RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
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2 edits | Why you don't use cheap/budget PSU's in your PC
»corsair.com/cinema/movie.aspx?id=622747
I have a Corsair in my new build, and one in my dad's new build, rock solid and built like a Boomer Sub! Some other good brands I've used are Antec and Thermaltake, stay FAR away from Ultra, PowerUp! and other cheapo brands.
Edit-A good list of PSU manufacturers-
»www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na···ar_id=24
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BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
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join:2000-01-13
Beaverton, OR
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| Back in the days of standard 300w, and minimal power requirement it wasn't a huge deal, however with all these powerful video cards these days many people don't realize how important it is. You really don't want to have some faux brown out conditions fry your computer, or have an under performing psu.
I've seen where a psu actually failed in a unit, it seemed like it was completely different problem, simply a computer was just restarting on it's own. We thought it was a software problem at first, but after not one event log/bsod it turned out to be a dying psu with it's fan still working. All of mine always had their fan die before they died, and replacing the fan usually is just a pain in the butt the way they design them, but I always keep one old psu around which likely has no cooling fan for emergencies.
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jrock444
join:2004-11-30
Wilmington, NC | reply to RR Conductor
^^ as a former phone/cable tech, i found your hourly rate list hilarious. don't you wish you could enforce it?  |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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Redwood Valley, CA
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| reply to BlitzenZeus
What's scary is those sparks could easily start a fire, imagine if you aren't at home and come home to find your home no longer there  That last one in the video sounds like a gunshot, I am surprised those things aren't declared fire hazards and sent back.
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BlitzenZeus
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| True, but those sparks would usually be contained inside the psu itself since it has a metal case. Then all you have are some boards, silicon, metal, and insulated wires which are resistant to fire. It however likely still is possible to set fire to the insulated wires, and through the motherboard to cause components to likely smoke. Unless the psu was really screwed up, it would take quite a bit of current to be ran through those wires to cause them to ignite, and possibly set fire to the components, however brown out conditions don't even approach this scenario. Even then, the psu should be connected to a grounded plug anyway.
I just don't see a fire getting out of the case unless some spark were actually to escape the case, and land on some paper, however even carpeting is partially fire resistant from something as short lived as a spark.
I see the fire hazard minimal, but there is a real possibility of frying your hardware with a bad psu. I've seen a system fried in brown out conditions, the video card still worked luckily, the drives were still accessible, however one or more of the motherboard components no longer functioned so everything on the mobo itself was considered dead, along with that psu was trashed.
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My hourly rates:
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$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse |
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Bobcat
Volvo sucks donkey balls
Premium
join:2001-02-04
Bedminster, NJ | reply to RR Conductor
So do you really believe a manufacturer when they post videos of competitors' products? I don't. |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
2 edits | said by Bobcat  :So do you really believe a manufacturer when they post videos of competitors' products? I don't. No, but in this case I do  A lot of cheap PSU's do fail and often take systems (and more) with them, that was the main reason I posted this video, this wasn't a "buy their PSU, the others are junk" post.
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captokita
Premium
join:2005-02-22
Calabash, NC
| reply to Bobcat
said by Bobcat :So do you really believe a manufacturer when they post videos of competitors' products? I don't. That's just it, you DON'T see what they're "doing" - and one can easily cause a short to make the PSU blow. What was the "draw"? It wasn't running a MB AFAICT - since the P4 wasn't connected.
Naturally THEIR power supplies, not shown testing in the video oddly enough, don't have this problem..... Riiiiight. |
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cdru
Go Colts
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join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to RR Conductor
said by RR Conductor :What's scary is those sparks could easily start a fire Not really. They have fuses for overcurrent protection and are usually built in such a way that once the magic smoke is released, they aren't going to continue to spark. They are also inside of a metal box so unless you have something sticking inside of them, a normal spark isn't going to be long enough or hot enough to ignite anything that should be found in the power supply.
