The power supply feeds every other part of your PC, yet it is often where builders try to save money. The good news for 2026 is that a quiet, efficient ATX 3.1 unit with a proper 12V-2x6 graphics card connector now starts at well under £100.
Forge PC has not bench-tested these power supplies. Our picks come from two outlets that measure voltage regulation, ripple, efficiency and noise in their own labs, Club386 and Tom's Hardware. UK prices are approximate, taken from SpecPrice's tracker on the morning of 13 November 2026, and will change. If you are still working out what wattage you need, start with our guide to choosing a PSU.
Quick list
Pick | Best for | Approx. UK price (13 November 2026) |
|---|
be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 650W | Best value for mid-range builds | £81.99 at Box |
be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 850W | Best quiet 850W | £105.95 at Box, £109.99 at Scan |
Montech Titan PLA 750W | Best Platinum 750W | £99.98 at Scan |
be quiet! Dark Power 14 1000W | Best overall for high-end rigs | £199.99 at Scan |
Corsair SF750 (2024) | Best SFX for small builds | £144.98 at Scan |
ASUS ROG Strix Platinum 1000W White | Best white PSU | £197.94 at Box |
Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition | Best no-compromise flagship | £459.98 at Scan |
be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 650W: best value
This is Tom's Hardware's top pick in its November 2026 guide. It is an ATX 3.1, fully modular 80 Plus Gold unit built on an FSP platform, and Tom's measured an average efficiency of 93.3% at 230V, which is Platinum-level performance from a Gold-rated unit. It also praises the voltage regulation and ripple suppression. The 12V-2x6 connector is rated for 450W, not 600W, which is fine for mid-range graphics cards. Tom's also notes that it gets noisy under heavy load and uses "Elite" capacitors on the secondary side.
be quiet!'s own spec sheet lists 650W continuous (720W peak), a 120mm rifle-bearing fan with a zero-rpm mode, two PCIe 6+2-pin connectors alongside the 12V-2x6, and a 10-year warranty.
Best for: builds with an RTX 5060 Ti, RX 9060 XT or similar. Club386's capacity table pairs a 650W unit with up to an RTX 5070 or RX 9070 and a Ryzen 5-class CPU.
be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 850W: best quiet 850W
Club386 names this its best quiet PSU. In its testing, the 120mm fan ran at just 810rpm at the full 850W, and it measured 31.5dBA at that load, 1.5dBA above its meter's floor. Efficiency never dropped below 92% between 25% and 100% load, and the unit carries 80 Plus Gold and Cybenetics Platinum ratings. Club386 says 850W is enough for an RTX 5080 with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
be quiet! lists a single 70.9A 12V rail, a 600W-rated 12V-2x6 connector, four PCIe 6+2-pin connectors and a 10-year warranty.
Best for: RTX 5070 Ti, RX 9070 XT and RTX 5080 builds where noise matters.
Montech Titan PLA 750W: best Platinum 750W
Montech builds this one with Seasonic, and it is number two in Tom's Hardware's list. Tom's measured 0.5% voltage regulation on the 12V rail and ripple no higher than 26mV on any rail. It recorded average efficiency of 92.6% at 230V and found that the fan barely sped up in its hotbox test. Montech lists 80 Plus Platinum certification, a 135mm fluid-dynamic-bearing fan, one 12V-2x6 cable and a 10-year warranty, and Tom's notes that the 12V-2x6 connector is rated for the full 600W.
The trade-off is connectors: there are only two PCIe 6+2-pin plugs, so it suits cards that use 12V-2x6 or need no more than two 8-pin plugs.
be quiet! Dark Power 14 1000W: best overall for high-end rigs
Club386's best PSU overall. In its testing, efficiency stayed above 90% from 100W to 1,000W, and the 135mm fan ran at only 520rpm at 750W. The unit carries both 80 Plus Titanium and Cybenetics Titanium certification. You can run it as a single 12V rail or four separate rails, and it comes with a 10-year warranty. At around £200, it is not cheap, but Club386 struggled to find a single con.
The 850W version was £179.99 at Scan on 13 November 2026 if you do not need 1,000W.
Corsair SF750 (2024): best SFX
For small-form-factor cases, Tom's Hardware picks Corsair's SF750 (2024). It is an ATX 3.1 SFX unit with Cybenetics and CLEAResult Platinum certification, all-Japanese capacitors, and what Tom's describes as an excellent thermal-to-acoustic balance. Club386's SFX pick is the NZXT C850 SFX Gold, which offers 850W, though it warns that the 92mm fan reached 41.6dBA at full load. We did not find a stock-checked UK price for the C850 SFX on SpecPrice.
ASUS ROG Strix Platinum 1000W White: best white PSU
Club386's pick for white builds comes with matching individually sleeved cables. It measured efficiency above 90% at every load from 100W to 1,000W, peaking at 94.6% at 400W, and a maximum of 35.4dB at full load. The fan stays off below 500W.
Seasonic Prime TX-1600 Noctua Edition: no-compromise flagship
This unit appears on both lists. Club386 measured 12.00V on the 12V rail at 1,200W and 1,600W loads, and noise rose only from 30dBA to 33.9dBA at full load. It is 80 Plus and Cybenetics Titanium rated, carries a 12-year warranty and has two 12V-2x6 cables. It is overkill for nearly every gaming PC, but it makes sense for an RTX 5090-class system, where Club386's capacity table starts at 1,200W.
Also worth considering
Corsair RM850e and RM750e: we already list the RM850e and RM750e in our database. On 13 November 2026 they cost about £119.99 and £109.99 at Scan. These are not picks from the reviews above, but they are mainstream alternatives if the be quiet! units are out of stock.
Cooler Master MWE Gold V3: Tom's Hardware ranks the 850W MWE Gold V3 third for its low-to-mid-load efficiency. On 13 November SpecPrice showed the 750W MWE V3 Gold at £64.99 at Box, but we did not find a stock-checked 850W listing.
Endorfy Vero L6 750W: this is Club386's budget pick, but it has captive cables, gets loud at high load, and Club386 notes that it is hard to find at a good price in the UK.
How much wattage?
Club386 recommends adding headroom over your calculated peak. In its example, a 450W power budget still gets a 750W PSU. Its sample pairings run roughly as follows: 650W for an RTX 5070 or RX 9070 with a Ryzen 5 9600X, 750W for an RTX 5070 Ti with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 850W for an RTX 5080 or RX 9070 XT, and 1,200W for an RTX 5090. For a 12V-2x6 graphics card, a PSU with a native 12V-2x6 cable is the cleanest option. Club386's advice is to make sure the plug is fully seated at both ends.
Our verdict
For most gaming PCs, the be quiet! Pure Power 13 M is the range to buy. The 650W model was about £82 on 13 November 2026 and suits mid-range cards, while the 850W version was about £106 to £110 and has the headroom and near-silent fan for an RTX 5070 Ti, RX 9070 XT or RTX 5080 build. If you want Platinum efficiency at 750W, the Montech Titan PLA is the strongest alternative at about £100. Spend up to the Dark Power 14 only for a high-end rig where efficiency and silence matter. We have not tested these units ourselves; the picks reflect Club386's and Tom's Hardware's lab results.
