BFG ES-800 or CORSAIR TX 850

[chrisTian]

Both these PS are in the same price range, Corsair being 10$ more expensive. So, which one to choose for a new system ? ES-800 has great reviews on the net, but not here (probably because a conflict of interests pov) & TX 850 has been well received here by OW. Yet again i ask which one to choose ? I don't want to start any problematic discussion, just to see someone's opinions on these two PS.

[jonnyGURU]

What's your machine?

Both use Japanese caps and have 5 year warranties.

The ES-800 is going to be more efficient at standby and at lower loads.

[Hondacity]

i had the es800 for half a year...i didn't notice it but the 12v output is more or less 11.8v which is sorta low in my opinion...

but it worked great even with my core i7 bencher...

but with your choices id go for the tx850...

edit: jguru said it fast...yeah the es will be more efficient...dc-dc conversion is very efficient from andyson(?)

[HOOfan_1]

Originally Posted by chrisTian

Both these PS are in the same price range, Corsair being 10$ more expensive. So, which one to choose for a new system ? ES-800 has great reviews on the net, but not here (probably because a conflict of interests pov) & TX 850 has been well received here by OW. Yet again i ask which one to choose ? I don't want to start any problematic discussion, just to see someone's opinions on these two PS.

Where are you finding the ES800? I can't believe the Corsair is more Expensive....it is hard even finding retailers selling the ES800 anymore for some reason.

I assume Christian must be outside of the US and Jonny knows that considering he pegged the BFG warranty at 5 years instead of Lifetime, as it is in the US...although I thought it was 10 years outside of the US and Canada.

Anyway if the BFG is cheaper, I would probably go for that...just my own personal preference.

[jonnyGURU]

Actually, I had a brain fart. The ES is Lifetime Warranty. I was thinkikng of the LS.

Originally Posted by Hondacity

i had the es800 for half a year...i didn't notice it but the 12v output is more or less 11.8v which is sorta low in my opinion...

11.8V according to what? BIOS/software readings?

[Hondacity]

Originally Posted by jonnyGURU

Actually, I had a brain fart. The ES is Lifetime Warranty. I was thinkikng of the LS.

11.8V according to what? BIOS/software readings?

fluke 187...some lucky canuck got it for 80$

[chrisTian]

I must sincerely appologize for my short 1st post: i had to leave the desktop quickly.
I am outside US indeed (nice deduction made by HOOfan_1). In Europe, Romania - to be more exact. Here a BFG ES-800 is 188.52$ and a CORSAIR TX-850 is 195.54$. (hence my 10$ difference between them specified earlier - roughly, as you can see).
I intend to build myself a computer & i wanna start with the power supply. The system will consist of a LGA 775 Gigabyte P45 chipset with DDR3 memory & 2 x 16 PCI lines - probably a GA-EP45T-DS3R, 2 x 2048MB of Corsair ram & a C2D E7400 box. All of these will go into a full tower atx case. Besides these new components, i will use a 120GB SATA Seagate hdd, a PCI-E video card w/o the need to additional power & a LITE-ON dvd-rw on IDE. Later on, i will get a video card with 6+8 pins connector (& use these cards in CF). The system won't be o/c-ed, at least this is what i intend for now.
Both units give excellent power on the 12V alone: 780W out of 800W & 840W out of 850W - which in each case is more than enough for my build. The thing tt remaind in my mind regarding TX 850 is what OW said:

Grrrrrrr! More short, loose heatsink screws! Even worse, all six of these were loose this time. As in, zero effort needed to unscrew them.

I hope this issue hasn't hit the entire series of units - that is why i needed advice about TX 850. Of course i won't open the power supply, but if those screws are loose, they won't make electrical contact with other parts of the power supply, especially during transport ? And the unit can start to act abnormally when it reaches me. (i am just lucky with things). Of course, i may be putting the carriage in front of the horse, but i want to see that someone explains to me how it is impossible for that thing to happen.

Regarding ES-800, for what i have read on the web, there are discussions about the lenght of the 8pin CPU - it seems to be on the upper limit being stretched on a bigger case.

The main area we would like to see changed is the lengths of the ATX and 8-pin connectors. We have found that for proper cable routing in larger cases, 18” is the bare minimum for an ATX 24-pin connector while 20” is optimal. The same goes for the 8-pin CPU connector; while it can be argued that the 4-pin CPU connector is exceedingly long, it is the 8-pin which many enthusiasts use.

Hardware canucks Nowdays the mobos have a 8pin connector i/o a 4pin connector.

I'm very impressed with how quiet the PSU is and with my modest rig it obviously has no problems powering everything up. My only real complaint is that the 8 pin power cable isn't long enough to run up the backside of my ginormous case and use the cable management hole in the MB tray. It's draped over the top of the video cards.

Xtreme systems

And I don't have a problem with the ATX connector wires making it to the ATX plug on the mobo, the 12V cable is too short for me to use the 8 pin connector, but is barley long enough to use the 4 pin connector (both on the same cable, 4 pin connector is an extension of the 8 pin). The length of those 2 cables is my biggest gripe with the psu.

OC forums

So, to make a long story short: does the ES-800 cable length really represent a problem in any kind of tower case ? & does those loose screws represent a problem for TX850 ? Since both these units are built with quality in mind, the choosing of one of them will reduce only to availability.

And another question at the end: why is important the fact that

The BFG ES-800 can deliver up to 65A/780W of +12V DC power and requires zero load on the +3.3V and +5V rails.

PC perspective

[Oklahoma Wolf]

Originally Posted by chrisTian

The thing tt remaind in my mind regarding TX 850 is what OW said:
I hope this issue hasn't hit the entire series of units - that is why i needed advice about TX 850. Of course i won't open the power supply, but if those screws are loose, they won't make electrical contact with other parts of the power supply, especially during transport ?

Corsair seemed to indicate they'll be working on it since the TX850 review. At any rate, it doesn't look like this issue caused many deaths so I wouldn't worry about it.

[C'DaleRider]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Wolf

Corsair seemed to indicate they'll be working on it since the TX850 review. At any rate, it doesn't look like this issue caused many deaths so I wouldn't worry about it.

Well, as an aside with that issue, I bought one of the TX850's on a huge sale at MicroCenter w/rebate.....tres cheap....and since it is going to be kept and used, I opened it up. Of course, this was after I'd had it for a few weeks and ensured it was going to work properly, at least at first.

I was going to put threadlock compound on the heatsink screws, but when I began to attack the screws, they were in so tightly I couldn't budge them, to neither tighten nor to loosen them.

I left them alone.

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by chrisTian

So, to make a long story short: does the ES-800 cable length really represent a problem in any kind of tower case ?

The cables are 550MM from the housing to the first connector. That's pretty standard. The person that was complaining was using an "upside down" case (where the PSU is mounted at the bottom, but the CPU is still up at the top).