Corsair is right in that cheap power supplies often have problems and they won't live up to their listed ratings, but that is the case with just about everything. And just because you buy a "quality name brand" doesn't necessarily mean that you are buying better then what you might get far cheaper with an off brand either. See references to Monster, Bose, etc... |
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cdru
Go Colts
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Fort Wayne, IN
| reply to captokita
said by captokita :That's just it, you DON'T see what they're "doing" - and one can easily cause a short to make the PSU blow. What was the "draw"? It wasn't running a MB AFAICT - since the P4 wasn't connected. Naturally THEIR power supplies, not shown testing in the video oddly enough, don't have this problem..... Riiiiight. Hey. You aren't allowed to ask questions or question their methodology. You MUST take their word for it. They wouldn't lie to you.  |
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McSummation
Mmmm, Zeebas Are Tastee.
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join:2003-08-13
Round Rock, TX | It also didn't say how they were doing the 300+- watt load. Was it distributed across the various voltage lines or was it all on a single 12V line? |
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Willy
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USA
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| reply to Bobcat
said by Bobcat :So do you really believe a manufacturer when they post videos of competitors' products? I don't. It's kind of hard to believe that 6 out of 6 would fail at 75% load, and in under 2 minutes. |
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Tuxified
Premium
join:2009-01-04
clubs:
| reply to RR Conductor
Don't know about the quality of the "budget" units in question, but I've seen well-known high-priced, name brand PS's fail as well.
The sheer number of failing "budget" PS's in that video is somewhat suspect
I'll bet I could make Corsair's top end PS units fail too if no questions were asked about how i did it.
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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Redwood Valley, CA
1 edit | reply to RR Conductor
I think some in here have read too much into my post I was trying to point out that cutting corners on your PSU when building a system is a VERY bad idea. |
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Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
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Sweden
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| reply to RR Conductor
I've been using Thermaltake 420W power supplies exclusively in all my systems for the last several years or so and have yet to have any fail... All of my systems are high end when built... Usually get the PSUs on rebate for around $20-30...
-Tzale |
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sivran
Long Live The Suite
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Arlington, TX
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| And I've never even had one of my cheapo (included with el-cheapo cae) psu's fail. Of course, those are all powering the sub-2Ghz Sempron/Athlon boxes. My quad-core has an Antec.
quote:
I was trying to point out that cutting corners on your PSU when building a system is a VERY bad idea.
I think others are pointing out that the video doesn't really mean anything.
quote:
It also didn't say how they were doing the 300+- watt load. Was it distributed across the various voltage lines or was it all on a single 12V line?
Looked to me like only the main motherboard connector was plugged into anything (which can supply all three voltages, though it's possible not all were used in the test). The peripheral connectors were all dangling free.
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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Redwood Valley, CA
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3 edits | I think they're missing the point then, which is...Don't buy cheap PSU's, your machine and/or safety may be compromised. Yes, higher end PSU's do fail sometimes, but at a MUCH lower rate, and are built with components that are much less prone to fail. Cheapo PSU's often used the worst of the worst, like bargain bin caps and poor cooling fans.
Now, could Corsair have been fudging? Sure, but I doubt it. I have had 0 problems with Corsair PSU's or Memory, and ratings on Newegg and other sites will show this is the norm. Faking something like this would only hurt their name, and I don't think they would want to do that. |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
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Redwood Valley, CA
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1 edit | reply to Tzale
said by Tzale :I've been using Thermaltake 420W power supplies exclusively in all my systems for the last several years or so and have yet to have any fail... All of my systems are high end when built... Usually get the PSUs on rebate for around $20-30... -Tzale I've used Thermaltake PSU in builds too, and 0 problems with them as well, they build quality stuff. I have their Armor + case on my new build, and it's built like a tank. Some other good brands are Antec, PC Power and Cooling, Fortron Group, Kingwin, Coolermaster, Seasonic, Raidmax, Sparkle Power, Enermax and OCZ. I tell you, if you don't have a lot to spend, but still want a good, quality PSU go with Antec, they make excellent PSU's, and they do NOT cut corners on even their budget PSU's.
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