$50 Power Supply Roundup

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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$50 Power Supply Roundup - We went to Newegg and purchased five US$50 computer power supplies that we thought should be solid buys. But what happens when you ask these PSUs to put up its advertised power numbers in heavy usage conditions? You might be surprised what 50 bucks gets you now days.

While certainly not an all encompassing survey, after looking at 5 power supplies from companies well known for their power supplies, cases, or other computer components we come away with the opinion that there are acceptable units to be had for well informed buyers but all carry strong caveats. None of these units have looks and performance. None of these units are going to blow a user away with their efficiency, transient response, or voltage regulation, but of the 5 reviewed today the Antec Basiq 500w and the SilverStone Strider 400w are the best options we saw. These two units did well enough in testing and only stumbled when placed in the extremely stressful settings of 100% load at 45c with an AC input voltage of 100v. The remaining three units are simply bad choices in any situation and should be avoided.
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What I took from the review is that waters are still very shark infested at the $50-$70 market for a PSU. I would like to see you guys do another review @ the $100 level.
 
This article is a little misleading.

There are plenty of high quality PSUs in the $50 range.

They tested a mostly recognized name brand units, but there are plenty of others in this price range that will yield better results.

To call it a roundup, I think they need to test more than just five PSUs... especially to be fair on the issue of "you get what you pay for."
 
Cronuss said:
This article is a little misleading.

There are plenty of high quality PSUs in the $50 range.

They tested a mostly recognized name brand units, but there are plenty of others in this price range that will yield better results.

To call it a roundup, I think they need to test more than just five PSUs... especially to be fair on the issue of "you get what you pay for."
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I agree. I'd like to see FSP Group, Thermaltake, and Rosewill(I've had luck with Rosewill) added to the "round up".
 
ClearM4 said:
I agree. I'd like to see FSP Group, Thermaltake, and Rosewill(I've had luck with Rosewill) added to the "round up".
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FSP was covered in the roundup as it is the basis for the Antec Basiq, and was covered in the 450w-500w roundup as the BlueStorm II.
 
Cronuss said:
This article is a little misleading.

There are plenty of high quality PSUs in the $50 range.
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High quality can be a bit subjective, however as we said in the review:

While certainly not an all encompassing survey, after looking at 5 power supplies from companies well known for their power supplies, cases, or other computer components we come away with the opinion that there are acceptable units to be had for well informed buyers but all carry strong caveats. None of these units have looks and performance. None of these units are going to blow a user away with their efficiency, transient response, or voltage regulation, but of the 5 reviewed today the Antec Basiq 500w and the SilverStone Strider 400w are the best options we saw. These two units did well enough in testing and only stumbled when placed in the extremely stressful settings of 100% load at 45c with an AC input voltage of 100v. The remaining three units are simply bad choices in any situation and should be avoided.
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There are decent ones tested today though none are award winning.

They tested a mostly recognized name brand units, but there are plenty of others in this price range that will yield better results.
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This is true after the last roundup I received numorous complaints from people because they didn't recognize Aspire/Apevia, LianLi, FSP, or Xclio and they wanted to see some "name brands" reviewed whether or not those "name brands" happened to be made by the same companies. So now there are both round ups out there for you to read.
 
Edit: That would be yours truely. Thanks. -Paul_Johnson
 
I had a great time reading through the carnage. thanks for taking on some of the cheapies.
 
Cronuss said:
There are plenty of high quality PSUs in the $50 range.
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Are you certain about that?

Look, there is no way to test every $50 PSU on the market in one body of work. I'm sure these type of round ups will show up now and then.

But the point is, even a $50 Xclio, a $50 Thermaltake, $50 Ultra... sorry, they'd pretty much ALL fail at doing what the "manufacturer" claims they can do. Maybe you've had good luck with them because you've owned one for one or two years and may have only about a 150W load on it, but I certainly wouldn't recommend a $50 or under PSU to any one that cares enough to ask. Outside of the very unoccasional 400W or lower, possibly OEM (non retail packaging) unit
 
Wonderful read - at work so can't "roll around in it" until I get home (just perused the first unit review), but this is what [H] is all about. Thanks guys!
 
As always, excellent, well thought-out article. I only have one thing to add to it.

"They're dead, Jim." :p :D
 
ClearM4 said:
I agree. I'd like to see FSP Group, Thermaltake, and Rosewill(I've had luck with Rosewill) added to the "round up".
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I have a Rosewill in my box, so far so good, I'd like to see something on it as well.
 
