Powmax Demon any good?

[MiXdNuTs]

Has anyone used the Powman Demon 480w or 580w PSUs? They are dirt cheap ($25 for the 480w). I will get one unless anyone has any strong negative comments. Check it out

 

[MiXdNuTs]

I am also curious about the noise on these things. It says 37db at maximum load on their website here , but I find it hard to believe that the PSU could be THAT loud. I will remove the fan grills obviously and I was hoping on running it with only the 120mm fan and not the "noisy cricket" 80mm in the back.

 

[Vertigo Acid]

My comment is simple and quite negative:

Powmax is literal. They go "pow"

Can you really afford to replace your whole system if the PSU goes? If not, spend some more and get a good quality supply.

 

[gee]

As posted before...

Storytime...

- Bought an Antec Minuet case, for a HTPC. The Minuet has a 220W power supply.
- The computer's guts include a nforce2 IGP motherboard, a Palomino XP2000+, a DVD drive and a single hard drive. Not much of a load.
- Got pissed off with the cheap low profile TV tuner I had, and bought a PVR350.
- Needed a big case, so I bought a $40 POWMAX case from a local store. Inside? a 400 watt POWMAX supply.
- Worked fine for about a month. Then the computer started to squeal whenever it went under high CPU load.
- Didn't trust power supply anymore, replaced it with a *145 watt!!* Compaq supply.
- Works fine now.
- Part of my day job is switching power supply design. I took the supply apart out of curiosity, and I don't think I've laughed harder in my life. I brought it into work, and everyone got a chuckle out of it... we calculated that the E core used inside for the main transformer could only do about 200 watts.

Moral: don't buy POWMAX.

 

[TFR]

I don't know about the higher wattage PSUs from Powmax, but I had a 180watt Powmax that came with my mATX case. It died on me during a brownout (it was connected to a surge protector). I then picked up an Enermax PSU and wouldn't you know it, another brownout occured (stoopid LIPA), but my Enermax survived (it actually survived another brown out a week later). You don't have to buy an Enermax, but if you care about your computer, then you should spend extra and buy from a top brand.

-TFR

 

[E4g1e]

Has anyone used the Powman Demon 480w or 580w PSUs? They are dirt cheap ($25 for the 480w). I will get one unless anyone has any strong negative comments. Check it out

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for, in this case. That $25 "480W" power supply can deliver only 160 real watts. That's woefully inadequate for any current low-end system, let alone a high-end one. Good 480-watt PSUs cost at least $100.

 

[Ice Czar]

they sell it at newegg so it must be good....

LOL thats a good one
goin to have to remember that

....what are your thoghts?

think I'll let the membership take this one

Powmax is quite literal; They have a tendancy to go *pow*

Storytime...

- Bought an Antec Minuet case, for a HTPC. The Minuet has a 220W power supply.
- The computer's guts include a nforce2 IGP motherboard, a Palomino XP2000+, a DVD drive and a single hard drive. Not much of a load.
- Got pissed off with the cheap low profile TV tuner I had, and bought a PVR350.
- Needed a big case, so I bought a $40 POWMAX case from a local store. Inside? a 400 watt POWMAX supply.
- Worked fine for about a month. Then the computer started to squeal whenever it went under high CPU load.
- Didn't trust power supply anymore, replaced it with a *145 watt!!* Compaq supply.
- Works fine now.
- Part of my day job is switching power supply design. I took the supply apart out of curiosity, and I don't think I've laughed harder in my life. I brought it into work, and everyone got a chuckle out of it... we calculated that the E core used inside for the main transformer could only do about 200 watts.

Moral: don't buy POWMAX.

POWMAX is a well known company and maker of PSU's and cases, all right - but of the really cheap, low-quality variety. You see, their cases typically sell online for $20 to $30 (though retail stores which may be selling the POWMAX cases jack up the price due to overhead). And their PSU's are equally cheap and crappy.

I'm currently using a powmax case for my A64 system...and needless to say...it sucks, pc will randomly restart from either not getting enough power or two voltage flucuation. I can't install certain things that are power hungry right now due to this...and when playing a game the computer just locks...

Save your self the trouble and either buy a case with no psu...or buy a decent company. I fell into the trap because i liked the case but now i regret it and am having to pay ~100+ for a decent psu.

We sell them at work. About half of them blow up (not an exaggeration) as soon as they're powered on.

I sell them too. Ive noticed there may be a problem with 1 out of 20. But i pretest them all. 1 in 20 is kinda high,but its not aweful.

If you get them from a local warehouse, maybe they're being handled roughly? Dont know, 50% is crazy.

(dont get me wrong, this is not an endorsement, they ARE cheap. If you have the cash get something better obviously)

and with shiping, i doubt youll find a case for less than 30-40ish. even newegg charges 10-15 to ship cases. so a 30dollar case turns into a 45 dollar one.

Had 1 400watt powmax... lasted less than 24 hours. Got another for free from the place I bought it... that one lasted a week.

They are pure crap.

a few repeats

 

[SpitFire]

Instead of using my Antec 300watter i used some 420 watt powermax, and guess what! It fried my motherboard :-D!!!! wow do i hate powmax, powermax whatever the hell they call themselves besides a bad company. Never EVER buy low qulaity power supplies. When in doubt just pick up an Antec.

 

[twyztyr]

Hmm...I guess the law of averages was on my side when I got mine. I bought the Powmax 400W in the blue aluminum case after the PSU that came in my case (NOT Powmax) died. It's been running perfectly for several months now, pushing a Barton 2500+ on an NF7-M with 512MB PC3200. I've monitored the rails, and they're pretty steady, usually within 0.2V +/-. of normal, which I don't consider to be a bad deal at all.

I suppose I just got lucky.

 

[bimmer01]

never buy a powmax, pos PSU.
I bought one a few weeks ago, had it running for 2 week.
And when i upgraded my machine, the psu died.

 

[froggi9]

I've used the 580W on two comps that I built. Both are working well. The second comp's Radeon 9800 Pro didn't work with 350W generic brand when running UT2k4--popped in the Demon and worked fine. Radeon's suck up a lot of juice, so I assume that the 580W at least runs better than 350W. The fans would be hard to remove--screws on the inside of the p.s. Probably not the best choice for extreme overclocking. However, it works for moderate overclocking and both have been running for 3 months or so now.

 

[MiXdNuTs]

I decided not to get it because the CPU I was going to upgrade the machine with is dead. Looks like my GF is stuck with a duron 800. She was bitching about me spending any more money on computers anyways....

 

[HitmanZ]

Don't even think about getting a powmax, killed my friends asus a7n8x that i've been working on.

 

[Tengis]

Ive actually have a 400w Powmax that I won at a lanparty running my current rig now. I dont have any unstable power or anything, and it seems to be working fine.