What are the advantages of buying a branded PSU over a generic one ?
- Thread starter whipitrnd
- Start date
The cheapo one will "do the job", but it's not as reliable or as certified as anything better.
Consider the cheap power supply - it'll be utterly built down to a price. If it goes bang, what if it takes your rig with it?
I guess it's the same as buying the cheapest tyres to go on a car. If you drive a beaten up F-reg fiesta, cheap tyres are fair game. If you're driving a '59 reg Mercedes, you'll have a known brand name written on your tyre walls.
branded gives more scope for upgrades and tweaking clock speeds, more graphics card and such too 
i have a unbranded psu rated at 450W, it's pfffft and many if not all branded 400W psu's would run a lot more then i currently have installed in my case
i have a unbranded psu rated at 450W, it's pfffft and many if not all branded 400W psu's would run a lot more then i currently have installed in my case
Better quality/branded PSU's tend to:
Use better components (more reliable, longer life).
Have better designs (more stable/able to cope with closer to the stated max power for longer, or even go over for short periods of time, run cooler extending the life of it's parts).
Have much much better protection for the connected PC - things like better filtering against minor changes in the incoming voltage, better protection against short circuits, better protection against over voltage and better protection against over current.
Basically, a cheap PSU will tend to be older designs, made with lower quality parts, and without some/all of the protections the better ones have (they'll meet minimum safety standards for the EU etc, but that's protection for the user, not the connected equipment).
Or to put it another way:
Cheap PSU encounters a problem that causes it to blow (much more easy to do with a cheap PSU due to design issues) - it'll be much more likely to take things like the motherboard, GFX card and drives with it.
Branded PSU fails - chances are good that the secondary protection on the output (PC) side will minimise/stop long term damage to the rest of the PC.
Not to mention Cheap PSU - might claim 550watt, but only manage that for fractions of a second, with the real longer term maximum being 300-400watt, whilst a better PSU might claim 550watt but long term be happy at 450-500watt or more with more headroom for things like start up surges.
As a fairly good example of the difference between a cheap PSU and a good one of a similar claimed wattage, I've had PC's here that have been running when the lights have flickered.
The PC with good PSU just kept running without a hiccup, the one with a cheap PSU suffered a reboot despite the fact the components it was powering requiring a lot less power than the one with the better PSU.
Use better components (more reliable, longer life).
Have better designs (more stable/able to cope with closer to the stated max power for longer, or even go over for short periods of time, run cooler extending the life of it's parts).
Have much much better protection for the connected PC - things like better filtering against minor changes in the incoming voltage, better protection against short circuits, better protection against over voltage and better protection against over current.
Basically, a cheap PSU will tend to be older designs, made with lower quality parts, and without some/all of the protections the better ones have (they'll meet minimum safety standards for the EU etc, but that's protection for the user, not the connected equipment).
Or to put it another way:
Cheap PSU encounters a problem that causes it to blow (much more easy to do with a cheap PSU due to design issues) - it'll be much more likely to take things like the motherboard, GFX card and drives with it.
Branded PSU fails - chances are good that the secondary protection on the output (PC) side will minimise/stop long term damage to the rest of the PC.
Not to mention Cheap PSU - might claim 550watt, but only manage that for fractions of a second, with the real longer term maximum being 300-400watt, whilst a better PSU might claim 550watt but long term be happy at 450-500watt or more with more headroom for things like start up surges.
As a fairly good example of the difference between a cheap PSU and a good one of a similar claimed wattage, I've had PC's here that have been running when the lights have flickered.
The PC with good PSU just kept running without a hiccup, the one with a cheap PSU suffered a reboot despite the fact the components it was powering requiring a lot less power than the one with the better PSU.
thank you very help ful. when i switch to a amd quad at xmas ill then be buying a new branded power supply then.
Spot on Werewolf, may I point the OP towards this. It's on special offer now, if you were in the market for one.
I've written off more PCs because of cheap unbranded PSUs than I can remember (working in home IT repair). They have a habit of killing the motherboard when they go, and sometimes HDD, RAM and even CPU if you're unlucky.
I've written off more PCs because of cheap unbranded PSUs than I can remember (working in home IT repair). They have a habit of killing the motherboard when they go, and sometimes HDD, RAM and even CPU if you're unlucky.
Associate
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- 6 Jun 2010
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Ive been using a 600w PSU ive owned since about 2005, made by a company called JSP which ive not heard much of. Back then i paid £95, probably pick one up for a tenner today, never let me down once, even when more expensive components with names like Asus, Crucial, Western Digital were falling around it. Most relaible component ive ever bought. Wouldnt swap it for too many other PSU's now that ive established its reliability, and should i see another product by this company i shall think twice before buying the "bigger" names....
If you paid £95 for it, it probably isn't half bad. I think JSP were at Computex 2010, might be able to find more information on them. Looks like they make some cheap and some expensive units. They're probably rebranded generic designs from other manufacturers.
Associate
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- 7 Feb 2008
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either that or thats the reason all your other components are failing lol
I recently got a coolermaster 600watt power supply changed from some crappy thing from pc world and have not looked back
Soldato
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with a branded PSU you know who to sue when your house burns down
but it'll burn down with much lower frequency than if you had unbranded
but it'll burn down with much lower frequency than if you had unbranded
Apart form the advantages mentioned here, another major one for me is their efficiency. Most brands are well over 80% with some creeping well over 90% now. I don't have figures for unbranded ones but I can't imagine them doing as well so as far as I'm concerned a quality branded PSU will itself off easy over its lifespan over unbranded version. That is if you pay for your electricity bills
Soldato
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I mainly buy corsair now, excellent quality and silent.
the power supply is the most important component in your computer
if you buy a cheap power supply then you dont know what you are getting.
its like having a nice car and buying budget tyres.
you just dont do it