We’re just going to come out and say it: when you’re building the best PC, there’s nothing more important than the best power supplies. Sure, it’s tempting to skimp on your PSU to splurge on one of the best graphics cards, but trust us – it’s not worth it. Every component in your computer relies on the best PSUs for power, and if you cheap out – you could end up bricking your entire system.
There’s nothing worse than a failing power supply – trust us. And, to make it worse, a lot of the time you won’t even notice when your power supply is beginning to sputter out until it’s too late. Sure, there are some noticeable symptoms like having your PC just flat-out refusing to turn on, but they could also be as subtle as some lost power efficiency. Look, just do yourself a favor – go out and buy the best power supply you can muster. You don’t want to have your house catch fire just to save some cash.
It’s not all gloom and doom, though, as there is a wide range of great power supplies available in 2018. Even if you’re on a budget, you can get one of the best power supplies with no frills so you can reliably power your computer. And, if you have money to burn, there are some amazing high-power units that can generate a ludicrous amount of power, which is match made in heaven for some of the best gaming PCs. Whatever you need, you can be confident that you’ll find the best power supply for your needs on this list – we’ve tested them all ourselves.
Best power supply: Corsair RM750x
The best all-around power supply for your needs
Form factor: ATX | Capacity: 750W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus Gold | Modularity: Full | Warranty: 10-year
Zero-RPM fan mode
Modular Cables
750w max capacity small for power gamers
The Corsair RM750x scores the top spot on this list for one simple reason: it’s the most well-rounded power supply you can buy today. On top of a 10 year warranty and an 80 Gold Plus efficiency rating, the Corsair has a fully modular cable system. This means you only need to install the cables you need – you can say goodbye to the mess of cables and shoddy airflow that non-modular PSUs endure.
Best budget power supply: EVGA 500 B1
Everything you need to get started
Form factor: ATX | Capacity: 500W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus Bronze | Modularity: None | Warranty: 3-year
6 SATA cables
500w rating
When you’re trying to keep the price of your PC similar to that of a console, you don’t want to blow a lot of your budget on a power supply. That’s where more economical options like the EVGA 500 B1 come in handy. This PSU is essentialist without neglecting the needs of its audience. For less than $50 USD, you can expect 500 watts of power transmitted through several SATA cables and two PCIe slots. A three-year warranty is merely icing on the cake.
Best silent power supply: be quiet! Straight Power 10
Quiet as the night
Form factor: ATX | Capacity: 400W – 700W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus Gold | Modularity: Semi | Warranty: 5-year
Quiet ATX and EPS support
A little pricey across capacities
Even the best PSUs seem to have extremely loud fans, and unlike case fans, it’s not exactly easy to replace them. Luckily, the Straight Power 10 line-up runs nice and quiet. Options range from 400w to 700w, and they’re SLI and Crossfire certified. They’re also modular, meaning you only need to use the cables that are necessary for your build.
Best compact power supply: Silverstone SFX Series SST-SX550
Perfect for Micro ATX and Mini ITX PC builds
Form factor: SFX | Capacity: 550W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus Gold | Modularity: None | Warranty: 3-year
Compact size
ATX and EPS support
Limited number of connectors
Power supplies can occupy a ton of space in your desktop tower, however time has allowed for the units to get smaller while the power they emit only expands in magnitude. The Silverstone SX550 is almost half the size of other power supplies, so that you can better facilitate cables and airflow inside your computer. This makes it notably ideal for micro ATX and mini-ITX builds, though you could slide it into a mid- or full-size tower as well if you deem it necessary.
Best high capacity power supply: Corsair AX1500i
Monster power
Form factor: EPS | Capacity: 1500W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus Titanium | Modularity: Fully | Warranty: 10-year
Titanium efficiency rating
Monster capacity
Huge price tag
Enormous size
This is an absolute monster of a power supply. This is for the serious builder who plans on powering multiple graphics cards, cooling systems, and perhaps a small village in rural North Dakota. It has the highest possible 80 Plus Titanium efficiency rating, and is fully modular so you only need to add the cables required by your build. If you have the money to go big, this is the power supply to get.
