C Tier Psu

[iadam07]

Hello. I want to ask if I should change my current psu. Im using a 7800xt+7600. I dont overclock cpu or gpu. My psu is NZXT C750 BRONZE. I bought this psu 2 months ago when i had no knowledge about bad psu's. Im scared that it il kill my components. THanks

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Id go for something tier B. NZXT damaged their own brand and reputation with the kind of anti-consumer stuff they do.


I use this tier list here

 

[iadam07]

Im not familiar witht that, what did they do?

 

[Marcus L]

Hello. I want to ask if I should change my current psu. Im using a 7800xt+7600. I dont overclock cpu or gpu. My psu is NZXT C750 BRONZE. I bought this psu 2 months ago when i had no knowledge about bad psu's. Im scared that it il kill my components. THanks

it's fine

 

[LabRat 891]

It's probably 'fine' (it's C-tier, not D or E) but, I personally would look towards replacing it with a better-quality unit if/when money allows.

 

[sLowEnd]

I don't see any reason to panic about that model. Efficiency is not great, but about expected for a bronze unit. Voltage regulation and ripple are good.

NZXT C750 Bronze Non-Modular ATX PSU Review - Page 10

NZXT is one of the biggest names in the PC hardware business, with many of the most iconic cases, coolers, power supplies, monitors, speakers, keyboards, mice, headsets, motherboards, gaming chairs…

www.eteknix.com

It's cheap because it's not modular and it's not super efficient, not because NZXT rigged it to explode.

 

[Bill_Bright]

My psu is NZXT C750 BRONZE. Im scared that it il kill my components.

You are not going to kill your components. It is a fine PSU.

It's cheap because it's not modular and it's not super efficient, not because NZXT rigged it to explode.

And that's "cheap" in terms of cost, not quality.

Note being Bronze certified, it is still at least 82% efficient which is still great. Also note, efficiency has absolutely nothing to do with reliability, or longevity. Also note that while modular cables make for a tidier case interior, and may be more convenient, they also add several additional points of potential failure in each cable!

Professional techs know the best conductor has the fewest connection points between end to end.

Sure, you could buy a more efficient and more expensive PSU to replace this - but it would take YEARS in energy savings to get your money back, unless you found a sucker to buy your NZXT for more than you paid for it.

I say keep it and enjoy your computer.

 

[dirtyferret]

the whole tier thing has always been beyond stupid, some amateur guys take other people's work that's been reviewed by a professional and then place that work in their own personal tiers that now apply to everyone.

My psu is NZXT C750 BRONZE

it's not great but hardly a bomb. Not sure why you would believe it may harm your components when it passed proper safety & regulations testing under a 3rd party review. Unless you have very demanding power needs I would agree with Bill and use the PSU for the time being.

 

[tussinman]

I don't see any reason to panic about that model. Efficiency is not great, but about expected for a bronze unit. Voltage regulation and ripple are good.

NZXT C750 Bronze Non-Modular ATX PSU Review - Page 10

NZXT is one of the biggest names in the PC hardware business, with many of the most iconic cases, coolers, power supplies, monitors, speakers, keyboards, mice, headsets, motherboards, gaming chairs…

www.eteknix.com

It's cheap because it's not modular and it's not super efficient, not because NZXT rigged it to explode.

Too add to this his total power draw for his system in games is probably mostly going to float in the 275-350 watt range so he's not exactly stress testing this powersupply

 

[Harlow]

Not sure why you would believe it may harm your components when it passed proper safety & regulations testing under a 3rd party review.

It is possible for a manufacturer to affix a UL or CE mark to a piece of equipment without submitting it to an external (3rd party) test house for compliance testing, by following the self-certification route. When done thoroughly, in-house evaluation should result in the equipment being compliant, but if corners are cut, the product may fail actual compliance testing.

https://certification-experts.com/knowledgebase/can-i-self-certify-a-product-with-ce-certification/

A batch of customer's PCs I was testing at work failed both Emissions and Immunity at an accredited test RF laboratory. I narrowed the fault down to the video output from the embedded GPU and asked the manufacturer to retro-fit a filtered connector. The computer manufacturer had assembled the computer from commercial parts and followed the self-certifification route with (I suspect) their fingers firmly crossed and no testing.

https://www.dynamicrep.com/blog/what-is-a-ul-certification-and-why-does-it-matter

I am not saying that NZXT fail to test every single one of their PSU designs thoroughly to ensure full compliance, but when deadlines or finances are tight, it's tempting to skip testing and claim a new design is compliant, because it's similar to an old (fully compliant) design. Full compliance testing is expensive and time consuming.