What strikes me is just how good the Corsair 450VX is in comparison to these wannabes, for only $69.99 after MIR. Its bigger brother the 550VX is only $10 more after MIR. The 450 is in line with the Antec Basiq's current price and absolutely blows it away. That's the bargain PSU IMHO, based on [H]'s earlier review.
 
The age of the $50 psu is dead :(

Next time you do a $50ish psu roundup, I have a few I'd like to see, including the Thermaltake purepower 430w, and the xclio greatpower 460.

Nice roundup.
 
any time a unit is having a hard time deciding if it is going to fail by melting or by exploding it is going to end up at the bottom of the review
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Absolutetly classic!!! :)
 
Bbq said:
The age of the $50 psu is dead :(

Next time you do a $50ish psu roundup, I have a few I'd like to see, including the Thermaltake purepower 430w, and the xclio greatpower 460.

Nice roundup.
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I remember just a few years back when I had a hell of a time justifying the $80 I spent on a 520 watt vantec stealth, and even earlier than that, $60 for an Enermax 350 watt ps.

How times have changed in just a few years. Now I'm running a $170 Thermaltake Toughpower 750 modular, and wouldn't even consider using anything less than that in a newer system unless it was a non gaming rig.
 
ClearM4 said:
I agree. I'd like to see FSP Group, Thermaltake, and Rosewill(I've had luck with Rosewill) added to the "round up".
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The little Thermaltake TR2 430 watt unit is a hell of a little power supply for the usual $39.99 that it costs and I have seen it as low as $24.99, I've used that ps in 3 of my last 4 builds (for other people).

Edit, as for Rosewill, I blew up one of those in 9 minutes on a moderate build last year, was supposed to be a 450 watt unit, replaced it with the 430 watt TR2
 
Bbq said:
Next time you do a $50ish psu roundup, I have a few I'd like to see, including the Thermaltake purepower 430w, and the xclio greatpower 460.
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You meant Stablepower 460W right? There is no Greatpower 460W.
 
I'd like to throw my $0.02 on review data. Measuring the length of the cables would be valuble to screen out psus that wouldn't fit into some cases. My Antec P18x needs to have 4 pin cpu power at least 20" long, since the psu is in the bottom of the case and most MB's have the 4 pin connector near the top, making a long stretch, not to mention dressing neatly. I've found almost no reviews (or mfr data sheets) tell you the length of cables. I think I'm not the only person that would find this info useful.

pek
 
pek said:
I'd like to throw my $0.02 on review data. Measuring the length of the cables would be valuble to screen out psus that wouldn't fit into some cases. My Antec P18x needs to have 4 pin cpu power at least 20" long, since the psu is in the bottom of the case and most MB's have the 4 pin connector near the top, making a long stretch, not to mention dressing neatly. I've found almost no reviews (or mfr data sheets) tell you the length of cables. I think I'm not the only person that would find this info useful.
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Well, we do tell you the length of the shortest cable, then give you a really nice picture of the cables laid out with a measureing tape by them. Is that what you are looking for?
 
Very pleasant read. Thanks.

I don't necessarily see this as a roundup where all PSUs failed to finish all tests. I see it as a roundup which points to two units (this time) which is worthy of consideration for moderate systems.

What I'm wondering is why target 450-500W? Systems with only one midrange GPU would hardly put a dent into a "real" 500W PSU. I would be interested in under $50 PSUs that are also under 400W. I do have a couple in mind, specifically the Fortron "Green" FSP300-60GLN and the Enhance ATX-1136FA-DBS. The Fortron is available for around $35 at Newegg and the Enhance was (OOS now) available at eWiz for... UNDER $30. :eek: That 360W Enhance was heavier than the Ultra V-Series 500W I got for free after rebates. :p Oh yeah, the Antec EarthWatts 380W has often been available for under $50. I got some for $35 from CompUSA of all places.
 
Zap said:
Very pleasant read. Thanks.

I don't necessarily see this as a roundup where all PSUs failed to finish all tests. I see it as a roundup which points to two units (this time) which is worthy of consideration for moderate systems.

What I'm wondering is why target 450-500W? Systems with only one midrange GPU would hardly put a dent into a "real" 500W PSU. I would be interested in under $50 PSUs that are also under 400W. I do have a couple in mind, specifically the Fortron "Green" FSP300-60GLN and the Enhance ATX-1136FA-DBS. The Fortron is available for around $35 at Newegg and the Enhance was (OOS now) available at eWiz for... UNDER $30. :eek: That 360W Enhance was heavier than the Ultra V-Series 500W I got for free after rebates. :p Oh yeah, the Antec EarthWatts 380W has often been available for under $50. I got some for $35 from CompUSA of all places.
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We were not intentionally targeting 450w-500w as we previously did. What I did was go to Newegg on one random day in early August, sorted power supplies for $50 units, and eliminated all those that were in that price range via rebates. After that I picked 5 that would be well known brands and added them to the checkout.