Best RGB Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W
Bright lights and high voltage
Form factor: ATX | Capacity: 700W | Efficiency rating: 80 Plus | Modularity: No | Warranty: 5-year
Beautiful RGB lighting
Inexpensive
Not modular
If you’re trying to build a PC worthy of showing off, you can’t do much better than the Thermaltake Smart RGB 700W. Not only does it have beautiful, customizable RGB lighting, but it also features a reliable 80 Plus efficiency certification and high enough wattage to support even the best gaming PCs. Sure, it isn’t modular, but at under a hundred bucks, we weren’t really expecting it to be.
It is on – the long-awaited Nunes vs Pennington fight is about to make UFC 224 very special indeed. The women’s bantamweight title is up for grabs and Brazil’s Amanda “The Lioness” Nunes wants to keep it just as much as the United States’ Raquel “Rocky” Pennington wants to take it from her.
Before that grand finale you can also enjoy battles from Souza vs Gastelum, Dern vs Cooper, Lineker vs Kelleher and Belfort vs Machida. It’s a packed undercard – and you can watch it all with a free live stream.
UFC 224 – when and where
UFC 224 will be taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday May 13 with the main event fight at 7pm PT, 10am ET, 3am Sunday morning BST.
Coverage starts around three hours before that, so be sure to tune in if you want more MMA than just Nunes vs Pennington.
Amanda Nunes is the current women’s bantamweight champion and will be riding a six fight winning streak when she enters her third title defence against Raquel Pennington, who has won her last four fights.
Since Nunes hasn’t lost in almost four years the pressure will be on to dethrone her. But as the woman famous for that unforgettable Ronda Rousey first-round knockout win at UFC 207, she’s not one to be defeated easily.
As is always the case with UFC, there are plenty of ways to watch the fight. But these usually cost you. Read on to find our guide on how to live stream UFC 224 and, more importantly, how to do it for free.
How to watch the UFC 224 with aVPN If you live in a country where there’s no UFC broadcast, then there’s still a way you can watch. You’ll need to use a VPN to dial in to a country that does have one. A VPN is perfect for this as it allows you to change your IP address so you appear to be in a completely different location. We’ve tested hundreds of VPNs and can recommend these as the best three VPNs currently available:
2. NordVPN: SmartPlay tech makes NordVPN a great choice for streaming.
3. VyprVPN: blazing speeds make VyprVPN a great choice for 4K video
Live stream UFC 224 with the UFC Fight Pass
UFC Fight Pass The UFC has taken airing its fights into its own hands and the result is the UFC Fight Pass. This is a super simple way to pay up front and gain access to all your favourite UFC content from live fights to training videos and even behind the scenes content.
The best part is that Fight Pass offers a FREE seven-day trial. That means, if you’ve not used it already, you can watch UFC 224 for free using this trial.
Then you just pay $9.99/£5.99 per month for access, or commit to a six-month contract and pay $8.99/£5.49, or a 12-month contract and pay only $7.99/£4.99 per month. Fight Pass lets you personalise your experience by following your favourite fighters and works across devices from smartphones and tablets (Android and iOS) to smartboxes and consoles.
How to watch UFC 224: US live stream
Either cable orgo for Fight Pass For US cable and satellite subscribers the options to watch are many with the fight aired on FX, DirectTV, at&t, VerizonFios, Comcast, Dish, Cox and many more. Check out the service you use to see if its being shown. And if you have one but are out of territory, then read the information above to find out more about how to use a VPN to watch UFC.
If you’re a cord cutter or don’t bother with cable these days, then the obvious option is the UFC Fight Pass.
How to watch UFC 224: Canada live stream
Fight Pass is the best option in Canada Canada’s Sports Net which usually airs a lot of UFC won’t have UFC 224. That means that the cheapest way to live stream UFC 224 is via the Fight Pass. Be warned, Canada’s Sports Net which usually airs a lot of UFC won’t have this fight.
Pay-per-view on BellMTS is an option as well. But at $65, we don’t know why you wouldn’t go for the much cheaper UFC TV option instead.
How watch UFC 224: UK live stream
Watch UFC 224 on BT Sport 2 The Nunes vs Pennington fight on UFC 224 will be aired live in the UK on BT Sport 2. This coverage will start at 11:45pm on Saturday with the main card title fight at 3am on the Sunday morning.
It will be aired in HD to all devices capable of running the broadcast. That means not only via TV but also using the BT Sport app on smartphones, tablets and computers.
Not got BT Sport? Then…OK, of course you know by now. The UFC Fight Pass is the way to go, with the cheap monthly subscription and the free trial if you haven’t already used it.
