1600W 80 PLUS Titanium PSU Ideas?

[Etern4l]

Hello,

 

I'm shopping for a new 1600W high efficiency PSU for 24/7 operation under load. The main two criteria are:

* Reliability - must be able to handle constant operation under high load in non ACed space

* Efficiency - Titanium, given the electricity costs

 

Ideally it would also support 12VHPWR out of the box or a native adapter should be available.

 

So far I really only shortlisted two:

* EVGA SuperNova 1600W T2 - PSU of choice of miners, apparently super-reliable including dual ball bearing fans - cost about $330, very poor availability. The EVGA situation is a bit of a concern as regards the 10 year warranty...

* Corsair AX1600i - apparently best in class but $500 and some reliability concerns visible in the Comments section on Amazon

 

Had an EVGA 1600W T2 on order, but this got cancelled for me. Any other ideas, or should I take the plunge with the Corsair.

At the moment I'm tempted to wait for some new 12VHPWR options, since there is no immediate need to upgrade other than my veteran 1200W PSU's efficiency being 77% lol. Thoughts?

[Etern4l]

A few other options:

* Super Flower Leadex Titanium 1600W Fully Modular "80 Plus Titanium" Power Supply  - $360, looks similar to the SuperNova T2

* Seasonic Prime TX-1600 1600W 80 Plus Titanium - $479

[Papusan]

33 minutes ago, Etern4l said:

A few other options:

* Super Flower Leadex Titanium 1600W Fully Modular "80 Plus Titanium" Power Supply  - $360, looks similar to the SuperNova T2

* Seasonic Prime TX-1600 1600W 80 Plus Titanium - $479

I don’t think you’ll save much power whatsoever PSU. I got the Dark Power 12 Pro (10 years warranty) early this year and happy with it. Even only 1500w it provides more power than the 1600 SuperNova T2. Best time to buy new high end PSU is next summer. Maybe too long to wait. The high end Corsair 1600 is what to get if money ain’t your problem (but what you save on the electricity bill won’t cover the higher price). 

 

See also 

Best Power Supplies of 2022 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

[Etern4l]

39 minutes ago, Papusan said:

I don’t think you’ll save much power whatsoever PSU. I got the Dark Power 12 Pro (10 years warranty) early this year and happy with it. Even only 1500w it provides more power than the 1600 SuperNova T2. Best time to buy new high end PSU is next summer. Maybe too long to wait. The high end Corsair 1600 is what to get if money ain’t your problem (but what you save on the electricity bill won’t cover the higher price). 

 

See also 

Best Power Supplies of 2022 - Top PSUs for Gaming PCs | Tom's Hardware

 

Thanks, that's one of the first articles I've read, hence the Corsair, but now reading horror stories everywhere about it. Good points as always, I don't really need titanium efficiency, which opens more options.

 

Will look into the Dark Power Pro. 1500W should be fine frankly even with a crazy 2x4090 setup if I ever get there.

Why do you say that it provides more power than the SuperNova T2? That is supposed to deliver up to 2000W sustained power in practice. I've read this used to be the PSU of choice of miners, retailing for about $1k from scalpers 🙂 Anyway, the one place that had it around here no longer does (they offered me an open boxed unit "checked by their technician"...). And then there is this EVGA thing - will they even be around in a year or two?

 

Other than that, the Super Flower (same platform as the T2) seems weird, not sure about support. The Seasonic is fine, but not perfect. It has 12 years warranty, and 2x12VHPWR, but not fully ATX3.0 compatible and apparently only supporting up to 450W. Sounds idiotic TBH.

 

Will keep reading, probably ideal to wait as you say. In emergency I have 3 PCIe outputs in my current veteran Toughpower 1200W PSU so could even run a 4090 off that for a while, although it's dual rail and they don't recommend mixing rails (I guess it's just a reduced safety issue).

 

[jaybee83]

1 hour ago, Etern4l said:

 

Thanks, that's one of the first articles I've read, hence the Corsair, but now reading horror stories everywhere about it. Good points as always, I don't really need titanium efficiency, which opens more options.

 

Will look into the Dark Power Pro. 1500W should be fine frankly even with a crazy 2x4090 setup if I ever get there.

