Don't be surprised when your cheap PSU blows up (Intex, iBall, Circle etc.)

J

read this article:

Don't Be Surprised When Your Cheap PSU Blows Up : 1670 Watts For $60?

so dont buy el cheapo power supplies.

Hey isnt this Article from Toms Hardware

^^ Yes its from tomshardware. Purchasing generic psu's should be avoided.

Good find Joker.

This should be stickied.

Once met a forum member who had 5 psu(he claimed) of 500w each of which total cost was 1500(for the 5 together)!
Local dealers should be punched if they reccomend generic psu's!

Isn't this a little unfair to iball and intex ? sure the cheap PSU's tested by toms are crap , but they haven't tested iball and intex PSU's . How can one be sure that intex and iball fall into the same category ?

J

cute.bandar said:
Isn't this a little unfair to iball and intex ? sure the cheap PSU's tested by toms are crap , but they haven't tested iball and intex PSU's . How can one be sure that intex and iball fall into the same category ?

because these fall into this category.

cheap PSU can only be used in budget PCs for under 20k, probably if GPU is not used.
Else u will see diwali inside ur cabby.

I used iBall PSU with Intel Pentium 4 531 3.0 Ghz [ Hottest Processor ever ] , 8600GT DDR3 256 MB and 2 HDDs 2 DVD RAMs for 5 years , really not a Diwali PSU as being claimed here. Its sometimes a matter of luck and proper elctrical switch boards [ 5 AMP Socket recommended for PCs ] Even Cooler Master gives away sometimes. How can one tell what falls under what category ?

Have used Mercury & iBall (still using this) with P4 systems for a long time. It also has a GF 4MX card installed. Never ever seen any problem. In our office, I have seen so many parts of older systems going tanked, only a couple of SMPS problem so far. And all the Indian PC makers use el cheapo PSUs. How many users have actually faced a SMPS problem with them? My point is they are not the bomb people have make them, but yes, it is always advisable to spend some more and get a quality SMPS. Ultimately, this is one component most of the users will never upgrade.

PC assemblers usually use the cheap power supply coming with the cabinet (infact many assemblers even don't know about high end psus like antec, cooler master etc. You ask them for a new psu and they will give you that low cost intex or frontech smps) and these cheap psus gets damaged very easily especially if you are in a region with lots of power fluctuations (like mine). My psu got fried at least 5 times (frontech, zebronics, intex) and my pc is now peacefully resting in the corner for nearly an year (I bought a new laptop and i am now happy). Yes it is always best to buy good quality psu.

J

see u can use cheap PSUs with ur low-end configs if u want but u must not forget that these PSUs will not output their rated power. so dont stress these.

so..never stress these PSUs. and never overclock and use discrete gfx with el cheapo PSUs.

there are many important things to look into...active pfc, efficiency etc. which are poor in el cheapo PSUs.

most el cheapo PSUs dont even have power factor correction.

ok guys, since everyone is posting their experiences, let me too

I have been using 400 w psu from the last 3 years and frankly have faced no troubles.
Yes, I have heard many cases where psu blasted( a forum member recently had it), psu caught fire,etc
but I havent had any problem. Probably because it hasnt been strained much

The problem is most people don't realize that these generic psu's are the culprit in their system. They keep on changing motherboards, rams, gpu's etc. when they gone kaput frequently..

My friend was running a decent dual core system with 3 hdd's and an optical drive all powered with an Odessey 500W SMPS..When he bought a 9800GTX for gaming and connected it to mobo, KABOOM!!!! board and gpu damaged. Still he's not ready to blame his PSU.

N

Many of us in this forum recommended FSP saga II 500W and not recommending VIP 500W GOLD but actually VIP 500W GOLD and FSP saga II 500W both are same/OEM. Some Masters should test all these Indian OEMs. or otherwise post all pictures/photos of these PSUs so we can all know original manufacturer of PSU/smps.

S

i should consider myself very lucky then....i have been using a zebronics 500w psu for the last 3 yrs on a c2d system, 8600GTs in SLI and 2 HDDs. never gave me any probs!

