Discussion PSU recommendations and power supply discussion thread - Tom's hardware

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Darkbreeze said:
And THAT, usually tells you one of two things. Either they are too new for anybody to have reviewed them yet, or they are not a model that the manufacturer is proud enough of to send out review samples of them because they don't want the bad feedback they know they are going to recieve going mainstream public because when Aris or Oklahoma Wolf, or another PSU reviewer says "this unit is not good", then they might as well just shut down the production line for that model because it's never going to be a high volume seller. Also, if reviewers don't feel the unit is good enough to bother wasting time on for a review, they may abstain from doing a review on it if a sample WAS sent, or decline to spend money on it in order TO review it if no sample was sent.

Other times, well, no, that pretty much covers it.
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I think I have seen them for 1-2 months. I'd expect reviews within 1-2 months.

I really hope its not the last one.
 
If you keep it cool and you don't ask it to power much of anything you should be ok. But even then it's probably near the end of it's life and it's time for something better. I was just getting ready to replace my Superflower 450W unit. It was a good one but they don't last forever. I used it for 5-7yrs I think I was looking at getting a new one.
 
No, they are actually not fine, even without taxing them with high demand gaming cards. Just ask @USAFRet or any of the many others who've posted here in the past about the damage they've caused to other hardware when they ceremoniously die because the caps fail and the protections fail. I've seen plenty of people on this here forum, who were using them in systems with low draw configurations have similar failures. Dead motherboards. Smoke. Screaming. Crying. Fireworks. More screaming. More crying. Dead drives. It has happened many times with those units even when the person had a slot powered card only or no graphics card and a unit that was several hundred watts more than their system could have ever used.

Ok. I might be exaggerating about the screaming and crying. I can't say for sure since I wasn't there. Sounds right though. :)
 
Green label CX600 killed one of my boards.
Worked fine for quite a while. Putting some mid grade parts together for a house server...poof. No more motherboard.

No screaming and crying...just swearing.
 
Well, they are better than, say, any of the ones listed as "do not use" on the first post of this thread. They are better than most of what Cooler master and Thermaltake sell other than their premium units. Which are few.

They are ok. They are not something I'd want to pair with a system that uses more than slot power for the graphics card though.
 
Ebay's guarantee doesn't mean Jack if something damages your system. They won't be replacing your damaged hardware. Seen plenty of people on here put Ebay CPUs in perfectly good motherboards and end up with both a CPU and motherboard that don't work afterwards.
 
Yes, but a good model of PSU sent from a manufacturer will have been tested AND will have adequate protections to make sure nothing DOES get fried. That's the main difference. You know what it means when a manufacturer says "refurbished". You have NO idea what some schmuck in bumfu egypt means by "user refurbished" or if it even means anything at all beyond they blew it out with air.
 
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When it comes to the PSUs, i strictly follow two rules:
  1. Never cheap out on a PSU.
  2. Never buy an used PSU (including refurbished PSU).
Further explanation:
1. If you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. Meaning that with cheap price, you can not get good quality PSU. And PSU's quality is very important since it powers your entire PC.
Saving $40 on a PSU now can cost you in excess of $1000 when (not if) "budget" PSU blows and fries everything it's connected to. It has happened and it will continue happening to people who are cheaping out on PSUs.
Moreover, when you can afford to buy $250+ GPU, you can afford to hand out additional $40 for good quality PSU as well.

2. With used PSUs, there's no telling what kind of abuse they have seen and if they even operate within specs anymore. Sure, the "manufacturer refurbished" gives a tiny bit of assurance but there is a catch: There is either no warranty or very little of it included with refurbished PSUs. Corsair gives their refurbished PSUs 1 year of warranty. Same with EVGA, only 1 year. Regardless the PSU series in question.
For example: Corsair AX1200i refurbished costs $245 and comes with 1 year of warranty (link), while brand new AX1200i costs $329 and comes with 10 years of warranty (link).

There's another thing to think about. Refurbished PSU means that original purchaser returned the PSU for some reason. If the PSU is solid, why get rid of it? Also, how proud you'd feel if you're using someone else's junk?


By following those two rules above, you'll almost never have any PSU issues, unless you'll get a lemon or DOA. But PSU RMA covers those.
Add good quality UPS to your PC as well (as i've done) and even electricity grid won't give you any troubles (e.g frying your PSU during thunderstorm).
 
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Well, IDK about that last part. I've seen a FEW systems that were connected to a quality UPS that were just too close to a direct strike on the power lines get smoked. So, PSU and MB done, despite UPS. I don't in any wise trust a UPS to protect from a major surge or strike. UPS isn't really there for that anyhow. It's there to make sure if the system shuts down you have time to save what you are doing and not corrupt anything from an instant off.
 
With components frying during lightning strike - here, i'd look towards electricity grid itself.

1st line of defense: properly installed lightning rod(s)
2nd line: underground power lines (no air lines)
3rd line: up-to-the-date and good quality breakers inside electrical substation and every home as well

With all those in place, everyone's hardware would be safe.
 
I could see someone choosing to SLI or CF as a reason to return. By a 500W PSU now only to decide to take the step and needing to return it to get a 750+. (or not CF/SLI and need to step down to a 550.)

It is a judgement call. I've ran used PSUs before. Never had anything bad happen.
 
Aeacus said:
There's another thing to think about. Refurbished PSU means that original purchaser returned the PSU for some reason. If the PSU is solid, why get rid of it? Also, how proud you'd feel if you're using someone else's junk?
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I sold (but would have returned if I could) my Seasonic Prime Titanium 650 because I understimated how hard the Radeon RX Vega 64 LC was on PSU's. Kept hitting OCP in some games. Got a 750 and I'm all good now.

Aeacus said:
With components frying during lightning strike - here, i'd look towards electricity grid itself.

1st line of defense: properly installed lightning rod(s)
2nd line: underground power lines (no air lines)
3rd line: up-to-the-date and good quality breakers inside electrical substation and every home as well

With all those in place, everyone's hardware would be safe.
Click to expand...

Theres no way to be 100% safe. All of those are great however not everyone has those options available to them. Also you never know what can happen. In the early 2000's my parents house got hit by lightning and it actually hit the cable TV line. Since we had cable internet it actually fried my cable modem, router, and everything connected to the router including the network adapter in my pc, the network adapter on my PS2, and so on. Surprisingly it didn't damage the TVs or cable boxes as all of them were connected to a distributor box that basically just blew up (and thankfully my dad was home to put out the fire before it went anywhere). The line coming into the house was split, 1 to the box, and 1 direct to the modem.
 
I have to stand for the defence of Corsair to a certain length. CX is the only PSU you can buy in the town I live near in England. Records show that in the last six years I've bought forty seven from the trade counter.

The earliest ones must be working fine or I have would have heard from my customers. I concede that lightning strikes are rare in the UK and the majority of those I bought are 450s. My main business doesn't attract many gamers or high end builders but for me, Corsair are pretty strong units.
 
NightHawkRMX said:
For the same reason someone gets rid of an older car, to upgrade.

Not saying this applies to all PSUs, but people upgrading GPUs in prebuilt usually upgrade the working OEM PSU in favor of higher wattage.
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And better quality. While some OEMs ship their units with half decent Delta or Seasonic or a few other semi-quality units, not all do, and not all do on ALL of their prebuilts. Obviously at some price point something has to give, and it's usually the power supply. So, that is always a good place to start upgrading if you don't have a proprietary form factor.
 
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