Psu dillema!

[Lakan]

Hey guys, so I went ahead and bought the cx600, seeing the reviews and thought, well this looks really nice. Now I went to give a second look and saw that this actually blew up on some people...

I have a gtx 980 with an inte i5 4690k, needless to say, I'm willing to go ahead and buy another psu if it means protecting these two. Should I remained concerned at all and if so, what power supply do you guys recommend for my build?

I'm hoping Amazon allows returns and refunds if I have to return this psu. I did buy straight from corsair.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Lakan

[obobski]

If it said "fulfilled by Amazon" Amazon will handle returns like normal, but if it was Corsair "through" Amazon (or Amazon Payments on another website) you're limited by whatever their return policy is (probably means not free shipping to send it back). Of course if they do something really jakey, Amazon CS tends to be pretty good, but honestly I'd be *amazed* if Corsair was bad to you.

 

The PSU you picked is a little "cheap" for a TOTL build, but capacity wise it should be fine (IOW there should be nothing wrong with it, but usually for TOTL builds you see more expensive boxes), and I doubt you'll have issues unless you just receive a bad unit,which can happen with anything; and Corsair tends to be well made stuff so I wouldn't be too afraid of that. Of course if the box arrives and looks like it was run over by a tank, I wouldn't try plugging in the remains of the PSU, but if it's all in one piece, not dripping wet, etc it should be fine.

 

Of course if you're hooking up like 16 hard drives, TECs, etc blah blah you should have a more robust PSU (or two), but I'm assuming you have a pretty conventional build with a single graphics card, CPU, some RAM, a mainboard, and that's probably about it.

[Amyr]

Well, you will most likely be fine if you're not into overclocking and stuff like that.

 

But you should also know that is a pretty entry level gaming PSU, so you don't expect much when it's only entry level. If you really want some high quality stuff from Corsair, you should check their RM, HX or AXi series. Other brands might be EVGA, Antec and Seasonic. But you should keep in mind that as long as you keep buying the entry level stuff, the brand doesn't really make any difference.

[Vagrant0]

General rule of thumb with PSUs is to plan 50-100 watts above what is required by your videocards, and to buy either gold or platinum rated power supplies unless you are just needing a hold-over.

 

The extra wattage acts as a buffer between the point where you are drawing standard load from that powersupply and where it peaks out. When a powersupply peaks out, it usually has trouble maintaining consistent power throughout your system which can lead to hardware failure. Running a powersupply at peak load for long periods of time can also lead to the powersupply overheating and burning out completely. The bronze, silver, gold, platinum rating on the powersupply relates to the efficiency of the power supply (how much of the rated wattage it can consistently put out as well as how well it converts the power coming in from the outlet).