PSU's are expensive now - why?

wesley

wesley

wesley

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when i first browse ocuk store and forums here about 4 years ago. i remember clearly that the top of the range PSU's cost around £50 to £70

but now, some of them are now well over £100 :eek:

question is why?
 
wesley said:
intel P2 200 cost £400 when they came out, conroe e6300 cost less than £150, should be same with the PSU
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Why? What logic prompts this thought? The parts for a PSU haven't necessarily got any cheaper but the manufacturing processes for a CPU might have enabled savings to be made either through volume or materials used. Just because one thing gets cheaper doesn't mean that everything else must. I used to use a generic 300w PSU for my past couple of systems (before this one), now with the value of components and the increased demands on the hardware I wouldn't consider it.

You also aren't comparing like for like, a PII 200mmx at the time was the top end chip (more or less), the top end chip is now a QX6700 which costs £700+ so on that basis given the CPU price has almost doubled then it is not unreasonable to expect the PSU prices to follow a similar trend.
 
motherboards are going the same way they used to be round aqbout £50 now the recent ones are hovering at the £100 mark or worse to me this is a sign that the pc market is in decline as more expensive componets mean a smaller user base
 
RobertN said:
motherboards are going the same way they used to be round aqbout £50 now the recent ones are hovering at the £100 mark or worse to me this is a sign that the pc market is in decline as more expensive componets mean a smaller user base
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When? 6 years ago I paid £130 for a motherboard to use with a 1.2ghz Athlon admittedly there were cheaper but most of those didn't have the required features. Sure, some motherboards are expensive now but then some always have been.
 
just my experience dont think i have ever paid more than £60 for a mobo i have always used amd dont know if the new expensive mobos are because they are intel but some are near the £200 mark you must admit that is a new price for a mobo
 
Intel motherboards are traditionally a bit (often quite a lot) more expensive and yes £200 is a new high to me (for a motherboard that doesn't support dual physical chips) but if pretty much all PC components in a similar stage in the PC hierarchy have gone up in price then in real terms the price of the components have probably stayed about the same.
 
In answer to the original question.

Because they have got much more powerfull, and require better/more parts these days to retain reliability.
They used to be very expensive when I first got into PC's (about what they are now, but money was worth more;)), then they dropped quite a bit in price because the production lines matured etc and they didn't need to change much for several (4-5?) years.

Now we are requiring more power the PSU's are becoming more advanced and "newer" again (IE you keep getting new higher capacity models again), with the result they cost more.

Having said all that, I think good quality "standard" or average wattage PSU's haven't really changed much in price, I remember the Enermex and similar good quality 300-400watt models costing about £60-80 5 years ago, so an average wattage "quality" PSU now isn't much more (you can get a 450-500 Enermax/Seasonic for about £60-80 I beleive), it's just that we've now got some that are much higher capacity.
 
Well I have gone through 6 PSU's this year and I am still looking for a decent one, then again 2 of those PSU's were made by mercury, another was a Thermaltake butterfly and the rest was just cheap ones I picked up. Now I know you would say spend £100 and get a tagan or an enerma but the amount of PSU's I have been though I don't think any PSU on the market would last me more then 8 month's, and thats only with 2 hdd's (one IDE and one SATA) and a DVD-RW.
 
Demand for quality PSU's is higher now so we're suffering from the price elasticity of the better models.

i.e People didn't care about having a rubbish psu years ago, now they do and thus companies can charge more.
 
Lee2k4, buying a cheap psu is a false economy. You are the prime example of this. If you bought a decent one from a respected manufacturer in the first place then it is highly likely that it would still be working and you would actually have saved quite a bit of money as well. You are lucky that none of your failed psu's took out any of your components when they failed.

OP, psu's are much more powerful now at the high end than they were 4yrs ago. I mean, what was the normal size then? 350w? They go up to at least 1400w nowadays so you can expect to pay more. More power means more heat and better quality components and better heatsinks/fans are needed for the psu's to reach their stated outputs. This also means more expense to the manufacturer as better almost always cost's more.
 
Thank you for your advise, I have lost 2 graphics cards because of PSU's failing, if I was to buy a decent PSU what would you recommend say under £60?

My system

A64 3700
6600GT AGP
120 gig SATA HDD
80 GIG IDE
DVD-RW
 
I think you should be ok with 500w and it should see you ok for future upgrades as well so any of the following:-

FSP Sparkle Blue Storm 2 500W ATX2.0 PSU £58.74 inc VAT here .

Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £58.74 here .

OCZ ModStream 520w ATX2.2 Power Supply £58.74 here .

Obviously the more you spend the better psu you will get. Steer clear of the Hiper ones as they will go bang sooner or later. The FSP Blue Storm is up to 85% efficient so it will also save you some money on your electricity bills.
 
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The answer to the original question is very simple really.

Because people are willing to spend that much, If everyone stopped buying PSU's at £60+ those same PSU's would be available at a cheaper price.

It's buyers that set prices ;)
 
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