Don't Be Surprised When Your Cheap PSU Blows Up

Page 5 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
Antec All The Way Baby! Never have any issues, you get what you pay for so buy it right the first time!
 
I have built hundreds of comuters in the last 15 years. I have used the cheapest crap power supplies and NEVER HAD ONE BLOW UP. Some failed. Some didnt have the power to open the cd rom drives lol. BUT NEVER BLOW. THIS ARTICLE IS BS TO SCARE PPL INTO BUYING STUFF THATS WAAAAAAAY TO EXPENSIVE. SUCKERS
 
I have built hundreds of comuters in the last 15 years. I have used the cheapest crap power supplies and NEVER HAD ONE BLOW UP. Some failed. Some didnt have the power to open the cd rom drives lol. BUT NEVER BLOW. THIS ARTICLE IS BS TO SCARE PPL INTO BUYING STUFF THATS WAAAAAAAY TO EXPENSIVE. SUCKERS
 
I would too like to see some more mainstream cheapos from good e-tailers in a test.

Buying eBay, one MUST be cautious. It is too easy for counterfeits and reject units to be sold... easy dumping ground for the unwary so someone can make a quick buck.
 
FUD for the sheeple! I *will* be surprised if my cheap PSU ever blows up. The one in my last computer has been working fine for 7 years despite crappy electricity supply. The old computer is obsolete but the PSU is still working fine!
 
Defining cheap and bad is not that easy.

With the exception of a few companies out there, everyone had serious hiccups. Buying a cheap PSU is not always risky.

HEC are fine for example.My 525W HEC run strong for ages and with serious abuse:12cm Delta 195cfm fan, an oced P4, oced gfx card, 6 HDDs, 2 SCSI Devices, 2 ATAPI devices, so on.

LPK's are known for their variety of options, as every true builder will tell you.Some of them are much higher quality than the ancient unit Tom's tested.I've probably used too many of them though: Good 420's and 580's are fine for simple PCs.

However, high performance Desktops really need excellent/expensive PSU's.
Most of Tom's readers probably have a good gfx card (with at least one PCI-E connector thus needing High Amps), an OC'ed CPU and a voracious motherboard (don't get me started on Mobos, DFI anyone???)

The article IS applicable to high performance PC's and sort of applicable to cheap ones.Always buy with care, and if you are not sure, buy an expensive one. Take care.
P.S. I am building PC's for ages... I 've seen "expensive" PSUs fail, lots of them...
 
I have built hundreds, if not over a thousand computers over the last 15 years, and very very very few have had "premium" brand PSU's. Usually I get cases with PSU's built in, recently been going with Inwin, built a lot of Enlight based computers. PSU's that of themselves have died? 0, that I am aware of. Big fat goosegg. Now mind you, I have never purchased computer components for new builds off ebay, but usually from major e-tailers or distributors.

I have also been in the computer repair business for 15 years. Dead/bad PSU's are rarely the issue when customers bring in their computers. Now, I must admit I have seen the bulk of my work several years ago, and in recent years, quality may have gone down, but I believe that if you know your source, know what you are getting, and know what it will be used for, you'll be alright. Wonder how many people are trying to OC and run lots of high power draw equipment at max load on cheap, underpowerd PSU's?
 
Another thing that would have been great to include in this article? Clearly delineate the difference between "OEM PSUs" (Delta, Hipro, Lite-On, Bestec, FSP, etc.), "low-end, overrated PSUs" (Thermaltake TR2, CoolerMaster eXtremePower, HEC), cheap "decent" units (Corsair CX430, Antec Basiq, stuff on clearance), and "overrated GARBAGE" (Linkworld, Sutai, Echostar, Diablotek, Logisys, etc.).

