MSI Power Supply Range Buyers Guide
MAG A650GL
MAG A650GL
The A650GL is clearly for replacements in older systems, or a very affordable option in an entry level build. Maybe even one of those systems you make for a family member from your spares. It’s significantly better than the PSUs we started with, and very much where we would consider the bottom of the market to be. That isn’t to say it’s bad, quite the opposite. It’s fantastic value for money. A gold rated power supply, fully modular, and with a name brand for £80? That’s amazing value. Yes you could, theoretically, spend less, but why would you? Those barely-branded, hard-wired ones from China aren’t much cheaper, but won’t let you sleep deeply at night either. At least with the MSI MAG you know it’s built very well.
We often get asked by the curious what type of cables you get and how many. You never want to buy a power supply only to discover you can’t plug everything in. Thankfully with the MSI MAG A650GL you get a good selection of cables and all of a decent length too. You can see them in the flesh a little further down this page.
Specifications
Up Close
MSI use that lime green colouring for the majority of their MAG products, and the A650GL is no exception. You will be surprised how even this excellent value PSU has many tricks up its sleeve.
As the more affordable products tend to be the ones that end up on your high street, we like that the packaging designers are showing off the cable types and lengths on the box. It saves any unnecessary fretting over what you’re getting in the box.
When we first started out this type of power supply would be the stuff of dreams. It was only recently that flagship power supplies went fully modular. Now the first model in a buyers guide is fully modular. It’s crazy how quickly the market moves. This angle also shows off the large fan that will keep the A650GL cool with the minimum of noise.
You can never have too much ventilation, especially with power supplies. Unlike the other models in this MSI PSU buyers guide, the A650GL doesn’t have a zero fan speed option. But, like many things, you get what you pay for. With this MAG model all the money has gone into the Gold rated efficiency components. Remember when efficiency ratings first appeared? Hell the market is still awash with “bronze” rated no brand rubbish. The MSI MAG A650GL is at the line of what we at OC3D would consider entry level. We have high standards and so should you. At this price there is no excuse to have anything less.
Connections and Cables
The only connection it’s missing is the newest Nvidia GPU ones, but we think that makes sense. Not everyone has the taste and sophistication to read our buyers guide and thus would probably try to run a RTX 4090 off this. At least without the cable you know that only graphics cards it can support are able to be connected.
If you’ve seen a fully modular power supply before then the cables provided with the MSI MAG will be familiar. Clearly labelled. Good quality. Affordable. What more can you want?
