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Power Supply Failure Rates

Not saying anything about you but for some reason I find those numbers a little off. And as a wiseman once said...there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.
 
What I want to know, is:

1. Which models tested?
2. How new are the units?
3. The environment of testing
4. Sample size
5. Load testing
6. Time period to failure


Why?
Certain models are made differently. Even one power supply is different from the next. Let alone different revisions, manufacturers, oem's, dates, modifications..

IF ALL the units are brand new, and then tested, that's one thing. What if it's a 3 month old Tagan, a 2 year old Antec, and a year and a half old hiper? Again, results will be skewed.

Environment: If the testing for all power supplies is done in the same environment, that's one thing. But what if it's unrealistic? What if, it's a meat freezer? The results will definatly be skewed from if it was inside a prescott with 2 8800gtx case, running full load with no fans. Again, more info is needed.

Sample size: DOA's can happen. If they tested one FSP and it didn't fail, but tested 1000 antec's and some of them failed for various reasons, Accurate results go out the window.

Load testing: Assuming that all the power supplies were tested at 100% load. That would be an accurate representation. What if they were only placed into systems of various loads? Results will be wrong again.

Time period? Because, if the time period between all the power supplies were tested, was different (3 years for a CWT antec, a month for fortron, etc), the results will be bad.


The other issue I see, most likely this was done with a survey. Now, what type of community is this? An Enthusiust community. People are more likely to buy Antec or Enermax PSU's over Generic PSU's. Thus, sample size will be larger for the Antec or Enermax's, and results..

I see the proper way to test this: Get a large room, a ton of load testers, heaters, and a large sample size of each model and revision. Like 1000 EACH of Antec TruePower, Truepower 2, truepower trio, truecontrol, truecontrol II, etc. Put them into the room, and load test them with various tests. Think JonnyGURU styled testing, but fully automated, continuously, and for a set period of time. All the while, cycling the temperatures up and down to accuratly represent the environmnent a computer will be in. At the end, record the data. Now do it to ALL those power supplies. THEN it will be a more ACCURATE representation of failure rates.
 
It is from an Etailer so it probably was RMA rates. Just guessing but it would fit with the information given. And as we all know RMA's can be abused.
 
Today, we obtained the failure rate of power supplies recorded by a major French e-commerce. These statistics include products in shops since the first April 2006.A minimum if at least 100 units have been sold. Statistics per brand are based on a minimum sample of 500 units:

Fortron: 0.7%
Hiper: 1.2%
Seasonic: 1.4%
Thermaltake: 1.6%
Tagan: 2.8%
Enermax: 3.0%
Antec: 9.5%

Fortron comes first in the list followed by Hiper and Seasonic. Thermaltake is next and is the last manufacturer to have an acceptable failure rate. Tagan, Enermax and most of all Antec are above the limit. For Antec the entire power supply range has very high failure rates: 21.6%, 18.1% and 17.3% for the Antec SmartPower 2.0 500, 350 and 400 Watts. Not a single product has a rate below 2% and the best one is the Neo HE 430 watts at 2.6%.

For Fortron, the figures are a bit more disparate from 0% for the most reliable model to 1.5% for the "least" reliable. Hiper's rates oscillate from 0.4% and 3.8%. The two models above 2% are the modular R 580 watts. For Seasonic, the leading products S12-500 and 600 are respectively at 1.8% and 0.9%.

Thermaltake's rates vary from 0% to 2.5% except for the Silent Power 680 Watts which is at 6.6%. Tagan's figures are relatively stable from 2.3% to 3.3%. Finally, Enermax' rates oscillate from 1.8 to 5.1% (Liberty EL620AWT).
Click to expand...

Very nice little article. Now if we could get someone to do something similar, only getting the stats from zzf, newegg, etc. Ummm, Jonny? ;)
 
My FSP (Fortron) 400w PSU came DOA. Power Judge would blink all green for a split second and then nothing until unplugged and left to discharge for about 10 seconds.
What's crazy is how my old PSU just got given away to a friend a few days before and I'm left with a new c2d system PSUless :( . My buddies old Athlon XP's PSU diagnosed this FSP PSU as a dud. According to the stats I'm 1 in 142 meaning it was just a matter of time before Newegg's review for that PSU got a thumbs down.
It hasn't scared me away from them but it sure leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Newegg, being the saints that they are, gave me $10 to ship the unit back. Well guess what, it cost me $12.95 to ship this monster with USPS :eek: . Let's hope that the weight says their products are quality and not just expensive to ship back to the store.
 
Bbq said:
What I want to know, is:

1. Which models tested?
2. How new are the units?
3. The environment of testing
4. Sample size
5. Load testing
6. Time period to failure
Click to expand...

7. Results when run on 110V/60Hz.

The results were obtained in France and will reflect the use at 220V/50Hz. There is a possibility that the results will be different in North America.
 
Perhaps total to complete bullshit...

But entertaining none the less! :D

Jonny Guru - Former RMA/RTV manager.
 
Spectre said:
Not saying anything about you but for some reason I find those numbers a little off. And as a wiseman once said...there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Click to expand...

Never trust statistics. If you want to know the true story, examine the raw data yourself. Statistics are merely data manipulated and presented in a manner favorable to the presenter.
 
The replacement FSP AX400-PN works! Yeah, too bad my Dad's Ultra V-series is quieter. I'll miss it. Almost don't want to replace it with this FSP unit but he's got an Intel D840 that he needs to power so I feel sorry for him. He can have the quieter PSU.
 
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