[SOLVED] Do all PSUs have protection?

[s355]

I'm just wondering.

 

[David0ne86]

Depends on the quality. Not all psu are created equal. The cheaper you go, chances are they had to cut corners, and in psu world is mostly with ripple suppression filtering system, poor capacitors quality and lack of protections (most notably ocp).

 

[hotaru.hino]

The ATX spec requires power supplies to have at least over-current, over-voltage, and short circuit protection. There may be more on higher end supplies. Of course, knock-offs and "too good to be true" supplies from say Ali Express are likely to give the ATX spec the middle finger.

 

[Eximo]

By their design they generally have SOMETHING. Otherwise they wouldn't function. However, that is no guarantee of protection for your components.

Those specifications are more to protect the power supply. You can still have a short circuit somewhere in a system, as long as it doesn't exceed over current or cause an under voltage condition (which not all supplies have) the PSU will happily provide power. So 10 amps across your hard drive is of no concern to the PSU, while your harddrive will be melting/exploding.

They can cheap out on the wiring (thickness) and non-soldered connectors (only crimped, actually quite common). Quality control is another big deal, instead of a burn in test, they might just see if it powers up, and immediately send it off for packaging. Loose screw, damaged in shipping, fire waiting to happen.

On the positive side, it has been a while since I have seen a listing for a truly fake power supply. With fake transformers and the like. Probably still exist though.

 

[Zerk2012]

You need professional reviews really take the new GB model looks fairly good on paper till you tear into if. This one actually exploded because the protection was set to high and they also lied about the type of fan used.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS0Mjw3BW94

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Just because it says a PSU has protection has nothing to do if it works or not the PSU market is very poorly regulated.

 

[s355]

The ATX spec requires power supplies to have at least over-current, over-voltage, and short circuit protection. There may be more on higher end supplies. Of course, knock-offs and "too good to be true" supplies from say Ali Express are likely to give the ATX spec the middle finger.

I don't use Ali Express. I use Amazon.

 

[s355]

By their design they generally have SOMETHING. Otherwise they wouldn't function. However, that is no guarantee of protection for your components.

Those specifications are more to protect the power supply. You can still have a short circuit somewhere in a system, as long as it doesn't exceed over current or cause an under voltage condition (which not all supplies have) the PSU will happily provide power. So 10 amps across your hard drive is of no concern to the PSU, while your harddrive will be melting/exploding.

They can cheap out on the wiring (thickness) and non-soldered connectors (only crimped, actually quite common). Quality control is another big deal, instead of a burn in test, they might just see if it powers up, and immediately send it off for packaging. Loose screw, damaged in shipping, fire waiting to happen.

On the positive side, it has been a while since I have seen a listing for a truly fake power supply. With fake transformers and the like. Probably still exist though.

Will a cheap server PSU have better protection than a cheap desktop PSU?

 

[Karadjgne]

Protections are 2 prong. One, a psu really needs to have them and two they need to be effective. It's not hard to add protective capacity into a psu, design alone can do that without really adding any major circuitry, so it's not hard to throw in a couple circuits and pass atx standards.

But those circuits must also be realistic. No point in over-current protection that's set so high that the psu will catch fire long before that trips (if even then) or setting short-circuit protection that'll allow arc-welding and not trip.

Effective protections take time, testing, money. Cheap psus don't have the overhead profit to generally allow that.