Don't Be Surprised When Your Cheap PSU Blows Up

[Onus]

A dozen years ago, I used to buy cheap PSUs, with the naive belief that the labels on them were basically truthful; after all, for them not to be would be illegal. I guess ignorance of ignorance is bliss... Since then I've seen Jonnyguru, HardwareSecrets, HardOCP, and other sites regularly blow up such pieces of junk, and dissections show their labels to be pure fabrication. These kinds of stories used to make me laugh, now they make me angry. This doesn't happen by accident; this is willful consumer fraud. One or more high-level executives need to be found guilty of it and put down. GAME OVER.
I don't like that 80+ tests at the unrealistically low temperature of 23C (efficiency will be notably lower at the more typical 35C-40C found inside a PC), but at least they run the units at 100% of their labels for long enough that they cannot have been overrated or they'd be dead. As a result, 80+ certification is, and will remain, one of my recommendations for people looking for a PSU.
As for myself, I buy Antec and Seasonic, and would consider only a few others (typically Seasonic-built, like Corsair) for my own systems. None of them have ever failed, and there is no harm in sticking to what works.
And yeah, I used to never buy Antec because the older ones did have capacitor issues, but that's all in the past.
The Earthwatts "D" models are Delta, as are the Signatures; I think some of the Truepower are too (the rest, including the older Earthwatts, are Seasonic).

 

[nforce4max]

A rule of thumb if fast food is more expensive then you know the unit is crap.

 

[brendonmc]

Great article! Can't believe it wasn't done sooner.

Clear case of you get what you pay for with power supplies. I've had several Antec PSUs and never had an issue, even when running the good ol HD2900XT.

One thing people may not realize is that using a cheapy power supply often limits the performance and overclocking potential of the CPU. They are truly false ecomomy.

 

[steelbox]

Tom's, you spend 50 Euros! Do it again with a camera ready.

 

[sincreator]

I've been on a Thermaltake Toughpower 750w for over 5 years now. No issues whatsoever. This PSU was almost $300.00 back when I bought it and I can say that I think it was well worth the money. http://techgage.com/article/thermaltake_toughpower_modular_750w_psu/3 If I was going to have to buy a new PSU now it would most likely be another Thermaltake Toughpower/Corsair.

I do think there are a few cheaper PSU's that are not all that bad. I know a few people that have bought OCZ PSU's for cheap($30-$60) and still have no issues with them 2 years later. Not sure if someone else makes the OCZ PSU's or if it's their own design though.

 

[JamesSneed]

All I know is that every single Antec supply I have bought over the years never made it past the five year mark before blowing up due to cheap Chinese caps.

Antec sources power supplies from other companies so some have had crap capacitors and some haven't. I have an Antec PSU in a 9 year old PC that I gave away a few years back and it is still kicking.

 

[Noworldorder]

I bought a Lepa 500w. easily among the best.

 

[castle songbird]

the 420 psu was smoking on the job

 

[pcman911]

I wish they would do a similar test on the inexpensive power supplies that some of the e-tailers sale. Would be nice to see how some of the Diablotek, Rosewill, HEC, Coolmax, and others stand up in this test. I always purchase the Antec and Corsair 380-420 watt units when they are on sale for repairs and low end builds. Corsair 430WT on sale right now for $29.99 free shipping, can't beat that for reliability. I found one website that had a nice list of the real component manufacturers of some of the inexpensive names, but it was not kept up.

 

[bv90andy]

When I built my mid-range PC last year I bought the "OCZ StealthXStream 400W Silent" for 22£, that's about 35$ and it works like a charm... even though I am putting quite some stress on it(phenom II x2 550,ATI HD 5750 -both slightly OCed), and I don't expect it to go strong for much longer.

 

[Guest]

I wanted to see pictures of a fried PSU, please...

 

[eyemaster]

Love this article. Finally some products that are so far bellow par that no one at all could benefit from them.

On another note, where's the money saving if you buy a quality 70$ power supply or go with one of these 20$ units and have to buy a 30$ fire extinguisher to go with it? I guess you get the thrill that comes with fire, sparks and explosions... Cheap thrills indeed!