For that reason a number of rebated ones were left out but really those aren't a typical retail priced unit so it didn't really meet the criteria for this particular review.

We are constantly evaluating what would make good content so it is possible we could do something under or over $50 in the future.
 
Do any under $25 test. It would be better than the 4th of July. Put the videos of the power supplies catching on fire, melting, and blowing up on Youtube. It would be very entertaining.
 
BladeVenom said:
Do any under $25 test. It would be better than the 4th of July. Put the videos of the power supplies catching on fire, melting, and blowing up on Youtube. It would be very entertaining.
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This could be quite dangerous to expensive testing equipment and onlookers. Personally I wouldn't test anything made by deer within 50 feet of anything flammable. The [H] power supply reviewing team is quite a bit braver then I am.
 
Nice article. Im one of those people that still doesnt think too much about PSUs. Ive been using crappy ones forever and am not really convinced I need to change that. The reason is Im cheap so the price limit was a nice way to get me reading at least. :D

BTW FSP is the same as Sparkle Power right? I remember reading that somewhere.
 
The Seasonic S12-II 330W is just 59.99 at NewEgg, imo a much better choice than any of the units tested in this roundup.
 
Really good review, thanks!
I'm disturbed by Hipers tactics especially as I have a 580W PSU of theirs.
Luckily I havent put a GTX on it as I am waiting for the die shrink.

Can [H] check out the Hiper 580W please?
 
Nenu said:
Really good review, thanks!
I'm disturbed by Hipers tactics especially as I have a 580W PSU of theirs.
Luckily I havent put a GTX on it as I am waiting for the die shrink.

Can [H] check out the Hiper 580W please?
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The Hiper 580W is based on an Andyson 550W. That said, at least the Hiper 580W can do the 360W on the +12V they claim it can do, it just can't do a total continuous of 580W.

If you were overloading your Hiper, it would have tripped off by now because the unit does have split +12V rails and the +12V1 (that powers all but the CPU) OCP is set to trip at 20A.

You could probably get away with running a GTX on it now. I just wouldn't do SLI with it.

The thing to keep an eye out for are swollen caps. The Andyson is much better ventillated than the Antec's that use Fuhjyyu caps, and I haven't heard a lot about cap failure in Hiper PSU's, but I wouldn't trust a Fuhjyyu cap any farther than I could throw a handful of them in a lead lined sack attached to a fishing line tether.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=26
 
jonnyGURU said:
The Hiper 580W is based on an Andyson 550W. That said, at least the Hiper 580W can do the 360W on the +12V they claim it can do, it just can't do a total continuous of 580W.

If you were overloading your Hiper, it would have tripped off by now because the unit does have split +12V rails and the +12V1 (that powers all but the CPU) OCP is set to trip at 20A.

You could probably get away with running a GTX on it now. I just wouldn't do SLI with it.

The thing to keep an eye out for are swollen caps. The Andyson is much better ventillated than the Antec's that use Fuhjyyu caps, and I haven't heard a lot about cap failure in Hiper PSU's, but I wouldn't trust a Fuhjyyu cap any farther than I could throw a handful of them in a lead lined sack attached to a fishing line tether.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=26
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ok, thats good info thanks.
Whats interesting is the UK version has PFC.
It'd be interesting to see what difference it makes to the efficiency.
 
Nenu said:
ok, thats good info thanks.
Whats interesting is the UK version has PFC.
It'd be interesting to see what difference it makes to the efficiency.
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None. The UK version is also 230V only. Higher voltage means lower amperage. Lower amperage allows for cheaper parts to be used on the AC input of the PSU to incorporate PFC. At 115V input, your amperage is doubled and the components required to sustain that high of an amperage is about 50% greater.
 
9mmx19 said:
Nice article. Im one of those people that still doesnt think too much about PSUs. Ive been using crappy ones forever and am not really convinced I need to change that. The reason is Im cheap so the price limit was a nice way to get me reading at least. :D

BTW FSP is the same as Sparkle Power right? I remember reading that somewhere.
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The power supply forum is filled with people that learned the hard way. Someday you will join their ranks.
 
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