Convince me not to buy a £10 PSU from eBay

Question to the op:
Would you run a diesel car on oil used in heaters?
Ofc it works, but then it can stop anytime and mostly cost is much bigger than gain.
I don't buy used pc hardware, with few ecceptions ( optical drives, some peripherals like speakers, ram ).
 
To be honest, I don't know why you'd worry nowadays, seeing as so many good manufacturers are bringing out "builder" range PSUs that are so well priced.
 
Thb, I have run an overclocked i7 860, 7850 / GTX460 (using Molex to 6 pin adapters), three fans and a couple of HDDs on a £20 400watt psu with no problems for a couple of months. But the uncertaincy of whether my pc would turn on or not every evening was not worth the financial savings!
 
They say a picture is worth a thousand words ;)


F5VYOG0.jpg
 
Nobody has asked this yet, but how much are you spending on the rest of the components? Let's say that's about £300-£400, so the difference between a £10 and a £50 PSU is around £40, that's 10% of the total price, so well worth it in the long run. Also, PSU's stay with you when upgrading, buy a good one now and you can use it for the next upgrade or 2
 
as said before:

a cheap psu will usually only output roughly half its wattage max.

they rarely have safety features

any psu can go pop, but when a cheap psu goes pop, it's more likely to take something else out with it.
 
I ran a 9500GT (Slot powered) and an Phenom X3 (overclocked) for 2 years on a cheapo 400w psu (winpower perhaps it was) cost me 15 quid for it.. but it went bang quite horrifically melting many caps inside including the fan and parts of the psu case. Cost me a board, 2 sets of XMS2 ram and a hard drive. Still running the processor to this day but it wasnt worth it. You ask yourself the question is the above worth it? Loosing a drive is bad enough loosing work files/pron etc.. cmon

Now im running on a Coolermaster M600 Silent Pro for this one reason. I spent good money on a PSU and now i know if it dies ill be alright just RMA my psu and my components should be fine.
 
Mate, one phrase:

BLACK LIST.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/299096-28-blacklist

.. or google "black list psu", it changes every time.
Or, alternatively, if you wonder if your PSU from Ebay (I haven't seen anything for 10 pouds, it was 10.20 cheapest, but + 4.98 P&P) is on that list, start to think "why the h*ll there's no name on that PSU, why there's no data plate on it" ?

It's the difference between branded and no-name PSUs.

Nobody will convince you. It's your business :)
 
Lemonade1947 said:
Convince me not to buy a £10 500w fully modular PSU from eBay. I wont link it, but we all know they're there.
Click to expand...

Ok, take it from me I've had some experience of this, cheapo unbranded PSU blew out on me, nice bang and a flash of blue sparks, quite spectacular, nearly took out the mobo with it.

Lesson learned, no more cheapo PSU's from me. I've only had reputable branded ones and no troubles since. Had a great FSP one which I used for 5-6 years and then sold on fleabay, made a reasonable amount of money too, and no complaints from the new owner.
 
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give me £10 ill chuck you a 2 year old BeQuiet! 430w psu, I used it on the rig I have now when I had a GTS 450 still, everything was fine but still I upgraded PSU as with more expensive components there is always more risk.
 
There not hugely that bad, the don't blow up or anything.. although they are not good... a lot of HP, off the shelf and such PC's come with them and they can last!

They don't last hugely long though, and in 90% + case's they just die out! But because of their hollow capacitors any big spike or fluctuation in the current from the wall can blow your components... but even they can take small fluctuations!

My first self built PC was a cheap base unit that came with such psu... and I upgraded piece by piece to get my first gaming PC back then.... was an okish bridge. Your not getting anything decent from them, but nothing worse that most PSU's in a lot of cheap PC's from supermarkets and super stores!
 
It depends what it is. I sold an FSP600-80EPN 600W PSU on here recently for £18 including postage. It was a decent PSU, 530W where you need it, stable voltages, weighty, good cables and connectors, ran cool and quiet and was plenty for a system with an overclocked Phenom II X4 and HD6870.

HOWEVER. Most PSU's you are likely to pick up cheap will be horrible little snotboxes which could easily be considered dangerous. I have had a PSU catch fire on me before, it was a cheap brand, 'WinPower' I think? I only had it because it came with a PC I was given. Another cheapy PSU I had got incredibly hot and loud under low load and it make disturging screeching noises, the voltages were also all over the place. I binned it.

I weighed the 600W PSU I sold on here, and the so called "600W" which I binned, and the one I binned weighed less than half what the quality unit did. That paints a picture in itself.

Spend at least £35 on a new PSU. I had one of these in a server a while ago. Its good for the money. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-063-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=2463
 
lhw455 said:
Nobody has asked this yet, but how much are you spending on the rest of the components? Let's say that's about £300-£400, so the difference between a £10 and a £50 PSU is around £40, that's 10% of the total price, so well worth it in the long run. Also, PSU's stay with you when upgrading, buy a good one now and you can use it for the next upgrade or 2
Click to expand...

I asked but seems like he won't answering until Christmas :p
 
True story

I purchased a £145 CM Real Power Pro 1250W in 2008 from OCUK to run my rig back then (I7 920, GA-EX58 Extreme, Geil RAM & 2 x XFX HD4870) which was way overkill, since that time i have upgraded my system fully twice, the only shared component between all 3 builds? Thats right, my £145 PSU.

If you consider i would have spent anywhere from £60 to £80 for a new PSU for each build i've saved myself money now. The good thing is my 5 year old PSU is still working 100% even with modern day power controls like load line pushing it more and more.

The moral of the tale, buy an expensive one now and you'll save money in the future.
 
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