Cheap unbraded PSU & My experiences..

[Vhero]

I have been living off cheap unbranded PSU's for years now and only once spent big cash on a decent PSU the decent quality PCU that cost me £80 died just after a year and I unfortunately lost my receipt etc.. I think it was an OCZ 750 it made a popping sound and just fizzled out. I remember to RMA it I had to send to Germany though but without proof of purchase I couldn't RMA. Anyway to my experience I have only had one cheap psu fail on me other than this and all it did is shut power off to my system completely if i taxed it too much. I replaced it with a "temporary replacement" I told myself a cheap 750w for £25 from my local computer shop and its worked great since and the things on pretty much 24/7. Since the OCZ PSU I found it harder to trust expensive PSU as they failed a lot easier in my eyes than the cheaper ones.

However with my new PC I am finally going back to a quality PSU and giving this one away to my son perhaps. I may replace the PSU in the future but for now its working fine. My friends all have cheap PSU's too and have never had problems. Of course we don't have the latest tech in our machines and never have the total value of the inside of my pc now is about £200. It was £400 when bought and I added a new card since then.

So maybe its just because I havnt really had a taxing graphics card upgrading from 8800gt to HD6850 but I lost faith in so called quality PSU's a long time ago which may sound crazy but I have real reasons and its a true story. Like I said though it's time to move on as my new system is gonna cost me around £800 and I know a cheap PSU is a bad idea here but for lower end machines I still swear by them.

[Avro]

I would still regard a generic PSU higher than OCZ PSUs anyway.

[Vhero]

I would still regard a generic PSU higher than OCZ PSUs anyway.

Hahaha fair enough. I think I chose bad with that one as back then I just saw price and thought it was good. Nowadays I do a lot of research etc.. before buying and I avoid OCZ for anything.

[Clockwise]

Damn not 5th of november yet.

[Spaceboy]

Any PSU brand, generic or otherwise can have failures.
Any PSU brand, generic or otherwise can last years without failure - and in fact most will, otherwise they wouldn't sell

When a PSU dies, a generic one has a much higher chance of taking other components with it. A branded one should protect other components from harm.

So yes you can take your chances, and in most cases be absolutely fine... but why risk it ?

It's a bit like running a single 3TB drive with all your important data on it. Chances of it failing are around 1% in 2 years... but why risk it ?

[joker3327]

I sit in both schools... My gamer has an expensive quality psu and it does get taxed! My surfing pc has one that came with the case..its ITX and is on its 3rd iteration of guts and is still going strong...

My throw together with spares pc has a 650 arianet psu in it as I just needed to see if some bits worked....it sits in the corner running Linux mint for when I'm bored and waiting for steam to be released lol

[Vhero]

Any PSU brand, generic or otherwise can have failures.
Any PSU brand, generic or otherwise can last years without failure - and in fact most will, otherwise they wouldn't sell

When a PSU dies, a generic one has a much higher chance of taking other components with it. A branded one should protect other components from harm.

So yes you can take your chances, and in most cases be absolutely fine... but why risk it ?

It's a bit like running a single 3TB drive with all your important data on it. Chances of it failing are around 1% in 2 years... but why risk it ?

Your of course right but without risk there can be no reward right? lol okay.. I just wanted to put that but in all seriousness I think when it came to cheap hardware I didn't bother too much and cheap psus do come with protection features too as well as motherboards to protect against failures etc.. Also to protect parts in case anything does go.. So its not all that bad. I agree a quality one i better but my way is thinking for cheap low end systems there no point in an expensive PSU as its in most cases unnecessary.

I sit in both schools... My gamer has an expensive quality psu and it does get taxed! My surfing pc has one that came with the case..its ITX and is on its 3rd iteration of guts and is still going strong...

My throw together with spares pc has a 650 arianet psu in it as I just needed to see if some bits worked....it sits in the corner running Linux mint for when I'm bored and waiting for steam to be released lol

so 2 pcs that get taxed and a testbed? Damn your electric bill must look nasty! LOL.

[joker3327]

Your of course right but without risk there can be no reward right? lol okay.. I just wanted to put that but in all seriousness I think when it came to cheap hardware I didn't bother too much and cheap psus do come with protection features too as well as motherboards to protect against failures etc.. Also to protect parts in case anything does go.. So its not all that bad. I agree a quality one i better but my way is thinking for cheap low end systems there no point in an expensive PSU as its in most cases unnecessary.



so 2 pcs that get taxed and a testbed? Damn your electric bill must look nasty! LOL.

And the wife's pc lol..... The bill is nowhere near as bad as when my son lived with us lol... Pc xbox360 monitor tv and stereo all on almost constant lol....

[gavbon]

i have an OCZ psu thats been loaded plenty, and its not skipped a beat!

maybe you've just had a bad one

[Vhero]

And the wife's pc lol..... The bill is nowhere near as bad as when my son lived with us lol... Pc xbox360 monitor tv and stereo all on almost constant lol....

Haha my PC is on 24/7 as it streams around the house and my wifes laptops on quite a lot too. Not to mention the kids playstation 3 and the charging of his archos tablet all the time.. Technology is costly in electricity bills..

i have an OCZ psu thats been loaded plenty, and its not skipped a beat!

maybe you've just had a bad one

Maybe so.. .

[k3vst3r]

Yeah as spaceboy said, basically cheaper generic units lack some of the more expensive protection, which basically means if problem arises it's more likely to suffer damage to other components like gfx cards, motherboards, hard drives. Both get the job done, it's like buying modern car with all extra safety features an higher NCAP crash protection figures verses cheaper older car which lacks them.

[hamster603]

its also luck with cheaper generic, some you win some you lose, but when they go pop kiss your pc goodbye

[IanS]

I've built hundreds of PCs over the years and used to use the cheap generic PSUs, but found that about 50% would fail within 3 years and about 15% would fail within 1 year.
I then started using Corsair CX PSUs and had a poor experience with the first few (coil whine and 2 failures).
Since then I've used OCZs, Be Quiets and the odd FSP; I've not had any failures and they are reasonably priced. The only downside that I've noticed with the OCZs, is that they aren't the quietest.

I've only ever had one PC damaged by a failing PSU, that was an Antec about 10 years ago, that took out the memory as well.

[spleenharvester]

Oddly enough I've had the same experience. Just bad luck I guess.

Awful experience with Corsair, CX400 killed £200 worth of graphics cards, with video proof, and they still wouldn't reimburse for postage to Netherlands. Unbelievable.

OCZ fine for me, one had issues with fan control but that was it.

Had one Antec go out, the other is still going strong.

One Hiper went out too.

Meanwhile, various Trust, Casecom etc PSUs I've used are still going fine (a Trust PSU is in a mate's rig @8 years old now)

[Vhero]

Oddly enough I've had the same experience. Just bad luck I guess.

Awful experience with Corsair, CX400 killed £200 worth of graphics cards, with video proof, and they still wouldn't reimburse for postage to Netherlands. Unbelievable.

OCZ fine for me, one had issues with fan control but that was it.

Had one Antec go out, the other is still going strong.

One Hiper went out too.

Meanwhile, various Trust, Casecom etc PSUs I've used are still going fine (a Trust PSU is in a mate's rig @8 years old now)

Yeah pretty much same as me it really shocked me at the time. Didn't think it happened with expensive PSU but I didn't know as much as I do now. Never had a cheap PSU go yet just 1 cough and splutter lol.