 

[Firehead2k]

I also have a nice story about PSUs, although in retrospect it makes my hair stand up. Back in the Pentium III days, I had a Dell whose PSU gave up after just about 2 years (capacitors blew), and Dell wanted an outrageous 400$ for a new one. So I said screw that, when out, bought an el cheapo PSU and got to work... Since Dell have to make everything hard, their connectors aren't standard, so I had to pull out all the cables from the connector and puzzle together what the old one looked like. Using some soldering wire, a zippo lighter, a glass pipette and duct tape, I had to multiply a couple of wires, since there were not enough in the standard el-cheapo one to work with the Dell MB. (I used the zippo to make a flame, and blew air onto it with the pipette to make a small nozzle like flame to meld the soldering wire, since I had no soldering iron at hand).

Suffice to say, the PC ran without problems for the next 5 years

 

[Guest]

This article although entertaining, is a shameless plug for PSU manufacturers. The chances of PSU dying in 30 mins or exploding and what not are infinitely rare. You don't need to spend 150$ on a PSU. Been using budget PSUs for 2 decades now. They don't explode any more often than branded ones do.

 

[jemm]

Warranty may be another issue with cheap PSU.

 

[randomstar]

My most hated ones were Logisys- local distro was pushing them, but I found that their " 600 " was really only good for 150-185 peak systems. and bad solder joints, failed caps, bad fans were the leading failures. that being said, I have three Cooler Master 520 watt units and two 550 antec units laying on the floor in my shop, none of them lasted more than 10 days. Bought some enermax units 400 watt on ebay once on whim, and all of them are running nicely years plus down the road. 40 bucks each.

 

[Caffeinecarl]

[citation][nom]4chon4life[/nom]Anything made by the slant eyed chinks WILL FUCK UP in a short peroid of time[/citation]
Uhhhh, yeah... Even though I agree that cheaply made Chinese crap can be thoroughly dangerous, the racism isn't necessary.

 

[drwho1]

I remember in the late 80's - early 90's power supplies were cheap, and they were "fine", they work flawlessly on those systems because back then the power requirements were very low.

I used to expend around $40 dollars top on those days on a power supply unit.

but this days.... is another story, I wouldn't even consider any power supply for under $100 dollars and better if you can afford between $150 to $200 on a power supply unit.

 

[jgiron]

i paid $25 for a cheap 700 watt PSU and it fried my system....never again. Next time I went for an OCZ 500 watt psu for $50 (with discount)

 

[ram1009]

I've said this many times on this site so this seems like a good time to say it again. Stressing a PSU is one of the most frequent mistakes made by builders. Personally, I never want my PSU operating at more than 50% of capacity.

 

[guyjones]

I just don't think it's worth trying to skimp and save a buck on a PSU if you're building a PC. There are so many 80-Plus Gold and now Platinum units available for a reasonable cost that the modest dollar savings that might be gained by going with a cheaper product just isn't worth the risk in the long run as far as having an unreliable power supply, with all the headaches that entails. In the grand scheme of things, a cheaper PSU will probably end up costing more in the long run when one factors in replacement cost, potential damage to components, etc.

 

[thebigt42]

True Blue Baby!

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

Well, I agree that cheapo psu's are pretty bad, not everything under $100 is worthless. I have never actually used a "good" brand. In my main rig which is a dual socket 940, I have a 500W Rocketfish psu...you know, the bestbuy brand. It keeps up with everything I do and I haven't had a problem yet. Before that, I had a HEC(orion) 585W. It also worked fine, I just swapped it out because of case airflow issues. It's still running in another system. Those psu's were $30. Just look up the model on google before hand to see if the reviews are good or bad.

 

[megamanx00]

Too bad they didn't record the sparks ^_^. This is why you should always buy a quality PSU at least a Tier 3 one, or even a tier 4 for a backup that's not going to be stressed. Cheap PSUs kill parts, but even worse than doing it right away is doing slowly, causing instability and killing parts just after the warranty period ^_^. My old MSI KT3 Ultra 2 now has nearly useless USB ports simply because I ran it with a cheap PSU before I got my Blue Storm II ultra. The X1950GT AGP that sucked up all the power seems o.k though

 

[Quaddro]

Owh, that's not cheap enough..In indonesia you can get "600watt labeled PSU" with the Platinum Word in the label just for US$9...LOL