To make this as easy as possible I am going to try to address your points one by one. My intent here is not to be rude, but I think this might be the easiest way to reply.
you can get the 850w version for $100 on egg right now. that pretty much puts the 1250w version in line for $180. Can find silverstones and some corsairs in this price range in the 1000w range. Of course they are silver rated. I bet they come with MOVs and no coil whine though.
The 850W OCZ would cost me $123 after MIR on Newegg right now. That being said I'm not sure why you would choose a PSU in the same product line you appear to disapprove of to justify the price of the unit in question in the thread.
As for there being similarly priced
Silverstone and
Corsair (I am guessing here, please feel free to correct me) units I don't really see the comparison. The OCZ beats both units in total power output, price, effecieny, modularity, and connection options. It also beats the Silverstone warranty by two years, although it admittedly falls short of the 7 year warranty offfered by Corsair.
On a personal note, I place very little value on the inclusion of an MOV as I have a decent surge supressor and have never run into any issues. Also, I have done a test run where I loaded down the PSU with 3x Geforce 580s and did not hear any coil whine. I assure you if I did I would have sent the unit back as I find that absolutely unacceptable. That said, if I can't reproduce it in the real world with one of the most power hungry setups, I consider it a non-issue.
Ill be honest i havent shopped this wattage bracket at all not even for a second because the wattage is so beyond my needs i see no point. I only looked at this thread because of the price which seemed like a good deal for the wattage so i looked at reviews. Now i feel like it should be the normal price.
I shop 850 watt bracket far more because it makes more sense for a system like yours or mine.
Totally understandable and in fact I am for the most part in the same boat. I only jumped on this because I felt it was too good a deal to pass up. I did plenty of research before I jumped in and what I came up with says that the only thing that matches the features and price point is (drum roll please) the OCZ 850 Watt previously mentioned. As a matter of fact it works out almost perfectly and has about 68% of the power output for 68% of the price.
I am sincerely interested in your personal opinion here. As a fellow PC enthusiast the information that you have might be useful to me even if I don't necessarily agree with your assessment. I am always open to learning something new, so I ask, nay emplore you, to please link me your picks for ~850 Watt PSUs in the ~$130 price range. I assure you this is not a personal attack and if you'd feel more comfortable a PM would be completely fine, I am just interested in your opinion.
With platinums filing out i think this is just the beginning in price drops in golds. And i believe the AX1200 comes with a 7yr warranty and this OCZ is 5?
I think you might be overstating this a little bit. The highest output 80 Plus Platinum PSU I am aware of was only recently
shown at CeBIT and it is limited to 850 Watts, which is quite a bit less than the OCZ. The rest that I am aware of can be counted on one hand and are all around 550-600W.
On the warranty side, the Corsair wins hands down, although I find it interesting that you seem to give Silverstone a pass in this area. I've personally had two Silverstone units fail on me and I was denied a replacement because I did not have my original receipt after 2.5 years.
If a ABS 1200 gold or something was marked at $150 would you say it was a good deal? I just think the OCZ gold cuts some corners and it should be priced at this point and dont see it as a good deal. spend more money you get better quality. thats all im saying. not saying this is crap, not saying its not worth $180. Just saying its not a hot deal.
If I see any hardware that is proven to perform in the top tier while being priced in a tier much lower, I am interested. That would go for the ABS if any information led me to believe this unit had anywhere near the quality of the OCZ. My guess is, we can both agree that it is
not. To be perfectly honest I try to go where the performance/price barrier meats and I would buy a PSU made by Fisher Price, Quaker State, or Betty Crocker if I thought it was the best option. I place very little value on brand name, especially as the majority of the PSU market is outsourced to other companies. Hell, even Corsair is fallible if you look at some of the choices they've made in their lower end units.
And by the way i am not "new" ive been watching these boards for yrs and yrs prolly 6 times a day. I just dont post.
I think this was targeted at someone else, but I am right there with you. I've been an Anandtech user for something like 9 years now. I just never registered until I wanted to post a deal