When scraping the bottom of the barrel with even cheaper $25 ATX PSUs, they're far less likely to have undergone any safety compliance testing and should not be imported into the country.

As a case in point, after opening up a number of cheap camera battery chargers sold on a well known Chinese web site (and to a lesser extent on eBay and Amazon) then comparing them with a genuine charger, I confirmed the cheap "cloned" PSUs were inherently unsafe and not compliant. The UL and CE marks were fraudulent and not worth the paint used to print them. My job entailed checking PSU designs to ensure all Safety Critical components were present and fully compliant.

https://blog.clevercompliance.io/electrical-product-compliance/safety-critical-components/

As you head down towards bargain basement PSUs, I believe the risks to your mobo and GPU increase. A cheap PSU may claim to have OCP, OVP, OTP, but how confident are you they'll actually work? I've had cheap PSUs explode and now I'm more cautious.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supplies-101,4193-21.html

 

[dirtyferret]

It is possible for a manufacturer to affix a UL or CE mark to a piece of equipment without submitting it to an external (3rd party) test house for compliance testing, by following the self-certification route. When done thoroughly, in-house evaluation should result in the equipment being compliant, but if corners are cut, the product may fail actual compliance testing.

it's also possible (and has been done) to cherry pick golden units to send out for testing and/or make a complete change to cheaper internal parts during a production run. Not sure why that necessarily means this specific NZXT unit it will "harm" PC hardware. The unit is not a Shenzhen special $25 bomb so not sure why you are comparing it to one. I'm also not pushing anything for NZXT, I'm personally not a fan of their business practices.

 

[_roman_]

Hello. I want to ask if I should change my current psu. Im using a 7800xt+7600. I dont overclock cpu or gpu. My psu is NZXT C750 BRONZE.

In my point of view those psu tier lists are important.

I was forced to go the pc route. I asked in the comptuerbase forum for advicse for building a hole pc. My motivation was to ask before buying. the storage were decent choices. ryzen 5800x, radeon 6600XT, 2x16GB DDR4, 1x mp 600 pro nvme, meshify 2 - was my choice but people did not disagree

The corsair RM750 PSU died in 18 months. I suspected a semi defective power supply unit. I found those tier list and bought an enermax revoultion d.f. 750W. I quick wired the new power supply unit in the existing case and tested for two weeks. The problems were gone which the corsair psu had but the enermax psu not had.

A power supply unit semi defect is hard to diagnose. Brands mean nothing.

-- i read that topic and wanted to reply. It seems the poster who claims 82% efficiency does not matter is already on my ignore list. I would recommend ignore such posts efficiency is important and also a quality indicator of the hole power supply unit. I doubt a bronze labeled psu has any decent electronics. They cut corners to save money.

I have chosen my enermax power supply unit because it was the only psu where i found reasonable, which looks valid, values for the efficiency in 5 Watt steps from 0 to 100 or 150 Watts.


PSU and mainboard are important.

I also have a ryzen 7600x, 2x32Gib DDR5, powercolor 7800xt hellhound, KC3000 2tb, meshify 2, enermax revoultion d.f. 750W

--

1. Do you have backups?
2. Can you afford to renew all parts?
3. Do you maybe have insurance for all electronics?

The psu seems to work for at least 2 months so far from the topic poster.

In my point of view the topic poster psu seems to be a 30€ psu. Personally i would replace it. I dislike the brand, i dislike bronze psu. It does not even matter if it is in the tier list or not.
I'm well aware of that a 750W Psu costs a few months ago 120€. Cheap trash RGB Sharkoon or whatever else 750W psu costs 40€
Prices go up and down. Usually from 90 to 130€ for a 750W PSU in central europe over the past few years.

