VisionTek 700W Power Supply Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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VisionTek 700W Power Supply Review - VisionTek, once know solely by enthusiasts for its Made-in-the-USA video cards, now just a former shell of itself, has been quietly diversifying its business to help its bottom line. Today we look at a 700 watt VisionTek power supply that we saw being sold on special and decided to pick one up for ourselves and put it in the grinder. Quality buy or pig sty?
 
When I saw Leadman in cahoots with Powmax and Diablotek, I thought "This can't be good."
 
And here I was thinking it was disappointing that the last unit didn't failure speculatively. Well this makes up for it. I love reviews of bad power supplies, they are always funny. I hope no one besides H bought these units, they're a failure waiting to happen. I half expected the unit to go up in smoke instead of just popping.
 
Ouch...Scathing and from those numbers you guys were being generous.
 
emm... Wow, that thing can be dangerous.

Enjoyed the review though!

"HARDOCP FAIL" logo still seems somehow too good for a product like this. This and units like the Diablotek should also get a "HAZARD WARNING" logo.

Or some such wording...
 
"wow" is all i have to say. How did this thing make it into production without someone saying "hey, maybe we should test this thing out"... or maybe the 'testing procedure' was simply to plug it in and see if it worked at all.

"Plug it in. Did it blow up? No? Good enough for me. Ship 'er out."
 
Ah... Visiontek... How you have fallen from grace, crashed into the ground, landed in a thorny patch, rolled down hill accelerating to terminal velocity, parted a large cactus patch, and exploded into a fireball that can only be rivaled by the nuclear explosion of Hiroshima. Cheers.
 
"700 watt VisionTek power supply that we saw being sold on special and decided to pick one up" What did you expect for $39.99 a 1000w power supply. Just looking at the size of the capacitors gave your review away. I usually look at your pics of the build to decide if I continue to read your review. I knew the dreaded flame thrower was coming so I read your review for the chuckle.
 
Thanks for the review. I usually by lower end stuff from manufacturers I have experience with (never had a problem with their GPU's) for friends or family ( when doing the work for free) this unit I will definitely stay away from.
 
"700 watt VisionTek power supply that we saw being sold on special and decided to pick one up" What did you expect for $39.99 a 1000w power supply. Just looking at the size of the capacitors gave your review away. I usually look at your pics of the build to decide if I continue to read your review. I knew the dreaded flame thrower was coming so I read your review for the chuckle.

The problem is not us..The combination of it being marketed as a 700w, and by a well known name brand to those who don't know what they are looking at could result in bad things for people.
 
"700 watt VisionTek power supply that we saw being sold on special and decided to pick one up" What did you expect for $39.99 a 1000w power supply. Just looking at the size of the capacitors gave your review away. I usually look at your pics of the build to decide if I continue to read your review. I knew the dreaded flame thrower was coming so I read your review for the chuckle.

We expected what VisionTek said it was delivering.
 
That was an incredibly hilarious read, thank you for purchasing this psu so we could all share a laugh!
The article itself, could use some proofreading however. But it can be forgiven, i imagine you could barely read what you were typing with the tears in your eyes and the unstoppable amount of shaking from laughter lol.
 
You know how sometimes as an enthusiast you see another enthusiast telling people that a 700 wat power supply is not enough to run a single gtx 580 and you scratch your head because your 500 watt corsair psu powers one just fine.... well units like this are the reason people have to recomend absurdly high wattage power supplys to non tech savy users because when you tell your cousin/neighbor/roomate that they need a 700 watt psu for their new gaming rig and they see this pos at new egg and think wow what a great value their going to come back to you when it explodes and be like wtf man.
 
emm... Wow, that thing can be dangerous.

Enjoyed the review though!

"HARDOCP FAIL" logo still seems somehow too good for a product like this. This and units like the Diablotek should also get a "HAZARD WARNING" logo.

Or some such wording...

Something more along these lines? (Quick and dirty)

dTWDf.jpg
 
At the end of the day, the VisionTek 700W joins a very select club of power supplies that includes the Ultra X2 750W EE, Diablotek PHD650, and the Apevia ATX-AS500W. Which is like saying you just joined the elite club of the Plagues of Egypt.

you forgot a few to ad to the list dynex comes to mind. Someone seriously needs to start suing these assholes. I am normally anti litigation but this has for a long time been outright consumer fraud.
 
That was an incredibly hilarious read, thank you for purchasing this psu so we could all share a laugh!
The article itself, could use some proofreading however. But it can be forgiven, i imagine you could barely read what you were typing with the tears in your eyes and the unstoppable amount of shaking from laughter lol.

[H] did a good review considering what they had to work with, as I said I had a good laugh. As soon as they opened it up i thought some parts must have fallen out.:D Just checked a few sites out and its wonder after this review their not pulling them off the shelves.:)
 
[H] did a good review considering what they had to work with, as I said I had a good laugh. As soon as they opened it up i thought some parts must have fallen out.:D Just checked a few sites out and its wonder after this review their not pulling them off the shelves.:)

Retail/etail stores don't usually care how good or bad the products they sell are as long as they make money. If they get massive returns then they'll care.
 
Paul, I just had dinner and opened [H] to start my long holiday weekend. And what a whiz-bang you gave me to start it. It would have only been more entertaining if I'd had a large, cool, stout in hand.

The article was great fun. Thanks!
 
Kyle, you were wondering "We are going to assume Cheng meant "200v" 1200uf200wv = wv=working voltage.
 
That's the biggest waveform I've ever seen in any of the [H] power supply reviews. Looks like a kid with a fat marker drew it. :eek:

Hilarious review [H]. Thanks for the read. :)
 
I always love to read the reviews of failed units,very entertaining.

Thanks for the review,guys. :D
 
M-m-m-m-monsterfail! :D

I just love reading reviews of gutless wonders.
 
Nothing like a scathing review to make the world just and right... Im going to bed now happy.
 
Kinda already expected the same conclusion.

So let me be so bold as to ask why there were so many mistakes that I could barely read the article? Was it the PSU's doing? ;)
 
Kyle, you were wondering "We are going to assume Cheng meant "200v" 1200uf200wv = wv=working voltage.

Actually that was my mistake I read and wrote down the wrapper as w versus wv since w wv look similar. Eye sight fail. I'll get that sentence corrected.
 
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Always a good read. I particularly enjoyed the magic 8-ball predictions.
 
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It annoys me that many manufacturers sell rebranded hardware. For the customer it is very hard to discover what product they are buying. Brands like Corsair are known to sell rebranded products but at least they have a good QC. If large OEMs like Topower start selling rebranded products too, things get complicated. If i read a review about a bad unit from brand xx i stay away from it... only to unknowingly buy it under a different brand name from a different company.
 
It annoys me that many manufacturers sell rebranded hardware. For the customer it is very hard to discover what product they are buying. Brands like Corsair are known to sell rebranded products but at least they have a good QC. If large OEMs like Topower start selling rebranded products too, things get complicated. If i read a review about a bad unit from brand xx i stay away from it... only to unknowingly buy it under a different brand name from a different company.

That's why there is a market for websites like this one.
 
It annoys me that many manufacturers sell rebranded hardware. For the customer it is very hard to discover what product they are buying. Brands like Corsair are known to sell rebranded products but at least they have a good QC. If large OEMs like Topower start selling rebranded products too, things get complicated. If i read a review about a bad unit from brand xx i stay away from it... only to unknowingly buy it under a different brand name from a different company.
Topower is not a large OEM. Hence why they no longer manufacture their own PSUs.
 
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