which psu for r290 ?

[walterm]

Rosewill Capstone is a Super Flower design, a good thing.
There are various sales, generally most people can form a short list of desirable options and catch one (like the XFX 550) on sale.
Takes patience and research, or spend money on a specific very good choice.

[you2]

Yea it should be good; but the 650 capstone has a very high DOA rate which naturally concerns me as to the quality of the PSU.
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After some thought I think it would be safer to go with a 650 psu rather than 550. I just don't like the idea of running the PSU above 80% for long periods of time.

[quest for silence]

Yea it should be good; but the 650 capstone has a very high DOA rate which naturally concerns me as to the quality of the PSU.

Unfortunately you can't trust NewEgg's (or Amazon's) users feedbacks about that. And, for what it worths, did you ever check the Seasonic X-650 ones? You may be surprised by the relevant low rating percentage (with several DOA or early life failures). As far as I know a 10% of 1-egg rating isn't that bad at all, even better, as far as I know it doesn't mean just anything at all, either good or bad.

Anyway, if you look for flawless rating PSUs, you'll likely find just units with very little feedbacks, with some very odd result (the Cooler Master GX-II, which is an overpriced and rather mediocre unit, if we look at latest Spectre/HardOCP review).

[quest for silence]

the 650 capstone has a very high DOA rate

Btw, I just checked the word "DOA" among users feedback: about the 650W Capstones I found 5 occurrence on 112 reviews (4,46%), the 750W Capstones has 6 occurrences out of 172 reviews (3,49%), the 550W Capstones has 5 out of 100 (5%), the 450W Capstones 1 out 106 (0,94%).

The best rated PSU at NewEgg is the Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green and it has an occurrence rate of the word DOA of 2,65%.

Probably I'm less informed than you, but at first glance an affirmation like "the 650 capstone has a very high DOA rate" seems rather groundless.

[Behemot]

I think he is suggesting you keep your Seasonic for your own rig, and to buy an inexpensive rig for the giveaway. I bought a Corsair CX430 when it was on sale -- $25 + tax + free shipping. It is a decent PSU. A CX600 is going for $60 at newegg right now -- free shipping. I don't know if it will hit your reliability thinking, though.

CX is crap, good to give to somebody you want to make unhappy

[quest for silence]

CX is crap, good to give to somebody you want to make unhappy

Don't you think you were a little 'too drastic in this judgment?

[Behemot]

Nope. All these CS, CX, Enermax NAXN and similar do not handle big spikes well (that is when you start Crysis on R9 290). They also fail quite often. Cheap CWT production, you cannot expect much from that. They tend to run hot on high load as well, using those bad caps that's no surprise they fail.

[you2]

I'll probably go with eva b2 750; hxi750; capstone 650 or another seasonic based on price et all when i actually make the purcahse. The hx750 is appealing because it appears to be very well made but the capstone might be better than eva b2.

[rafal_iB_PL]

Nope. All these CS, CX, Enermax NAXN and similar do not handle big spikes well (that is when you start Crysis on R9 290). They also fail quite often. Cheap CWT production, you cannot expect much from that. They tend to run hot on high load as well, using those bad caps that's no surprise they fail.

Might want to note, that CS isn't even CWT made.

And there is major gap between CS and CX as the former is 80+ Gold and has DC-DC secondary, as opposed to 80+ Bronze group regulated CX (except for 750W ones, which have DC-DC too, but are still Bronze).

Still, CX600 is roughly on par with S12II and alike.

[Behemot]

Oh sorry my bad, I meant VS. CS is Great-Wall made 80 PLUS Gold unit. Filled with bad caps anyway…

CX will never be on par wth S12-II as it has Chemi-Con caps for aprox. last decade, since second revision of the original S12.