Modular vs Hard Wired

[SugarJ]

Ya, I'm pretty sure that's incorrect. See Sky's review here, PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W Quad Power Supply Review tested at 12.01 - 12.07 V, and this is the very same review unit I bought from him. Should have looked at that earlier before I opened my big mouth I guess.

I was more interested in Jack's readings from a modular unit anyway.

Edit: The name has been changed to the correct user.

[DarKStar]

Originally Posted by enaberif

So dealing with my case and doing cable management and always being a fan of hard wired power supplies and many people saying that true enthusiasts will always use wired and those worried about looks will use modular got me thinking.

Is there REALLY that much difference in going to modular? I've heard some people say that the voltage drops can sometimes be a bit different than that of a non-modular power supply.

Is this myth or reality?

LOL - Shouldn't even be an issue with today's PSUs - and you are refering to contact resistence - No - don't worry about it - the difference is negligeable - the specs leave room for a big enough margin. I have been using modular PSUs for quite some time now - I use the Antec Neo 550 HE, it has built-in circuitry to regulate voltage within 3% +/- ! That is even tighter than the official specs, so there is absolutely no problem at all I use only 1 HDD, 1 DVD ROM 1 DVD Writer, and 1 graphics card - I save a lot of space this way - mind you even so there are still lot of wires, but there would be double without so it's handy - There is no reason why I wouldn't recommend a modular PSU - check your specs carefuly and get a GOOD PSU, rated higher than what you will be using, it's a good investment.

[Dr_BenD_over]

Originally Posted by SugarJ

I was more interested in Dr. B's readings from a modular unit anyway.

Who me? I don't use them. The problems I had were with the connection to the mainboard, in particular the 3.3V line which was dropping down to 2.7V (IIRC) across the connector (way back in my P4 days). IMO, 2 connections, twice as bad.

[SugarJ]

Originally Posted by Dr_BenD_over

Who me? I don't use them. The problems I had were with the connection to the mainboard, in particular the 3.3V line which was dropping down to 2.7V (IIRC) across the connector (way back in my P4 days). IMO, 2 connections, twice as bad.

Sorry Dr. B, I meant JackRabbit. I'm blaming it on the cold meds. I was confused and confounded at the time. You said you didn't use them because of humidity and corrosion issues, right? It's all coming back to me now, through a haze.

[biff]

Originally Posted by Jack Rabbit

Also, voltage drop increases with current (due to skin effect, IIRC) so a 5v USB/SATA signal line with 100mA would drop almost nothing.

Just for the sake of correctness, the skin effect is only for AC and has no effect on DC. The skin effect gets worse the higher the frequency.

As to the original question, when talking about quality units I can't see there being an argument that holds water that says one is better than the other where reliability or usability are concerned, it will depend on you specific build. For instance for my build I could only allow 6" for a psu so the extra space the connectors would've taken up would have required me to redesign the whole lay out plus with a wired unit all the cables come out in a bundle at one corner where I could quickly route it out to the back of the mobo tray and hide all my wires there. I got me a better looking rig and aloowed me to lay it out better too. But in a different case the modular may have worked out better for layout.