Choose PSU and why.

E-Bear · Oct 23, 2018

At my local store I have choice between 3 psu of 500w each. I dont order online due to hassles of shipping, customs and RMA. So tell me which one would you pick and why.

-Cougar VTE 500
-EVGA 500B
-Thermaltake Smart 500W

R-T-B · Oct 23, 2018

Of those the EVGA 500B has the best design. It's servicable, albeit nothing special.

I would not even consider the others.

sam_86314 · Oct 23, 2018

I've had great luck with EVGA power supplies so far. My 500 W1 handled my 2600K and my GTX 780 just fine, and I currently have a 750 B3. I'd personally go for the EVGA 500B

The Thermaltake one is probably a decent unit, and I don't know anything about Cougar.

R-T-B · Oct 23, 2018

sam_86314 said:
The Thermaltake one is probably a decent unit

It's far from the worst I have seen torn apart. It's still a bad-capacitor filled group-regulated mess though compared to the EVGA.

E-Bear · Oct 23, 2018

From what I read from EVGA themselves the capacitors are not japanese.

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=100-b1-0500-kr

Tallencor · Oct 23, 2018

To quote the boxing frog. Evga. There are enough reviews out there to justify his suggestion. I have 2 750 g2 and 1 850 g3 and haven't had a single issue.
Plus if u buy brick and mortar and an issue arises just take it back.

Final_Fighter · Oct 23, 2018

go with the evga.

E-Bear · Oct 23, 2018

Ok thank you. After checking sales I pay 8$ more and get the EVGA 600W. So I might fully go for it.

Tallencor · Oct 23, 2018

Your in canada right?
Pm me if u want a 750 g2 in box all cables and accessories inc. Free! Cod Postage.

R-T-B · Oct 23, 2018

E-Bear said:
From what I read from EVGA themselves the capacitors are not japanese.

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=100-b1-0500-kr

None of your choices are. The EVGA is at least Teapo mostly though, which is not a bad Chinese Cap brand.

Bill_Bright · Oct 23, 2018

Just because a cap is made in this country instead of that country means nothing. Made in Japan does not guarantee top quality. That "was" marketing hype tossed about for awhile when there was a rash of bad caps from China - but that was years ago. Many Chinese cap makers make top quality caps too. You cannot even go by the brand name anymore as most brands make various quality levels. You really just have the reviews and test results to go by - and the reputation of the name on the PSU case, not on the caps.

Note this from 2015 by Jonnyguru's OklahomaWolf,

High reliability Japanese capacitors? You know, after my long rant from that Corsair review last week, I am starting to think differently about capacitor quality. You could say my eyes have been opened to a stark realization... the bad old days of capacitors dropping dead left and right are mostly over, except for the "off the back of a white van," brands that are as awful as ever. No longer are the Japanese parts the only good parts in the universe, and they're now often made near the Chinese parts we've been bashing left and right since capacitorgate was a thing fifteen years ago.

Think about that number. Seriously. Fifteen years is a boatload of time... longer than the lifespan of most electrolytic capacitors, regardless of whose factory they came out of. The big Chinese names have had time now to iron the wrinkles out, and technology has improved. The whole thing started with a formula that got copied down wrong, and that formula likely hasn't been used in ages by the major Chinese brands. Ltec, Teapo, OST, Capxon... when was the last time any of you saw one of these fail? Wait, let me answer that. The last ones I saw failed were the OSTs on one of my Asrock 939Dual-VSTA motherboards. Those came out in 2005. Ten years ago, when I was just getting into my thirties. Folks, you don't stay in business by not addressing issues like this.

No, I think for at least the past five years I've been unnecessarily harsh on the Chinese capacitors. My scoring on them is going to change starting today. I'll likely start looking at them like I do fans... if what I see is decent, no scoring penalty. If what I see, however, is obviously cheap crap; that's when I score.

hat · Oct 23, 2018

It's very hard to change your facts once your facts become outdated... you were sure Brand X was crap and Brand Y was gold years ago, but the opposite may be true today. But Brand X was the best 10 years ago, therefore they're the best forever!

