Coolmax ZU series are horrible, yet their ZX series has good review, why?

Happy Hopping

Happy Hopping

Supreme [H]ardness
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Is coolmax a cheap quality brand name over all? I read thru their ZU series power supply review from newegg, most of them said the PSU has a loud pop and it dies w/i days, or months.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159127&Tpk=zu-500b&IsVirtualParent=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159128&Tpk=zu-600b&IsVirtualParent=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159129&Tpk=zu-700b&IsVirtualParent=1

And yet, a long series of the ZX review, said the ZX is pretty good, and yet the ZX series is actually cheaper. Should I go w/ the ZX series or phase out Coolmax altogether?
 
I wouldn't buy one of the PSUs and put it in my box.

Is it possible the ZX isn't bad? Sure, odds are someone else was outsourced to build the ZX units, or the ZX are on a different platform, or both. Coolmax sells a few PSUs that are half-decent, and the rest pure garbage. That does not mean the "good" label gets to be used on the the half-decent ones though. Most reviewers have 0 knowledge of PSUs. And if it boots up at all and doesn't sizzle and pop like a firework it "runs like a champ". Reviewers almost never know how awful the noise regulation is etc.

Why risk buying one when there are quality known alternatives?
 
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/ this is where I check power supplies if possible.

Coolmax is a low tier maker of PSU choice of components, build quality I am sure there is many things, but it should be obvious enough when they are usually less $ then other makers for the same wattage/features. Either way there is plenty of known good choices to go with as Skripka stated.

Rosewill 750 capstone, Corsair HX750, Thermaltake TP XT 775 etc. Thermaltake SP-750m 80 bronze PSU is very similar to HX750 for less, pure spec wise is near identical.
 
thanks every1. I discover Seasonic has a new series called G, and I'm hoping the basic motherboard I configure weekly w/ just the Pentium G2020, 4 GB of RAM, 1 SSD, 1 DVD+RW can run on 360W from Seasonic
 
coolermaster also has the new GX series which might be worth taking a look at. My brother still uses the Real Power Pro 750 that I once used ~6 years old now :)
 
Happy Hopping said:
thanks every1. I discover Seasonic has a new series called G, and I'm hoping the basic motherboard I configure weekly w/ just the Pentium G2020, 4 GB of RAM, 1 SSD, 1 DVD+RW can run on 360W from Seasonic
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Yes the Seasonic 360W will be more than enough power for that setup.
dragonstongue said:
coolermaster also has the new GX series which might be worth taking a look at. My brother still uses the Real Power Pro 750 that I once used ~6 years old now :)
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The Coolermaster GX series pretty much suck. The Coolermaster Real Power Pro PSUs are far better than the GX series.
 
I just finished off reading the review on the G360 from Seasonic. For the price, it's great, it c/w capacitors from Japan, tested at 105 deg. C, it's 80 Plus gold, 5 yr. warranty etc.

However, the customer reviews on this Seasonic, is virtually identical to the other SEasonic PSU review I've read on newegg: they have coil whine issue.

In fact, among the customer, 1 of them have a dog, and he said the high pitch humming sound is unbearable, and he doesn't want his dog to suffer like that.

I'm an animal right activist, so I have to reject this seasonic in the end.

Having said that, I discover this guy that is NOT 5 yr. warranty, NOT 80 Plus, but quiet, 120 mm fan, and a great brand name:

http://www.enermaxusa.com/psu_enp350ast.php

So now, is there anything bad about enermax NAXN?
 
Happy Hopping said:
Having said that, I discover this guy that is NOT 5 yr. warranty, NOT 80 Plus, but quiet, 120 mm fan, and a great brand name:

http://www.enermaxusa.com/psu_enp350ast.php

So now, is there anything bad about enermax NAXN?
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Well for one, something is wrong since it's very easy to cheat 80Plus testing. So if Enermax couldn't even do that with this PSU, something must be wrong with the PSU itself.

