Modular or Regular?

Zico · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:10

Is it worth the extra £££ to go modular over regular PSU? What benefits are there between the two types?

The price difference between the Corsair range is almost equal to an extra 100W on a regular PSU compared to a modular at the same cost.

If you end up using all plugs in a modular, this negates the better cable management that modular offers over regular.

Am I missing anything else about modular??

BigRazer93 · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:12

Well, the cables look so much better on the modular than the regular.
Better cable management.
Looks better in case.
Better air flow as there won't be as many cables.
Worth it for modular tbh.

StarSolitude · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:14

Modular PSU's- you only use the cables you NEED to use, by attaching them to the PSU manually. Benefit = less cable clutter, easier management.

Normal PSU's- All cables attached and unremovable. More clutter, harder cable management.

I was going to go for the Corsair TX 650W which isn't modular, but after watching this video review of this modular PSU I changed my mind.

wupwup · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:16

i would say so. if your experienced and can tidy cables well its not essential but it is SO much harder than it looks. if yournot an experit i would say deffinatly go for one. glad i did.

b-star · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:46

I would say it worth £££ IF you not use half of cables and if you have case without cable management!

heres to compare mine build, SAME COMPONENTS, only in different cases:

I use PC POWER & COOLING PSU, which has loads of cables!

when had mid-towe case (pic.1) it was problem with all this cables, did hide everywhere I could, but still had loads of cables...

When moved to ANTEC1200, it was not issue at all as cable management does the job,
plus almost all psu cables in use now as have 10 fans!

Zico · 18 Oct 2009 at 21:59

StarSolitude said:
Modular PSU's- you only use the cables you NEED to use, by attaching them to the PSU manually. Benefit = less cable clutter, easier management.

Normal PSU's- All cables attached and unremovable. More clutter, harder cable management.

I was going to go for the Corsair TX 650W which isn't modular, but after watching this video review of this modular PSU I changed my mind.

I was considering the Corsair TX 650W for a i5 750 build (mild overclock) + single ATI 5850.

Pending any last minute changes, I've now swapped the PSU for the OCZ 700W modular

reflux · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:01

Everyone goes on and on about modular PSUs, but given how easy it is to hide spare cables in your top drive bay or behind the motherboard tray, personally I don't see the need. I end up using most of the cables anyway, so I went for a bog standard Corsair 750w. I guess I always go for big cases so things are a bit easier.

The main disadvantage of modular PSUs is that they're supposed to be less efficient than captive cable designs, but whether this has been tested to any extent I'm not sure.

ejr22 · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:02

No brainer....Modular

Makhaira · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:10

Well I've always had regular PSUs, but now that I've shifted to a small case (Sugo SG01) I'm going to go modular since there physically isn't the room to tuck cables away very easily.

If you're on a regular case though, I'd save your pennies to be honest and just buy some cable ties and self adhesive tie mounts.

setter · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:14

I have a non modular thermaltake toughpower 750w in my main rig in sig, bit hard to tidy cables in my akasa eclipse 62 case, thinking of switching it with the modular enermax liberty 620w in my second rig as it would be much easier to tidy.

PermaBanned · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:17

Zico said:
I was considering the Corsair TX 650W for a i5 750 build (mild overclock) + single ATI 5850.

Pending any last minute changes, I've now swapped the PSU for the OCZ 700W modular

Okay, if that's the choice definitely the Corsair. I've seen several OCZ PSUs blow up, so i'd stay away from them.

Zico · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:18

Case wise, I am planning to re-use an old steel tower case (bought from OcUK in 2002/3 to house an AMD 1700XP setup).

The case should be large enough to house the new build for my step brother:

i5 750
ATI 5850
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3
TBC PSU
2x 2GB G.Skill Ripjaw
Samsung F3 500GB

Sindri · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:20

Personally i don't see the point in modular unless you have a big side window and show off the internals of your case.
Aslong as you have decent cooling and tie the cables to the side so that they don't restrict airflow it doesn't matter if you don't have modular.

beefybarn · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:21

Modular all the time, so much easier to work with

JonJ678 · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:21

I believe the term to be captive, as in captive vs modular.

