News Corsair shows why budget PSUs aren't so great

it isnt shindlers list mate, who cares?

 

heh.. i bought an Ultra <I forget the model> PSU that was FreeAfterRebate.. .the thing popped shortly after putting it in my new system.. learned my lesson there.. thank God I didn't fry anything else when it happened.

 

I'm a little ignorant and worried when it comes to PSUs... What's a rail? And what does it mean if the PSU is Modular?

 

I've had 400w £10 jobs, powering a fair amount of stuff without wobbling.

 

A rail is a seperate voltage outlet, ie. you have a 12v rail where all the 12v (yellow wires) come from, a 5v rail, etc.

Modular just means the you can swap out certain cables to keep the mess down in a case and to improve airflow, they normally have connectors that click into the psu, instead of having a big bunch of wires zip tied to the top of your case.

 

Busted!

First post everybody! Long time lurker, had to register finally to expose the main star in that cute movie:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152032
Price is actually only $20.49+$11 S/H. Matter of fact I have a Raidmax PSU that came with the Ninja case- rated at 450 that had rail distribution good enough for Pentium 3 (3v and 5v heavy), and my Barton was heating it up tremendously. I know the system sucks probably less than 250W at load, and it was obvious it was really inefficient, but it had 24 pin connector...funny that it got replaced by 450VX. I also have 620HX and really love that beast. Corsair has won me as a lifetime customer.

 

Right.. Okay, thanks.

But, why would I want twin rails? Like two 12v rails?

 

I never really thought about PSUs exploding/catching fire, but I learned many years ago with car audio amplifiers that you get what you pay for. The cheap models almost never delivered their promised wattage and typically lasted just long enough for the shody warranty to be expired.

This article did make me a little paranoid, so I did a little online research about the particular PSU that I replaced my stock PSU with. While I did not buy a cheap model, I wanted to make sure that it delivered the promised specs. According to http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/556 it performed as advertised and was tested beyond its advertised limit to 770W. The article does consider it overpriced, but that is usually the case when buying hardware from big retail stores.

All that said, next time I decide to upgrade a PSU, I will do a better job at researching the models available. In this case, I overpaid, but at least I got what was promised on the box.

 

All i have to say it that a good PSU is a great start to becoming a great pc....

 

of all the ironies....


the only PSU I've had that has failed at all was my HX620, when I was using it for load testing systems. (keep in mind it was at or very slightly over rated capacity)


it was still under warranty though and I had a new one in less than a week, so I can't complain

 

That was done (i believe) to comply with some EU standard or other about not having more than 120VA (20A @12V) through a user accessible cable. Most PSUs have a single 12V regulator and then have 1/2/3 sets of over current cut-offs for the rails (unless this has changed recently). There is no real practical difference.

 

I believe that the six PSUs mentioned in the video were tested at 12V = 18A, 3.3V = 20A and 5V = 10A (332W). Three prior to this also failed at 12V = 21A, 3.3V = 10A, 5V = 10A (with case lid on).

 

can someone explain to me how they undercut all other power suppliers?

 

cheap, reliable, superb performance.

the Hx620w under cuts all modular 600w with its performance and price

 

i dont know why but something seemed a little odd in that advert, yes i agree with buying a quality PSU. But i would be surprised if they were trying to draw 110% from those PSU's just to make it seem a little more dramatic.

iv got a little Q-tec at my feet right now says on the side 500W, but even i know thats a joke. it used as a test PSU, i.e for testing fans after rewiring. i wont power any hardware off it though as i dont think the power is clean enough, or another way to put it, stable enough.

 

The only time I blew up my PSU is when I inadvertently switched the little switch on the back to 110 Volts and then promptly proceeded to plug it to my 220 Volts mains.... It did not go with a pop, but with a surprisingly loud bang, a flash and a nice puff of acrid smoke. Fortunately the PSU was the only thing to go and the rest of the components were fine... phew....

 

2 faulty Enermax Infiniti's taking 4 motherboards to silicon heaven, and one "Jeantech" one exploded in my face, leaving a lovely sulphur taste around the air, I bricked it, nice blue flash

 

I dont think corsair is doing anyone a favor except hyping up there own products/themselves. Nothing better then self proclaimed propaganda! Oddly, I have a no-name brand in my semi-older computer and it works great.

This whole debacle should not have been posted on the front page, it isnt showing any statistics that dont appear to have a bias to them. And thats horrible...

 

I've had 2 PSUs die on me, one was a cheap backup one that over the course of 3-months when I didn't use it, went from working fine to not turning on at all. The other one is my Antec NeoHE which I had to RMA, nice bright blue spark inside the power supply(I could see through the fan grate). Luckily neither took anything with them.

 

Mein power supply on the PC was a grey box no-namer. It went kaput, but, thankfully, it didn't leave with the dramatic exit my brother's 4 other power supplies did with the 4 motherboards.