I built a new Skylake rig for a family member, initially reusing an old case with a 6 years old, crappy PSU: LiteOn PS-5221-06, 220W, TFX. I would like to replace this PSU and am considering a few different options.
First, there are currently some issues: with sleep states, such as spontaneous boot or wake; DVI signal often dies (but VGA is stable); and the DDR4 memory sometimes boots at 2133 instead of 2666 MHz (although that's probably because I set it to XMP instead of configuring manually). Not sure which of these a new PSU might fix, but I think it'd be best to upgrade it anyway.
Components are:
Asus Z170M-PLUS
Intel i5 6600
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666 MHz
No discrete GPU
Samsung Evo 850 SSD
DVD-RW + card reader + couple of external HDDs (USB)
The new PSU shouldn't cost more than necessary and most options out there seem totally overkill. Corsair has some CX/VS models at 430 and 500W, but I'm not sure I like all the "budget", "value" and "entry level" used to describe them. I have good experiences from Seasonic G360 but it's a bit old, will it handle "Haswell" (Skylake) sleep states? Then there's Silverstone ST30SF which is confirmed to work, and I like Silverstone, but I probably shouldn't use SFX with an 80mm fan when ATX would also fit...
I guess I'm expecting to pay less for the same quality and quietness, since I only need 200-300W. All the Golds and Platinums mean nothing in that range anyway. But maybe that's not how it works?
Any suggestions?
Skylake ready, good-enough low power ATX PSU
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Re: Skylake ready, good-enough low power ATX PSU
You need far less than 200W, maybe 40W on average.gaidal wrote:I guess I'm expecting to pay less for the same quality and quietness, since I only need 200-300W.
BTW, there isn't anything suitable in the ATX PSU market for that kind of draw.
Re: Skylake ready, good-enough low power ATX PSU
Pretty much any modern PSU that generates the other DC voltages from the 12V line is Haswell+ compatible. So, the Seasonic G-360 would work.
Re: Skylake ready, good-enough low power ATX PSU
Thanks, then I'll go for the Seasonic. It says in the review here that it has multiple ATX12V that combine into an EPS12V, too, so that's great.
Re: Skylake ready, good-enough low power ATX PSU
Back with report:
Went with Seasonic G360 and it has been running for a few days now. DVI signal has been stable since, and there are no more problems related to sleep mode or unwanted wake up - it works as expected.
Asus automatic overclocking is still black magic and sometimes says "Overclocking failure" at boot, even without XMP. It's always fixed by a reset. I'm sure I just need to tinker more in BIOS.
TL;DR: Went from a crappy brand PSU to a top brand, no more problems with DVI signal errors or low power states. The good PSU is several years older than the CPU/mobo and works flawlessly.
Went with Seasonic G360 and it has been running for a few days now. DVI signal has been stable since, and there are no more problems related to sleep mode or unwanted wake up - it works as expected.
Asus automatic overclocking is still black magic and sometimes says "Overclocking failure" at boot, even without XMP. It's always fixed by a reset. I'm sure I just need to tinker more in BIOS.
TL;DR: Went from a crappy brand PSU to a top brand, no more problems with DVI signal errors or low power states. The good PSU is several years older than the CPU/mobo and works flawlessly.