[Gadget] Ended up getting the Corsair HX650 PSU

In the previous post I talked about how I managed to get rid of my 3 year old PSU all thanks to Rakuten Auctions. Now it was time to get a new PSU.

Originally I was going to get the Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-PS because it was only 140mm in length and was fully modular, both of which would help when building a SFF PC. Further, even though the efficiency was rated as 80Plus Silver, it was hitting Gold spec. And the price was reasonable – just under JPY10,000. But its modular cables were bulky and not flat in shape as the ones that come with some of the higher quality PSUs. According to reviews, it was a great PSU for the price and the features, but some people were saying that it stopped working after a couple of weeks and the quality of the PSU design could be better. After what happened with my Plantronics Backbeat Go 2 wireless headset, I’ve grown a bit more sensitive about these warranty issues.

Thus, I wanted to see if there were better options. My criteria was like below.

1. 80Plus Silver or better efficiency rating
2. 600W to 700W
3. 160mm max length
4. Modular or semi-modular, but the position where the cables come out matters

I managed to narrow down the list to just 5 PSUs, including the above mentioned model from Silverstone. They are,

1. Silverstone Strider Plus ST60F-PS $100
2. FSP PT-650M $115
3. Corsair HX650 Gold $133
4. Seasonic G-650 SSR-650RM $165
5. Silverstone Strider Gold S ST75F-GS $167

The Seasonic G-650 and the Corsair HX650 Gold are the same PSU (made by Seasonic) except the Seasonic comes with two extra PCI-E power connectors and the positioning of the modular cable ports are different. Ironically the Seasonic product is more expensive. Both are also semi-modular and come with flat modular cables except for the two fixed cables, the 8pin EPS cable and the 24pin cable.. They are 160mm in length, so not as compact as the Strider Plus ST60F-PS, but the flat cables and the semi-modular-ness will allow they to for in most mini-ITX cases just fine.

There were some voltage stability issue with the FPS unit so I didn’t look much into it. The Strider Gold also wasn’t something most people were recommending. All of them were recommending the Seasonic PSU. Well, since the Corsair is the same as the Seasonic with two PCI-E cables missing and a small difference in layout of the modular sockets, I went with it to save $32. Since this PSU is eventually going to go into a SFF build, I didn’t worry too much about the lack of the 2 extra PCI-E power connectors. Besides, I am a solid proponent of single GPU systems.So I have no use for those two extra PCI-E power connectors.

I bought the PSU from Sofmap.com. I had a few hundred points there, the ones I received when I bought the Wi-Fi router. It’s a small sum, but savings none-the-less. Still, it is almost about two times the price of the TX850 that I managed to sell via Rakuten Auctions. But hey, SFF compatibility is not the only advantage that I would get with this PSU. The cable mess behind the motherboard tray is almost non-existent anymore. And this is a 80Plus Gold Rated PSU and also a smaller PSU which will perform way better than the old TX850 PSU which wasn’t even 80Plus Bronze rated and was way overkill for the load of the my PSU. (If you are wondering why I bought this PSU even though it was overkill was because I got it at a cheaper price point.)

So I was planning to send the TX850 once I got the HX650. Sofmap would usually take two days to deliver it. I was waiting eagerly for the new toy. But I had no idea what kind of issues I was going to face with it. There sure were some issues and that’s for another post.