And there is: Enermax photoshopped away the voltage selector switch on their manufacturer's page for that PSU. If you look at the Newegg product photos for that PSU, that red voltage selector switch is clear as day. The inclusion of that red switch means that the PSU lacks APFC and therefore the design itself is old, low quality, or both. As such, it's not a good buy at all unless you hate your hardware or something.

Not to mention that Enermax isn't exactly that great of a brand name anymore since a lot of theirs PSUs over the past few years have just been so-so at best with only a handful of them (usually the 1000W+ models) being a cut above the rest.

If you just want a budget PSU, just go with the Corsair CX430 V2 or the CX500, whichever is the better deal for that day/week.
 
The lack of APFC is an old design, or a design that remove the production cost of PFC, but the removal of PFC doesn't mean it's low quality. There are millions of PSU out there w/o PFC, they have been running for years, and no problem there. The Enermax is $35 to $40, so it make sense to remove those feature to cut cost.

What other brand do you have in mind besides Corsair?
 
Happy Hopping said:
The lack of APFC is an old design, or a design that remove the production cost of PFC, but the removal of PFC doesn't mean it's low quality. There are millions of PSU out there w/o PFC, they have been running for years, and no problem there. The Enermax is $35 to $40, so it make sense to remove those feature to cut cost.

What other brand do you have in mind besides Corsair?
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Removal of the APFC circuit is typical of a lower quality unit. This is a 300w CWT design being sold as a 350w. It's not even made by Enermax.

At that price pont other then the Corsair?

The Antec VP-450 is a solid little unit in that price range. Though it also lacks APFC. The Earth Watts EA380D is also a solid little unit with APFC. The Seasonic SS-300ET or SS-350ET are also great little units with APFC.

When it comes down to it though, the Corsair CX series is the one to beat as a basic low wattage psu. They're solid, well built, and have great customer service. You really can't go wrong with it.
 
Jorona said:
Removal of the APFC circuit is typical of a lower quality unit. This is a 300w CWT design being sold as a 350w. It's not even made by Enermax.

At that price pont other then the Corsair?

The Antec VP-450 is a solid little unit in that price range. Though it also lacks APFC. The Earth Watts EA380D is also a solid little unit with APFC. The Seasonic SS-300ET or SS-350ET are also great little units with APFC.

When it comes down to it though, the Corsair CX series is the one to beat as a basic low wattage psu. They're solid, well built, and have great customer service. You really can't go wrong with it.
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Hell, any of the Seasonic rebrand rellers will do the OP fine.
 
Happy Hopping said:
The lack of APFC is an old design, or a design that remove the production cost of PFC, but the removal of PFC doesn't mean it's low quality.
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As Jorona noted, a lot of low quality PSUs tend to not have APFC. Yes there are exceptions but those are very rare exceptions. The Antec VP-450 is the only recent exception I know of.
Happy Hopping said:
There are millions of PSU out there w/o PFC, they have been running for years, and no problem there.
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Uh huh. Just because there are a lot of crap out there doesn't make that crap all right.
Happy Hopping said:
The Enermax is $35 to $40, so it make sense to remove those feature to cut cost.
Click to expand...
No it does not if you're trying to sell good PSUs.
Happy Hopping said:
What other brand do you have in mind besides Corsair?
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Pretty much most of the ones that Jorona said:
- Antec EA-380D
- Seasonic SS-300ES
- Seasonic SS-300ET
- Seasonic SS-350ET

But once you look at the pricing, specs, and proper PSU reviews, the Corsair CX series just take the cake.
 
I do sell the EA-380D, it's a 80mm fan, and I am somewhat happy w/ it, I would be happy if it were a 120 mm fan, so I do sell the EA-430 as well.

As to seasonic, I'll check the review, but like I said earlier, the humming is bad for a human, really bad for a dog
 
Happy Hopping said:
but like I said earlier, the humming is bad for a human, really bad for a dog
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You never said anything about the humming being bad for a human. The "review" you paraphrased only said it was "unbearable". For all we know, he could be super-sensitive to noise. For most people who have faced/heard that coil whine, it's just an annoyance.

