Q-Tec 550W PSU - a fan has started whirring

Dave said:
OcUK I'm disappointed . . . no showing of the Q-Tec blowing up images or a "OMG RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!11!" post?
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OMG HE WAS USING A Q-TEC ! :D ;)


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Q-TEC Unveils there latest power supply, PC enthusiasts ponder how to fit it into case………


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It would seem that people buy them for their price. My mate got his for £25 650W Q-tec thingy.

Running a Sempron 64 3000, Asus mobo of some description, X800 16 pipeline GFX card 256MB,1 1GB GEiL dual RAM, 2 optical drives and a 160GB HDD.

Hasn't blown up yet :( Waiting for the day when it does so I can say 'told you so' :p
 
There are a lot worse PSU's out there than Q-Tec.

Yes Q-Tec are poor, but I've come across worse in my years of repairing PCs.

I had one 2 days ago dropped off at my house. Tested PSU, it was dead.

I took it out, and it was some made in Germany (label has german text) no brand job (called Premier)
It's only rated at 350watt, but the figures on the side for the rails are 35 Amp on 5 volt rail.
I imagine it weighs a tad over a pound (really light)

Question is, how do these things get a CE stamp on them or is that some sort of approval by themselves?
I thought we are meant to be protected (yes we have some of the toughest electrical laws in the UK for some things) when we buy something.
 
I had a Q-Tec in my old system for about 1 year :O before it gave up and couldnt power my 9800XT properly. Nothing blew up, maybe i was lucky or maybe a lot of people like to over react about them.

They are crap tho, im not defending them too much. You deffinately get what you pay for.

Last PSU i baught was a Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP) from OcUK.

Its pretty damn fine, comes is a very swishy plastic carry case thingy and with its modular design it has so many variations for the plug thingys.

I cant report anything wrong with it since ive been using it. Its pretty damn quiet too.

Well worth taking a look at.
 
Robbie G said:
Where do I get the adaptors from. I can't find any.
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The adaptors should come with pci-e gfx cards so you don't necessarily need a 6-pin pci-e plug off the psu. They just plug straight onto an ordinary 4-pin molex off the psu. :)
 
split said:
{snip}It's only rated at 350watt, but the figures on the side for the rails are 35 Amp on 5 volt rail.{snip}
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That's the trick they pull, because +5v & +3.3v are the least used Rails, see here.

Just been on the Q-Tec website to do my own reasearch, you know give them benefit of the doubt. Checked out a-few of their products (including the one stocked here) & non have their Electric Specifications given! Even downloaded the PDF manual which turned out to be just a 'DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY' :eek:
Use your own judgement there.
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:cool:
 
Q-Tec are ok for low powered systems like your grandmother might use, however I believe the large case of explosions, death and destruction derived from Q-Tec PSU's letting go are people trying to run high powered systems off them, like modern CPU's and modern gfx cards etc.
 
split said:
Question is, how do these things get a CE stamp on them or is that some sort of approval by themselves?
I thought we are meant to be protected (yes we have some of the toughest electrical laws in the UK for some things) when we buy something.
Click to expand...

I always take the CE stamp with a pinch of salt. In fact I've been told that when buying motorbike safety equipment etc to only buy things with the kite mark as our standards are much higher than those of Europe.
 
VaderDSL said:
Q-Tec are ok for low powered systems like your grandmother might use, however I believe the large case of explosions, death and destruction derived from Q-Tec PSU's letting go are people trying to run high powered systems off them, like modern CPU's and modern gfx cards etc.
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I wouldn't touch them even with a stick let alone install one for my grandma... unless i dislike her :D
 
Ok peoples lol I get the message about Q-Tec. Question is:

Will the Akasa 460W Paxpower be sufficient for a system of the future or will I be looking at upgrading again?
 
Robbie G said:
Ok peoples lol I get the message about Q-Tec. Question is:

Will the Akasa 460W Paxpower be sufficient for a system of the future or will I be looking at upgrading again?
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At the moment I have a 480W Tagan, and its powering;
A64 [email protected]
1Gb ram
4 hardrives
etc etc

And its performing perfectly. I wouldn't really want to go any lower than 480W though for a modern pc. So if I was you i'd look at 480W+. Have a look at;
Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-000-TG)
or
Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU
 
Another reason not to buy Q-TEC 650W Triple. (the below is from a popular PC magazine.

Verdict: Steer well clear of this Q-TEC

Q-TEC power supplies are very popular because they're so much cheaper than other brands, but, as our testing shows, they're cheap for a good reason.

This particular Q-TEC is rated at 650W, but even before we switched it on we had our doubts, as the case is nearly empty. Q-TEC claims its PSU has a 30A 3.3V rail, 45A 5V rail and a 30A 12V rail. The Q-TEC doesn't follow the guidelines of the latest ATX spec, which recommends a second 12V rail if the load is greater than 18A. As the name suggests, there are three cooling fans: one 120mm and two 80mm. It supports both 20- and 24-pin motherboards, and has six Molex, two FDD and two S-ATA connectors, but no PCI-E.

The Q-TEC passed the 50 and 75 per cent voltage stability tests, although its efficiency at the latter setting dropped below the ATX spec to 68 per cent. This means that it was drawing a quite ridiculous 725W from the mains to produce 498W. The Q-TEC barely managed a few seconds at 100 per cent load before the voltages on all the rails started jumping up and down by as much as 20 per cent. After approximately a minute, it triggered the trip-switch of the testing lab.

As this PSU cannot even deliver 75 per cent of what it claims while adhering to the ATX spec, and will go bananas and shut down if you attempt to draw anything higher, we recommend steering well clear of it.

 
Sorry to resurrect this one peeps but I wanted to let you know how I got on.

I bought an Akasa Amber 8mm case fan and an Akasa Paxpower 460W PSU. Both are extremely well made and getting the paxpower out of the box made me realise what a heap o' cr@p the Q-Tec is.

The made thing however is that I cannot hear the computer above me typing this message - it's oh so very quiet and I am pleasantly suprised as to the difference it has made!!

The only noisy thing now is my HDDs and the video card fan...so...does anyone know a super-quiet fan for a Connect 3D ATi Radeon 9600 Pro still on the market?!

Oh and did I mention it is now possible to sleep with the computer on in the next room whereas before this was out of the question?!
 
make sure you disconnect it from the mains for a few hours before you open it, you might get a very nasty shock if you dont :eek:

i was also fooled into buying a qtec many years ago, quickly replaced it though as i saw how poor its rails were. took it appart a few weeks ago actually, i found 2 blown out capacitors and a few parts melted, amazingly it still works... :p
 
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