Right, I looked into 3 PSU's for my rig (Which is going to be a gaming desktop), namely; The Silverstone Strider 500W, Antec Truepower 650W and the XFX Black Edition 850W.
First up, is the budget option;
The Silverstone Strider - RRP- £60 eBay - £43
The Silverstone seems to be aimed more at the casual gamer, rather than anyone looking for serious performance figures, as it's relatively low power output makes overclocking rather difficult, and the serious lack of connectors (only 12), means that external power will be required for any serious peripherals.
However, where it does find it's niche, is in ease of use, and ease of assembly. If this is your first time building a computer, a cheap, non-modular, mid range power supply unit is absolutely essential, and this provides it without sacrificing efficency or size.
Best Buy For: First Time Builders / Casual Gaming Desktop
3/5
The Antec TruePower RRP - £90 eBay - £73
Antec has been creating great PSU's for years, and their R&D has been rather busy, as this updated model in their TruePower range is packed full of new bits and bobs that increase efficency and make it generally a much more powerful machine according to the stats, and given their track record for being 99.9% accurate with their manufacturers specs, I am inclined to believe them.
Now, I have a very big soft spot in my heart for the Antec PSU's, as it made the core of my first ever build, a desktop tower, built entirely out of second hand parts, and put together in my school. And, no matter how much abuse I put it under, no matter how many mismatched, bodged parts I wired up to it, it never failed to work. If you want something ultra reliable, but ultra modern, given Antec's track record, I'd choose this one.
Also, one other thing I want to draw your attention to here, is the plentiful number of connectors present, 24 in total! Also, the distrubution of these slots should make it easy to fit all of the peripherals you could want without getting all your wires tangled, which is the ban of modern computer building.
The only complaint I could have with this model, is that the decibel readings are a little higher than other models in the same price range.
Best Buy For: Mid range gaming towers
4/5
XFX ATX 850W Black Edition RRP - £120 eBay - £101
Now, to those of you with a bit of a background in computer building, the XFX brand will stick out like a sore thumb, in comparison to long established PSU producers such as Antec and Silverstone, as XFX is primarily known for producing some rather splendid graphics cards. Infact, I personally like to think of them as the Skullcandy of graphics cards, because, whilst they might cost a little more than the competition, they make up for it by looking damn sexy. You can see this heritage in the design of the module, with it's candy green fan, and spider web style grate, it certaintly looks the part of a luxury piece, despite only costing a little over £100.
In terms of performance, it is no slacker either, as 850W should be enough to power anything except the most bespoke of towers. Aswell as this, it also boasts the highest number of connectors in this little comparison test, counting in at 28, which seems almost superfluous, until you consider that it is designed this way, to allow for the upating of a tower with extra peripherals, which can add an extra year to your towers life cycle if you know what you're doing!
Also, according to other reviews, that eyecatching fan isn't just for aesthetics, it is also designed as a backup or complimentary cooling unit, meaning that it can help to keep your tower cool as an ice cube, or manage it all on it's own, though I wouldn't advise that if you plan on overclocking your comp, or installing any serious hardware.
However the voltage noise (slight jumps in voltage from the unit) is fairly high, though as long as you have good wires and good hardware, that shouldn't be worried about it, meaning that the only true downside here, is the price, which is admittedly, quite high for the voltage range.
Best Buy For: Upper Level Gaming Towers.
4/5
Conclusion
Well, it was a tough call for me between the Antec and the XFX, but I have decided to give my money to the Skullcandy of graphics cards. I chose it because of it's secondary use as a cooling unit, because I have decided to run a air cooled unit, instead of the more popular water cooled type for practical reasons.
Also, Daaamn it looks cool!
Agree? Disagree? Think I missed a completely awesome product? Let me know in the comments!
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Oh, hey, you're still reading this? Awesome! I'm just going to give a quick shoutout to one of my friends sites, Cat Scratch Productions! They do some very short Youtube films, that both show off - and show you how to use - Adobe After Effects CS5! So, if your looking into using this software, give them a look!
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