Cheap power supply.

[Koldov]

Hi All,

 

Hoping to get a cheap replacement power supply around the 550w mark for my old legacy system.

 

Looking on ebay does anyone have any preferences or experience with any of the following makes:

 

Envizage

Alpine

ACE

Artic

Winpower

Pulse

Xenta

Cit

Titan

Evo Labs

 

Also, I notice that purchasing from what I presume is the SCAN ebay shop 'scancomputers_int' (can anybody verify this?) allows you to 'click and collect' for free from nearby outlets and save postage costs. Clicking through to search for nearby delivery points showed me my local ARGOS! Has anybody used this service?

 

Kol.

[LosOjos]

I'd certainly avoid anything really cheap by unknown manufacturers, best case it won't last as long as a more expensive one by a reputable manufacturer, worst case when it goes it'll take your mobo/HDD/ODD/GPU with it.

 

This article at Tom's Hardware is good: Who's Who In Power Supplies, 2013: Brands Vs. Manufacturers - PSU Manufacturers, Designers, And Labels

 

I haven't bought a huge range of PSU's, but found Corsair (most I've bought are actually rebadged Seasonic/Channel Well) to be relatively cheap and haven't had a failure from one yet, so I tend to stick to those personally.

Edited November 12, 2013 by LosOjos

[Koldov]

In all my years of building I don't think I've ever bought a 'named' power supply.

 

Corsair 550w = £90+

 

I suppose cheap is relative, but really as it's an old system ASUS A8V Deluxe, socket 939 - AMD 64 x2 3800+, Gainward Bliss 7800GS - AGP gfx, 4GB - GEIL PC4000 (DDR500), Velociraptor sata HDD.

 

She was quite a beast in her day 10 years ago, but now I guess you could pick all that up for about £90... and I just can't quite bring myself to chuck that sort of money at her anymore...

 

Kol.

[hallb15]

I'd second what @LosOjos said. Don't go cheap - you'll end up paying more in the long run.

From your list the only one I've used was a CiT for a home theater PC. It died within a few days and took out the motherboard with it.

Stick to known brands with decent warranties like Corsair, CoolerMaster or OCZ.

[LosOjos]

Are you sure you need 550w?

 

eXtreme Outer Vision - eXtreme tools for computer enthusiasts

 

I think you could easily get by on 400w with plenty of head room, then you can pick up something like this Corsair: Corsair 430W CX Builder 80 Plus Bronze PSU 3 Year.. | Ebuyer.com

[Koldov]

Yeah of course, if I was advising someone else I'd always say the same lol!

 

No, not sure as such really, I just knew the GFX was a bit power hungry (and older systems in general) and 550w is the PSU I had in it originally. Actually after a bit more searching, I'd just seen the Corsair system builder series...

 

Thanks for that!

 

What does everyone think of ARGOS being a distribution outlet for SCAN computers? Legit?

 

Kol.

[synaesthesia]

If you need 550w DO NOT BUY ANY OF THE ABOVE. Simple as that. That is an assumption based on the fact if you need 550w you have hardware you care about such as decent graphics cards etc. The PSU is the most important part of the computer and the only part able to physically destroy any other single component in your machine. Ace, Winpower, Pulse, Xenta and Cit (pronounced like another word for poo for good reason) are the same brand. Also avoid Q-Tec like the plague.

 

You can get a decent 550w coolermaster unit for 30 to 40 quid if you need cheap. That above Corsair is also likely to be fine.

Edited November 12, 2013 by synaesthesia

[LosOjos]

No, not sure as such really, I just knew the GFX was a bit power hungry (and older systems in general) and 550w is the PSU I had in it originally. Actually after a bit more searching, I'd just seen the Corsair system builder series...

 

To be fair, older machines do tend to be more power hungry than newer ones, but another big part of the problem is you get a lot of people on forums telling you that you need these high power PSUs because either a) they don't know what they're talking about and think "more power = faster PC" or b) they buy cheap PSUs that don't actually deliver their rated power, meaning they have to buy much more powerful (on paper) PSUs than they actually need

 

As for Argos being a distributor for Scan, I think that's an eBay initiative actually. I've not actually used the service, but I had heard they'd partnered with Argos to offer local pick up options, so on the back of that I'd be willing to try it (as I say though, I haven't actually tried it myself yet!)

Edited November 12, 2013 by LosOjos
Spelling

[Koldov]

Well, I suppose getting a decent brand and wattage now, means it could always be the PSU I carry on to the next build! Or maybe when this old rig is ready for the great matrix in the sky I could always see just how far I really can OC it...

 

Kol.

[SHimmer45]

Asaka 350W has been sat in my I3 for the last year without fault.

nice selection of cable and a decent length, was under £40.00 very impressed (nice weight to it good sized fan)

i have used antec and corsair in the past as well.

cheap psu's make me cringe

[synaesthesia]

My spare is an akasa 430w unit, had that for ages. Faultless, only upgraded as I acquired a pair of 750W Silverstone modular units for nothing

[SHimmer45]

thing is a better quality unit is actually going to delivery the stated output in a clean manner and be reasonably efficient.

Enermax did do a modular 430/450 unit which went into a couple of game/workstation boxes and dealt with all of those without complaint and was bronze rated it wasnt that cheap at the time mind you.

[pcstru]

thing is a better quality unit is actually going to delivery the stated output in a clean manner and be reasonably efficient.

Tautology. There is very little reason for a switched mode power supply to be hugely expensive. Cost does scale per W a little (so expect a 600W supply to be more expensive than a 250W), but otherwise the branded "quality" units are creaming it in. That's not to say there aren't examples of poor quality out there, but you really need to try hard to buy a dog when it comes to a PSU (hint, the dog goes woof).

[SHimmer45]

your right a good quality PSU should be cheap (all of them should be bronze rated as a min requirement imo).

and the lower rated versions 200w-300w should be more avaliable at reasonable money, an i3 sat surfing the web isnt going to need any more than that, but you still pay a premium for it.

[VeryPC_Andy]

I concur the listed cheap PSU are not worth it.

 

Factoid of the day is that there are only actually a few PSU vendors in the world;

Delta Delta Power

Seasonic :::: Sea Sonic ::::

FSP FSP GROUP :::PC Power Supply, IPC Power Supply, Open Frame, Adapter :::

 

The AKASA , Corsair , OCZ, Coolermasters of this world get likely get their PSU from one of the above.

 

The Corsair 430W @LosOjos mentioned seemed like pretty decent value.