ASUS PSU buyers guide: all the power supplies offered by the company in 2024
We discuss each ASUS power supply to find the right one for you depending on your particular PC build
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ASUS have been making PSUs for some time, and their latest range contains some truly great quality options. We’ve taken the liberty of listing the current range for you, with an explanation of their features and capabilities, to help you decide the right one for your needs. Reliability is key when it comes to a power supply, and all these selections are of the highest quality, most of them being modified Seasonic units with top notch components.
Read below for a breakdown of each of the models and do be sure to check out our ‘what to look for when buying a PSU?’ section further down the page if you need a refresher before making a purchase. If you’re not sure what PSU your system needs, do also have a look at the ASUS PSU calculator to help determine which Wattage your PC requires.
For the average user: ASUS Prime Gold
- Wattage: 750W
- Modularity: Fully modular
- Efficiency rating: Gold
- Compliance/compatibility: ATX 3.0
- Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.9 x 3.3 inches
If your needs are met by 750W or 850W output and you’re looking for a slightly more affordable model, then the ASUS Prime PSU could be the right choice for you.
Although cheaper than the other options here it still has a great build quality and comes with an 8 year warranty to back this up. This is partly thanks to the dual ball fan bearings, which can reportedly last up to twice as long as the standard sleeve bearing designs.
The low-ESR capacitors it uses help to maximize power efficiency, meaning it comes with an 80 Plus Gold rating. You get a 16-pin PCIe cable included which is compatible with PCIe Gen 5.0 graphics cards
The gaming model: ASUS TUF GAMING Gold
- Wattage: 1000W
- Modularity: Fully modular
- Efficiency rating: Gold
- Compliance/compatibility: ATX 3.0
- Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.9 x 3.4 inches
For most gamers, the ASUS TUF Gaming PSU offers the best balance between price and performance, with the 1000W variant being able to run even RTX 4090 builds. You can also get 750W, 850W, and 1200W variants that meet the gold standard should these suit you better.
Once again this design comes with the dual ball fan bearings, plus has a PCB coating that protects it against extreme temps, moisture, and dust. The premium grade capacitors and chokes within the PSU also undergo rigorous testing, to the level of military-grade certification. All of this makes this a reliable and tough piece of engineering.
This power supply is fully modular and comes with a 10-year warranty, which is certainly long enough (and then some).
The high-end gaming model: ASUS ROG STRIX Gold
- Wattage: 1000W
- Modularity: Fully modular
- Efficiency rating: Gold
- Compliance/compatibility: ATX 3.0
- Dimensions: 7 x 5.9 x 3.4 inches
If you want to put together a gaming rig with a more high-end budget then the ROG STRIX has that extra bit of quality. It has all the same features of the TUF Gaming model discussed above, however it comes with improved ROG heatsinks that not only keep the internals extra cool but work with the onboard fan controller to stop the fans when usage drops below 40%. This ‘0db technology’ essentially means you can enjoy a near silent PSU when doing lighter workloads/gaming.
The ROG Strix comes with ‘Axial-tech fan design’ which essentially means longer fan blades and an improved barrier ring around the fan – thereby improving cooling efficiency. Again this model is fully modular, available in a range of different Wattages depending on your needs, and you get a very nice 10-year warranty.
Once again, different wattages are available, including 750W, 850W, 1000W, and 1200W.
- Wattage: 1000W
- Modularity: Fully
- Compliance/compatibility: Platinum
- Compliance/compatibility: SFX
- Dimensions: 4.9 x 4.9 x 2.5 inches
The Loki is in many ways the smaller variant of the most premium ASUS PSU: the Thor (listed below). It’s Titanium rated, meaning it has an overall efficiency of 94%, making it both quiet and thermally efficient as well.
It has the same premium end components as the Thor, but in a smaller SFX chassis that measures 125 x 125 x 63.5mm – perfect for those smaller cases. It’s available in the typical Wattage ratings: 750W, 850W, 1000W, and up to a 1200W max.
The most high-end PSU that ASUS make: ASUS ROG THOR GAMING Titanium
- Wattage: 1000W
- Modularity: Fully
- Compliance/compatibility: Platinum
- Compliance/compatibility: ATX 3.0
- Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.9 x 3.4 inches
As befitting its godly name, the Thor is an absolute beast. It has a Titanium efficiency rating, making it exceptionally quiet and thermally efficient. The 1200W variant of this PSU produces less than 35 dB of noise, which means it won the Cybernetics Lambda standard ++ certification (which is quite the prize in the PSU game). The maximum wattage however is 1600W, which is very high indeed, and would be able to power even the most ridiculously high-spec rig with extra to spare; there are also 850W and 1000W options available.
The power supply has the ATX form factor as well as being designed up to the future ATX 3.1 standard, giving it a great amount of future proofing.
In aesthetic terms, you get a fully ARGB-Illuminated fan and Aura Sync compatibility, which means you can synchronize it with the same RGB effects used on the rest of your PC.
What to look for when buying a PSU?
Before we talk through the different power supply options that ASUS offer, let’s make sure we’re up to speed on what we should be looking for when shopping for one of these devices.
Wattage
The first thing you need to check is the wattage of your power supply. This is the value which measures whether the output of the PSU will be enough to power all of the components in your computer, especially power-hungry components like the graphics card and processor. Typically we advise buying a PSU with a higher wattage than the value your build requires, just to give yourself some headroom for any future upgrades.
Efficiency rating and meaning
The efficiency of a PSU in basic terms is a measure of what proportion of the wattage it draws from the mains electricity (i.e. from the socket/power outlet it’s plugged into) makes it into the computer it is powering. Besides wasting less power, more efficient PSUs tend to produce less heat (waste energy) so are also quieter as less fan cooling is required.
Around 2004 manufacturers started providing consumers with a standardised rating system to gauge the efficiency of their PSUs known as the 80 Plus rating system, so named because all those within it will supply at least 80% power efficiency when under 20%/50%/100% loads. The differently ranked ratings within this standard range from Standard/White all the way up to Titanium, with the higher ratings typically costing more money to buy; and you can read more about these in our dedicated power supply ratings guide. Every PSU listed here falls within the top three efficiency ratings: Gold, Platinum, and Titanium.
There’s also a newer, more accurate efficiency standard from Cybernetics Labs that takes into account different regional mains power outputs (whether you be in the US, EU, UK etc.). This isn’t quite as popular as the 80 Plus rating yet but you can look up your chosen PSU from their table here, along with their decibel rating.
Passive vs Semi-passive
Passive and Semi-passive refers to the cooling technology used by the power supplies. Passive PSUs have no moving parts whatsoever, in particular they are fanless as all of their cooling duties are performed by heatsinks, which means they run pretty much silently. The downside of this however is that they are less competent at cooling high-power builds for which a fan still remains necessary.
The majority of PSUs on this list will be semi-passive: these power supplies do have a fan, but only utilise it when needed under medium-high loads, meaning they remain mostly silent in low-usage scenarios.
PSU Modularity
Modularity in the context of CPUs basically refers to how many of the cables you can remove and how many are soldered on to the PSU, which makes it harder to arrange and cable manage within your PC build. The majority of PSUs listed here will be fully modular so you don’t really need to worry about this, but if you want to know more have a read of our full vs semi vs non modular guide for more info.
