Don't Be Surprised When Your Cheap PSU Blows Up
Table of contents
- 1. 1670 Watts For $60 (£36)?
- 2. Sutai Double Power P4-500W
- 3. Sutai Double Power P4-750W
- 4. LPK-225
- 5. Conclusion
The PC power supply market is one of the most difficult for enthusiasts and the tech press to address. There are products for every requirement, every performance category, and even for most tastes in design, not to mention the huge price span! In our past power supply roundups, we tested products ranging from a little more than $40 to more than $200, or £25 to £120. With very few exceptions, most of the units we've evaluated have done what they've claimed; sometimes by a long-shot and other times just barely.
Beyond the solutions from well-known vendors, there is a very large number of cheap, no-name products out there, many of which are really easy to find on auction sites at really attractive prices. To get an idea of what lies behind these purported bargains, we bought three of them using Buy It Now. Obviously, we did not give away our real identities to the seller, ensuring we'd receive the same hardware as everyone else.
We ended up with 500 W and 750 W PSUs from a brand called Sutai and an additional 420 W unit without an identifying sticker on it. Prices ranged from around €13.90 to €25.90, which currently equals $19 to $35 or £12.28 to £22.88, plus shipping. In the end, we paid something around $60/£36 for 1670 W worth of power delivery. On the surface, that sounds like a pretty juicy deal.
Without giving away too much about performance, it's safe to say that the value of what you get when you spend this little on a power is pretty darned minimal. The two Sutai models came without any accessories at all, and were simply wrapped in film. The 420 W PSU at least came in a box with a descriptive label with Power Supply written on it.
None of the test subjects come with anything more than a minimal selection of cables and connectors, lacking any kind of information about the internals, technical specifications, or capabilities. Anything beyond wattage, voltage, and amperage ratings seems to be asking too much.
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Wow, these things not only look cheap and don't perform, but from the tests they appear to be down right dangerous. How they are being allowed into the country and being sold to consumers is a worry.
I always spend about the same on the motherboard and the PSU that will drive it, RAM, CPU, HDDs, etc, etc.
Great review, this will help new PC builders choose wisely. Could you do another review with slightly more expensive PSUs around the £20 range. I'm just curious how they differ to the ultra cheap ones you used in this review.
'make sure you're purchasing a quality PSU so that you can rest easy knowing your other components (and ultimately, your data) are safe. This test demonstrates one thing: if you buy too cheap, you will probably end up buying twice.'
So true. Your PSU affects everything in your PC, don't underestimate the importance of a good quality PSU.
No camera, no believe.
my psu was cheap, i mean like £20 for a 500 or 750 watt powersupply
this was years ago becasue a bought a core 2 duo and the core 2 extreme hadnt come out yet (socket 775)
never had any problems with it, i guess its casue the local shop tests them
Don't get me wrong, i do understand the need for a good quality PSU but i really don't think this article truly represents most the budget PSUs, i personally have used a number of £15 - £20 and stressed them far beyond the numbers that have been achieved, part of me suspects the setup of the test equipment, although it has been done by a German guy with a fair bit of experience. Maybe the main issue was the site that the supplies came from.
its probably like what robot-army claims
ive learnt quite a bit in my college course, and they could fail if the house its ussed in uses the old rewireable fuses becasue they dont trip at the rate they are supposed to- higher or lower and they are slower than mcb's (the breakers you flip at home)
many a person has lost electronixs becasue of poor power supply, im quite lucky that our power hardly ever goes out, less than half a dozen times in 10 years and never fluctuates
I made a mistake once and bought a cheap PSU, when I was just starting out building my own systems years ago. I suspect it was responsible for frying my graphics card. Since then I always make sure to buy a quality PSU, even if it is a tad more expensive.
To be honest, a modern dual core 65W + a mid end GPU like the HD4650 taking around 50W, thats only 115W put together on load. Whack the HDD, DVD, Motherboard and everything in it wouldn't take more than 200W on load. So to be fair, these PSU's are fine for low power HTPC's and office PC's perhap even low end budget gaming PC's. You just know you don't buy £10 PSU's for a Mid-High End Gaming Build...
I had a 700w CiT PSU that set me back £40. It lasted a long while eventually succumbed to explosion. That being said, I was only on a 350-400w build so that really shouldn't have happened. I've been on several since then but the best one I've had so far is a 400w Corsair that cost me £35. Lasted about a year now which is a good long run for someone like me. I'm essentially a walking EMP.
What a load of twaddle, Ive just had to replace a 350w unbranded PSU, It ran 24/7 for 6 years. Just because you guys had trouble in one test with three PSU's doesn't mean everyone should rush out and buy a big name £50+ PSU, most of us have fine results with the cheaper ones, many of much have comparable quality to the big name brands their just cheaper because they know they cannot rip people off as much, ive lost just as many £50+ Antecs as I have £15 Casecoms. As long as your PSU meets the loading you need you should have no problems (unless you mis-calculate the loading ofc) and if it does die as fast as you claim you can just return it.
Think of how many HP or DELL computers you've opened to see a cheapo PSU that has been running just fine for years. I've been running an unbranded and CHEAP 1100W PSU in an SLI GAMING MACHINE for over 3 years without issues. Volts are spot on, 24/7 stable for years and runs cooler than all over PSU's I'd used before.
You don't NEED to spend money to get good quality items, you just need to BUY SMART.
You do seem to have gone out of your way to find the dodgiest components available anywhere on the internet. Are you certain that these models would actually meet EU electrical safety standards?
I have had long experience of using £20 PSU or even PSUs that are included in £25 cases. So long as you buy without expecting to run anywhere near its rating for any length of time then they will last for years. For example, if your cheap PSU is rated at 400w then I wouldn't personally choose to put it in a system that habitually consumes over 250w. Whenever I have intentionally (or otherwise) overloaded a PUS, even cheap ones, they have simply shut themselves down with very little fuss. Safety laws mandate overload protection in these things, you should not be seeing dragon-balls flying out the back!
I'm glad to see there are people here with experience and not just 16 year olds blindly agreeing that all cheap PSUs are worthless.
Can u do some tests on raidmax PSU? the 500 watt model with 12 cm fan? I'm curious about that, because raidmax produce case, psu and coolers for low budget. I just want to see them on the run.
Rules for buying cheap PSU..
1. Buy from reputable source (DABS etc) so you have a guarantee
2. Buy bigger than you need - ie 650W if you need 400W
Makes sure you are running the thing under low load, gives you a bit of spare capacity, and still works out cheaper.
Had a few pop on me like that, but also had a few expensive ones pop
I was surprised to have a Corsair HX1000 go pop on me a fortnight ago on a machine that barely draws 400W under full load, but at least it came with a 5 year guarantee.
i got a £48 gigabyte superb 550p psu
its very noisy
i had a cheap winpowe cpu that lasted years before it started emiting a high pitched beep
the trick is when you notice that there is an odd sound coming from them then its time to change
ive had this (winpower) psu since core 2 duo's were new
dont go for the gigabyte psu go corsair there cheaper for what you get and seem to be a lot better