarantee that the "article" circulating is more than just one.  Modular power supples are a GREAT idea, but they simply aren't up to standards when it comes to comparing to a non-modular.  Honestly, you absolutely NEED to spend your money wisely with a PSU.  Stick with PC Power and Cooling or Antec.  As I stated earlier, I snagged an Antec Earthwatts 650 watt supply from Fry's for 80 dollars, normally 100 bucks.  It is 85% efficient, and it runs my rig beautifully.  My only issue with AMD is how much longer they are going to be able to keep up.  As far as GPUs lasting 3 years, you could probably argue both ways and what you consider lasting 3 years.  I snagged an 8800 GTX right when they came out about 18 months ago and yeah, it will probably last me another 18 months, but that is partly because people are now running into a bottleneck of performance and just how much detail you can squeeze into video games.  When people start developing games the size of a Blu-ray disc that plays like a movie, then we will see the real potential of computing in my opinion.  For right now, I can run any game I want at high settings and play at 30+ fps. My only advice is don't skimp on your power supply.  The one I got also had industry standard surge protection components.  I know I need to buy a good surge protector for the wall anyways, but it is a little better ease of mind knowing that they are thinking about all possible situations.  Triple 12V rails also helps.

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  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    Not sure what article your post is about :)

    OCZ (rebranded PCP&C), Zippy, Corsair and Seasonic (both Corsair and Antec PSUs are rebranded Seasonic) are also all very good PSU's. There is some drop in efficiency using modular PSU's but as I'm not anywhere near the limits of my PSU I enjoy the tidiness of a modular PSU. If you have a heavy power demanding system or *really* care about efficiency then a non-modular is better.


    PC Power & Cooling's website disputes the triple 12V rails though, they claim a single large 12V rail is much more efficient and better able to meet power demands of all the PC components.

  • Tiqabar45Tiqabar45 Member UncommonPosts: 17

    Well, an efficient PSU would be more stable having more rails IMO, this Antec Earthwatts 650 watt has triple 12 volt rails each delivering I believe 28 amps per rail.  But regardless, I was replying to a post of another person talking about building a rig.  Modular power supplies are fine IMO, but if you have a heavy demanding system, IE gaming rig, you need to invest in a good supply and modular won't cut it.  My rig was the perfect example.  I had a modular Ultra XVS 700 watt supply with dual 12V rails and I'd get crashing and lockups while gaming, even in games that weren't that graphics intensive.  Since upgrading to this Antec, I now have no crashing and I can keep my BFG 8800 GTX OC at the overclocked frequencies.  Before I had to lower the frequencies to Nvidia spec for it to run with minimal problems.  I'm just saying if you are gonna spend the money for a good rig, invest in a good power supply, do not skimp.

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