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

[ben_j_davis]

Eventhough i dont really worry about the PSU i still wouldnt buy a Q-tec unless my budget was really really tight.

 

[Steves_pc]

Average joe never realises the 500watt psu that cost £20 is going to do less than it says on the tin for one, secondly i consider psu/mobo/ram almost equally important especially if your trying to build a well balanced system with half a chance of a future.

I hate to admit but a couple of years ago i had a Qtec! it was only a temp job that ended up being in use for two years till it got a cold start issue.

The least amount of dosh isnt always the worst as a quick read around here seems to show theres a good few using the Hiper 580's good wattage & good price, the least expensive it isnt but neither is it the dearest, just for a change good VFM.

As a side note the antec cases with psu's are a great combo, good case and a reliable(so far) psu which i'll often use for system builds.

 

[AWPC]

few years agowhilst checking to see why my PC was making a buzzing sound the cheap OEM PSU blew up near to my face Aside from escaping without any injury other than shock not a pleasant experience I can tell you as it also destroyed the mobo+ram+cpu.

Eversince have always bought the best I can afford. My current one is probably the most expensive @ £135ish but is also a massive heatsink due to its construction and totally silent so it also reduces case temps & does not contribute towards the CPU below it getting any hotter as it only has 1 tiny 60mm internal fan so no hot air getting blasted into the case.

A decent PSU can have an impact on performance as it should be able to supply enough power on all the rails for a decent overclock whereas a poor one will usually cause power issues which can & do damage ram+gfx cards+cpus so bit of a false economy if you ask me.

Try to think of a decent PSU as an insurance policy.

 

[ben_j_davis]

few years agowhilst checking to see why my PC was making a buzzing sound the cheap OEM PSU blew up near to my face Aside from escaping without any injury other than shock not a pleasant experience I can tell you as it also destroyed the mobo+ram+cpu.

Eversince have always bought the best I can afford. My current one is probably the most expensive @ £135ish but is also a massive heatsink due to its construction and totally silent so it also reduces case temps & does not contribute towards the CPU below it getting any hotter as it only has 1 tiny 60mm internal fan so no hot air getting blasted into the case.

A decent PSU can have an impact on performance as it should be able to supply enough power on all the rails for a decent overclock whereas a poor one will usually cause power issues which can & do damage ram+gfx cards+cpus so bit of a false economy if you ask me.

Try to think of a decent PSU as an insurance policy.

Yeah your completely right.

Think about it, hundreds of pounds worth of kit is being feb by a crappy £10 PSU, not only will it effect the systems performance and stability but it might also fail and take a few components with it.

 

[CurlyWhirly]

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

I have an Enermax 460W power supply, are they a good quality brand then?

According to the manual my PSU has over load, over voltage and short circuit protection but I wonder if these safety features will really work when it fails?

I have yet to have a PSU fail on me so I don't know if it goes out with a bang or not?

 

[megatron]

My 550w enermax died when I switched on from the mains, through 2 power bars, and the surge only took out the enermax. Enermax > 2 power bars (whos purpose is to stop power surges in addition to make more sockets).

I had a backup 350w enemax and then just RMA'ed the 550w, still works today; though Ive got an enermax 500w liberty now too.

 

[Things change I've changed]

I think PSU's are very important, they are what give life to your machine and feed it with electrical juice, I for one want that juice coming through as clean and stable as possible so as to keep all my components happy and safe, why anyone would would buy a £10-£20 psu to protect a £1000+ machine is beyond me really

 

[Dutch Guy]

Enermax > 2 power bars (whos purpose is to stop power surges in addition to make more sockets).

I heard that the fuses in them only last 6 months and after that time they do not stop surges anymore and you have to get a new one.

 

[NickK]

If you are on edge and you need all the stable power (current and voltage) then you will have to pay for it. A diminishing return though.

My old Enermax 350W is still around somewhere. It was a good PSU but it can't hack an overclocked Barton 2500 to ludicrious speeds.

