Brand Names Take On Generics In PSU Showdown 223
The Raindog writes "The power supply is perhaps the most overlooked element of a modern PC, and yet it's the one component that can irreparably damage the rest of a system. The market is littered with generic PSUs that are often much cheaper than name-brand alternatives, but can you trust them? The Tech Report aims to find out in its latest power supply round-up, which compares the performance, efficiency, and noise levels of a collection of reputable PSUs with some budget, no-name competition. As it turns out, any money you save on a generic PSU purchase will likely cost you more in the long run."
What does HP use??? (Score:2, Interesting)
I have owned several HP/Compaq machines and NEVER have lost a PSU. And all of the ones I have built myself with parts (Antec) have had a PSU fail multiple times...
Re:What does HP use??? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have had two PSUs fail on me. One was in an expensive Dell workstation and it exploded overnight, leaving a very interesting smell. The other was an Antec provided with a case, and it just stopped working for no reason. I didn't think PSUs could suck so badly, but I've learned my lesson.
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:1, Interesting)
I have literally 6 dead Antec PSUs in my closet, all were refused any sort of replacement, and all have obviously bulging capacitors. Several of them also took out several sticks of RAM, 2 motherboards, and a hard drive, spread across various computers of my own and friends. All of the computers with Antec PSUs (purchased all from newegg.com over ~5 years) eventually stopped turning on reliably, starting making funny squealing noises from the PSU, and/or starting crashing randomly. All of the Antec PSUs have been replaced with Seasonic now, and no computer has has a single hardware problem since its PSU was replaced (and in some cases, other hardware which was replaced at the same time as listed above).
These days, you can't really be sure (Score:3, Interesting)
...As it turns out, any money you save on a generic PSU purchase will likely cost you more in the long run..."
To such statements, I say "Ohh puhleeze!" I use generic power supplies for all my PCs, which I never switch off by the way. Apart from increased noise after about 3 years of constant humming, I have no complaints for a product that costs me about 18 dollars.
I heard Google uses the same stuff too.
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:4, Interesting)
Right. Bose is one of the best brands of speakers, and neon lights make your computer go faster. Sorry, but Antec is all marketing and no quality. All the ricer overclockers want to believe that Antec PSUs make their computers +0.2% faster, but the truth is, Antec uses some of the lowest quality parts in their PSUs and if you check something like badcaps.net, you'll realize that Antec is one of the most commonly reported brands in the PSU category, and most widely complained about brand in the forums.
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:In other news... (Score:1, Interesting)
So if the difference in the price of the capacitors is slight, then where does the large difference in the price of the PSU come from?
If you have any interest (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Also check your UPS (Score:1, Interesting)
Where would one get a European version of that?
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Though not in EU, of course (Score:4, Interesting)
I think most problems would be with older equipment made in the days when both the US and the EU countries were trying to make inroads in the Chinese suppliers. For a time the certification bodies seemed to go a little crazy and let the Chinese get away with murder because they all wanted to be the primary Chinese certification body. One of the best incidents I remember was an auditor going around a Chinese plant with ISO 9002 certification. All the documentation was there, all the procedures written up. In English. And no-one in the entire factory spoke English. I doubt this is the case with electricals any more.
Re:What does HP use??? (Score:2, Interesting)
I've always bought whatever was cheapest for the wattage I needed and have never had a PSU fail or a PC fail as a result of anything I can really guess was power related (Well, I suppose technically, it's impossible to know but hard drive failures for example when they don't die outright i.e. crashing heads seem unlikely to be power related).
The only exceptions where I have spent a bit more on a PSU I've found they offered me no notable advantage other than that described (quieter, more cables maybe). Paying more for better featuresets is something you'd expect in most product lines, for example the one I used in my latest machine which I paid a little more for will turn itself back on to let the fans spin and cool down the system once I've already turned it off, this isn't much use unless your PC crashes due to overheating and the system needs to be cooled down quicker, which mine hasn't- so I suppose it just wastes power over letting it just cool naturally after a shut down.
I'm not really convinced there's any more risk with budget PSUs, I just think you're paying for brand name and features, if you need those features, pay for them, if you don't then budget PSUs don't seem to bring any harm.
There is only one exception I've seen to this when I was working in tech support where one supplier used PSUs that all failed within about 6months to a year, but this strikes me more as a problem with that individual product line than an inherent product with cheap PSUs- it's not like we haven't seen expensive named brands such as Fujitsu hard drives, Microsoft XBox 360 have their faulty batch product lines too.
Having worked in support for 7 years in a place where we had over 5000 users and machines from all sorts of suppliers including some from non-big name brands that put together some pretty cheap hardware, and having also built many machines for myself and others over the years I'm convinced if this was an issue then it would be one that was much more prominent. I found things like Maxtor hard drives being the biggest bain back then if anything with a much higher failure rate than any other vendor (ignoring the Fujitsu MPG3 drive line screw up) but then it was telling that they dropped their warranty from 3 to 1 year whilst Seagate and Western digital upped theirs from 3 to 5 years- if anything talks volumes about product confidence that does!
Have others really seen a higher failure rate in systems with cheaper PSUs as a running trend as opposed to a one off?
Re:In other news... (Score:3, Interesting)
The main things you'll see in a high end PSU:
1) Voltage stabilizing in case the power coming to the PSU is not very good
2) Quieter fans
3) Output voltage/watts and efficiency stay within reason at higher load
4) Some generic heat up quite a bit.
Don't forget power factor correction (PFC). Especially in a datacenter.
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:3, Interesting)
Except, of course, for the Antec EarthWatts. And the TruePower series. Both of which are... made by Seasonic.
Not entirely true.
The older EarthWatts were made by Seasonic, the newer ones are made by Delta.
Source: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=110 [jonnyguru.com]
I agree with (Score:1, Interesting)
I definitely agree with the last part
"As it turns out, any money you save on a generic PSU purchase will likely cost you more in the long run."
On my last creation I had to change PSU three times because the cheap one failed, the store wasn't too happy when I got in for the third time and asked for a refund. I ended up with a Corsair PSU. It was much quieter and I havent had any PSU related problems ever since.
Re:What does HP use??? (Score:5, Interesting)
We've had the opposite experience of HP power supplies, we just had to replace 70 HP supplies. When machines started failing in the field, I found that there was massive amounts of ripple on the 12v and 5v lines. When I disassembled the PSU it wasn't hard to tell why - bulging and leaking capacitors.
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:1, Interesting)
Uhm. Maybe they're knock-off PSUs just labelled Antec. Seriously, I've never had an issue with antec supplies. I get nesteq or zalman ones now because of quiet-pc-addiction, but never had an issue with antec.
Re:Also check your UPS (Score:4, Interesting)
It will even transfer the measurements to a SD card. It comes with a English text. manual. Continental Europe socket.
Voltcraft ENERGY LOGGER 3500 [conrad.nl]
If you search for this stuff in amazon.de you will find one that claims to have ranked 2nd in a German magazine testing of energy measuring devices. This is the new version of the one who got first.
I have no relation to this shop, or manufacturer, I just love the gadget.
Re:Antec is the worst (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Also check your UPS (Score:3, Interesting)
It looks like most UPSes make systems *less* reliable on balance. How frequent is a power failure compared to a UPS failure?
Check for country of origin (Score:4, Interesting)