Why are PSU's included in case bundles considered bad?

[Marshondude]

I'm building my first computer, and to save a little bit of money I was going to buy a case with a preinstalled PSU. However, everybody is telling me to just save up a little bit more and buy a PSU separate. Why are case bundled power supplies considered so bad? Is it really worth the extra money?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

They're not just "considered" bad, they usually are. What they assume is that people buying cases with power supplies preinstalled know very little about computer hardware (especially power supplies) and won't expect or know anything about the unit being poor quality. In addition, it saves the case company $$$ and they often include one of their own brand power supplies.

 

[Marshondude]

They're not just "considered" bad, they usually are. What they assume is that people buying cases with power supplies preinstalled know very little about computer hardware (especially power supplies) and won't expect or know anything about the unit being poor quality. In addition, it saves the case company $$$ and they often include one of their own brand power supplies.

Is there any real risks to using a case supplied PSU?

 

[getochkn]

Bad, poor quality. They might do ok for a dual core chip with no GPU and running facebook, but for a gaming system they lack the quality to put out decent power and usually will short out and possibly cause damage if put under the big power load of a decent gaming system.

That's why they usually are $40 for a case and PSU, while a good PSU will cost you $60+ just for the PSU and why any decently built case doesn't include a PSU.

 

[USAFRet]

Because far too many people do not know what the differences might be.

PSU #1 - 500 watts. Push it to 480watts, fire, explosion, popping.
PSU #2 - 500 watts. Push it to 480 watts, and it hums right along, no problem.

Guess which one is included in a bundle?

The PSU is a core component of a system. Everything runs off it. Buy a bad one, and you may smoke other parts.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Well, the first risk is they probably have poor quality capacitors from China or Taiwan instead of the quality Japanese ones. A capacitor is used in a power supply to regulate or modify voltage, and cheap capacitors will fail quickly (it'll leak a liquid) and then it could cause an unstable voltage that can damage your components. Low quality power supplies might not even have a transient filter meaning electricity coming in will not be filtered properly, and it could also send dangerous electricity out to the wall that can damage other electrical devices in your house.

They also will typically have no surge suppression, as well as poor ripple and voltage regulation which can cause harm to components. In addition, poor efficiency so high electricity bill.

I once owned a case + PSU for about $40. Surprisingly the PSu lasted but only powered a Pentium for about 4-5 months on 24/7. But it's in a danger zone and now gives off a high pitch noise when plugged in and on, even if not connected to a PC.