E-Bear · Oct 23, 2018

Tallencor said:
Your in canada right?
Pm me if u want a 750 g2 in box all cables and accessories inc. Free! Cod Postage.

PM sent

Tallencor · Oct 23, 2018

Reply sent lol

eidairaman1 · Oct 23, 2018

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story5&reid=351

R-T-B · Oct 23, 2018

Bill_Bright said:
Just because a cap is made in this country instead of that country means nothing. Made in Japan does not guarantee top quality. That "was" marketing hype tossed about for awhile when there was a rash of bad caps from China - but that was years ago. Many Chinese cap makers make top quality caps too. You cannot even go by the brand name anymore as most brands make various quality levels. You really just have the reviews and test results to go by - and the reputation of the name on the PSU case, not on the caps.

Note this from 2015 by Jonnyguru's OklahomaWolf,

They do not guarantee "top" quality anymore no. But I've yet to see a Japanese cap that is absolute trash.

Notice I did say Teapo was fine and they are a Taiwan brand, so yeah. I'm aware.

phill · Oct 23, 2018

EVGA for me, has been for a while and since Corsair went to the AX i range.. In my opinion and after a few failures, I switched.

EVGA G2/3 range been brilliant for me and cheap but decent

bug · Oct 23, 2018

hat said:
It's very hard to change your facts once your facts become outdated... you were sure Brand X was crap and Brand Y was gold years ago, but the opposite may be true today. But Brand X was the best 10 years ago, therefore they're the best forever!

One other aspect is those capacitors weren't solid like everything tends to be these days. So we're thinking of problems we can't even encounter anymore.

Frick · Oct 23, 2018

bug said:
One other aspect is those capacitors weren't solid like everything tends to be these days. So we're thinking of problems we can't even encounter anymore.

There are still crap capacitors around, and there are countless fakes on Ebay and Aliexpress.

dirtyferret · Oct 23, 2018

Tallencor said:
To quote the boxing frog. Evga. There are enough reviews out there to justify his suggestion. I have 2 750 g2 and 1 850 g3 and haven't had a single issue.
Plus if u buy brick and mortar and an issue arises just take it back.

What do the g2 and g3 have to do with the 500b platform???

Bill_Bright said:
Just because a cap is made in this country instead of that country means nothing. Made in Japan does not guarantee top quality. That "was" marketing hype tossed about for awhile when there was a rash of bad caps from China - but that was years ago. Many Chinese cap makers make top quality caps too. You cannot even go by the brand name anymore as most brands make various quality levels. You really just have the reviews and test results to go by - and the reputation of the name on the PSU case, not on the caps.

Note this from 2015 by Jonnyguru's OklahomaWolf,

This +1. I keep seeing people post about Japanese capacitors yet they have no clue to what they are talking about. Half the time the capacitors they are talking about are made in Shenzhen or my personal favorite, the company has a small office in Japan and everything else is in China.

bug · Oct 23, 2018

Frick said:
There are still crap capacitors around, and there are countless fakes on Ebay and Aliexpress.

Of course they are. I was just saying, since many things are designed around solid capacitors these days, there's nothing to leak to begin with, so fewer ways they can crap out.

Jetster · Oct 23, 2018

You have a forth choice? I would take the Corsair CX430 over all three
Otherwise check jonnyguru for the best of the three

R0H1T · Oct 23, 2018

Well there's Seasonic, the one brand IMO which towers above them all, many of the other top PSU makers sell lots of rebranded Seasonic PSU anyway.

Frick · Oct 23, 2018

bug said:
Of course they are. I was just saying, since many things are designed around solid capacitors these days, there's nothing to leak to begin with, so fewer ways they can crap out.

And again, this depends on what you buy. Don't expect 1000W PSUs you buy on ebay for $20 to have anything reliable in them.