As for the dog, you have only stated one anonymous review stating that the reviewer was afraid for his dog. Thats not enough proof to say that the coil whine is enough to be bad for a dog.
 
that depends on the Hz level that it is, very high pitch noise can be bad for any animal, but the DB level as well as the overall frequency of that noise has to be loud and shrill or loud and deep, but again as Danny is alluding to, coil whine from a consumer power supply more then likely does not have enough oomph behind it to do damage via sound waves to hurt anyone it is just an annoyance 99% of the time, if it were a sonic ray gun of doom that would be different.

Yes frequency can kill and hurt you, being under power lines for example for many many years can cause brain tumors and so forth, but these lines are 1000x+ more powerful then this power supply you reference, if it were hurting his dog, the dog would be freaking out and wanting out of the room as dogs have very sensitive hearing that they cannot just turn off or get used to.

Also just to point out, PFC/APFC are great things to have for filtering the power to reduce the harmonics and keep the wave smoother(I am not an electrical guy just did some quick reading is all) but from the sound of it are not "required" there is many many ways to make the PSU without needing it, given in a low wattage unit they are not going to be taking the $ way of doing so, so it is probably better if it is there :)
 
ROFL. Some people always wanting to skimp on the power supply.

If you don't have the $$, save more buy quality. Its so easy a caveman could do it.
 
lol yep, better to save on the motherboard as an example, or opt for a smaller SSD or so forth but the power supply, well that is just foolish
 
Collectively, there are a lot of coil whine issues under the brand seasonic across a lot of models. I do agree that coil whine is an annoyance. I've suffered from a $6.6K HP z800, that gives coil whine. It was fixed, but it's very annoying.

It's just something I found out from that review that the coil whine is even worse to a dog, as it's more sensitive to them. So on an ethical pt. of view, there is no way I would go w/ this brand as it's too harmful to animals
 
"So on an ethical pt. of view, there is no way I would go w/ this brand as it's too harmful to animals "

Now that is one of the most moronic things I have ever heard. It is a shallow point of view, and has no bearing(or very little) on reality.

Seasonic makes some of the best consumer power supplies on the market, and unless you have a very quiet computer, most times you wouldn`t even notice the coil whine anyways.

Are you going to stop using many of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards cause they also have this issue, or better yet, I better never see you use a cell phone cause guess what, they also have a very high frequency tone, and throw out your microwave man you are killing all our pets as that frequency of "whine" cooks your food.
 
dragonstongue said:
"So on an ethical pt. of view, there is no way I would go w/ this brand as it's too harmful to animals "

Now that is one of the most moronic things I have ever heard. It is a shallow point of view, and has no bearing(or very little) on reality.

Seasonic makes some of the best consumer power supplies on the market, and unless you have a very quiet computer, most times you wouldn`t even notice the coil whine anyways.

Are you going to stop using many of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards cause they also have this issue, or better yet, I better never see you use a cell phone cause guess what, they also have a very high frequency tone, and throw out your microwave man you are killing all our pets as that frequency of "whine" cooks your food.
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+1.

Even the best brands have a thing or 2 wrong sometimes.
 
Happy Hopping said:
It's just something I found out from that review that the coil whine is even worse to a dog, as it's more sensitive to them. So on an ethical pt. of view, there is no way I would go w/ this brand as it's too harmful to animals
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Going to repeat myself again: You only found ONE user review stating that the coil whine might make a dog suffer. Just ONE user review. Think of the hundreds of thousands Seasonic made PSUs that have been released in the past few years. There are plenty of people out there that own dogs and other animals. Yet only ONE user review actually states that it might be harmful to dogs. You have no independent confirmation. That is not enough evidence unless you don't mind using shoddy unverified evidence.

So in other words, your statement is false and completely off-base until you can find numerous independent confirmation that the coil whine from Seasonic PSUs actually hurt animals.
 
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