X-bit labs

Started by: 31415 | Date 03/28/08

Comments: 8 | Last Comment:  05/18/08

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1. Cool review! keep up the good work...

2. Very good review as usual. Nice to see some interesting new developments in PSUs for a change. The fact that these units all meet their specifications easily is comforting; it would seem increasingly difficult to find a poor-quality PSU, provided you're willing to spend an appropriate amount.

3. Once again, I want to cry. X-Bit has the best PSU reviews I have ever seen. And they waste them on super-high-wattage PSUs that have no reason to exist! Indeed, it almost seems like (unlike in other sections) X-Bit's PSU roundups are not catering to "intelligent, informed technology enthusiasts", but rather to "ego-driven wastrels who want a bigger e-penis".

I would really appreciate a PSU roundup strictly in the range of 300W-400W.

~rant~

Desktop computers that are not running multiple graphics cards - which is 99% of them - don't need power supplies of 400W or greater. Buying such a device is wasteful of money (obviously) and power, since efficiency declines near the bottom of a PSU's capacity. So, buying an "82%" efficient 600W PSU for a normal computer will not get you 82% efficiency, if you will usually be running at 150W.

Since I have always bought - and considering the trend to design more power-efficient CPUs, drives, and even graphics cards, probably always will buy - power supplies under 400W, these PSU reviews at X-bit, while technically very well done, are totally irrelevant to me. And from what I can see, they are totally irrelevant to 99% of your other readers as well, who may buy 500W or 600W PSUs... but don't need them at all, and only buy them because that's all you ever review.

To find a quality (and I use the term loosely, since this is certainly not a perfect PSU!) sub-400W PSU in one of your roundups, I had to go back to 2005:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu_12.html#sect0


There are also a couple in roundup 8 from only 3 months ago, but they are junky no-name brands that nobody is going to buy unless they come in a case. And if they came in my case, I would thrown them out and buy a quality brand.

Just run through these roundup front pages and look at the wattages you review! They are almost all 500W+ and maybe half are 650W+. And there are lots of 700W, 800W, and 1000W scattered around, too. I don't understand why you do this.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu9.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu8.html (the sub-400W ones are junky)
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu6.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu5.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu4.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/psu-roundup.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu.html
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/display/atx-psu7.html

Hey, that is understandable.

Shuttle factor PSU's and Booster PSU's would be greatly appreciated also! I have a FSP X3 booster that worked wonderfully with X1900XTX's but my 8800GTX does not like it just because the specification (25Amp instead of 30) does not pass Nvidia's built-in test check. Argh, Nvidia!

Anyways, keep it up Xbitlabs! Part IX, leading onto Part X, tenth anniversary edition!

There's one I'd love to see a review on, though, and that is the hugely popular Apevia / Aspire Iceberg 680W PSU. It comes in several different color variants, and has been selling at over $100 for a couple years. There are some complaints on how there are a few defective units, and the controversial margins of +/-10% instead of 5% within the rated specs. However, many find this PSU to be perfectly stable and capable of handling 8800GTX cards (currently powering one of my PC's right now). My guess would be that it is one of the top 5% best selling model of PSU's of all time. It does not even get that hot under insane load.

4. Would have been nice to toss up the king of the hill of the PSU market right now( as far as I and fellow co-workers are concerned)...a PC Power and Cooling 750W( i'll send you mine ;) ).

Great review overall. Hope to see new PSU's added in the future.

5. Very useful review, but just as an advertising.
The serious people on the net are describing in detail the power supplies: transformers, capacitors brand name, ICs used, etc.

I miss old days when XBitLabs used to publish real technical stuff. It's sad when money drives anything ...

"The serious people on the net are describing in detail the power supplies: transformers, capacitors brand name, ICs used, etc"

And in 99 cases out of 100 it's absolutely useless (at least, without deep analysis of the PSU circuits and operation), but makes article looks more scientifically.

Did you read "The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester? The Scientific People, yes.

6. Very Good, this page has all the details I need to know about these PSUs.

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