Power supply upgrade price guide

The power supply unit – referred to as a PSU by the cool kids – is the heart of a gaming PC.

Its job is to take your (hopefully uninterrupted) electricity supply from Eskom and convert it to the low-voltage energy your CPU, GPU, RAM, and other components require to work.

Depending on how power-hungry your PC is, you need to buy a PSU which meets those power requirements. The latest GeForce GTX GPUs from Nvidia – the 980 and 970 – draw 165W and 145W respectively. A top of the range card, like the GTX Titan Z, can suck up to 375W.

Now that you have a basic overview (not that the Master Race needed one), let’s talk price.

The power supply pricing guide has been divided into several tables, based on power (W) output. Pricing was taken from multiple local retailers and averaged out.

300W – 450W
PSU	Price
Thermaltake Lite Power 350W	R220
Gigabyte PowerRock AX 300W	R370
Corsair VS 350W	R440
Gigabyte GreenMax Plus 450W	R480
Cooler Master Thunder 450W	R530

Gigabyte PSU

500W – 550W
PSU	Price
Antec VP500P 500W	R470
RAIDMAX Hybrid 530W	R545
Gigabyte PowerRock AX 500W	R580
Thermaltake LitePower 550W	R590
Cooler Master Elite V2 550W	R600
DeepCool DN500 500W	R650
Corsair CX500 500W	R750

RAIDMAX GPU

620W – 750W
PSU	Price
Corsair VS 650W	R700
Thermaltake LitePower 650W	R710
SeaSonic S12II 620W	R840
Cooler Master Thunder 700W	R1,000
Antec HCG-620M 620W	R1,100
Cooler Master GX Pro II 750W	R1,165

Cooler Master PSU

850W – 1500W
PSU	Price
Antec HCG 850W	R1,600
Corsair HX 850W	R1,800
RAIDMAX Thunder Pro 1200W	R1,900
Seasonic X 850W	R2,390
Cooler Master Silent Pro 1500W	R3,499
Antec HCP Platinum 1300W	R3,799
Corsair AXi 1500W	R5,571