PSU's to Avoid

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NKDietrich said:
I believe a list of PSU brands that _aren't_ shoddy would be more efficient as you'd only have 6 or 7 entries. But that's probably been done. Heh.

Sticky ;)
 
I had a powmax 400w. That thing died while puter was idle and killed the HDD and vid card! :mad: Junk! Thats what I get for using a 15$ PS. :rolleyes:
 
TESLA said:
I do not know which models, but some Demon PSUs can hold their own.
Compare these two PSUs:
powmax_11.jpg

67715167_9880b9e1c4.jpg


Which one is rated for more power?

The first one is a 480W Powmax Demon, the second a 200W Dell made by Delta. Notice that despite the big difference in power ratings, the big high voltage filter capacitors are 470uF in each PSU. The line filter for the Powmax is little more than the donut in the lower right corner with the red and white wires wrapped around it, but the Dell's main circuit board is so crowded with components that the line filter is on a second narrow circuit board at the top of its photo. OTOH the Powmax has those "massive" heatsinks. ;)
 
I never said all Demons, but they did rebrand a model or two that were decent for the price.
 
What about this brand I have the excact one for my sig pc and nothing is wrong been going for 8 months.

Usicase PSU

Also is the Thermaltake Purepower TWV 500Watt PSU good for my sig pc I was reading reviews on it and they said it was good.

Thanks.
 
the gamer said:
What about this brand I have the excact one for my sig pc and nothing is wrong been going for 8 months.

Usicase PSU

Also is the Thermaltake Purepower TWV 500Watt PSU good for my sig pc I was reading reviews on it and they said it was good.

Thanks.

Good PSU or not (never heard of them) it only has 18A on the 12V rail which isn't much for today's systems.

That's why the 500W TT is the only one we've given the thumbs up to (there are newer models that look good, but nobody's reviewed them yet *cough*TTTech!!!!*cough*) All of the other TT models have a mere 18A on the 12V rail and you just can't suggest that on good faith alone.
 
I ripped apart my "680 watt" ChiefMAX Power supply (3Btech.net special), and i see a the big transformer in there that says "Danger : 400 Watts" in red. So thats why it would drop to 10.9v on stock x2 3800 and 7800gt.
 
Hmm, my Aspire is on there....where it belongs :p :p


Bought it 'cause it looked cool. Had to RMA it twice to get one with good voltages on the 12v rail. To this day its loud and very hot and i'm expecting it to pop any day now. Looking for a replacement... :eek:
 
I've got a Thermaltake TR2-500W for sale in the FS/FT Forum. ;)
 
To be added; TGR

Got one here I pulled from an old TBird box, dead fan. Says it's an FA-250NI6.

"TOTAL: 115W, -5V 0.5A, -12V 1A, 1A MAX."
25A +5, 14A +3.3, 3A +5VSB, 10A +12V. It'd an older one. Marked Rev. 1.03 too.

Do not touch TGR's under any circumstances. This one came in because the fan failed. Dead fan, okay, replace it. Except this thing weighs less than a hard drive. I am absolutely not joking. I cracked this thing open to find epoxy splattered everywhere, hiding bulging capacitors and a burnt transformer. The wires are thinner than I'm used to coming out of it to begin with, but it's only worse inside. There's a choke of some sort zip-tied to the input plug with about an inch of bare leads exposed. Between the two hots.
I'm amazed this thing didn't burst into flames when it was turned on the first time.
 
I have 2 P-4 systems median range in price and both use the W0009RU PS by Thermaltake and are very stable and have very quite fans and for the price I think are very good power supplys for the mediun grade system
 
Thermaltake Purepower 420W's? They're a good BUILD quality, but for a performance machine they're poorly spec'd because they put most of their juice on the 5V rail and not on the 12V rail.

The list isn't necessarily a list of PSU's to avoid due to poor quality. Poor design plays a part too.
 
Who wants to see an L&C 350w?

dsc019179bg.jpg

dsc019188qu.jpg

dsc019196fw.jpg


Shortly after these pictures were taken, it blew up.
 