Enter my old Enermax 550W TruePower.
The Barton was stable during it's life as the main rig. Now as RAID5 server, the CPU is at stock and it's powering 7 hard drives in addition to the rig.
The abuse it's had (such as short curcuiting the molex connectors on several occasions) and being left on 24/7 crunching for long periods when overclocked, it's a good PSU in my opinion that's only been "retired" as it's too old to have PCI-E or ATX2 power connectors.
This PSU has a big 5V rail but a weaker 12V rail as AMD motherboards in those days didn't use the additional 12V power.
It's now plugged into an APC 500VA BackUPS. So I know that the initial cold start spike of the RAID5 server is over 300W (it beeps) but maximum CPU load and RAID5 array usage is below 300W.

OCZ PowerStream 520W
This is the new X2, X800XL rig PSU. It provides enough current for the heavily overclocked X2 and X800XL. When it was new I could swear I could hear it groan under the load as BF2 started...
Now this rig spends most of it's day crunching two ClimatePrediction.net models.
True it's not the most powerful PSU, but a mate runs a Vapo'd FX and SLI'd 7800s off his..

 

[megatron]

I heard that the fuses in them only last 6 months and after that time they do not stop surges anymore and you have to get a new one.

I heard a pop which made me think capacitor, if it was a fuse I wouldnt know I never checked it. It would be nice if it was a circuit breaker rather than a fuse so you can reset instead of RMA (or change fuse as you say).

 

[p4radox]

I'm going to be controversial here and say that there's no significant difference in reliability between budget PSUs and expensive ones. I've seen just as many Hiper, Enermax, Antec and Tagan PSUs die as I have cheap ones.

The main difference comes in the expensive PSUs' ability to cope with high-load, and to provide a lot more current than the cheaper ones.

 

[CurlyWhirly]

why anyone would would buy a £10-£20 psu to protect a £1000+ machine is beyond me really

I agree.
I will never buy a cheap PSU.

 

[pegasus1]

I have a decent PSU for the same reason that i put decent tyres on my car, if it goes wrong i dont want it taking my expensive rig with it.

 

[Raikiri]

I have a decent PSU for the same reason that i put decent tyres on my car, if it goes wrong i dont want it taking my expensive rig with it.

So you have got good tires, skinned god and made them into an airbag... thats one helluva car

 

[lumocolor]

I'm going to be controversial here and say that there's no significant difference in reliability between budget PSUs and expensive ones. I've seen just as many Hiper, Enermax, Antec and Tagan PSUs die as I have cheap ones.

The main difference comes in the expensive PSUs' ability to cope with high-load, and to provide a lot more current than the cheaper ones.

Exactly!
My vast experience of both budget and premium PSU's confirms this.

 

[PinkPig]

People giving specifications on here in my view go overkill on the PSU - spending £90 minimum seems to be recommended even with a total budget of £500 or less. Strikes me as a waste of money.

 

[Kesnel]

I'll have to say that it depends highly on what you're going to be doing. Sure, budget PSUs will be fine for your general work/internet/media/gaming rig etc.

If you're overclocking heavily then obviously something more substantial is needed.

I use a 600W OCZ Powerstream, so naturally I'm going to side with the "spend more" camp on this one.

 

[pegasus1]

I'll have to say that it depends highly on what you're going to be doing. Sure, budget PSUs will be fine for your general work/internet/media/gaming rig etc.

If you're overclocking heavily then obviously something more substantial is needed.

I use a 600W OCZ Powerstream, so naturally I'm going to side with the "spend more" camp on this one.

Maybe spending 5% of your budget on you PSU is a half decent yardstick but as ive (and many others) have said, when a PSU goes Pete Tong it usualy takes some components with it and in my limeted experiance, well made PSUs go wrong less than cheeper PSU's. Thats not to say that just cos a PSU is £100 its good but that decent PSUs generally cost a little more.
I know il get flamed but i think the more experianced posters will agree.
(Dutch Guy, Loadsamoney, Paradigm, back me up)

 

[UOcUK Poopscoop]

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....

I would say the opposite in some ways.

Electronics do not like being constantly powered up and down.

A PSU on 24/7 is likely to last longer than one turned on and off a few times a day.

 

[m3csl2004]

i use an enermax just for the peice of mind (and ear )