PSU Upgrade

[aShufflinZombie]

When I built my PC back in november, I bought a cheap cooler master psu because the wattage requirements were low and I wasn't planning on overclocking.

In the times since, I overclocked my 8320 to 4.2 GHz at stock voltage. Heat isn't an issue because at full load during encoding it only goes up to 45~50 C. It was completely stable for 3 or so months but lately it has been randomly crashing as well as BSODs. I'm pretty sure that it's the PSU since it has cheap Chinese capacitors so I'm looking for a new power supply.

The budget is $80 but going under budget is not a problem. But I need to order by monday at the very latest because my PSU might die soon.

The two PSUs that I'm looking at are the Corsair CX600M or the Rosewill Hive 650.

I would greatly welcome any input.

Cheers

My rig is as follows:
AMD FX-8320 @ 4.2; stock voltage
Hyper 212 Evo
ASRock 970 Extreme4
Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz@1.55v
EVGA GTX 650 @ 1200 core; 6GHz GDDR5
OCZ Vertex 4; 128 GB
Seagate 2tb
LG DVD drive

 

[rolli59]

Between the two I would go with the Rosewill.

 

[raasco]

Are you going to SLI or Crossfire? What watt range are you looking at? You could get away with something less powerful with your existing setup.

I personally go with Corsair or SeaSonic PSU's, but I also hear good things about the Antec Earthwatts series. I like your Corsair pick, but here is another one that you could consider.

Antec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371044

Edit:
Looks like this unit is having issues with fires according to the Newegg comments! This is the new version of the EA-650, which was a great PSU.

 

[fffblackmage]

Best bang for the buck: CX430 $20 AR
The cpu and gpu have a combined TDP of roughly 300W, so 430W should be more than adequate. If you really think you need more power, then there's the 500W version for $30 AR and promo code.

If you want to spend on higher quality, then you got Seasonic.
SeaSonic S12II 620W $76 shipped
(For whatever reason, the 430W part is only a few bucks cheaper than the 620W model, and then the 520W is the same price anyways.

 

[lehtv]

The CX500 looks good to me. I would rather have it than the CX430 since you can then actually upgrade your GPU and overclock a bit. CX500 has two PCIe connectors, CX430 has only one.

 

[aShufflinZombie]

Thanks for the replies fellows!

To answer questions, I did look at the other PSUs that you recommended but I want something modular. I pretty much only looked at Antec, Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic and Rosewill as I really want something that will last.

I may upgrade to a 660 or a 670 when they start hitting the fire sales so I'm future proofing myself for now.

I'm probably looking at higher wattages because I heard somewhere that if the budget allows, go for a PSU that has twice the wattage of what your build will use because it will keep it going longer. I don't know if its true but for $5, who cares.

I'm probably buying the Corsair 600m based on your opinions and the 5-year warranty. It's only $65 at microcenter.

 

[lehtv]

Why do you want a modular unit? You'll be using most cables anyway. Modularity isn't really useful with <500w units. I would much rather pay extra for higher effciency than modularity, e.g. Rosewill Capstone 450W $60. 2x pcie connectors, 5 yr warranty, 80 plus gold, high quality all-round.

Any good quality unit with two PCIe connectors is fine for a GPU that uses about 200W, you don't need a 600W unit for GTX670.

 

[aShufflinZombie]

Why do you want a modular unit? You'll be using most cables anyway. Modularity isn't really useful with <500w units. I would much rather pay extra for higher effciency than modularity, e.g. Rosewill Capstone 450W $60. 2x pcie connectors, 5 yr warranty, 80 plus gold, high quality all-round.

Any good quality unit with two PCIe connectors is fine for a GPU that uses about 200W, you don't need a 600W unit for GTX670.

Is higher effciency really that important? 5% doesn't make too big of a difference, to me at least. My case (CM HAF 912) has literally no place to stuff extra wires so modularity is important to me.

I was going to go with the CX500M at first but the CX600M is ~$2 more so it made sense for me to spend the extra amount.