[SOLVED] How Dangerous are Super Cheap Power Supplies?

[smmm]

I recently got a "Turbolink" ATX-XG500w power supply from a friend who was replacing it. From my research this thing is a sketchy piece of junk, but I was wondering just how dangerous these cheapo power supplies are. Would they potentially damage the system their in or catch on fire? I honestly have no idea and I'd like to know before I start using it in a cheap PC build.

Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Very dangerous because if the fail under load they can critically damage everything else

 

[Wolfshadw]

All power supplies have a chance to fail spectacularly. Uber-cheap ones just have a higher chance of failure. However, if a specific model / manufacturer has a history of spectacular failure, the company likely would have been sued out of existence by now.

Best you could do would be to minimize it's usage and never put any serious stress on it. If, however, you decide to go forward with it, your chances of unit failure increases. With the failure could come damage to other components, literal catching on fire, burning down the house, global warming and the destruction of the entire known multiverse... ok... that last bit is a stretch.

-Wolf sends

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Incredably dangerous.

They can indeed damage the system they are attached to, and yes, if they fail they could catch on fire. You can have a system completely fried by a cheap psu.

Even if they dont fail or kill anything, they would be very noisy and inefficient.

 

[smmm]

Alright thank you. I guess my friend was lucky that in the 3 or 4 years he was using it it didn't fail catastrophically like that.

 

[bignastyid]

Why not to use budget PSU's (HQ) - YouTube

 

[BFG-9000]

Here's how the insides look. And the 450w model burned out at 240w, reaching only 65% to 74% efficiency.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Why not to use budget PSU's (HQ) - YouTube

Well, i think the title should be changed a bit.

Id concider a corsair cx450 a budget psu, but it is actually a very good psu for a budget system.

The incredably cheap priced psus from no name brands with bad reviews should be avoided.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

View: https://youtu.be/GeXsATzwGh4

Its an old vs450 orange. Very old design and cheap, both price and quality.

The newer vs and cx gray are better.

 

[smmm]

Yeah he replaced it with a new vs650.