I use captive. Hiding cables is hardly tricky outside of the world of matx computers, and given people watercool matx boxes I'm not sure there's any need even then. Modular cables introduce another break in the connection from psu to components. There is a resistance associated with this, and so a voltage drop. Further, this leads to localised heating of the break, and so enhanced oxidation. This increases the resistance, so the heating effect, so the oxidation, until failure.

Why take the risk that one of the connections is slightly off tolerance, and so this occurs swifter than the norm? To make the case prettier? Bugger that, I'll take one less point of failure over being able to unplug the cables any day.

Sasahara · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:26

Zico said:
I was considering the Corsair TX 650W for a i5 750 build (mild overclock) + single ATI 5850.

Pending any last minute changes, I've now swapped the PSU for the OCZ 700W modular

If your going to spend that much go for the Corsair HX 650W, it's more powerful than the OCZ where it counts on the +12v 52A vs 50A. And better in every other deparment too.

Zico · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:34

Superewza said:
Okay, if that's the choice definitely the Corsair. I've seen several OCZ PSUs blow up, so i'd stay away from them.

Care to mention where and how you've managed to witness such destruction?

I've never seen any PSU's blow up in my many years of PC'ing.

I've only known personally of two cases whereby the user was to blame for nuking a PSU (a friend bought an Alienware system from the US, long before they had a UK setup and before auto switching PSU's were about - he didn't switch the PSU's over after un-boxing and nuked two PSU's).

JonJ678 said:
I believe the term to be captive, as in captive vs modular.

I use captive. Hiding cables is hardly tricky outside of the world of matx computers, and given people watercool matx boxes I'm not sure there's any need even then. Modular cables introduce another break in the connection from psu to components. There is a resistance associated with this, and so a voltage drop. Further, this leads to localised heating of the break, and so enhanced oxidation. This increases the resistance, so the heating effect, so the oxidation, until failure.

Why take the risk that one of the connections is slightly off tolerance, and so this occurs swifter than the norm? To make the case prettier? Bugger that, I'll take one less point of failure over being able to unplug the cables any day.

So if you didn't have an mATX system, I presume you would go for 'captive' over modular then.

The case is definately not mATX and doesn't have a window so the inside is only ever going to be seen when it needs a dusting (no dust filters for the case unless I bodge some up).

Zico · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:37

Sasahara said:
If your going to spend that much go for the Corsair HX 650W, it's more powerful than the OCZ where it counts on the +12v 52A vs 50A. And better in every other deparment too.

I am thinking that I should have just stuck with the Corsair now anyway.

The argument for modular isn't really winning me over anymore.

setter · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:40

Superewza said:
Okay, if that's the choice definitely the Corsair. I've seen several OCZ PSUs blow up, so i'd stay away from them.

Ive had 2 psu's go pop on me, first was a brand new seasonic s12 that blew up the first time it was switched on, second was an enermax that just went pop out of the blue after 6 months use.

JonJ678 · 18 Oct 2009 at 22:43

I'd use (and have used, thrice) a captive psu in a matx system too. Generally there's an optical bay free so I shove the spare cables in there. If building in a case that looked to have no space at all for cables then I would look towards modular. I've not seen such a case yet though, the really little ones tend to have low power components inside (heat issues), so their psu don't have half a dozen pci-e cables and so forth.

I'm sure its possible to find a system where there is absolutely nowhere to put the few spare cables, I've just never seen or built one. That said, I also know of zero psu failures that can be attributed to oxidation at this joint. So I see it as introducing a small risk for no gain. You're also charged for the privilege.

Interestingly since captive psu have all cables coming out of one hole, off to the side, and modular have them scattered across the entire rear of the psu, as assuming that you've matched the psu to components so are using most of the cables anyway, I can't see modular being tidier.

/offtopic
A seasonic blew up on you? Bad luck setter. How was the rma?
plural of psu, psu/psus/psu's?