Fu3lman

my psu died, so i went searching for information about good, cheap psu's....

came across this post in some forum... original thread can be found HERE.

Quote: We all know that sometimes drives just dont perform up to spec e.g. not writing correctly or behaving erraticly, well some problems can be down to software or hardware configuration, but quite a few problems can be put down to Power Supplies, if they cant support the correct number of amps at their rated voltage or cant give out their rated voltage this can cause various problems. (May want to make this a sticky) Heres the List of good PSU's and a few bad ones i found on the net via various forums that had them listed i did not create this list its just a guide though some people may have the bad PSU's and they may work great but this a pretty good list do as you please. Credit goes to various people who compiled this list. If you have any to add to the list or comments about the power supplies go ahead. -------- Good: -------- AMS (Mercury) Antec Astec AOpen Channel Well Cooler Master E-Power Enermax Enlight Fortron Source HEC Hi-Power HiperPower Jeantech Mad Dog NSpire OCZ PCMCIS PC Power & Cooling PowerMan Seasonic SilenX Sparklepower Tagan Thermaltake TTGI/SuperFlower Ultra Verax Zalman Xclio ------- Bad/Crap: ------- Achieve Allied Aspire Codegen CoolMax Cyberzone DEER Dragon Eagle Tech EYE-T Greenline HIPRO JSP-tech KingStar Kingwin L&C Linkworld Okia Orion PowerMagic PowerUp Powmax Q-Tec Raidmax Rosewill Silverstone Skyhawk Startech Turbolink Vantec Win ------- Heres another list of good/bad PSU's. Number 5 is the crap territory keep away. #1a Topower (some TTGI - Super-Flower, OCZ, EPower/Tagan, RaidMax, Vantec, ACI) #1b FSP - Fortron Source Power (Fortron, Sparkle, Cooler Master*, Zalman, Aopen) #1c CWT - Channel Well Technology (Antec, Lead Power, Enermax, Xclio, Turbolink) While these top three encompass more than the re-badges I've named, you can usually bet on a solid performer if you pick one of them. It's highly debatable which are better than others, of course. But all in all, everyone has had pretty good experiences. Not suprisingly, they are priced accordingly. None of them in the 400W range are going to be under $50. If your power supply is one of the above, chances are you can trust both the unit itself and it's claims on wattage per line. #2a Sea Sonic #2b Wintech (Ultra X-finity) #2c Acbel Polytech (Stateside, just the Cooler Master True Power) Same with these, a bit more esoteric. If you can afford a Sea Sonic these have the best efficiency of any consumer switching PSU for computers. You'll pay for it up front, but your electric bill will be less in the long run. #3a Sirtec (Chieftec, Enlight, ThermalTake, High Power) #3b HEC - HeroIchi Electronic Co. (HEC, CompuCase) #3c AMS - American Media Systems (Mercury) Here you start finding dissention in the owners. Some claim it's the best in the world, some wouldn't let their dog run Windows 3.11 on one. Some of them have great reputations (TT & HEC) but the problem is a "squeaky wheel" one - it's hard to know just how good/bad things are when only people with problems post. #4a Youngyear (Aspire, Logisys, MGE, Ultra X-Connect, Rosewill) #4b ATNG (Coolink, CoolMax, Rosewill, StarTech) Now we're into budget territory. Maybe it's just a quality control issue; some people love them but most hate them, and from bad personal experiences. I personally wouldn't touch them. They should work, but no one will be suprised if it smokes itself and takes your motherboard with it. They rarely come close to what their ratings state, very poorly constructed. (but usually colors or chrome and UV sleeved and colored Molex's and LED fans!) These for the most part are toys, although you might get lucky. Not all of them are, but it does take more effort in sifting through them than it's worth. #5 UTTER CRAP! (L&C, Deer, Allied, Eagle, CodeGen/Foxconn, EverPower, Maxpower, Q-Tec) If you believe one of these things will power your computer, I have a 7-band underdash amplifier/equalizer that's 250W+250W that I'll sell you for $5. You'll love it. Really, if you have one of these supplies, don't mention it to us. Just silently toss it out and buy one in the #1 category. ---------------------------------- BAD/CRAP LIST (Updated) 24/06/2006 Some of these PSU's are dangerous to your system, some are just sub-standard, however NONE can be recommended, for high performance or over-clocked systems. Achieve Aerocool Allied Apex Arrow, Aspire > Dangerous! They don't even pretend to meet the ATX/AMD/Intel specs! Austin Codegen Coolmax Demon Deer Duro Dynapower Eagle EagleTech Foxconn Foxlink Hercules InWin (except FSP models) JustPC Key Mouse Kingwin L&C Logic Linkworld Macron Power MGE Mustang Okia Power-Man (except FSP models) Powmax Power-Up Powerstar QMax Qtec q-tec Raidmax (except Topower/Tagan models, not sold with cases) Real PC Power Rhycon Robanton Rosewill Skyhawk Thermaltake (except the Thermaltake W0057 PurePower 500W) TMP-ANS Tsunami Turbo Turbolink Ultra (except X2 & X-Finity) US-Can Viomax

