[SOLVED] How Dangerous are Super Cheap Power Supplies?

smmm

Prominent
Aug 14, 2019
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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!
 
Solution
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

Wolfshadw

Titan
Moderator
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
 
Solution
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.