--

A bit off topic. I had a spare psu. ~20 years old which i used sometimes for testing electronics. A few weeks ago it went up white smokes when i wanted to test a single W5W - 3 Watt Leds light bulb for my car.
Power supply unit do die when they are lying around. I have an electronics background but not a power electronics background.

 

[Marcus L]

In my point of view those psu tier lists are important.

I was forced to go the pc route. I asked in the comptuerbase forum for advicse for building a hole pc. My motivation was to ask before buying. the storage were decent choices. ryzen 5800x, radeon 6600XT, 2x16GB DDR4, 1x mp 600 pro nvme, meshify 2 - was my choice but people did not disagree

The corsair RM750 PSU died in 18 months. I suspected a semi defective power supply unit. I found those tier list and bought an enermax revoultion d.f. 750W. I quick wired the new power supply unit in the existing case and tested for two weeks. The problems were gone which the corsair psu had but the enermax psu not had.

A power supply unit semi defect is hard to diagnose. Brands mean nothing.

-- i read that topic and wanted to reply. It seems the poster who claims 82% efficiency does not matter is already on my ignore list. I would recommend ignore such posts efficiency is important and also a quality indicator of the hole power supply unit. I doubt a bronze labeled psu has any decent electronics. They cut corners to save money.

I have chosen my enermax power supply unit because it was the only psu where i found reasonable, which looks valid, values for the efficiency in 5 Watt steps from 0 to 100 or 150 Watts.


PSU and mainboard are important.

I also have a ryzen 7600x, 2x32Gib DDR5, powercolor 7800xt hellhound, KC3000 2tb, meshify 2, enermax revoultion d.f. 750W

--

1. Do you have backups?
2. Can you afford to renew all parts?
3. Do you maybe have insurance for all electronics?

The psu seems to work for at least 2 months so far from the topic poster.

In my point of view the topic poster psu seems to be a 30€ psu. Personally i would replace it. I dislike the brand, i dislike bronze psu. It does not even matter if it is in the tier list or not.
I'm well aware of that a 750W Psu costs a few months ago 120€. Cheap trash RGB Sharkoon or whatever else 750W psu costs 40€
Prices go up and down. Usually from 90 to 130€ for a 750W PSU in central europe over the past few years.

--

A bit off topic. I had a spare psu. ~20 years old which i used sometimes for testing electronics. A few weeks ago it went up white smokes when i wanted to test a single W5W - 3 Watt Leds light bulb for my car.
Power supply unit do die when they are lying around. I have an electronics background but not a power electronics background.

So in short you had a defective PSU which was nothing to do with the brand or model as Corsair RM series are widely regarded as very good with a low failure rate, come with a long warranty and have been tested by many sites over the years to be solid PSU's delivering the power they claim within many testing conditions and over and above what they are rated for, however as is the case with ALL electronics you will never get a 100% guarantee that a unit will perform the same as all other units and sometimes electronics just fail, nothing to do with quality or brand, but other factors and sometimes just luck of the draw, in relation to the OP, his PSU is just fine, yes it's not tier A++++ ultra titanium with 105% efficiency and 500 year warranty but aside from a lot of shit, no-name, paperweight PSU's on the market for $20 it is more than fine for his req's and many decent gaming PC builds that don't have 400w+ GPU's, in short, OP is fine and no need to worry about his PSU when his total rig will likely be less than 500w total power even with CPU and GPU running balls to the wall 100%, which is not your typical gaming scenario

 

[dark_globe]

efficiency matters as far as additional heat generated inside of the unit is concerned , but as long as it´s within reasonable numbers this is also not an issue
lower efficiency units are not necessarily bad per say - many older bronze units are better made and deliver more "clean" and more stable power to components than some modern golds
there is no universal rule , you can use some general guidelines but nothing is bulletproof or universal .

some pointers if you are buying brand new psu today :
in general you want all the capacitors on the secondary side to be rated at 105°C ideally jap caps or at least elite or teapo ,
you want your unit to be properly reviewed by reputable tech redactions .
you want 7 or 10 years of warranty (means the company stands by its product and that it is properly made)
i suppose you want "gold" rated unit since it basically became a new standard .
and you definitely want it to be atx 3.0/3.1 certified as well these days.

however for low to mid tier systems if you already have something a bit older/cheaper from a reputable brand at home its fine to use it
as long as it has DC-DC design and is not some old group regulated unit.

bottom line
it is not like this psu from NZXT is a "fire hazard" unit , it is a properly made basic power supply which will do its job as long as you don´t push it too hard .

tier lists are OK to use for a casual user to get the general idea what is good and what is not .
most tier lists share the same models at tier A and tier B with slight differences here and there .
as someone who has been studying power supplies for 15 years i already have my own tier list in my head
(as i´m sure some other users here have as well)
and i use other lists just to verify or expand on my own list .