Why do you say that it provides more power than the SuperNova T2? That is supposed to deliver up to 2000W sustained power in practice. I've read this used to be the PSU of choice of miners, retailing for about $1k from scalpers 🙂 Anyway, the one place that had it around here no longer does (they offered me an open boxed unit "checked by their technician"...). And then there is this EVGA thing - will they even be around in a year or two?

 

Other than that, the Super Flower (same platform as the T2) seems weird, not sure about support. The Seasonic is fine, but not perfect. It has 12 years warranty, and 2x12VHPWR, but not fully ATX3.0 compatible and apparently only supporting up to 450W. Sounds idiotic TBH.

 

Will keep reading, probably ideal to wait as you say. In emergency I have 3 PCIe outputs in my current veteran Toughpower 1200W PSU so could even run a 4090 off that for a while, although it's dual rail and they don't recommend mixing rails (I guess it's just a reduced safety issue).

 

 

TX-1600 FTW. it basically matches the AX1600i's efficiency which is very very very hard, even nowadays, but comes with updated 12VHPWR cables (they include two) and highest industry warranty at 12 years. there are some reviews out by kitguru and hardwarebusters / tomshardware.

havent had it for long yet but quite impressed with build quality.

 

also what kinda horror stories do u mean for the AX1600i? it was initially my first choice before the 12VHPWR cables became a thing and the TX-1600 was released recently.

[Papusan]

2 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

Thanks, that's one of the first articles I've read, hence the Corsair, but now reading horror stories everywhere about it. Good points as always, I don't really need titanium efficiency, which opens more options.

 

Will look into the Dark Power Pro. 1500W should be fine frankly even with a crazy 2x4090 setup if I ever get there.

Why do you say that it provides more power than the SuperNova T2? That is supposed to deliver up to 2000W sustained power in practice. I've read this used to be the PSU of choice of miners, retailing for about $1k from scalpers 🙂 Anyway, the one place that had it around here no longer does (they offered me an open boxed unit "checked by their technician"...). And then there is this EVGA thing - will they even be around in a year or two?

 

Other than that, the Super Flower (same platform as the T2) seems weird, not sure about support. The Seasonic is fine, but not perfect. It has 12 years warranty, and 2x12VHPWR, but not fully ATX3.0 compatible and apparently only supporting up to 450W. Sounds idiotic TBH.

 

Will keep reading, probably ideal to wait as you say. In emergency I have 3 PCIe outputs in my current veteran Toughpower 1200W PSU so could even run a 4090 off that for a while, although it's dual rail and they don't recommend mixing rails (I guess it's just a reduced safety issue).

 

 

The only option I my self would go when I purchased the PSU early spring was the Corsair AX1600i. But I looked at the reviews and in my wallet. I had to pay 40% more for the Corsair here in Norway. And both offer 10 years warranty. And BeQuiet is known for an ok quality. The cables is good and the overal function/design/performance. And it comes top for 1500W PSU and the reviewer at Tomshardware put Corsair on top for PSU's above 1600w. Almost full pot in the stars help as well. Not many power suplies is so close 5 stars. For me it was the the money and the value of the products. 

 

 

41 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

 

TX-1600 FTW. it basically matches the AX1600i's efficiency which is very very very hard, even nowadays, but comes with updated 12VHPWR cables (they include two) and highest industry warranty at 12 years. there are some reviews out by kitguru and hardwarebusters / tomshardware.

havent had it for long yet but quite impressed with build quality.

 

also what kinda horror stories do u mean for the AX1600i? it was initially my first choice before the 12VHPWR cables became a thing and the TX-1600 was released recently.

Only 22$ cheaper than the flagship (Corsair AX1600i). But you'll get the 12VHPWR cables. And you need only one. Ngreedia killed of the options to have 2x 4090.

[Etern4l]

25 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

 

TX-1600 FTW. it basically matches the AX1600i's efficiency which is very very very hard, even nowadays, but comes with updated 12VHPWR cables (they include two) and highest industry warranty at 12 years. there are some reviews out by kitguru and hardwarebusters / tomshardware.

