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

[stvmor]

I've had PSU's from OEM, Qtec, Hiper, compaq, HP, Antec and Seasonic. I have had failures from OEM, old Compaq, old HP and Qtec.
The only one to go bang in a big way and kill other components was the Qtec However, I actually repaired the Qtec and regularly use it and another to power 'test' PC's. I also know of 2 more Qtec's giving good long service in other peoples machines.
All other PSU failures have been quiet non starters on power-up which is not a problem really as they are generaly cheap to replace.
I have a 500w very cheap OEM from a certain e-tailer which has powered an overclocked AMD2500 with overclocked ATI 9700 pro graphics for several years.
However my Antec and, particularly the Seasonic S12, are in a different league and certainly seem worth the money.
So, you pays your money and you takes your choice and sometimes mostly you will probably be lucky but it pays to use the best you can afford or at least go with the 5 percent level which seems about right.

 

[Kesnel]

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)

I'm not sure if I articulated what I was trying to say too well.

I completely agree with your point here. I've never been one to skimp on PSUs myself. I was merely saying that for non-demanding applications a budget PSU will do the job for most people.

Personally however, I'd rather not take the risk.

 

[stvmor]

I'm not sure if I articulated what I was trying to say too well.

I completely agree with your point here. I've never been one to skimp on PSUs myself. I was merely saying that for non-demanding applications a budget PSU will do the job for most people.

Personally however, I'd rather not take the risk.

I thought you sounded articulate and made a lot of sense but then inglish langage wuz nevr mi strongest subject

 

[pegasus1]

A bloke i knew once scoffed at me because i paid a tenner more for my Enermax Noisetaker 485W than he did for his generic 550W model. but then again he did pay £90 for a 256Meg Nvidia 5200 saying it would be twice as powerfull as my £140 9800 Pro.
Ohhh i chuckled to my self.

 

[Sparky191]

In over a decade of working in IT I could count the PSU related problems I've seen on one hand its that rare.

 

[stvmor]

In over a decade of working in IT I could count the PSU related problems I've seen on one hand its that rare.

Is it fair to assume that most of your IT dealings were with 'quality' machines from Compaq, HP, DELL etc?

 

[Sparky191]

Is it fair to assume that most of your IT dealings were with 'quality' machines from Compaq, HP, DELL etc?

Thousands of them. Probably a few hundred or more component built ones, including about 10-20 of my own. Most of the PSU failures I've seen were in servers not desktops.

 

[atpbx]

Is it fair to assume that most of your IT dealings were with 'quality' machines from Compaq, HP, DELL etc?

Well, i've been building and repairing Pc's for use in factories and offices, as well as for private use on and off since 1999, i cant say i've had experience of a Power supply failing even once.

 

[goreblast]

You must be lucky my friend. I have had a no-name generic one blow up on turning it on for the first time at my brothers house (his so wasnt too worried). An Antec 550 TrueControl smoke and thankfully not take anything else out. Father in law had a Dell PSU pumping out black smoke. His mate had a QTEC fail and take out the CPU, motherboard and RAM!

I was reading the other day over some guy putting together a 8TB server and want to power the lot 16 drive array etc with a 550W Qtec PSU!!! In fact he wanted to run two of them! rather than spend a wee bit more and get a decent one. Talk about priorities in the wrong place!

 

[Monstermunch]

Thing that gets to me the most is when I see spec for about £800 and people are skimping on the CPU in favour of the gfx cards. Personally i'd rather buy a 4400+ and an x1800 than a 3700+ and an x1900xtx.

I agree that a good PSU is necessary but a lot of people in the forums seem to think that you need something like a 580 or 600w minumum at a price of around £100. Which is simply not true, even when overclocking or putting the machine under a heavy load something like a 400-450w etc is more than adequate providing it's made well and by a reputable company. If it costs less than about £40 then it's probably crap.

IME the most likely components to fail which I also feel are somewhat overlooked by a lot of people are the Ram and the HDD. I've personally had bad experiences with Crucial & Maxtor and would never buy their products again.

 

[Sparky191]

You must be lucky my friend. I have had a no-name generic one blow up on turning it on for the first time at my brothers house (his so wasnt too worried). An Antec 550 TrueControl smoke and thankfully not take anything else out. Father in law had a Dell PSU pumping out black smoke. His mate had a QTEC fail and take out the CPU, motherboard and RAM....

Must be something in the water in your area mate.

 

[Monstermunch]

Oh just something thats come to mind for anyone who cares to try, but the following will substancially boost the quality and consistancy of power deliver to your PSU:

1 can of brasso req'd - Remove PSU plug from wall and rigorously polish the pins until you can see your reflection in them. Then remove the fuse and polish off the nickel plating to again expose the polished brass finish and replace in the plug. Hey presto.

