Why do people spend the least amount of money on the most important part?.

WatchTower

WatchTower

WatchTower

Soldato
Joined
9 Jan 2005
Posts
4,427
Location
Stoke-On-Trent
I know a lot of people might think I'm an idiot for saying this but I think the most important part on a PC is the PSU but it's the last thing a lot people seem to bother to spend much on.

Other people will say OMG thats obvious I know this but why do people still risk killing an expensive PC just because they wanted to save a few pounds in the power area.
 
The PSU really isn't that impotant unless 1) you're 'clocking, or 2) you've got a bleeding edge 'rig. Sure that doesn't mean I'm saying an OEM PSU is good, just that the "lesser" models are perfectly adequate for most.

IMO the amount of memory and monitors (yes, plural) are the most important :)
 
Because to most people, 500w is 500w. It says "supa lo-noise" then it must be quiet etc.

People see what looks like the same thing, one is £10 and the other is £100. They make an uninformed decision and buy what they think is a bargain.
 
I tend to think that part of the problem is that there is no easy way quantify a PSU. You and I both have PSUs that are rated at 550W. Only one of them is any good. How do we know which one is any good? All we have to run on is the manufacturer's reputation.

Another thing is that PSUs are not sexy. They're not interesting. They don't make the computer any faster (by themselves). They don't really make it look any prettier. To a novice it can seem like you can get another few quid worth of CPU, RAM, or GPU for the few that could be spent on a quality PSU.
 
I had an enermax die on me last year and this is what made it worth the £88 it may have died but the rest of my PC was still 100% fine. I got the PSU replaced and I was happy.

There's a few makes of PSUs now that are trying make them look sexier too. About time. :D
 
Also with PSUs if it's doing its job correctly, you'll never hear from it again. It'll hum away turning AC into DC for the rest of the machine's life. You are usually aware of what a CPU is doing. The only time you check in on the PSU is when it's not working right.
 
The quality of the PSU is very important to people who read this type of forum, but to joe bloggs....... I would say its not even a factor.

Therefore you could follow this arguement through and when people start reading these forums will they realise that a PSU can cause problems ( even at default if you have too many hdd or something) if its not a quality brand and rails arent solid enough etc (esp at bootup or in-game)

I have had a tagan u01 480w for quite a few years now, i still rate it above the more recent hyper 580w I bought from OC a few months back
 
it's true and people got used to buying a ready made pc with the psu in place.
like with all other electric items.
would you ever think of changing the 'psu' in your toaster, fridge or vacuum cleaner?

so that philosophy carried on with comps.
 
I think it's because the psu doesn't bring any speed increase to the system. People want to make the system the fastest they can for the money they have, to do this they have to choose a worse quality psu to get a faster cpu or graphics etc.

edit: People will continue to buy cheap psu's if they have used them before and had no problems, they will not see the reason for buying a expensive one if a cheap one works fine.
 
Last edited:
BillytheImpaler said:
I tend to think that part of the problem is that there is no easy way quantify a PSU. You and I both have PSUs that are rated at 550W. Only one of them is any good. How do we know which one is any good? All we have to run on is the manufacturer's reputation.

Another thing is that PSUs are not sexy. They're not interesting. They don't make the computer any faster (by themselves). They don't really make it look any prettier. To a novice it can seem like you can get another few quid worth of CPU, RAM, or GPU for the few that could be spent on a quality PSU.
Click to expand...

You could just look at the rails. More amps (maximum sustained output) on the 12v rail(s) is better ;)
 
Fx-Overlord said:
You could just look at the rails. More amps (maximum sustained output) on the 12v rail(s) is better ;)
Click to expand...

More voltage on the 12v rail is better? So you want a 14v 12v rail?

Surely you mean more amperage. :confused:

And just to add my 2p, I believe the PSU to be ONE OF THE most important components.
 
I design, build and test systems for image capture purposes. These systems use cheap (~£20) 550W power supplies and run a 3.2 P4, up to six external cameras (all powered from the PC) and plenty of other stuff. These run 24/7 at almost full load.

Whilst the PSUs do fail from time to time, they have never destroyed any other part of the system. The most common component failure is the HD.

I have a decent PSU in my current PC, but previously ran a 550W Q-Tec for over 3 years with no problems at all. Personally, I think this decent PSU argument has a lot in common with the kind of arguments people make about hifi equipment. There's nothing wrong with wanting to buy a good quaility PSU but equally a cheaper PSU will also do the job.
 
NathanE said:
The PSU really isn't that impotant unless 1) you're 'clocking, or 2) you've got a bleeding edge 'rig. Sure that doesn't mean I'm saying an OEM PSU is good, just that the "lesser" models are perfectly adequate for most.

IMO the amount of memory and monitors (yes, plural) are the most important :)
Click to expand...

Very true!


sara said:
I bought a £10 jobbie about 3 years ago and it's been running with no trouble ever since. I guess I'm lucky :)
Click to expand...

I have also setup an Internet cafe for my local youth group which consisted of 8 Duron computers, due to the fact they had a very limited budget at the time (£1000 for all 8 PC's) I used cheap as chips Cases (£10) which included a budget 350W PSU. All 8 of these PC's have been running perfect for nearly 3 years and many are left on 24/7.
The only trouble I had was when I first built them and many of the 'Budget' RAM sticks were obviously faulty (I knew this would be the case) But a few cheap RMA's later and all rigs were running perfect and have been since.

Many people also seem to not understand how PSU's work and seem to think that if one overloads a PSU that it will explode in a massive ball of fire taking half their house with it :eek: (Well maybe not that drastic but they certainly think that if you overload a PSU then it will blow all your components out)
THIS IS NOT THE CASE!! On a computer where the psu is overloaded it simply becomes unstable because when too much current is draw from the power supply the voltage lines simply drop below spec (current flowing in a conducting material is directly proportional to the applied voltage)

Over the past 3-4 years I must have used well over 50 cheap (£10-£15) 350-500W PSU's in simple low current draw rigs, NON of which have caused any problems.
 
yeah most people usually not borther about the PSU, just like the old time me....the case is that if u not using the pc for 24for7, then a very cheap one will do... but the ture is that most pc user are the heavy user.... comon 24 hours a day, downloading.. gaming, etc. if u had got a cheap PSu, it would burn ** house already..... but...if u good lucky, u might got a cheap one n used it for 3 yrs as below.... ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom