16 replies to this topic

[Gammeth1975]

Yes it happened to me last night.

My stompy fun was rudely interrupted by a succession of 3 loud bangs, blue sparks and a puff of acrid smoke issuing forth from my PSU..

I dove commando style to the floor and under the desk and turned the mains off... Whilst down there under the desk, surrounded by the detritus of a mechwarrior's life and tangled in the snake-like mess of cables that inhabits the lower regions of my cockpit, the realisation of the consequences of cheaping out on a PSU swept over me.

Not A Nice Feeling.

After a sleepless night I drove this morning to my local PC shop and parted with £80 for a Corsair 600w Bronze Cert Modular unit, thinking that it would be the first purchase for my new system.

I got home and connected the unit, and with great trepidation powered up my rig...........

Which came to life flawlessly and sailed through 2 hours of Prime 95 blend testing..

She lives :}

I thought that I would put this up as a warning to those who may be temped to cheap out on a generic PSU.. DONT

[shamandgg]

Fellow MechWarrior, I must say you have been incredibly lucky your PSU has not allowed any other equipment to explode with it in critical chain of damage, but it still stopped enraged electrons while sacrificing itself totally beyond recognition and repair.
It is very important not to cut budget on PSU, hence this unit is supporting all the expensive hardware in your cockpit.

Edited by shamandgg, 27 April 2014 - 03:29 AM.

[Smokeyjedi]

noone likes a fire..........Should probably change that out to prevent any possible catastrophy

[The Gunman]

I've had 2 cheap PSUs die on me in a similar fashion, the second time it destroyed my motherboard along with it.
Since then I've sworn to never use a cheap PSU ever again.

[Edustaja]

Electronics run on smoke so don't let it get out

[Egomane]

The PSU is always my top priority in selecting new components. I literally spend days researching the units I'm interested in.

Are all available security functions included?
SCP - Short circuit protection
OPP - Overpower (overload) protection
OCP - Overcurrent protection
OTP - Overtemperature protection
OVP - Overvoltage protection
UVP - Undervoltage protection

Active or passive PFC?
PFC

What's the quality of the parts used to build it?
You'll most likely need to dig in to some review sites where the PSU has been dismantled to get information about those.

Are there bad reports and if yes, for what reasons? Are they exceptions or the rule?
If all negative reports are for the same reason it might be an inherent flaw in the design. You will then need to see if it will somehow affect you. If they are all for different reasons, it's usually not a sign to worry about. Except when there are many, many negative reviews and only a few positive ones.

Generally, you shouldn't go by user reviews on webshops like newegg or amazon, but it might give a hint at reliability. If there are an overwhelming amount of positive reviews (rule of thumb: 9 out of 10), it's probably something that's working fine and the negative ones are the exceptions.

This only goes for parts that are on the market for a while. If it's a new product this is not a good source for information and you are on your own.

Who is the actual manufacturer?
It's no big secret that many PSUs are not actually manufactured by the company releasing it. They are often rebranded units from other companies or build exclusivly for them. Still, a manufacturer, that produces high qulity units for himself will probably not start producing with less quality for others. Though the components might vary, the actual production process will most likely not.

But be carefull, even those companies that are manufacturing PSUs themself sometimes have a few product lines that were produced by another company.

If it is modular, how good are the connections?
How good is a modular connector if it doesn't stay in his socket? That's information that is really hard to aquiere as you will almost never find a note about it on review sites.

For example:
- The connectors of my previous Enermax were sitting rock solid in there socket, held in place by plastic clamps.
- The connectors of my current Seasonic are a bit on the loose end. I had to make sure everything is still in place, when I was finished with hiding the cables in my case. There is no mechanism holding them in place and they easily slide in and out.


There are many more points I look up. Those are only the most important ones to me.

While I not go by price when looking for new parts, I never managed to spend less then 100,- € on my own PSUs. My current Seasonic Platinum has cost me 130,- and was a special offer when I bought it 6 months ago. It still going for 140,- and more, where I life, but some few shops list at a regular 130,- by now.
My friends do not have the same priority as me, so I try to look for good units in the 50,- € price range with at least an 80+ bronce certificate. I research those just as hard as I do for my own, as I'm doing it for my friends and not for some stranger I never meet again. There are some good units for that money, but nothing I would use personally. But then again, they also do not push their PCs to their limits as much as I do.

Edited by Egomane, 27 April 2014 - 07:54 AM.

[Sparkymarkyp]

Did a voice say

"Critical hit: Power Supply Unit"

[Odins Fist]

Gammeth1975, on 27 April 2014 - 03:13 AM, said:

Yes it happened to me last night.

My stompy fun was rudely interrupted by a succession of 3 loud bangs, blue sparks and a puff of acrid smoke issuing forth from my PSU..

I dove commando style to the floor and under the desk and turned the mains off... Whilst down there under the desk, surrounded by the detritus of a mechwarrior's life and tangled in the snake-like mess of cables that inhabits the lower regions of my cockpit, the realisation of the consequences of cheaping out on a PSU swept over me.

Not A Nice Feeling.

I cannot tell you how many people I have told people NOT to cheap out on PSUs.

I have seen more problems with a cheap PSU being the cause then I care to elaborate upon.

NEVER buy a cheapo Coolmax, diablotek, etc, tec, etc, etc, cheepo PSU.. You will be sorry.

Edited by Odins Fist, 27 April 2014 - 08:31 AM.

[Edward Mattlov]

Gammeth1975, on 27 April 2014 - 03:13 AM, said:

Yes it happened to me last night.

My stompy fun was rudely interrupted by a succession of 3 loud bangs, blue sparks and a puff of acrid smoke issuing forth from my PSU..

I dove commando style to the floor and under the desk and turned the mains off... Whilst down there under the desk, surrounded by the detritus of a mechwarrior's life and tangled in the snake-like mess of cables that inhabits the lower regions of my cockpit, the realisation of the consequences of cheaping out on a PSU swept over me.

Not A Nice Feeling.

After a sleepless night I drove this morning to my local PC shop and parted with £80 for a Corsair 600w Bronze Cert Modular unit, thinking that it would be the first purchase for my new system.

I got home and connected the unit, and with great trepidation powered up my rig...........

Which came to life flawlessly and sailed through 2 hours of Prime 95 blend testing..

She lives :}

I thought that I would put this up as a warning to those who may be temped to cheap out on a generic PSU.. DONT

The PSU is one of the most important components in your PC. Aside from your monitor, the PSU is probably one of the parts that you will keep the longest and your computer is useless without it, so why would you buy a cheap one? Most likely the old PSU just had a fuse, or varistor blow out, but it is probably better that you replaced it anyway.

[cSand]

It's also a good idea to have your computer plugged into a half decent surge protector, and not a wall socket!

[Gammeth1975]

Thanks everyone, definitely a lesson learned and a lucky escape too..

[Pastor Priest]

cSand, on 27 April 2014 - 08:44 AM, said:

It's also a good idea to have your computer plugged into a half decent surge protector, and not a wall socket!

QFT. My dad's entertainment room was recently fried. We both live in the Midwest of the U.S., and thunderstorms are a frequent occurrence. He had what used to be a good surge protector, but it was apparently a bit too old. Lightning hit, and fried his TV, comp, and PS4, with the surge protector on.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

Reference the surge protectors;

If your going to use one of these, it indeed needs to be a quality rated one. Listed as "insurance rated" and guarantied. They normally run in the $60 range for starters so not a cheap investment. Don't be fooled by the discount labeled one displaying "guarantied protection" as that's just a ketch all phrase used by marketing.

If your going to buy them, check with your insurance company also, as a method of narrowing down what brands they approve of. Belkin, and Brickwall units are normally in the top 5 rated units. A power strip bar may not be rated as a surge protector, so watch those. The quality of the house wiring plays a big role in how these units will provide protection.

And insure you read what the limit is for the unit you purchase, UL listed and certified, transient voltage surge suppressor, switched / unswitched ports, all listed on the unit. Stay away from anything that use's MOV's as it's method of protection.

Ref:
MOV's are the mainstay component of the surge protector industry. For certain electronic applications they are an excellent choice. For AC power line surge protectors they are not a good choice. MOV's function by creating a short circuit (usually to the neutral and the ground) when a preset voltage threshold is exceeded. Essentially they divert surge current away from what the surge protector is protecting. Unfortunately MOV's are sacrificial components. This means that the performance life of any surge protector utilizing this technology is finite. With every surge current diversion above a modest level an MOV comes closer to its inevitable end. Surge protector with an exploded MOV. (MOV = Metal Oxide Varistor)

9erRed

[condor1X1]

as a side note...besides having a quiality power supply and surge protector

clean out the inside of your computer with a can of compressed air or air compressor...just make sure if useing the air compressor you dont wreck anything with the high pressures ...dont spin the fans and wreck bearing/bushings.

thats layer of dust on all your interanl componeants is like a heat insulator reducing cooling effeincy

[ShinVector]

I think OP pressed the 'Override' Button way too much.

*Yup: Same lesson learnt myself may years back.. Don't use cheap PSUs.

[Edward Mattlov]

condor1X1, on 27 April 2014 - 02:49 PM, said:

as a side note...besides having a quiality power supply and surge protector

clean out the inside of your computer with a can of compressed air or air compressor...just make sure if useing the air compressor you dont wreck anything with the high pressures ...dont spin the fans and wreck bearing/bushings.

thats layer of dust on all your interanl componeants is like a heat insulator reducing cooling effeincy

Yeah, I used to make quite a bit of money off of a guy who did not like to blow the dust out of his computer and would always fry his PSU when the cooling fans seized up.

[Xyroc]

Feel for ya there OP ... late last year my psu fried on me. But not just the psu , the mother board and gpu as well.

It was a tragic day. I just got done moving and finally was ready to turn on the computer for a while a relax but nope nothing turning on when I hit the power button =(