Use of cheap PSU's

[decto]

So I may need an extra PSU or more for additional old gaming machines.

Assuming this is ball park 80W CPU and 150W GPU plus a few fans and a SATA SSD so 250W max. Usage likely to be 10-20hr/ month.

Seems to be very few mid tier PSU about with Corsair CX550 looking to be the go to budget option.

However there are a number of brands of cheaper 80+ or 80+ bronze supplies such as CiT, AeroCool, GameMax, CWT, Kolink etc. Perhaps there are even tiers within this budget tier but most of these claim 90%+ of rating at +12V so none of the old 50% of power at 3.3 & 5.0V.

Have you used or are you using a budget PSU?

I can get near 2 cheap, 'sufficient' PSU's with 400-500W @12V for the price of a CX550 so for what are likely near disposal PC's with a £50-£100 GPU and light usage its tempting.

So crowd sourcing your experience and recommendations of these 'integrator' class units specifically if there is a budget brand you've had a good experience with.

 

[decto]

Its a lottery when buying cheap cheap and prefer to spend extra getting something like the be quiet system power 10 which have been solid in budget builds.

Peace of mind is worth paying extra for.

I discounted Be Quiet based on this and others Linky

Which got me thinking is there any real difference between BQ and less well known labels.

 

[decto]

I've not had a PSU fail yet... though mostly had Corsair, Antec, Seasonic since I moved on from the bundled units in the beige towers of the early 90's.

Coming to the realisation that my pile of treasure (Old PC parts) might need a bit more investment than just a couple of used GPU's given the cost of a case, PSU and cooler especially as cooler prices seem to have doubled.
You begin to wonder at what point it's all just E-waste.

Still after a proper look I found a TX550M BNIB.... no idea where or when that came from.
I knew about the BNIB RM550x I picked up half price Black Friday in anticipation.

Also found my old HX620... looks clean and mostly free of dust and an old Huntkey Jumper 300W (80+ Gold) that's was actually well reviewed by Anandtech with 288W @ 12V so that may be enough for an I5/I7 'S' and GTX 1650.
The Antec Earthwatts 380 from the early 2000's might be a bit too much of a risk.

Otherwise there is a deal on MSI 550/650W which fall in the middle price wise and seem to be at least a known CWT platform.

For now.... I'll resist those ultra cheap PSU's, though part of me is curious to see how well they work at 40-50% rated capacity.

 

[decto]

I think it's one of those... it depends. Do you want to spend £60 on a PSU on an old box for occasional use? Which is why I asked the question to see if there was any experience with these brands.

Total white label unknown brand.... non starter. Likely a 300W PSU @ 25C with any old wattage label.
Can happen to 'Budget Brand', The Aussie guy on YT who flips PC's shared examples of GameMax PSU's which were imported and labelled up before resale so can happen outside of the suppliers control even if the supplier was attempting to make a usable budget PSU.

Budget 'brand'... Consider for low end or old, low value, non critical hardware, redundant hardware. Assume 50% of rated capacity for continuous use and it's probably OK.
Most of these are rated at 500W+ anyway. Check that most of the wattage is available on +12V rail. Some case bundled PSU's are still 50-60% @ 12V.

Premium brands.... critical, high / medium value systems, high consumption (>250W continuous) etc.