 

Yes, looks good and seems like Seasonic has good reputation, but this but this caught my eye:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/seasonic-tx-1600-titanium-power-supply-review/2/

 

Considering the added performance bonus of these high-power units, we included a PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector cable harness in the packaging box. This enables:
the TX-1600 and PX-1600 to support systems where the AIC (Add-In Card) is up to 450 W

Same for Corsair and Be Quiet - they supply those 12VHPWR adapters plugging into just two 8-pin sockets on the PSU. Suspect. Clearly none of them fully support ATX 3.0 (that's expected with the PSUs which don't have native 12VHPWR), but the fact that Seasonic only claims 450W support for 12VHPWR connector is a particular worry and nonsense. Of course, it's not a showstopper since you can always fall back to the Nvidia 3x8pin adapter.

 

33 minutes ago, jaybee83 said:

also what kinda horror stories do u mean for the AX1600i? it was initially my first choice before the 12VHPWR cables became a thing and the TX-1600 was released recently.

 

Just customer complaints, e.g. some unhappines

 

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-ax1600i-cp-9020087-na-1600w/p/N82E16817139226?Description=corsair ax1600i&cm_re=corsair_ax1600i-_-17-139-226-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

And one here, not expected for such a product:

 

AT1600i Stopped working after 5 months.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 January 2019

Verified Purchase

Worked fine for 5 months then the house fuse tripped. Unplugged computer, reset fuse box, plugged computer into the mains and fuse tripped again. I had the power switch on the PSU set to off at this point. Removed PSU from the computer the switch was in the off position, plugged in the mains cable and the fuse in the plug blew again and house fuse tripped.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-AX1600i-Digital-TITANIUM-Modular/dp/B078X274ML

 

Repeated unhappiness regarding their RMA process,e .g. here

 

 

 

 

[Etern4l]

54 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

The only option I my self would go when I purchased the PSU early spring was the Corsair AX1600i. But I looked at the reviews and in my wallet. I had to pay 40% more for the Corsair here in Norway. And both offer 10 years warranty. And BeQuiet is known for an ok quality. The cables is good and the overal function/design/performance. And it comes top for 1500W PSU and the reviewer at Tomshardware put Corsair on top for PSU's above 1600w. Almost full pot in the stars help as well. Not many power suplies is so close 5 stars. For me it was the the money and the value of the products. 

 

Makes sense. For me reliability is super important, need to investigate this aspect and generally go through more reviews. My feeling about the Corsair is that it uses bleeding edge digital tech which clearly performs very well in tests, but is less battle-proven and possibly reliable as a tried and true classic analog tank such as the EVGA T2.

I was hoping to get it over with and go with the mining veteran, but turns out the retailer has just one last open-boxed unit, don't really want that.

 

Will have a think, clearly no rush - no 4090s in sight lol (and strictly speaking I don't need one this minute).

 

My current Toughpower has served me for over a decade including long periods of heavy 24/7 use, and Thermaltake is pushing out new models with 12VHPWR sockets (1600 GF3). Another option, although it's only gold. This is why PC building is so much fun 🙂

 

 

[Papusan]

21 minutes ago, Etern4l said:

 

Makes sense. For me reliability is super important, need to investigate this aspect and generally go through more reviews. My feeling about the Corsair is that it uses bleeding edge digital tech which clearly performs very well in tests, but is less battle-proven and possibly reliable as the battle-tested classic analog tank such as the EVGA T2.

 

Will have a think, clearly no rush - no 4090s in sight lol (and strictly speaking I don't need one this minute).

 

My current Toughpower has served for over a decade, it's a tank, and Thermaltake is pushing out new models with 12VHPWR sockets (1600 GF3). Another option, although it's only gold.

 

I was hoping to get it over with and go with the mining veteran T2, but turns out the retailer has just one last open-boxed unit, don't really want that.

As I said. If there is no hurry then wait until summer 2023. Everyone was scared up due possible 850W graphics cards from Nvidia. But as you know, the smoke and fire stopped that goal from the Green goblins. But there is no need for ATX 3.0 now. Hence you don't see many offer new high end models (+1500w) with the real new specs. This will be for 2023. Even then there is not the big need if you already have a powerful PSU that can handle 4090 with ease. And who run +1200W load 24/7/365 with mainstream setups. Even a good quality 1000w psu is enough for Nvidia's latest and greatest.

