News Redditor finds heavy block of iron shavings inside cheap PSU, also appears to lack safety protections

[Admin]

A Redditor shared images of their PSU. Inside, they found a iron block with no other purpose other than to increase the weight of the unit to make it feel like a high-end product.

Redditor finds heavy block of iron shavings inside cheap PSU, also appears to lack safety protections : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

In 2023 there are few, if any, reasons not to use a PSU from anyone but Seasonic, Enermax, or Superflower (in descending order). The PSU is one area you want to spend money, and these days even a 1000w 80 Plus Titanum PSU from those three brands regularly drops near or under $300 on sale, with 750w Platinum under $200.

 

[USAFRet]

In 2023 there are few, if any, reasons not to use a PSU from anyone but Seasonic, Enermax, or Superflower (in descending order). The PSU is one area you want to spend money, and these days even a 1000w 80 Plus Titanum PSU from those three brands regularly drops near or under $300 on sale, with 750w Platinum under $200.

And there are people who Do Not Know.

Just concerned about the wattage number, and do not realize that there can be a significant quality difference.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Oh there's a lot of people who don't know and/or don't care, has been since DIY computing has been a thing.

 

[jonathan1683]

This was my first biggest mistake, using a cheap PSU my case came with that I got a computer show. It fried every compononent I had, even my burner lol.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

This was my first biggest mistake, using a cheap PSU my case came with that I got a computer show. It fried every compononent I had, even my burner lol.

I did that as well back in the naughties before GPUs started drawing more power than entire systems would, thankfully it died alone.

 

[Amdlova]

I have the cheapest power supply, the evga 600w 80 plus White. With some modification of course. But I only use it with 50% of the total capacity nothing more.
These unit can last about five years when all Chinese caps goes bad. The total power draw from the system with a 13100T and a 6700xt with 15% more power can reach 330w. Seasonic can last forever if not abuse it. But who knows when some one will launch a new atx specs. 50% of market don't use haswell specifications... some vendors hide the information about atx specs. You need find the info on Google. The power supply market is a madness thank God the seasonic exists.

 

[hotaru251]

you don't mess around with electricity.

PSU is soemthing you don't buy "cheap" as it can destroy your entire pc & possibly start a fire in your house.

 

[Ryrynz]

"own it's mistake"!?
Lol..
People really do be living in a fairy tale with this level of naivety.

 

[das_stig]

With a PSU you just don't skimp on paying for quality, saving a few £ on PSU only see it go poof and take your £x000's rig with it.

 

[watzupken]

The unfortunate reality is that there are people that wants to spend a lot on their PC, but scrimp on the PSU, thinking it’s one of those components that don’t add value to performance and features. It is not uncommon for people to ask for opinions on their proposed new PC setup, with a cheap high wattage power supply.

 

[gg83]

Just imagine the waste of subsidies to make and ship such trash!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

In 2023 there are few, if any, reasons not to use a PSU from anyone but Seasonic, Enermax, or Superflower

Eh, Id stick CWT in there too. They make some really good ones. The Corsair RMX as an example.

The PSU is one area you want to spend money, and these days even a 1000w 80 Plus Titanum PSU

Agree with you here. Don't skimp on the PSU. Never.

 

[Eximo]

There has been a trend of cheapening various PSU lines. I can understand why, with the entry level PSU now being closer to $100 then $50.

Seasonic is no exception to that, there are certain price points to meet for volume sales and some pretty low end, though still not dangerous, PSUs have been hitting the markets.

Never did understand the fake PSU production. Fake storage, GPUs, etc, at least aren't dangerous.

 

[King_V]

Looking at the individual rails . . they don't total anything near 500W. Just under 300W, by my pre-caffeine math.

Where the heck do you even find something like this?

 

[Order 66]

And there are people who Do Not Know.

Just concerned about the wattage number, and do not realize that there can be a significant quality difference.

Like me until recently. strange that a PSU would have iron shavings inside of it. I would like to say thanks to those that let me know that my old PSU (Thermaltake smart) needed replacing, and also to those that helped me find a replacement.

 

[TJ Hooker]

User Hattix responded to the Redditor's findings confirming that they saw has no input protections to speak of, including OCP protection.

Out of curiosity, did the author actually make any effort to verify these claims, or are we just trusting whatever a random redditor says? It's not a big deal in this case, but there seems to be a recent trend in TH articles of uncritically regurgitating claims found on social media, which is troubling.

In this case, I don't think the pictures show enough that it's even possible to make some of the claims that redditor did. And the claim that there's no regulatory marking is incorrect (it has the Australian 'RCM tick').

Also, OCP isn't an input protection, it's on the output (this is a mixup by the TH author, not the redditor).

Edit: not to dispute the quality of the PSU in question here, it's obviously junk.

 

[Eximo]

Not a new problem, just not something you see much of in the western world. Energy efficiency regulations make it quite hard to sell something that terrible.

It was common for fake transformers to be made with just stacks of metal plates and to have wires taped to them where you would expect the windings to be. These would be made to look like they did something inside of a PSU that had a much simpler actual PSU circuit. And the same types of issues, outright false wattage ratings, missing common ATX protections.

Also very common for cheap knock off products to have bundles of washers taped to the inside, or literal hunks of scrap/slag, to make cheap items seem higher end due to weight.

A common one I used to track was name brand phone chargers that had had the guts swapped for cheap regulated power supplies. Basically pushed pulsing DC into phones and tablets. You could get them for a few dollars, and people wondered why they charged slow or broke their devices when the real ones were like $30-40.

 

[Kehkou]

"own it's mistake"!?
Lol..
People really do be living in a fairy tale with this level of naivety.

It's been known to happen, especially if enough people complain to a manufacturer about a specific problem.

 

[derekullo]

Back in 2003 when I was in high school, I had built my first gaming computer.

Athlon XP 2200+, 1 gigabyte of DDR ram!, Geforce 3 TI 500

Don't think I messed with ram timings, but I did slightly overclock the cpu and gpu.

I was in my room with a friend playing Tron 2.0.

The game's tutorial had said to click the IO node.

I/O Node

I/O Nodes are the primary mode of communication between programs in Tron 2.0. I/O nodes are how programs communicate when not in the vicinity of each other. I/O nodes, like most objects, require a permission set to activate. The segmented ring surrounding the reticle will indicate what...

progress-bar.fandom.com

As soon as I clicked the IO node the computer shut off and a large cloud of white smoke filled the room.

Eventually I traced the issue to my no name power supply.

Have stuck with Corsair ever since.

Still a running joke between us when a computer issue happens that I shouldn't have clicked the IO node.

 

[USAFRet]

Have stuck with Corsair ever since.

And "Corsair" is not a universal good.

A few years ago, a Corsair CX600 (green label) died, taking the motherboard with it.

 

[derekullo]

And "Corsair" is not a universal good.

A few years ago, a Corsair CX600 (green label) died, taking the motherboard with it.

Let me rephrase.

Only Corsair gold or higher rated PSU.

Obviously a bronze rated PSU had corners cut!

 

[Eximo]

I was in my room with a friend playing Tron 2.0.

That brings back memories. A really good game.

 

[USAFRet]

Let me rephrase.

Only Corsair gold or higher rated PSU.

Obviously a bronze rated PSU had corners cut!

Yes.

Good quality, not brand loyalty.

 

[Amdlova]

From 2012 to today all power supply need to be inspected. All brands are a joke.

Here this site can help for future builds

PSU Tier List rev. 17.0g - Cultists Network

PSU Tier List will help you to choose the best PSU out of hundreds of models on the market. From budget to the highest end Power Supplies.

cultists.network