You must be the first person to SLI on a Zebby PSU! Just recalled, the 8600gt doesn't need any additional power connector. May be that's the reason they have survive. Congrats anyway! Its quite an achievement, I guess.

S

i guess so....actually at that point i had NO idea of which one was a good psu and which one was not. so blindly believed the dealer.

So, now thinking about a upgrade?

S

already upgraded. to a cm silent pro 700w. wanted corsair initially, but all the dealers r stocking r the old ones..... :-(

still should have gone for corsair, much better than CM.

N

*img809.imageshack.us/img809/8066/fortron.jpg

UL CODE MANUFATURER Lincence users
E190414 FSP GROUP INC FSP, Sparkle, OCZ GameXstream, some In Win, Aopen, Power Man, some AmacroX, Powertech, some Zalman, Engelking, Sharkoon, some SilverStone, some Point of View, some SilenX, Antec Basiq line, some Tacens.

Here is the proof VIP 500 GOLD is manufactured by FSP and UL licensed is also under name of FSP GROUP INC

^^^Is VIP Gold 500W 80+ certified?

Most probably not. Haven't seen any Indian manufacturer with 80+ certification.

S

@skud - got the 700w modular power supply that's 80+ bronze certified, hence took it...and the corsair stock available were the old ones.

Skud said:
still should have gone for corsair, much better than CM.

Silent Pro series has good build quality...
Silent Pro series = or > Corsair HX series...

Who's the OEM manufacturer of Silent Pro series?

Some links I have found which may be of interest:-

1. Can We Trust the 80 Plus Certification? | Hardware Secrets

2. Power Supplies With Fake 80 Plus Badges | Hardware Secrets

So, 80+ certificate is not the ultimate proof of a good SMPS. You really need to know about the product before making a purchase.

N

Skud said:
Who's the OEM manufacturer of Silent Pro series?

for that we need to know its UL no like above picture . .

1

Heres one of my experience
my brother had a Seasonic PSU of 500W bought 3 yrs back from russia.
During vacations me and him were playing games on his PC and suddenly lightnig stirkes and his PSU is blow.
Luckily nothing happens to his mobo or GPU and everything else. But hes so pissed that he wont go for CM or corsair and he buys an iball 500W and hes running his PC perfectly fine for 2 years.
So personally i think its all about luck.

Don't put everything to luck. Sometimes cheaper things can run longer than their costlier counterparts but that doesn't change the fundamentals. Accidents do happen. If you are not going to push your hardware, a iBalll, VIP, Zebby etc. is more than enough.

S

Skud said:
Who's the OEM manufacturer of Silent Pro series?

Some links I have found which may be of interest:-

1. Can We Trust the 80 Plus Certification? | Hardware Secrets

2. Power Supplies With Fake 80 Plus Badges | Hardware Secrets

So, 80+ certificate is not the ultimate proof of a good SMPS. You really need to know about the product before making a purchase.

yes, i agree. but the cm psu i'm talking abt is listed in the plugloadsolutions.com website. check out this link. i have also gone thru ur 1st link, but the same certifier has also certified corsair psus. we gotta trust something atleast....

I am not particularly talking about CM. I think Silent Pro series are good. What's the warranty they are offering?

S

for the silent pro series, it's 5 years.

Then its pretty good. Final question - is it modular?

well its pretty prejudiced. None of the links directly deal with the testing of said PSUs of iball etc.

S

yes, it is a modular psu. although the 24 pin and the 4 pin cables are fixed.

with branded desktop are good psu provided

sunny10 said:
with branded desktop are good psu provided

Yeah. But they are rebranded with the OEM's name and logo.

But yes, a good company will give good products

Sarath said:
well its pretty prejudiced. None of the links directly deal with the testing of said PSUs of iball etc.

I think for that we really have to wait for long. May be Digit may arrange to do a test check to settle the issue.

yes, that will indeed be very good if digit checks those PSUs.
Just like we should promote INDIE GAMES similarly we should also promot our DESI BRANDs. And if we promote our DESI products then they will surely make better models to compete with those of CORSAIR, CM, FSP, TAGAN, SEASONIC, ANTEC, SIVERSTONE, etc..