Power supplies - Down the Rabbit Hole

[Grauniad]

Selecting a good power supply unit is complicated.  Making the wrong choice can, at worst burn down your house, or totally destroy your PC. The latter happened to me once. An Antec power supply blew up and took out so many components that it was simpler to just build a new PC than to try and figure out what could be salvaged. This despite the fact that some Antec models are very highly rated.

Power supply units fit into three categories based on manufacturing.
1. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM): These guys make their own, and brand it with their own label. Sea Sonic is one manufacturer in this category.

2. Designers: These guys design a power supply unit and then gets an OEM to manufacture the unit to their specifications. XFX falls into this category, using Sea Sonic to manufacture their designs.

3. Labels: These guys just take an unit, labels it with their specific label and resells it. For instance, Aerocool is a label that is essentially the Cougar unit from CompuCase. In this category, it's pot luck - some are good, others are so bad you really only want to get one if you are hoping to file an insurance claim for when your house burns down. :)

However, that's not the end of the story - OEMS and designers can still make inferior units, leaving out features that add to the price, such as protection circuits, high-quality components or components that are not efficient even at room temperature or higher - even components that has fairly short expected lifespans.

Here at Tom's hardware is a very in-depth discussion  of Who's Who in Power Supplies 2013.

Right along with that is a very good list from EggExpert.com on the best (and the worst) power supplies on the market. The EggXpert Tiered Power Supply list.

Use these reference tools (or newer versions) as a good starting point for finding and choosing your next power supply unit. :)

Edit.
Wanted to add this link to a database of PSU reviews: http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html

Fixed a couple of typos while I was in here. :)