How to watch UFC 224: Australia live stream
UFC Fight Pass You guessed it, UFC 224 will also be available in Australia via the UFC Fight Pass. That means you can not only watch it live but you can do so from pretty much any device that connects to the internet. And don’t forget that free trial.
Full-version commercial software for TechLife magazine readers (for a limited time only)
June 2018 – Issue #77
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 10/05/2017 to 27/06/2018.
Abelssoft Send2Phone
Easily send yourself links, images or any other files between PC and Android phone – or the other way around.
Using the highest security level encryption, AES-256, Send2Phone uses a simple drag and drop interface, and supports almost every popular format: Links, text, PDF, mp3 or video formats like WMV, AVI, MOV or MPEG.
Send2Phone knows them all and therefore is the perfect companion for your everyday life.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 12/04/2017 to 30/05/2018.
Abelssoft HackCheck
How do you know if your online accounts have been hacked? Abelssoft HackCheck finds out for you!
This new Windows tool takes your email addresses and instantly checks if it has been found in a large database of hacked online sites and services. In this case, the program tells you which service has been compromised in which way, and recommends that you immediately change the password.
The program can be set to re-run a new test every four hours and alert you if there are any new hacking attacks against your accounts. In this way, you can change the matching passwords immediately before your own accounts are plundered.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 15/03/2017 to 02/05/2018.
Abelssoft WashAndGo
WashAndGo removes internet traces: the browser cache, cookies, browser history and many more traces of the most common browsers.
WashAndGo will only suggest removal of a file or entry if it can be almost 100% certain that it is unnecessary and may be safely deleted.
Just in case a problem might arise, WashAndGo does create a security backup which allows you to undo any and all changes for a period of 7 days after cleaning.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 15/02/2017 to 04/04/2018.
Abelssoft StartupStar
Eliminate startup irritants with Abelssoft StartupStar!
It’s an almost universal problem on Windows PCs – unneeded programs that run on startup, adding extraneous time to the boot process, and then you ask yourself, how can I stop this programs to start with my computer?
StartupStar from Abelssoft has something to say about this. The program presents a list of startup items, and then let’s you decide which ones to keep or remove.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 21/12/2017 to 07/02/2018.
Abelssoft AntiBrowserSpy
Many tracking features of common web browsers cannot be easily disabled by PC users, but AntiBrowserSpy makes it easy to control all browser settings. With one mouse click you can configure the settings of all your browsers and disable hidden espionage features.
Meanwhile, AntiBrowserSpy allows you to remove Internet traces easily. This contains the removal of history entries and web cache. Download lists and typed URLs can also be cleaned.
Additionally, AntiBrowserSpy contains a cookie manager allowing you to view and protect specific cookies.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 23/11/2017 to 10/01/2018.
Abelssoft CleverPrint
CleverPrint minimises your printing costs by printing up to eight pages on a single sheet. Print jobs often contain pages and graphics — much of which you don’t want to print.
These can be easily removed with CleverPrint. The new CleverPrint toner-saving function also allows you to lighten up your print job before printing. This ensures a reduced consumption of the printer ink.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 27/10/2017 to 13/12/2017.
Abelssoft PC Fresh
Windows does what it pleases – and that’s usually far too much.
PC Fresh 2016 cuts the fat off, ending unnecessary Windows services, pruning startup programs, and resolving system slowdowns. Additionally, the software finds lost application serial numbers hidden on the system and allows the user to customize various aspects of Windows.
The new 2016 version of PC Fresh includes, for the first time, a manager for easily assigning file associations (e.g. opening .txt files with WordPad).
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 28/09/2017 to 15/11/2017.
Abelssoft HappyCard
Some invitation cards are so special that you’ll want to keep them forever. HappyCard enables you to create this kind of card yourself using only a few clicks.
HappyCard helps users with its simple to use interface to create invitation cards with just a few clicks. Creatively done cards, without any previous knowledge.
No matter if you want to do an invitation card, a greeting card or a gift card, HappyCard comes with 50 professional card designs for events like birthdays, parties, weddings, condolence-cards and more.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 31/08/2017 to 18/10/2017.
Incomedia WebSite X5 Start 13
When you have a great idea to show online, it’s important to get started. WebSite X5 Start 13 has what you need to kick off. Like the other WebSite X5 programs, it’s based on the 5 step method to build sites without coding but it features fewer options. So you only have what you really need to get your first project online and creating your site becomes easy and fun.
