Power Supply Units
 

Hi guys,

The power supply unit in my 4 year old PC has burnt out, it would cost me 78 quid to exactly replace the unit but I really don't have the cash for that. I've seen cheap units on the likes of Amazon which are selling for around 15 quid, seeing as I don't really use my pc for anything strenuous, would one of these cheaper units be okay?

Re: Power Supply Units
 

well ive seen cheap power supplies go pop quick and ive seen em last years same can be said for higher priced branded ones. I would not normally recommend one of that price but you may well be fine with it

Re: Power Supply Units
 

What's the current power output on your PSU - and what's the power output on the cheaper ones you've seen on Amazon?

Re: Power Supply Units
 

The power output on the dead thing was 250, the ones I was looking at were around 400

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I would risk it myself. Ive used cases in budget builds thats had a case and psu for 20 so you know you aint getting much and its lasted years. Give it a punt

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Thanks sweetie, I will, but if it were to fail, would it go like my old one? ie crackling and stinking or just cut out 'cos I often leave my pc on for days and I don't want it to burn my house down.....

Re: Power Supply Units
 

cracking and smelling most likely is the capacitors bulging and eventually blowing which is the pop some go with a proper bang. More expensive ones could suffer exactly the same

Ive looked on amazon and they don't do any of the low end better branded ones. Antec do a basic but with delivery from elsewhere your looking at 30 quid

---------- Post added at 13:53 ---------- Previous post was at 13:51 ----------

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I like the look of the one on your ebuyer link, and 24 pin too. Thanks a lot. x

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I'd always get a decent brand PSU, it is the heart of your system. Going cheap on this part will most definitely cause you heartache in the future... I recommend any from Tagan, Corsair, OCZ, Akasa, Antec (although they're fans are noisy)

Re: Power Supply Units
 

it wont definately at all

Re: Power Supply Units
 

A cheap 600w PSU for less than £20 can be just as good as an expensive 400W psu for £50

Unless you need dual/triple 12v rails then I honestly would stick with one of the cheaper versions

Re: Power Supply Units
 

You may or may not be right. You would be right if the OP did things that really strained the PSU (running games on an SLI rig for example), but if he is just going to be browsing the web, doing emails etc, he is unlikely to put enough strain on the PSU to really test it.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

So you're saying if he has an sli setup quad core 4+ GB of RAM and is using a cheap & nasty 500W winpower, he is not likely to fry his machine!

---------- Post added at 22:03 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------

I would only ever recommend a value PSU for just that basic use i.e. for a office machine or just browsing the web.

A Cheap PSU...

Is very unlikely to supply the stated wattage - none of the cheaper ones do
Is very likely to be noisy, either immediately or after using it for a short while
It might not have enough connectors or the right sort
It's very unlikely to be '80 plus' certified http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_PLUS

It's a false economy basically, but if you must use a cheap PSU get one at least 100W higher

Re: Power Supply Units
 

what I will say is she hasnt because I have partook of the whole thread and know she does not need a high end psu

---------- Post added at 22:04 ---------- Previous post was at 22:03 ----------

did you not bother to read the thread? did you not see this get it right before you criticize

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Touched a nerve

Re: Power Supply Units
 

nah ya just wrong

Re: Power Supply Units
 

If you'll look at the sticker on the side of any power supply, you'll see the ratings for the various voltages supplied. Modern PCs draw most of their power off of the +12V rails, so it's the total available current/power available on the +12V line that determines whether or not your power supply has enough capacity.

Take a look at the sticker on the side of a high quality PSU rated at 560 watts fro example.

46 amperes (552 watts) on the +12V rail is more than enough for any PC with a single graphics card, and it's good enough for mid-range two-card Crossfire/SLI set-ups, as well.

Anything over 30 amperes should be plenty for most single-card PCs.

A cheap junk power supply claims to be a "550-watt" unit (almost exactly the same as the 560-watt Performance PSU). It's really only a 400-watt unit, rated at 25 amperes (300 watts) on the +12V rail :mad:

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Not a problem. If she is looking at a 400w PSU to replace a 250W one, it's unlikely to drop below the 250 (even assuming the PC uses anywhere near 250W).
Likely being the operative word.
Might not. If she has multiple HDDs, Graphics cards or Optical drives. This isn't likely if she is replacing a 250W PSU, because she would have needed a larger PSU before now.

False economy, although it's one she may have to put up with if she can't afford the extra for an 80+ certified PSU.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

there are thousands and thousands and thousands of systems sold a year by various big companies in the under 500 quid price range and I would venture a huge % of these have very cheap and basic PSU's and of these systems the vast majority will last the year warranty and well into 3 4 or more years after. Some will fail but so will some of the expensive ones. A basic PSU should be perfectly adequate.

