r0ach wrote: ↑31 Jan 2024, 15:09
So I've used all kinds of power supplies from beefy EVGA 1300w G2's, to ATX 3.0 Channelwells, to Corsair platinum SF600/SF750 series, to Seasonics, Superflower Leadex, etc. I ended up with a Superflower Leadex III gold as a backup unit while my Corsair was being RMA'd and even though this PSU is supposed to be ranked very highly, cursor movement is pretty much garbage on it.
Why is it garbage? The first likely suspect is that the higher end Corsairs use 16 AWG cables for things like PCIE and CPU while this turd Superflower uses 18 AWG. You can literally feel the increased resistance while moving the mouse. It comes in the form of both decreased granularity for cursor movement as well as just more disconnected/floatier cursor movement in general. I opened up one of the Superflower cables and see that they also use tinned copper as well.
18 AWG cables have 60% more resistance than 16 AWG, then tinned copper is 15% as conductive as bare copper on top of that. So if one brand of PSU uses 16 AWG + bare copper and another brand uses 18 AWG + tinned copper, you're looking at clown world levels of increased electrical resistance and your PC will feel unusable. A normie engineer specs things like 18 AWG as 'usable' for a Linux email server while not causing a fire. It's not actually usable for a gaming PC.
Next subject is the power cord itself. I have 18, 16, and 14 AWG cables and there's tremendous difference between which one you plug in to a PSU (one that doesn't actually need higher than 18 AWG for load). You see the same phenomenon here where you can feel cursor granularity increase each time you go to a bigger size. You will probably also see voltages slightly change in the BIOS as well.
The power cable subject is NOT as cut and dry as internal cables, though. I would say you ALWAYS want 16 AWG PCIE and CPU cables and should never go near companies using 18 AWG ones or tinned copper for that matter. Send them hate mail. If your current PSU uses this, your mouse movement will likely always be trash. Doubly so if it's tinned copper on top of that.
For the actual power cord, tossing a 14 AWG cable onto a PSU that uses an 18 AWG one by default can actually feel detrimental. Cursor movement will be extra slippery and wild. I didn't really see this kind of behavior on a 1300 watter that uses one by default, so doing it on a smaller PSU might be throwing some voltages out of whack. I believe in-cable capacitors probably cause resistance problems that board capacitors don't, so those should likely be avoided.
Before the inevitable "what PSU should I buy" posts come. Channelwell platform is used for most of the new ATX 3.0's and seem to have huge problems with causing coil whine. I had one that had LOUD coil whine just sitting at idle which I've never seen on any PSU before. So even though Corsair is usually one of the better companies for thick cables, this will likely affect tons of Corsair PSUs + their RME line using a different company also has the same problem, as well as pricey Seasonic Vertex. You can always buy and return these brands if they do have it and eventually they'll get the message and fix it.
FSP Hydro PTM X Pro don't seem to have the coil whine problem and have 16 AWG cables (at least on the 1000w unit, not sure about 850w), so that's really the only new age potentially safe PSU I know of. If their cables are tinned copper you would still probably be screwed with gimped mouse movement, though. Someone will need to email all these race to the bottom trash companies and force them to give up the info of what their cables are made of.
