350-450W Roundup: 11 Cheap PSUs
by Martin Kaffei on July 3, 2012 1:30 PM ESTRasurbo RAP 350 & 450W
Rasurbo is a German brand and HEC is the OEM behind many products including the Real&Power series. HEC (or COMPUCASE) has been making power supplies and other products for quite a while now. Cougar is their well known retail brand. Today we will review the 350 and 450W version HEC built for Rasurbo. Features include 80Plus and silent operation. Both PSUs come in a dark green/black housing with just 14 cm depth. Two 12V rails provide more than enough combined power for most graphics cards. The devices get cooled by 120mm fans and various extras such as cable ties are within the scope of supply.
Rasurbo uses a fan from Young Lin with the model number DFS122512M. M stands for "medium rotations per minute" (2000RPM). This common sleeve ball bearing type fan has a peak power consumption of 2.8W and has seven fan blades.
| Cables and Connectors RAP350/RAP450 | ||
|
Connector type (length) |
Main | 1x 24-pin (45cm) fixed |
| ATX12V/EPS12V | 1x 4+4-pin (60cm) fixed | |
| PCIe | 1x 6/8-pin (40cm) fixed, 450W: 2x 6/8-pin (45, 60cm) fixed | |
| Peripheral | 2x SATA, 1x HDD (ca. 40, 55, 70cm) fixed | |
| 2x HDD, 1x SATA, 1x FDD (ca. 40, 55, 70, 85cm) fixed | ||
Looking inside of this unit shows a similar heatsink design to what we saw in the FSP units. This time they look less massive. Most of the capacitors are made by Teapo; the primary one comes from Capxon. EMI filtering consists of two common mode chokes, four Y-caps, and two X-caps. An IC on the secondary side features safety functions such as OCP and short circuit protection. There is a lot of glue inside but it's better to fix heavy components rather than reducing safety for better looking electronics. The main transformer is somewhat small but we should mention that this is the 350W version. The larger one has a similar design with different components.
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pvdw - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Here's some good ones to look at in 350W-450W range:Seasonic X-400 Fanless
Seasonic S12II-380
Silentmaxx Fanless 400W MX460-PFL01
Nexus Value 430
Seasonic M12II-430
And just above the 450W range, but unlikely to use any more power in most systems are these good ones:
Enermax Modu/Pro87+ 500W
Kingwin STR-500
pvdw - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
BTW, though I really enjoy most Anandtech articles, your PSU ones can't beat SilentPCReview. But then I can't see how you could do better without an anechoic chamberCheck out their list of recommended supplies:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/Recommended_PSUs
A5 - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
The cheapest PSU on that list is well over $100, which is more than double the most expensive one in this article, which is about finding a good "cheap" PSU.I'm glad AT did this article as it should encourage a little more competition in the low-end space.
knutjb - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
In my experience I've had a couple low end PSUs do bad things to MBs even though they were modestly loaded. After using a number of different manufacturers all I buy are Seasonics. I get them when they are on sale.I have a 9 yr old 600 S-12? on its second system and the output measures the same as it did when new. Blow out the dust occasionally and it just works. Even in low end systems I don't trust inexpensive PSUs, their quality control is all but non-existent with wide variation in samples.
You get what you pay for and I don't like buying things twice.
pvdw - Thursday, July 5, 2012 - link
A quick search turns up this link:http://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-ATX12V-S12II-430-BR...
The Seasonic S12II 430 for $60 shipped. Or the 380W for $54 shipped.
clarkn0va - Friday, July 6, 2012 - link
Seasonic SS-350ETSupposedly not as quiet as their retail offerings, but always inexpensive. I would like to see how this one holds up against similar offerings.
Maybe AT needs a Bench section for PSUs?
Belard - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
I've bought some CX models for bottom end PCs for clients...But I picked up two 500w models, both were defective.
1) Defective power connector (at the motherboard)...
2) Flutter fan noises.
Returned them, bought Thermaltake TR2s.
piroroadkill - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
When the Corsairs first hit the scene, the HX series were all Seasonic.Corsair is a nice rebrander, but I go straight to Seasonic for my own system's PSU these days. I have a Seasonic X-660..
Arnulf - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Great article !I wish you could round up even more models and/or present the results in a common bench-like database (you know, like the CPU comparison etc.) where different models coudl be added over time.
silverblue - Wednesday, July 4, 2012 - link
Enermax NAXN ENP450AWT-B 450W - £60 at Scan:http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-enermax-naxn-8...
(Unfortunately, out of stock)
Rasurbo RAP350 350W - £44 inc. delivery on eBay:
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280832584568?var=lv...
The 450W variant - £58 inc. delivery on eBay:
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/280758645995?var=lv...
Corsair CX430 V2 430W - from £35 inc. delivery:
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=Corsair...
You can find FSP Hexa, Aurum and Fortron PSUs quite easily; the Aurum 80 PLUS Gold 500W is £62 inc. delivery.