Even if it fails who can say the £60 quid model wouldnt have as well

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Talk about moving away from my question.

You will also note a value PSU will only come with a 12 months warranty whereas most Performance PSU's come with between 2 to 5 years. IN the long run, a conformance PSU is the way to go whether it's for the warranty or that you can put your mind at ease that it's not guna fry and take everything else with it.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Have you thought of e bay?

I've used arthur1113https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2011/01/41.gif in the past, he sells used but tested PSUs at around £10

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I aint gonna agree with you in this instance, a different machine might lead to a different response but no stock answers here mate each solution I offer is catered to the individuals requirements and I am very proficient ( and arrogant) about the quality of said support

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Actually, on this occassion, I agree.

At work, we have hundreds of PCs. I don't have knowledge of every part of every one, but I dare say that they (with very few exceptions) would have the cheapest PSU our supplier could get away with. We have a failure rate of between 1 and 5%. A fraction of those are power supply failures (in fact, more often that not, it's a memory or HDD failure).

Re: Power Supply Units
 

And the majority of these are on 24/7 I would guess?

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Thought I would pop in and say I am running a 850watt psu £25 from my local market stall selling computer parts. I've never had a problem with them over the years.

Its powering a dualcore cpu 7850 BE, geforce 260gtx, 8 gig of ram, 4 HDD's (5 when external is on) 1 DVD drive (2 when external is on) laser printer when on and a creative sound card.

So far so good for 2 years now no problems with it (apart from the 3 pin socket is a little loose)

Just bought another from Ebuyer though a better branded one for my new build 900watt.

Thought I might add that when I first got into building pc's 1999 I didn't have a clue, first time round I screwed the mainboard onto the back plate without the brass pins in place to mount it and totally fried everything (myself included if I would have touched the case when I turned it on) its a shame really I took the tower unit to the guy in the shop and he just looked at me like an idiot when he saw what I had done. I was lucky he gave me a new board (cpu was fine)

2nd time I did it right only months later I tried to plug a cd writer in while the pc was switched on and the power cable sparked at the back of the cd rom and the pc shut down, it wouldn't start for about 10 minutes, after that it never worked right and it killed the graphics card as it never work 100% after that.

Lesson learnt over the years.

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Actually, no. Most are normally shut down around midnight and restarted via WOL between 8 and 8:30. Or so I understand (I am never at work at those times, so cannot verify that).

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OK fair enough, still a relatively long day to be spent on so-called "Cheap & Nasty PSUs"

Re: Power Supply Units
 

It is, and sort of backs up my point. We make heavy use of PCs, still have a relatively low failure rate.

It's worth noting, however, that the bulk of these machines are lab machines, and while we do allow students to store stuff on them, we expect them to back up anything they need to keep, and do not store anything we need on those machines. As such, it does not affect us if the information on the machine is lost.

Staff machines are a different matter, and these do often come with good quality power supplies.

As for the the servers, these also come with good quality PSUs (generally including redundant PSUs as well) and are backed up regularly.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I have ran a system with a high end dual core AMD cpu overclocked with 2 8800gts's in sli with, 3 hdd's and dvd etc using a cheap and nasty 700w power supply.

I had to use the molex to pci-e adaptor's to get enough and they worked fine.

I ran that system for about 6 month's until I upgraded the whole system including my power supply.

That cheap and nasty power supply is still going strong today after being used everyday for over 2 years, and will probably carry on till I have to change it or just throw it in the bin.

Just because they are cheap does not mean they are poor power supplies, sometimes they can surprise you and be better than the high priced ones.

As for the 80+ thing that really is only required for multi card setup's as a single card does not require a 80+ power supply, most will only require a normal power supply and most now are 80+ anyway.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Generic PSU's often don't fail safe. That is, when that day arrives (probably sooner than later) when the generic PSU fails/stops working, it will take out the hardware components with it. So again, this is just another reason to purchase a good quality PSU.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

again you are totally you talk in absolutes and that is seriously showing you have not got a clue

a psu "might" not "will" take out other componants but in 11 years of building and repairing computers of all the "cheap" blown psus I have seen perhaps 1 or 2 have done other damage. "Most" cheap blown psus do no other damage so please stop talking tosh

I tell ya what I do see a lot of though. Extra damage caused cuz the user listens to people who think they know what they are doing

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Wow 2 threads with a similar subject about PSU's but I know who's advice I would go with and it would be yours as you know your stuff.:)

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Hi again guys,

Looks like I stirred it up quite a bit dunnit? I have eventually plumped for a 430w Corsair from ebuyer. It has all the connectors I need (and a few that I don't, like 4 x SATA, I only have 1 SATA HDD) and the required 24 pin thingymabob, and joy of joys, a 6 pin PCI-E. Looking back now, my mate gave me his old 512mb graphics card and that required me to use 2 x molex connectors 'cos I didn't have a 6 pin jobbydoodoo, so maybe that was sucking a bit more power than the Dead Thing could handle.
Anyway, many many thanks for all the info and advice. You have always been, and shall always be my one-stop help shop.