does anyone want to contribute to this, or discuss?

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post_break

My raidmax PSU has performed ok for me. Abit NF-7, 2700+ amd.

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Sn0wMan

Nice list. From my experience, it appears to hold true.

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Fu3lman

i think its safe to assume that PC Power & Cooling is pretty much a safe bet regardless, but many of us cant afford the premiums they charge for their psu's...

i think this list is pretty damn accurate, which is a good thing considering im about to drop some kaish on an ePower 550 watt psu...

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Master Yunk

Thermal take is on the crap list at the bottom... but on the good one at the top....

Thermaltake W0093RU 500W Power Supply serves me well. Quiet too.

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Fu3lman

Quote: Originally Posted by Master Yunk Thermal take is on the crap list at the bottom... but on the good one at the top.... Thermaltake W0093RU 500W Power Supply serves me well. Quiet too.

im not sure how accurate that list is, to be honest, i think the middle list was looking more at the quality of the hardware those psu companies used for their rebrands instead of the individual psu companies reputation, maybe Tt quality control is better than some other brands and possibly lowers the likelihood of getting a lemon, even though their base hardware provider isnt all too great.

EDIT: it's also a safe bed, judging from your psu's model #, that your unit is a rebrand of better quality hardware than Tt is allegedly prone to using. (rampant speculation)

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vf1000ride

I have a pair of the Antec truepower II 550 watt units and a older truepower 430 watt unit that have been serving me very well under all kinds of OC'ing. Don't really know too much about any of the others. I found something I like and have kinda stuck with it.

Great link though,

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Hak Foo

I've went through two PSUs in the last year:

-An ACRyan Ryanpower2 450W. It blew up WHILE THE MACHINE WAS POWERED DOWN and most likely killed my 6800LE in March.

-An Antec SP-500. It caused diverse seemingly random failures in October.

Both were heavy, and fairly expensive models (the ACRyan listed for 90, but I won it in a contest; the Antec was about 70, but I paid $5 after one-day sale and rebate). Both let me down.

But what got my attention was the post-sale support.

ACRyan didn't answer emails, provided no contact information on their site, etc.

Antec gave me a hassle-free RMA and a new SP500 with virtually no hassle.

I still don't trust them as much as the Sparkle FSP300 that's carried a system from "Them new ECS K7S5A boards are finicky!" to "It's still a socket A rig? With a Palomino 2000+?"

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Im_gumby

Quote: Originally Posted by Fu3lman i think this list is pretty damn accurate, which is a good thing considering im about to drop some kaish on an ePower 550 watt psu...

I still love the Tiger I reviewed. PCApex.com - E-Power Tiger 550W Modular PSU

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