 

[Bill_Bright]

First, as seen here, there a dozen or more "PSU Tier Lists". "IF" PSUs could really be accurately sorted into tiers by quality, why aren't all the lists identical? Why do different lists have different PSUs in their top tiers? Why, for example, does one list show 3 Antecs, another just 1, and a third list show 8 Antecs in the top tier?

Clearly, the lists are based on someone's opinion. Who's opinion? How did they come to that conclusion?

If you look at this PSU Tier List, note it says,

Every unit on this list has been independently researched. As a result, the information contained and recommendations given by this list may differ from other lists due to new information or different tiering criteria.

"Different tiering criteria"? What does that even mean? I note not all post their tiering criteria so how can we compare with confidence knowing the information is correct?

These list compilers don't test the supplies themselves. Instead, tier criteria involves researching reviews. That may sound good, but is it? Is that enough? Surely those of us who have done our own research of parts by reading reviews have seen frequently where a PSU from this reviewer gets a stellar review and the same PSU from a different reviewer receives a not so stellar review. Some reviews are very thorough, some less so and don't for example, test for "Hold-up" time or other requirements. Some reviews are just copy and paste from the makers marketing/advertising hype.

That is why I never, as in NEVER EVER rely on a single review.

Also, IMO, performance during a product review (even if a thorough, all-inclusive, lab tested review by a qualified professional) is not the only criteria of a quality supply. I want to know how well that PSU is still performing in 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years down the road.

How many of those PSU Tier Lists take returns and failures into consideration, and if they do, how? I note Amazon may show a product is "Frequently returned" but it does not say why? Products are often returned because they are the wrong color, not what the buyer wanted, or was damaged during shipping. That is, not because they were DOA or failed after 1 year and 1 day. Some companies provide RMA data, most do not specify the exact reason for the return.

IMO, the Tier lists are a source of information but in no way should they be considered as the sole source of information, or as the authority for all PSUs. If the same PSU I am considering appears in multiple lists with similar ratings, I might keep it on my list of candidates. But I would want to know how it made their list.

If 2 lists show a PSU is listed because the same reviewer said it was a good PSU, that is just a single endorsement, not 2. For example, Esports Tales ("Esports" ???) maintains a PSU Tier List. Scroll down and look at the staff. Then look at SPL's PSU Tier List. Same staff. Counts as just 1.

IMO, these tier lists have something in common with motherboard RAM QVLs. A commonality that is NOT good. The problem is, there are just too many brands and models out there for motherboard makers (or PSU Tier List compilers) to test and list them all. Nor can they consistently revisit those ratings to stay current with revision changes, or new models - much in part because they depend on review sites for their information. And I don't know of any review site that revisits a product after it has been in use for 1 or 2 years.

 

[dark_globe]

Also, IMO, performance during a product review (even if a thorough, all-inclusive, lab tested review by a qualified professional) is not the only criteria of a quality supply. I want to know how well that PSU is still performing in 2, 3, 4, or even 5 years down the road.

How many of those PSU Tier Lists take returns and failures into consideration, and if they do, how? I note Amazon may show a product is "Frequently returned" but it does not say why? Products are often returned because they are the wrong color, not what the buyer wanted, or was damaged during shipping. That is, not because they were DOA or failed after 1 year and 1 day. Some companies provide RMA data, most do not specify the exact reason for the return.

this is a very good point .
because of this reason i was considered to be "too conservative" sometimes
because i rather recommended older unit which was around for 3-4 years and has been known to be reliable with minimal return rate rather than a "shiny new unit"
units that can withstand the test of time are the best .

but we entered a new 3.0/3.1 era and it is no longer viable to recommend older units for new hardware .