Because then you wouldn't have all these misguided folks calling you sellouts or scare mongerers.
 
if i cant trust this site i cant trust anything. just got an ocz 600w to replace my cheap 580w that has been working fine but im upgrading. find the cheap ones at new egg and test those people that shop there are the ones to be protected :)
 


Noooooo they're not. Linkworld LPK are all ancient garbage. So are the rest of Linkworld's units (I've had the pleasure of destroying an LPJ2, and the LPSW holds the dubious distinction of being the worst power supply JonnyGURU.com has ever tested-- 3000mV of ripple!) It's already proven that the wattage numbers of their units are meaningless, as the LPJ2 430W and 500W are both internally identical down to the last component, and both fail at 250-275W. Linkworld's units vary in how ancient they are, but generally they were low-end crap by the year 2001 or earlier, and Linkworld has been on a cost cutting crusade ever since.

 
I've had a number of psu's blow over the years. One actually shot a bolt of electricity out the back and made a loud buzzing sound, then a pfhhvvv noise. Took the whole pc with it. I've learned the hard way that when you build a pc, the psu is the most important part. It's the only part that can take every other part with it when it goes. I am running a corsair AX1200, last psu was a PC Power and Cooling that lasted 5 years before I upgraded, now it's just sitting on a shelf waiting to go into another compuer. I won't buy a PSU without doing my research and it has to have 4 or more eggs on newegg with a lot of reviews.
 
My PSU is a BFG 800 W, thing keeps running without much issue, aside a slight buzzing sound under load, though the fans are a tad loud, will probably get a quieter one in the future.
 
What is real scary is that some of these poor PSU's probably make it into manufactures of Desktops and who knows what happens. I mean if you try and put a better video card in with one of these PSU's thinking their rated high enough. You might be surprised when your computer goes up in flames.
 
[citation][nom]Phaedrus2129[/nom]Noooooo they're not. Linkworld LPK are all ancient garbage. So are the rest of Linkworld's units (I've had the pleasure of destroying an LPJ2, and the LPSW holds the dubious distinction of being the worst power supply JonnyGURU.com has ever tested-- 3000mV of ripple!) It's already proven that the wattage numbers of their units are meaningless, as the LPJ2 430W and 500W are both internally identical down to the last component, and both fail at 250-275W. Linkworld's units vary in how ancient they are, but generally they were low-end crap by the year 2001 or earlier, and Linkworld has been on a cost cutting crusade ever since.[/citation]

After selling more than 500 and having almost no returns, I wholeheartedly disagree.You can buy one for 5euros and you can buy some for much more.Not every model is the same. Some are fine.

There are worse things out there, test them yourself, I've seen many PSU's. Price is not always a good indicator and as everybody knows, not every company produces their own PSUs.If you want the best, you can go with PC Power & Cooling, they cost too much but they are worth it...

I still think that the article is not always applicable.As other people noted, most people have a pc that doesn't exceed 300Watts even when stressed out.Nominal power then is irrelevant.Not everybody is a gamer.

Personal experience? Until the P4 days i had a Linkworld 350W.No problems at all. After that, I had a HEC 525W and now a Toughpower 750. Surprisingly, the Toughpower isn't good at all (Problems with my DFI mobo, not able to run with HD2900XT CF without careful power cabling position and cooling).
 
Are your clientele the type to come to you for every problem? Not that I don't believe you, but I know more than a bit about power supplies. More than you, and I'm not saying that you know nothing. One glance inside a Linkworld power supply tells me everything I need to know about their reliability.

