3. DON'T LOSE POWER WITH MODULAR PLUGS
Due to their look, convenience, and cost savings for manufacturers, modular plugs have become a popular power supply feature. Unfortunately, there has been little or no discussion of the impact of this feature on overall performance and reliability. The fact is, modular plugs limit power by adding to electrical resistance. The voltage drop can be as much as would occur in 2 feet of standard wire. Worse yet, modular plugs utilize delicate pins that can easily loosen, corrode, and burn, creating the potential for a major system failure. That's why professional system builders specify uninterrupted wire!

Who are these professional builders ? This is gonna raise a dry smile in work on monday.

Dell, HP etcetc I assume they mean

Afaic, being in work I`d glance to my right to see half a dozen fried Dell psus w8ing to be collected, they go for price vS performance and find an equalibrium.

Haven`t had too many duff HP ones, they use some nifty looking 365w psu from xyz manufacturer in all their dc series from 7100 upto their latest 7700. That`s to power a p4 upto an E6400 system with profession gfx/sound cards w/masses of gigs and drives. Quite a confident stride for such a low badged unit. All @ stock levels as u can appreciate. Lacking in molex connectors these days to be fair, but hey they don`t use a mobo that supports ide etc now.

Reason I would say they won`t use a modular is b`cos it isn`t generic. They`d rather a velcro strap to keep all the cables together - works well lol. One big reason not to use them in a manuf pc is that it`s one less thing for some1 to check hasn`t "come-out", cost for some1 to check that would be more than a psu.

I`l take a closer look at the manuf of these psus, I mean the price won`t matter to them that much cos of course they`re gonna be buying them by the pallet load. Reliability would be the biggest factor vS the price, as I hinted at.

Yes but simply putting a top-end PC on a PSU does not stress it tbh

Put a load tester on it and you'll get results that are a little more like it

Well you just proved my point. If my top end PC isnt stressing it then what do i have to worry about? Seriously, yall are making such a big deal about it. If it sucked that bad no enthusiast would buy a modular PSU, nor would any high end company be making them. Like OCZ we where discusing. TBH i think its just paranoia. Seriously, you can run a SLI machine on a decent 550watt PSU with 80% efficiency. Im not running half that on my 550watt. People are so worried about running their PSUs at 100%. Well yea, headroom is ok but its not needed. Your PSU is made to handle 100% load all the time. If its not able to take it, maybe you should reconsider paying over 100 bucks for that particular PSU. THink about that for a second.

Your PSU is made to handle 100% load all the time. If its not able to take it, maybe you should reconsider paying over 100 bucks for that particular PSU. THink about that for a second.

Think about what? Your point makes no sense.

PCP&C makes mission critical PSU's for servers etc, which is a market that does not use modular...ever

PCP&C makes mission critical PSU's for servers etc, which is a market that does not use modular...ever

oo now oo erm not in the modular sense we`re talking about here.

But there are the type of psu u can `yank` out the back of a 1u rack and just slip a new one in without dealing with wires to connect to u`r mobo etc. Simply saves taking out the whole server unit to maintain it, u can just walk around the rear and do a quick change out. Don`t know anything technical beyond that tho, all I`ve seen are the parts. Don`t even know what type of servers they are.

I think throwing in the professional cause as a basis of not using modular psu in general is a bit flimsy tbh. It`s a usable statement in as far as 99.9999% probably wouldn`t, but the reasons as to why not are a little massaged to promote the cause, or left vague if u like.

Ye tis marketing stuff, but based in truth

PCP&C are the best PSU's in the world tbh :)

Anyone got a diagram for a load tester? I could test a mod vs non-mod for just about anything here...

Going too be a bit unfair though... Murderous Seasonic M12 vs generic hiper 350w as thats all ive got lying about.

Hmm, fluctuations within different psus, I think the best test would be to test one as a modular - then solder the cables directly to the pcb. Sounds like an overly big job tho.

Think about what? Your point makes no sense.

My point was the whole post. Like Rast said your generalizing on just "servers and corps". I dont care about that stuff as i only deal with home PCs and enthusiasts. Im sure my gaming PC with my modular PSU would not be a big corps server running 24/7 :/

So in any sense my point is, the resistance of my modular PSU (if any) dosent even make a difference because of the point you made. Which proved me right. If my PC dosent give my PSU a full load then what does it matter?

In other words, people are just paranoid about modular PSUs period.