Thanks BBQ, but I've seen my share of L&C/Allied/Deer. ;)

What's funny is that they're STILL better made then Powmax!!!!! :D
 
Suprising. I remember opening my wonderful FSP 300w (it's in my p4 right now), and seeing about.. 4x as much innards. Caps that were at least 1200 uF, massive heatsinks, the entire thing packed to the top. then I opened up this L&C, and I think... "wheres the power supply?" :D
 
Bbq said:
Caps that were at least 1200 uF

1000uF. Close enough.

I'm not saying that PSU lacks substance. I'm just saying there's still worse. ;)
 
i've had an aspire 500W psu for almost 2 years, no problems at all on my AMD or Intel machines (swapped). I did have an antec die on me within a year. Go Figure.


hey Now.
 
This list doesn't define power supplies that will blow up the instant you turn them on. It just lists companies that manufacturer power supplies that have a higher chance of not working properly than the other ones.

There will always be exceptions...
 
AreEss said:
To be added; TGR

Got one here I pulled from an old TBird box, dead fan. Says it's an FA-250NI6.

"TOTAL: 115W, -5V 0.5A, -12V 1A, 1A MAX."
25A +5, 14A +3.3, 3A +5VSB, 10A +12V. It'd an older one. Marked Rev. 1.03 too.

Do not touch TGR's under any circumstances. This one came in because the fan failed. Dead fan, okay, replace it. Except this thing weighs less than a hard drive. I am absolutely not joking. I cracked this thing open to find epoxy splattered everywhere, hiding bulging capacitors and a burnt transformer. The wires are thinner than I'm used to coming out of it to begin with, but it's only worse inside. There's a choke of some sort zip-tied to the input plug with about an inch of bare leads exposed. Between the two hots.
I'm amazed this thing didn't burst into flames when it was turned on the first time.
Pics?
 
gwai lo said:
This list doesn't define power supplies that will blow up the instant you turn them on. It just lists companies that manufacturer power supplies that have a higher chance of not working properly than the other ones.

There will always be exceptions...

Well, I seriously don't believe ANY power supply would "blow up the instant you turn them on."

First, I would hope you would get something that was UL listed. UL listed power supplies can't pass if they blow up when you turn them on. ;) Furthermore, if a power supply really did have a "reputation" for "blowing up the instant you turn them on" then resellers wouldn't sell them because word would get out that the product is inherently defective and RMA rates would be high. Two red flags that would tell a VAR that a product is going to do nothing more than cost them money.

Everyone's experience is going to be different.

I have a friend who's an architect and does 3D cad on two very high end PC's powered by.... Powmax power supplies. I warned him, but he's never had a problem so he's going to stick with them.

And the power supply I've had blow up on me more than any other (percentage wise, not just total quantity, of course) is actually Antec. Yet you'd never see Antec on such a list and I don't immediately strip an Antec case of it's power supply just because of my previous experiences (I just make sure my ear is no where near the power supply when I flip the switch.) ;)
 
Hahaha I love how every PSU I own in on that list. I have a Rhycom right now (back-up PSU) that I know sucks. I can't OC worth a dime on that thing. And then my Ultra X-Connect is on the list too. Good choices on my part I see. :eek:
 
1FocusedHokie said:
And then my Ultra X-Connect is on the list too. Good choices on my part I see. :eek:

Don't feel bad. I've had a couple X-Connects even while that list was in it's hey day. I just shrug it off. :D
 
I've had two Antec's burn up on me, and a Sparkle Power. This is over the span of 6 or 7 years, however, and it really is just mere chance. I have a 14 year old "Moyetec" 220watt Power Supply that still works as well as the day I got it! =)
 
AppaYipYip said:
I have a 14 year old "Moyetec" 220watt Power Supply that still works as well as the day I got it! =)

Moyetec!?!?!

Is it chutzpah? Did that come with a free jar of gefilte fish!?!?!

