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.

So true. Your PSU affects everything in your PC, don't underestimate the importance of a good quality PSU.
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
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
You don't NEED to spend money to get good quality items, you just need to BUY SMART.
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!
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
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