This special version for TechLife readers includes 150 extra website templates — so you get a total of 200 templates to select from instead of the regular 50.
Easily send yourself links, images or any files from your PC to your Android phone – or the other way around. Send2Phone supports almost every popular format: Links, text, PDF, mp3 or video formats like WMV, AVI, MOV or MPEG. Send2Phone knows them all and therefore is the perfect companion for your everyday life. Not only can files be sent from a PC to an Android phone or the other way around, you can also connect as many devices as desired with each other.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 04/08/2017 to 21/09/2017.
Abelssoft FolderVisualizer 7
Even the largest hard disk fills up: Countless videos, archives, photos and backups take a huge amount of existing space! FolderVisualizer 7 assists and scans internal and external hard drives in order to search for files that are demanding space on your disks. The new version offers five times faster examination and helps the user with detailed file information in order to make the right decision.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 06/07/2017 to 24/08/2017.
Abelssoft EverDoc
PDFs, pictures or e-mails – with Abelssoft EverDoc you can now conveniently archive everything you need. Simply print the desired document and it will automatically be filed in the background without additional work. The software offers a quick and easy way to access your documents via full text search and different sort methods (name, date, keyword). EverDoc also includes the possibility to create and restore backups of your library. This way you can always keep your documents safe.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 08/06/2017 to 26/07/2017.
Abelssoft Tagman
Abelssoft Tagman allows you to organize your music library with just a single button press. With a click you can add titles, artists, albums and more to the ID3 tag of your MP3 files. These are read by all common media players to display information about the song you’re listening to. The innovative fingerprint-technology used by Tagman creates a fingerprint of every track in your collection and compares it with a big online database.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 11/05/2017 to 28/06/2017.
Abelssoft Undeleter
Deleted files in Windows accidentally? Even data which has already been removed from the Recycle Bin is capable of being recovered by Undeleter. The list of findings has clever filters to find individual results even in huge lists, with Deep Scan Technology utilised to find even damaged or partially overwritten files for recovery.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 13/04/2017 to 31/05/2017.
Abelssoft KeyDepot
Abelssoft Keydepot allows you to save all of your login information clearly in self-defined categories. It uses a highly secure AES-256 algorithm, which is approved in the US for state documents classified top secret. Key depot provides the option to save your personal data in the cloud, and to have access to your passwords from a number of different devices.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 16/03/2017 to 03/05/2017.
Abelssoft PDF Compressor
Abelssoft PDF Compressor is the ideal everyday helper when it comes to sending small PDFs. In comparison to other programs, PDF Compressor accomplishes compressing large PDFs with many pages in record time. If you work with many PDFs, there is a convenient batch processing feature. Simply paste all the PDFs to compress into the tool in one go, and then let PDF Compressor work for you. The processed PDFs will automatically be saved in the target folder.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 16/02/2017 to 04/05/2017.
Abelssoft AntiLogger
Online crime is booming. And the favored tools of cyber-criminals are perfectly effective enough to provide them with plenty of valuable user data. They can catch many users all too easily with so-called “loggers“ – all the victim needs to do is open the attachment of a spam email or visit an illegitimate website and thus the logger will be downloaded and begin embedding itself into the victim’s computer. As the name implies, Abelssoft AntiLogger 2016 thwarts their attempts.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 19/01/2017 to 07/03/2017.
Abelssoft VideoCompressor
Videos are a popular medium to share and spread experiences and information. But often users are confronted with videos being too large for sending and taking a lot of storage space on the hard drive or SD card. Abelssoft’s VideoCompressor solves that problem and scales videos down significantly. It supports almost all popular formats like FLV, WMV, SWF, MPEG, MP4, 3GP, M4V, AVI, MKV, MOV, F4V and RM.
Please note that these exclusive downloads will only be available for a limited time, from 22/12/2016 to 08/02/2017.
Abelssoft WashAndGo
Abelssoft WashAndGo for Windows removes internet traces such as your browser cache, cookies, browser-history and many more traces of the most common browsers. WashAndGo is also able to detect system errors and correct them, enhancing system stability. Defective shortcuts, registry errors, orphaned entries in your Recent Files folder and wrong uninstall entries in Windows are among the problems WashAndGo can solve.