By the way, I'm a she.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

I knew lol

Re: Power Supply Units
 

What kinda of a joker are you. If a PSU failed without any anti static fail-safe (like most tagan's have) the current runs all through the rest of the bits in your case and can potentially fry your machine. Look it up, am not bullsh*tting you!

Re: Power Supply Units
 

your changing tha ball park again. In one post you deal in an absolute saying it will cause damage and then now you say it can potentially fry your machine. Thats 2 different things

I do not agree that a cheap failing psu will harm a system
I will agree with the fact that a failing( cheap or not) psu could potentially. Make your mind up which it is

Re: Power Supply Units
 

The difference between a good PSU and a poor one include the way it protects itself (and the equipment connected to it) in the event of a fault. A good one will monitor the output voltage, and the current drawn, and shut itself down in the event of a fault, hopefully in time to prevent damage to the components it is powering. These fail safe mechanisms require more complex ccts, and testing, which is one reason why they cost a little more.

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But no one is going to buy a state of the art PSU for an old machine unless they have money to burn as it makes no sense as you could buy a working computer for those kind of prices.;)

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Ooh, Hello. :naughty:
How are you?



PSU's can be a mixed bag. I've used Tagan and had them blow up on me after a year with leaking caps.
And then I've had real rubbish cheap ones go on for a few years.
Currently I am on Seasonic and so far they've been good but if it was for a cheap system then I would go for anything if you arent bothered about the hardware.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Hehehe, I'm fine Halcyon.

I'm getting a little worried now, with all the talk of frying........ please stop talking about frying....:cry:

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Fried eggs in the morning?

Anyhow, I've got to agree with ooogemaflop. Of all the cheap PSU's I've come across very few have failed and none have caused any damage as a result of failing. Hell, even the cheapest one I have - a £7 I bought 7 years ago is still running fine :)

Re: Power Supply Units
 

Just go to pc world they sell you a cheap brand for about £80 and then offer to install it for about £70

Thats engineers for you!!!!

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I bought one of those instead of unbranded cheap one as in the past, 1st one lasted 2 weeks...........hoping replacement lasts at least as long as previous cheap unbranded ones. It is very quiet though!

Re: Power Supply Units
 

What was the 250W, because if it was an Emachines system with a 250W BestTec, they were notorious for taking out the motherboard when they failed.

The other worry with a 250W - is it standard size, as 300W has been pretty much standard for the "anonymous grey metal box" for as long as I can remember, except for smaller format or those awful BestTecs.

PS. The CX430 seems pretty decent, though criticized as not actually as good as the previous CX400 model.
JG has the specs & test
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php...Story&reid=214

Another word of caution when replacing older units with modern, units from the era of "12V main power" will not satisfactorily run systems that had the main load on the 5V, but they are pretty old now.
Also, -5V was deleted from the ATX specification (Optional in ATX1.2, prohibited in 1.3 - 2003) - older boards may require the -5V, though in the main it was to support ISA slots.

Re: Power Supply Units
 

First off, since a few years ago all psu's available for sale in Europe have had to have circuit protection to protect the other hardware in the event of failure.

I have been using Win Power in my builds for years, I used to buy the best but found them noisy when under stress, the Win Power's are quiet and remain quiet.
I have the 850 watt model in my current rig which has an AMD 6 core, 8Gb Ram and 4 SATA drives, my case has 6 large fans.
The system is running 2 websites 24/7, running Linux for everyday use and Windows 2003 Server under VirtualBox for my software development, this system replaced 2 seperate machines which ran 24/7 for years with Win Power 550 watt psu's.
The main difference I found was that the expensive psu's had slightly longer leads and more connectors.

I bought 2 very expensive Corsair memory sticks with a lifetime warranty, both were slow and failed within 2 years, I replaced them with cheap memory sticks which had much more capacity and ran faster and they are still running 4 years later.
Price is what the seller thinks he can get, most things cost nothing to produce in comparison to the price charged.