[Etern4l]

36 minutes ago, Papusan said:

As I said. If there is no hurry then wait until summer 2023. Everyone was scared up due possible 850W graphics cards from Nvidia. But as you know, the smoke and fire stopped that goal from the Green goblins. But there is no need for ATX 3.0 now. Hence you don't see many offer new high end models with the real new specs. This will be for 2023. Even then there is not the big need if you already have a powerful PSU that can handle 4090 with ease.

 

Some ATX 3.0 PSUs are beginning to pop up, e.g. here: https://www.thermaltake.com/toughpower-gf3-1650w-gold-tt-premium-edition.html

Obviously this is lower tier than the Dark Power Pro, and no actual stock yet.

 

Also interesting to look at MTBF numbers given:

 

Seasonic Prime - not stated

Toughpower GF3 - 100,000h

EVGA T2 - 100,000h

Corsair AX1600i - 100,000h

BeQuiet Dark Power Pro - 300,000h

 

My old PSU only has 3x6pin and 3x8pins so can only run a 4090 in 450W mode. TBH should be enough for my purposes, so indeed can sit on this for now.

 

36 minutes ago, Papusan said:

And who run 1200W load 24/7 with mainstream setups. 

 

For an obvious example: miners run ran such loads en masse. Anyway, if there is a need to do that, it's best to run an oversized PSU - for efficiency, longevity and low noise's sake. So even for a 800W load, a 1600W PSU is not a bad idea as these PSUs have optimal efficiency around the 500-800W region.

 

[Papusan]

17 minutes ago, Etern4l said:

My old PSU only has 3x6pin and 3x8pins so can only run a 4090 in 450W mode. TBH should be enough for my purposes, so indeed can sit on this for now.

There is still hope if you dare try it🙂 But be sure you have one of these where you sit if you need it......

 

The fact is: every card that (at least theoretically) has a power limit of more than 450 MUST be supplied with all 4 cables of the adapter. However, with three cables and the setting that you only want to use up to 450 watts, you can also simply lead the sense pin of the fourth open cable to ground. In fact, a simple jumper across both sense pins of this socket is sufficient, since the other one was already connected to ground in the socket.

 

https://www.igorslab.de/so-funktioniert-nvidias-4-fach-adapter-fuer-den-12vhpwr-anschluss-der-geforce-rtx-4090-mit-workaround/2/

[jaybee83]

1 hour ago, Etern4l said:

 

Yes, looks good and seems like Seasonic has good reputation, but this but this caught my eye:

https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/zardon/seasonic-tx-1600-titanium-power-supply-review/2/

 

Considering the added performance bonus of these high-power units, we included a PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector cable harness in the packaging box. This enables:
the TX-1600 and PX-1600 to support systems where the AIC (Add-In Card) is up to 450 W

Same for Corsair and Be Quiet - they supply those 12VHPWR adapters plugging into just two 8-pin sockets on the PSU. Suspect. Clearly none of them fully support ATX 3.0 (that's expected with the PSUs which don't have native 12VHPWR), but the fact that Seasonic only claims 450W support for 12VHPWR connector is a particular worry and nonsense. Of course, it's not a showstopper since you can always fall back to the Nvidia 3x8pin adapter.

 

 

Just customer complaints, e.g. some unhappines

 

https://www.newegg.com/corsair-ax1600i-cp-9020087-na-1600w/p/N82E16817139226?Description=corsair ax1600i&cm_re=corsair_ax1600i-_-17-139-226-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

And one here, not expected for such a product:

 

AT1600i Stopped working after 5 months.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 January 2019

Verified Purchase

Worked fine for 5 months then the house fuse tripped. Unplugged computer, reset fuse box, plugged computer into the mains and fuse tripped again. I had the power switch on the PSU set to off at this point. Removed PSU from the computer the switch was in the off position, plugged in the mains cable and the fuse in the plug blew again and house fuse tripped.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-AX1600i-Digital-TITANIUM-Modular/dp/B078X274ML

 

Repeated unhappiness regarding their RMA process,e .g. here

 

 

 

 

ah dont mix up the 8 pin connectors on the gpu side with those on the psu side, different stuff. the included cables are indeed rated for 600W, they even print that on the cables themselves 😄 unfortunately still a lot of misinformation going around with the 12VHPWR cables...

if u look at the native psu cables from any manufacturer, theyre all with 2x8 pin on the psu side. only the non-native adapters differ in their config with either 3 or 4 8 pins on the gpu side 

 

the only thing the TX-1600 doesnt support is the full atx 3.0 spec with regards to transient power spikes. but since the 4090 has been shown to have a flatter power profile than the 3090 ti were good in that aspect.