Jetster said:
You have a forth choice? I would take the Corsair CX430 over all three
Otherwise check jonnyguru for the best of the three

That's a bit long in the tooth now, and where I live you can't even buy it any more.

R0H1T said:
Well there's Seasonic, the one brand IMO which towers above them all, many of the other top PSU makers sell lots of rebranded Seasonic PSU anyway.

Sure. Why bot recommend a Corsair AX while you're at it?

bug · Oct 23, 2018

R0H1T said:
Well there's Seasonic, the one brand IMO which towers above them all, many of the other top PSU makers sell lots of rebranded Seasonic PSU anyway.

While true, how does this help the OP who has already states his options are limited to 3?

@Frick Yes, of course I wasn't thinking about cheap products when I posted that. Cheap will always be cheap. Except when it turns out to be more expensive in the long run

System Name	HP Pavilion a6552f
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
Motherboard	Asus IPIBL-LB / HP Benicia-GL8E
Cooling	DeepCool Gammaxx 200
Memory	8gigs Kingston 4x2gigs DDR2-800
Video Card(s)	Zotac GT630 "Fermi" 2gb DDR3 128bits Synergy Edition
Storage	Western Digital Green 7200rpm 1tb
Display(s)	LG Flatron EW234 Super LED
Case	HP Pavilion
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Thermaltake TR2 430w
Mouse	Razer Abyssus Mirror Special Edition Blue LED
Keyboard	Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Commander Red LED Backlighting Mechanical Keycaps Membrane Gaming Keyboard
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bits

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Processor	Ryzen R9 7950X
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64

System Name	Space Heater MKIV
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Motherboard	ASRock B550 Taichi
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S, 3x Noctua NF-A14s
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Video Card(s)	PowerColor RX 6800 XT Red Devil (2150MHz, 240W PL)
Storage	2TB WD SN850X, 4x1TB Crucial MX500 (striped array), LG WH16NS40 BD-RE
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Case	Phanteks Enthoo Pro M
Audio Device(s)	Edifier R1700BT, Samson SR850
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x, CyberPower CST135XLU
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 3
Keyboard	Glorious GMMK 2 96%
Software	Windows 10 LTSC 2021, Linux Mint

System Name	Pioneer
Processor	Ryzen R9 7950X
Motherboard	GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory	64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage	2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s)	55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case	Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s)	TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply	FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse	Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard	WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software	Gentoo Linux x64

System Name	HP Pavilion a6552f
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
Motherboard	Asus IPIBL-LB / HP Benicia-GL8E
Cooling	DeepCool Gammaxx 200
Memory	8gigs Kingston 4x2gigs DDR2-800
Video Card(s)	Zotac GT630 "Fermi" 2gb DDR3 128bits Synergy Edition
Storage	Western Digital Green 7200rpm 1tb
Display(s)	LG Flatron EW234 Super LED
Case	HP Pavilion
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Thermaltake TR2 430w
Mouse	Razer Abyssus Mirror Special Edition Blue LED
Keyboard	Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Commander Red LED Backlighting Mechanical Keycaps Membrane Gaming Keyboard
Software	Windows 7 Home Premium 64bits

Choose PSU and why.

E-Bear

R-T-B

sam_86314

R-T-B

E-Bear

Tallencor

TPU's First Patreon

Final_Fighter

E-Bear

Tallencor

TPU's First Patreon

R-T-B

Bill_Bright

hat

Enthusiast

E-Bear

Tallencor

TPU's First Patreon

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

R-T-B

phill

Moderator

bug

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

dirtyferret

bug

Jetster

R0H1T

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop

bug

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Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
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System Name	Not so complete or overkill - There are others!! Just no room to put! :D
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Keyboard	G.Skill KM780R
Software	Arch Linux + Win10

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Processor	faster at instructions than yours
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Benchmark Scores	up yours

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Software	Windows 10 Pro // Windows 10 Pro