Alternative PSU's to Corsair

jc4517

Looking to upgrade my PSU to a 500w. I don't have a huge knowledge over different brands, prices, quality of brands etc. To me itt seems that Corsair is the safest option when buying a PSU but they're on the expensive side.. Is there any alternative to Corsair that's still good quality?

yawhat!

Never had a problem with the Be Quiet brand. Anything bronze rated is good.

marco_polo

jc4517 wrote: »

Looking to upgrade my PSU to a 500w. I don't have a huge knowledge over different brands, prices, quality of brands etc. To me itt seems that Corsair is the safest option when buying a PSU but they're on the expensive side.. Is there any alternative to Corsair that's still good quality?

jc4517 wrote: »

Looking to upgrade my PSU to a 500w. I don't have a huge knowledge over different brands, prices, quality of brands etc. To me itt seems that Corsair is the safest option when buying a PSU but they're on the expensive side.. Is there any alternative to Corsair that's still good quality?

The CX series is pretty competitive in terms of price, there are alot more quailty alternatives at the higher end of the market, less at the lower end and the CX series for example is cheaper than most of the other good ones. There nothing magic about Corsair PSUs, they tend to mix an match between a few OEMs like everyone else such as CWT, Seasonic and Flextronic and even Great Wall more recently. The main difference between them and most of the others is that they never try and slip in a few budget product lines of dubious quality and sell them on brand name alone.

Just for example to pick a few of the best of the rest, I'd happily use any of these in a build but non are currently actually cheaper than the CX500. There are a good few more I won't even bother with because they are €10+ dearer.

be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W
XFX PRO550W Core Edition
Super Flower Amazon 80Plus Bronze Netzteil - 550 Watt
FSP Raider S 550


I think Corsair are popular because when you pick one you have the peace of mind that it will be at the minimum a very solid PSU, you know don't have to start googling reviews just in case it is a lemon.

yawhat! wrote: »

Never had a problem with the Be Quiet brand. Anything bronze rated is good.

Its a decent rule of thumb but unfortunately its not quite always true. Even with an efficent PSU there are plenty other parts can still be cheaped out on.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=164

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cougar-A-Series-560-W-Power-Supply-Review/1332/10

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Aerocool-V12XT-600-Power-Supply-Review/1043/10

uncle_sam_ie

Just make sure the PSU your looking at has been reviewed and tested from someone like JonnyGuru http://www.jonnyguru.com/ Ones that are crap are rarely ever reviewed because the makers don't want them to be.