Raidmax Introduces Efficient 600W PSU

[athlondude]

See I dont understand why so many people hate Raidmax. Most of the reviews I have seen on them have been pretty decent, some even more favorable then Antec, or Corsair. If you go to Newegg and look at the customer reviews usually 70-75% of the reviews are 4 eggs or better. I have one in my system, have had it for almost 4 years now, and I run a pretty demanding system for the power. I have an Intel core I5 760, 8Gb ram, GTX 570, X-FI extreme gamer, and I only have a raidmax RX630-ss PSU. Thats pretty damn good for 4 year old PSU. If you check the reviews most of the negative ones are people who got a bad one to begin with, or tried to run to hefty cards in SLI or CrossFire. LOL I even saw a video on youtube with some guy complaining about it shutting his computer off after a few minutes of gaming. Then he went on to say he had 5 hard drives, 2 optical drives, a GTX 285, etc...well hell that aint a PSU problem. I gotta tell ya for the money, its a hell of an investment, a really good budget PSU.

 

[matt_b]

[citation][nom]athlondude[/nom]See I dont understand why so many people hate Raidmax. Most of the reviews I have seen on them have been pretty decent, some even more favorable then Antec, or Corsair. If you go to Newegg and look at the customer reviews usually 70-75% of the reviews are 4 eggs or better. I have one in my system, have had it for almost 4 years now, and I run a pretty demanding system for the power. I have an Intel core I5 760, 8Gb ram, GTX 570, X-FI extreme gamer, and I only have a raidmax RX630-ss PSU. Thats pretty damn good for 4 year old PSU. If you check the reviews most of the negative ones are people who got a bad one to begin with, or tried to run to hefty cards in SLI or CrossFire. LOL I even saw a video on youtube with some guy complaining about it shutting his computer off after a few minutes of gaming. Then he went on to say he had 5 hard drives, 2 optical drives, a GTX 285, etc...well hell that aint a PSU problem. I gotta tell ya for the money, its a hell of an investment, a really good budget PSU.[/citation]
These are what you get for free for buying a Raidmax case (which those are rather decent though). Very few people are in the same boat such as yourself for maxing yours out at 4 years and still running. "hell of a investment" - investment isn't the proper word, more like backup. Raidmax PSUs are very bad altogether, notorious for high failure rate out of the box, short of claimed power output, and just plain paper weights about a year into their life. You're lucky though, I'll give you that - I wouldn't have the balls to chance a $750-$1000 system on a throw-away PSU.

 

[athlondude]

I dunno, I have had alot of luck with so called "paperweights". For instance I have a XION PSU in my wife's PC, it has lasted for 5 years, and has ran an 8800 GTS, GTX 260, GTS 250, and now has a GTX 460 (I'm one of those lucky guys who has a wife that is a gamer) and it is suppose to be a hunk of crap. Dont get me wrong, I am not saying that if I had the money to spend that I would still choose Raidmax because I wouldn't, however on a budget, they aren't that bad. Given the money to spend on one, I would probably go with a Coolermaster, or an OCZ. Both of those have really good reps, and tons of good reviews, and I have a history with their products as well and have been very pleased with the products I own from them.

The one thing I will say about Raidmax though that I dont like is while the Wattage is there, the amps arent. They seem to be kinda cheap when it comes to amps on the 12 V rail. For instance, my 630 watt raidmax only has 44 amps on the 12 volt rail, and if you get the 730 watt version of my PSU it only increases by 2 amps, which is pretty lame, but other than that it seems just fine.

 

[Onus]

No, most CM PSUs are only a step or two above junk themselves, as determined by competent technical reviews at several respected web sites. The best of those I believe is HardwareSecrets, but Jonnyguru is excellent too, as is HardOCP. Anandtech has been doing decent reviews lately, and so does xbitlabs; there are others. Consumer fluff like Newegg reviews are utterly worthless. It can be really funny when someone from one of those sites chooses a cheap PSU to review based on overwhelmingly positive Newegg reviews. No surprise, it turns out to be junk, sometimes barely good for 50%-60% of its label, and with voltages dangerously (to attached components) out of spec before it pukes its guts out at 70% load.
Sometimes they don't puke, but would instead kill attached parts; here's an example: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=204 . Oh, and since I mentioned them by name earlier, here's another Chokemax: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Coolmax-V-500-Power-Supply-Review/1366

 

[athlondude]

Well as funny as it may be, I do read those reviews at Newegg as well as do some pretty in depth research on most parts I buy for my PC. I do admit I rely on alot of those reviews at Newegg, but its for a very good reason. First off, usually sites like HardOCP and such do their best to kill a PSU which seems a bit backwards to me because the average everyday consumer isnt going to do that. Another thing is, usually I dont concentrate so much on the good reviews as I do the bad. I do this mainly because I want to know what the issue is, and anybody who is pissed off that their PSU crapped out are more than ready to share their complaints. Most of the people that complained about the Raidmax PSU I own because it either showed up DOA, or they were trying to crossfire two 4890s......nuff said.

As far a CoolerMaster goes, while I agree their budget line isnt that great, their higher performance models run quite well. I have several friends that use coolermaster PSUs and they have never had any issues. Coolmax I would never use though, that is scrap metal waiting to happen.

Now I did look up reviews on this particular Raidmax that this article is refering too and the reviews aren't too flattering on it. But there again I have seen similar reviews on more expensive Corsair or Antec PSUs so even the big names make paperweights too.

In any case, if there is indeed truth that the majority of Raidmax and the like are all junk, well hell, I guess I am just a REALLY lucky guy because mine has yet to fail me, or even hint at failing me.

 

[athlondude]

LOL, Just went for a look to see what kind of Raidmax reviews were out there and well.....I couldnt find my exact model, but I did find this one at HardOCP as jtt283 suggested. Now before reading the review I would like to copy and paste HardOCPs testing methodolgy statement "HardOCP’s testing methodology is intended to very much push power supplies to their advertised wattage rating in temperatures that will represent some of the hottest computer enthusiast cases. So if a unit passes all our testing it is definitely not something to take lightly. In fact we expect more power supplies to fail our testing than make it through unscathed."

With that in mind enjoy this review of this "paperweight".

 

[athlondude]

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/02/23/raidmax_rx1000ae_1000w_power_supply_review/9

 

[Onus]

If a unit fails their testing, then it is probably unsuitable. My own issue with 80plus is that they test at an unrealistic 23C, but at least they run the units at 100% of their labels for over half an hour, which will warm them up some, and will weed out any PSU-shaped objects good for only half their labels. Expecting a PSU to deliver its full labeled capacity under "realistic" (not necessarily "abusive") operating conditions is not at all unreasonable. HardOCP's "torture test" of eight hours at 80% is a good measure of realistic use.

 

[athlondude]

Well I took the liberty of going to all the sites you mentioned and out of all the sites you mentioned I found only one review on a Raidmax PSU and that was the one that Passed HardOCP's test. I guess my point is, if all these "PSU shaped Objects" that Raidmax puts out are crap, where are all the bad reviews? The only source I could find concerning them are the customer reviewsat places like newegg and the like. Seems to me this is becoming more of a case of "not popular, must suck" than "look at these reviews, it fails the test". Like I said if at the time I had a hundred or so bucks to spend on a PSU I would have done it, but I didnt so I went with the PSU that fit my budget and 75% or the consumers had good experiences with them and so far it hasn't failed.