Oy vey!
 
jonnyGURU said:
Well, I seriously don't believe ANY power supply would "blow up the instant you turn them on."

First, I would hope you would get something that was UL listed. UL listed power supplies can't pass if they blow up when you turn them on. ;) Furthermore, if a power supply really did have a "reputation" for "blowing up the instant you turn them on" then resellers wouldn't sell them because word would get out that the product is inherently defective and RMA rates would be high. Two red flags that would tell a VAR that a product is going to do nothing more than cost them money.

Everyone's experience is going to be different.

I have a friend who's an architect and does 3D cad on two very high end PC's powered by.... Powmax power supplies. I warned him, but he's never had a problem so he's going to stick with them.

And the power supply I've had blow up on me more than any other (percentage wise, not just total quantity, of course) is actually Antec. Yet you'd never see Antec on such a list and I don't immediately strip an Antec case of it's power supply just because of my previous experiences (I just make sure my ear is no where near the power supply when I flip the switch.) ;)
I think we said the samething... ;)

Mine was in reference to the post above, I get lazy sometimes and skip over quoting people if I'm going to be following them directly.
 
Worked for UL, I can tell you that the PSU can blow up all it wants. UL is a saftey certification body, not a quality association. As long as it fails safe, so you can touch the case without getting killed, you can build anything you want. The only concerns are under unintended or adverse conditions, that product failures don't hurt people.

Products that blow up right away are generally easier to test as they never heat up to a point that they can fail the temp tests ( Caps 105C, PCB 90C etc etc ).
 
This seems like a no-brainer, but I had a compusa brand psu once...the 3.3v line continually fluctuated between 3.0 and 3.7 volts :eek:
 
In my case, the old adage "You get what you pay for" rang painfully true. As I was plugging in my 550watt "CheapMax" PSU bought from 3btech.net for $16, the damn thing sparked, crackled, and blew up. All I did was PLUG IT IN. The laughable part is the conspicuous QUALITY CONTROL sticker on the unit indicating it passed inspection in december '05.

Yes, I realize its my own fault for buying a dodgy piece of crap from a shady e-tailer, but I just wanted to warn anybody who might be on the fence about falling for the low price on pricewatch. DON'T do it. When it blew up, I already had the 12v plugged into my board, and had also plugged in a HDD. I'm very lucky that it didn't fry my PC. For pete's sake, listen to the good advice from the folks on this forum and buy a reputable PSU. Saving $60 on your power supply isn't going to sound so good when it fries your $200 mobo just for plugging it in.

STAY AWAY FROM 3BTECH'S CHIEFMAX DEAL
 
jonnyGURU said:
Well, I seriously don't believe ANY power supply would "blow up the instant you turn them on."

Believe it or not, I did. It was an Antec Smartpower 430W connected to the following:

Abit NF-7 (nForce 2) MB
AMD Barton 2500+
1GB Corsair ValueSelect (2x512)
ATI Radeon 9600
1 WD 800JB hard drive
1 LiteOn CD-RW

Hooked everything up inside the case, plugged it in, hit the power button and BAM - sparks and smoke galore from the power supply.

I did a post-mortem because I was sure that I had either connected something wrong and/or had the voltage selector on the back of the power supply set at 220V instead of 115V or something. Turns out I had everything correct. :(

I should also mention that all of the above components had been working and were from recent pulls from my other systems.

I was pissed

And for this reason, I *never* recommend Antec power supplies to other people. See also the NEOHE thread for further evidence.
 
There's no such thing as an Antec SmartPower 430W ;)

Shit happens. Nobody builds a perfect PSU. Failures are going to happen everywhere.
 
You're absolutely right - it was a Smartpower 350W. Model SL350. I kept the son of a bitch thinking I could cut the wires off or something to at least salvage that much. Still smells burnt. :(

And I understand that shit happens. Unfortunately, that didn't make me feel any better after I had just dusted several hundred dollars worth of hardware.
 
Woah, it killed everything there?

I would be contacting Antec right about now :)
 
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