 

[Bill_Bright]

Forgive my edit of your words,

but we entered a new [fill-in-the-blank] era and it is no longer viable to recommend older units for new hardware .

Advances in technologies and adaption of new standards has always been a problem. For example, many excellent cases from yesteryear could not be recommended because they didn't support USB 3.x. Or this older motherboard did not support the latest PCIe standard or did not include M.2 slots, or support DDR5.

That said, the ATX 3.1 specification was officially released on September 13, 2023. New products supporting 3.1 came out soon after. Longevity statistics are, or soon will be available - I hope.

 

[dirtyferret]

Clearly, the lists are based on someone's opinion. Who's opinion? How did they come to that conclusion?

These list compilers don't test the supplies themselves. Instead, tier criteria involves researching reviews. That may sound good, but is it? Is that enough?

100%, in fact the vast majority of lists use one primary reviewer yet they often don't follow that reviewers scores or "best of" list and give certain OEMs a pass on performance even with no reviews for the series done by a 3rd party.

 

[_roman_]

So in short you had a defective PSU which was nothing to do with the brand or model as Corsair RM series are widely regarded as very good with a low failure rate, come with a long warranty and have been tested by many sites over the years to be solid PSU's delivering the power they claim within many testing conditions and over and above what they are rated for, however as is the case with ALL electronics you will never get a 100% guarantee that a unit will perform the same as all other units and sometimes electronics just fail, nothing to do with quality or brand, but other factors and sometimes just luck of the draw, in relation to the OP, his PSU is just fine, yes it's not tier A++++ ultra titanium with 105% efficiency and 500 year warranty but aside from a lot of shit, no-name, paperweight PSU's on the market for $20 it is more than fine for his req's and many decent gaming PC builds that don't have 400w+ GPU's, in short, OP is fine and no need to worry about his PSU when his total rig will likely be less than 500w total power even with CPU and GPU running balls to the wall 100%, which is not your typical gaming scenario

Please write shorter sentences with . (no offense, just feedback)

Listen: Multiple reboots on a weekly basis does not show any quality of the Corsair PSU or brand. Especially when I used an esd wrist band and esd plug to assemble the computer. Especially with my electronics background.

I think I may have expressed myself wrong or you did not understood at all what i wrote

Your argument structure is something which i dislike. I tested myself several assembly parts in the factory.

Let's assume my previous CORSAIR RM 750W PSU for 120€ had a very low hold up time? Or some other defect. It does not matter - that defect happend around 18 months. We got more of those green energy bad energy sources in my area, who knows if that matters or not. I have regular light bulbs, the old ones, for a light with mirror in the bath. These bulbs do flicker sometimes and noticeable. Green energy is not that decent as water based energy or coil or gas or nuclear. - It does not matter - the corsair psu is trash - y tier - bad - can not be used for the intended purpose for 100 Watt idle in desktop mode when it is rated for 750W.

That does not change the fact

• find possible error nodes
• buy with my own money another psu
• pay
• unpack
• test
• wait
• hassle and lots of discussion to return the psu to only get 90% of the money refunded
• time lost for odering, paying, unpacking, return the bad psu,
• time lost because of the random pc crashes

My enermax PSU came with bad injection molded connectors for the ATX20/24 pin and the 8 pin cpu power. While doing the cable management the cable went loose. The replacement cables have better retention force. Just for information. I did ~2 years the 8d quality claims for injection molding parts, that also included car connectors. (you can look for my name, i told that story several times already with explanation - i won't do it full again)

I accept your opinion but i disagree. - I will unfolllow this topic and ignore it. - Out of scope and massively off topic.

 

[Marcus L]

So you've just said what I did, you had a faulty unit, thank you for the unnecessary long winded reply to confirm that. I guess your one experience with this PSU means that all trusted PSU testers including tpu's own, Johnny guru who was widely respected in the industry before he stopped doing testing and reviews as well as many others are wrong and all Corsair units are Y tier pieces of crap, excuse me while I try and stop laughing.

 

[nomdeplume]

ChortleSnort Namedrop.

Keep it civil