No this is NOT a joke, if you dont believe me try following the same steps with your amplifier and cd player in your house and listen to the clarity and bass depth compared to before.

 

[Sparky191]

A UPS or surge suppressor I would reckon would be better.

 

[sinister_stu]

Oh just something thats come to mind for anyone who cares to try, but the following will substancially boost the quality and consistancy of power deliver to your PSU:

1 can of brasso req'd - Remove PSU plug from wall and rigorously polish the pins until you can see your reflection in them. Then remove the fuse and polish off the nickel plating to again expose the polished brass finish and replace in the plug. Hey presto.

No this is NOT a joke, if you dont believe me try following the same steps with your amplifier and cd player in your house and listen to the clarity and bass depth compared to before.

I hope you are joking...

There is absolutely no chance that polishing the plug and fuse will improve the "clarity and bass depth" of your cd player and amplifier as you suggest. I suspect you read that particular nugget in what? hi-fi, they usually do a good job of perpetuating those sorts of myths.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

 

[squiffy]

I hope you are joking...

There is absolutely no chance that polishing the plug and fuse will improve the "clarity and bass depth" of your cd player and amplifier as you suggest. I suspect you read that particular nugget in what? hi-fi, they usually do a good job of perpetuating those sorts of myths.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

Should I buy one of these for my PC PSU?

http://www.russandrews.com/lookup/1...oduct-The-Silver-Reference-PowerKord-1046.htm

 

[Monstermunch]

I hope you are joking...

There is absolutely no chance that polishing the plug and fuse will improve the "clarity and bass depth" of your cd player and amplifier as you suggest. I suspect you read that particular nugget in what? hi-fi, they usually do a good job of perpetuating those sorts of myths.

Do you have any evidence to back this up?

No I am most definitely not joking. It does work. For those on a budget unwilling to spend pediculous amounts of money on stand alone PSU's and special high priced cables. It works with my current hi-fi and with my two previous!

It is a proven fact that electrical components benefit from pure source power supplies, by polishing the connections it is an electrical FACT that the current clarity etc will improve and the transfer of signal from one connection to the other will improve. Any build up of dirt on a connection will decrease the signal strength and clarity. Why do you think that many people make different lengths of cable etc instead of extensions, the reason being that every connection you have on a circuit stands to reduce the signal strength.

It's really just common sense, if you don't believe me and you have a hi-fi...try it and then comment!

Also it wasn't picked up in what hi-fi as you suggested, it was mentioned to me by a hi-fi vendor selling Naim products that doing this will help the clarity and bass etc. It has also been mentioned several times in hi-fi world's tweak reccomendations on a budget. (Hi-Fi world are a classy, top end mag and cannot be compared to the likes of what hi-fi)

 

[squiffy]

I would really think that will help if the contacts are so corroded it's not making good contact. I guess though if you want to think about it you should also replace all switches in the path. I have proper Hi-Fi.

 

[Monstermunch]

I have proper Hi-Fi.

Read my sig, so have I!

 

[stvmor]

No I am most definitely not joking. It does work. For those on a budget unwilling to spend pediculous amounts of money on stand alone PSU's and special high priced cables. It works with my current hi-fi and with my two previous!

It is a proven fact that electrical components benefit from pure source power supplies, by polishing the connections it is an electrical FACT that the current clarity etc will improve and the transfer of signal from one connection to the other will improve. Any build up of dirt on a connection will decrease the signal strength and clarity. Why do you think that many people make different lengths of cable etc instead of extensions, the reason being that every connection you have on a circuit stands to reduce the signal strength.

It's really just common sense, if you don't believe me and you have a hi-fi...try it and then comment!

Also it wasn't picked up in what hi-fi as you suggested, it was mentioned to me by a hi-fi vendor selling Naim products that doing this will help the clarity and bass etc. It has also been mentioned several times in hi-fi world's tweak reccomendations on a budget. (Hi-Fi world are a classy, top end mag and cannot be compared to the likes of what hi-fi)

codswallop!
If you are talking about cleaning Hi-Fi audio connections then ok but it won't make a blind bit of difference to a PC's PSU output! FACT (I reckon)

And as for "current clarity" Your making it up as you go along. It's a bit like saying a cars tyres rubber adhesion quality depends on washing them with rubber softening solution every 20-30 miles! Bolderdash Or is it

 

[Raymond Lin]

Read my sig, so have I!

I have better IC than you VDH The First Ultimate

and CD player