 

edit: to clarify a bit on this cuz i think were focussing on slightly different stuff - within the atx 3.0 spec and its 2x-3x transient spikes with regards to the "regular" max wattage rating, the tx-1600 is indeed only rated up to 1000W for atx 3.0, which translates into max. 450W for the gpu. BUT, this is specifically WITH those 2x-3x transient spikes included. if we leave those out then ure still good for 600W+ as with any other high wattage sub atx 3.0 psu.

 

in addition: its actually not possible for the cables to be rated and configured for 600W and the psu to draw less. the sense pins in the 12VHPWR cable determine the wattage thats allowed to go into the gpu. so if the cable is 600W, then thats what the gpu will get.

[Etern4l]

6 hours ago, jaybee83 said:

ah dont mix up the 8 pin connectors on the gpu side with those on the psu side, different stuff. the included cables are indeed rated for 600W, they even print that on the cables themselves 😄 unfortunately still a lot of misinformation going around with the 12VHPWR cables...

if u look at the native psu cables from any manufacturer, theyre all with 2x8 pin on the psu side. only the non-native adapters differ in their config with either 3 or 4 8 pins on the gpu side 

 

the only thing the TX-1600 doesnt support is the full atx 3.0 spec with regards to transient power spikes. but since the 4090 has been shown to have a flatter power profile than the 3090 ti were good in that aspect.

 

edit: to clarify a bit on this cuz i think were focussing on slightly different stuff - within the atx 3.0 spec and its 2x-3x transient spikes with regards to the "regular" max wattage rating, the tx-1600 is indeed only rated up to 1000W for atx 3.0, which translates into max. 450W for the gpu. BUT, this is specifically WITH those 2x-3x transient spikes included. if we leave those out then ure still good for 600W+ as with any other high wattage sub atx 3.0 psu.

 

in addition: its actually not possible for the cables to be rated and configured for 600W and the psu to draw less. the sense pins in the 12VHPWR cable determine the wattage thats allowed to go into the gpu. so if the cable is 600W, then thats what the gpu will get.

 

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the 450W limitation Kitguru reported, and indeed 12VHPWR support out of the box in any form is very nice vs the 4x Nvidia adapter.

[jaybee83]

1 hour ago, Etern4l said:

 

Yeah, I'm not too worried about the 450W limitation Kitguru reported, and indeed 12VHPWR support out of the box in any form is very nice vs the 4x Nvidia adapter.

interesting article (in german, but ull catch the drift), where the 4090 is paired with various psus ranging 650 to 1650W. i dont have the hard data yet on the tx-1600 out of my own experience, but if a measly 650W psu can provide up to 550W to the 4090 and run (mostly) stable then the tx-1600 should sure as HECK be able to provide 600W or even more 😂

 

whatever the case may be, ill let u guys know what i find. if it turns out i was wrong ill be the first to throw the psu in the trash and switch 😋

[Etern4l]

1 minute ago, jaybee83 said:

interesting article (in german, but ull catch the drift), where the 4090 is paired with various psus ranging 650 to 1650W. i dont have the hard data yet on the tx-1600 out of my own experience, but if a measly 650W can provide up to 550W to the 4090 and run (mostly) stable then the tx-1600 should sure as HECK be able to provide 600W or even more 😂

 

whatever the case may be, ill let u guys know what i find. if it turns out i was wrong ill be the first to throw the psu in the trash and switch 😋

 

Feel free to post links in German, bro @Papusan does it all the time🙂

 

[Papusan]

5 hours ago, Etern4l said:

 

Feel free to post links in German, bro @Papusan does it all the time🙂

 

I understand 4 languages without much problems but German is hard (impossible for me to understand without translation). But many articles in this language is quite awesome 🙂

[jaybee83]

45 minutes ago, Papusan said:

I understand 4 languages without much problems but German is hard (impossible for me to understand without translation). But many articles in this language is quite awesome 🙂

the germans know their tech stuff 😄