First off every Linkworld ever put through its paces on a load tester has failed between 200W and 300W. The +12V rectifier is often rated for less than 10A (or 120W) meaning that even if the primary can pull 200-300W, under a realistic load the power supply will fail around the 150-175W mark. Ripple will always be out of spec by 100W, often by 50W, which will cause cumulative damage to all major components in a computer. Usually no protections are present except the loosely-configured OVP/UVP found in the cheap secondary controllers they use, and a fuse for SCP (rather than PWM controller level SCP, which is far more reliable). OCP, OPP and OTP will not be present. The transient filter is usually wholly omitted, which means that sags and spikes in the mains will cause sags and spikes in output voltage, which can cause instability and damage, respectively. In addition, lack of a transient filter means that the power supply will feed its switching noise back into the mains, creating huge input noise for all other electronics on the circuit, which can cause instability and damage to them as well. Build quality is usually terrible. For instance, Linkworld often uses hotglue instead of the tack insulation any non-retarded manufacturer would use. Guess what happens when a capacitor is separated from a heatsink by hotglue, and that heatsink hits 60*C? Speaking of capacitors, usually the cheapest Chinese brands like Canicon, CapXon, and Fuhjyyu are used, which will usually fail within 3-18 months, leading to PSU death, greatly increased output ripple, or to loud, annoying squealing. Soldering is usually terrible and full of potential cold joints which will lead to early failure, not to mention all the potential short circuits from wires stripped too far and not correctly soldered.

Even not counting the ways in which these PSUs are dangerous, there's still the fact that they're loud, inefficient (60-75%), have no power factor correction (meaning that to your circuit breaker it looks like twice as much load as it actually is), and are lacking in connectors. And don't even ask about any warranty. There are so many ways Linkworld and PSU companies like it just suck that I could go on for days.

I suspect that many of these power supplies you've sold have been to non-tech savvy people who just want a cheap upgrade or cheap "custom" computer and if they have issues take it to a relative or whoever's offering the cheapest computer service at the moment.

It's likely the power supply already in their pre-built PC is better. Delta, Lite-On, Hipro, Bestec, FSP, all of these companies are infinitely more reliable and honest than Linkworld.

If you've sold over 500 Linkworld PSUs, then I must say that you're a terrible builder and an unethical one at that.

And the fact that you continue to endorse this company is astonishing. Really?

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=123
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/534
http://hardwareaware.com/review/linkworld-430w/

And now the Tom's article. You still want to support these people?
 


SeaSonic makes all of their own power supplies, being an actual manufacturer. They may have outsourced some stuff in the past, but not in the last seven years or so.

Etasis is a minor OEM, they're a build to order company and can make a good or bad power supply depending on how much you pay them.
 


They don't. All major desktop manufacturers use a small pool of PSU/general electronics manufacturers that do ultra-high-volume orders and can adhere to an acceptable quality level. Delta Electroncis is the largest of these, with Lite-On and Hipro (aka Chicony) being close followups. Bestec, FSP, and HEC are also large players.
 
This is nothing more than a fluff piece for overpriced Power Supplies.
Check out my review of this Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W on 6/9/2006 off newegg.
This powersupply is still going strong. Been in use almost every day. Never had a problem. Paid USD$60.00
The generic OEM powersupply in my Gateway FX (700watt) runs my Q6600, 3HDD, 2DVD Drives, a GTX 260, and a SB Xfi for several years now without issue.
Of course there are some bad supplies out there, if you do some research before you buy you can do well without paying a premium.
 


Rosewill RP v2 units are passable. Nowhere near as bad as what this review is about.

Same for the unit in your Gateway.





Tom's did fail here, but it was more on execution than concept. Not a fluff piece. Just a poorly done attempt at doing a JG-style "Gutless Wonder" review.
 
Best article ever. 15 years ago when my bother-in-law recommended I spend over $100 on a PSU, I laughed. As I grew wiser and I realized how fundamentally important a PSU is, I started to buy better and better PSU's. I now refuse to buy name brand computers because I know the PSU will be low end. The last computer I purchased from a name brand company, literally caught fire in my office. It cost my business at least 10K in tangible damages and untold amounts of intangible damages. Imagine Velociraptors redundancy gone forever. Oh, even more important than a good PSU is a good online backup. The concept is the same.
 
The image for this topic, combined with the title, made me and my friends burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Would it be possible to get a higher resolution version of it?

This has got to be one of the funniest computer-related anecdotes I've heard in a while.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom