Cheap psus, ur personal experience

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Nameite

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Anyone used a cheap psu before such as comstar 450w (R125) or an MC 450w (R150) or a Sahara generic 500w (R200 something) before? (or any other cheapo brand/oem)

And if you have, have you guys had any bombouts/sparks/toasted hardwares etc? (on what specs)

Or if you are still using one of those, how long you used it for with what specs?

Thanks!
 
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Using a 500W something power supply for about R300 the only thing that faulty is a screw stripped on the casing.. So far its been running good no problems yet for almost 9 months now.
 
I will never in my life buy a cheap PSU again.

I'm sorry but the most important part of a pc is infact the PSU, without it nothing runs.

Name brand or nothing.
 
killadoob said:
I will never in my life buy a cheap PSU again.

I'm sorry but the most important part of a pc is infact the PSU, without it nothing runs.

Name brand or nothing.
Click to expand...

+1. Weigh up the cost of replacing your mobo and anything else that gets fried vs forking out for a decent PSU. From personal experience R5000 to replace my mobo (Asus) and processor.

If you buy a decent PSU you won't have to buy one for a while
 
I've used a cheap 400W PSU once before. It lasted about 3 months, when it inevitably broke it took the motherboard and CPU with it :o
 
hashbrown99 said:
+1. Weigh up the cost of replacing your mobo and anything else that gets fried vs forking out for a decent PSU. From personal experience R5000 to replace my mobo (Asus) and processor.

If you buy a decent PSU you won't have to buy one for a while
Click to expand...

But what psu did u have that frieds ur system?

And what was ur system spec exactly?

Maybe we can work out a certain threshold so some ppl who have lower spec hardware can still use cheap psu without harm whilst after a certain power requirement name brands is a must
 
A cheapie can go anytime, Aopen to me is a cheapie and some people have had good results with them, my favourite was 3 of them biting the dust in a week on different systems so i no longer use anything but antec in major systems and started on Gigabyte Odins and no probs so far
 
I generally use this rule:
- If an OEM no-name case comes with a PSU fitted, I pull it out and replace with name brand.
- If I have not heard the name of the manufacturer before, I avoid it.

I would rather spend R1500 on a top-notch PSU, than replace my entire system, as well as the PSU after it blows everything...
 
Cheap psu's tend to get noisy. if you need a 450W - 500W psu it sounds like you have a decent pc, so why neglect one of the most potentially irritating parts?
 
killadoob said:
I will never in my life buy a cheap PSU again.

I'm sorry but the most important part of a pc is infact the PSU, without it nothing runs.

Name brand or nothing.
Click to expand...

Hey killa, something we might agree on........:D
 
Those cheapys seem to work fine for office computers, but I wouldn't use them for PC's with expensive hardware. aOpen are a nice in-between PSU.

Although I had a graphics card die because of a faulty R1000 Thermaltake, so I guess they all prone to there problems.
 
I have used a no-name 350W in my previous PC and it still runs, but the difference between a expensive PSU and cheap PSU is 1)cheap parts and 2)amps per rail.

Expensive PSUs have more than 30Amps per rail hence the price, cheaper ones hover around 20 or less making them cheaper and you don't need quality parts to achieve this but even some brand names PSU's have low amps per rail and you can usual get a better no name PSU at a better price so names can be deceiving.

Point being look at the specs before you buy not the name.
 
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whatever you do, don't get a mecer. i supported 50 pc's where i worked, and alot of them blew within the first few months.
 
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Nameite said:
But what psu did u have that frieds ur system?

And what was ur system spec exactly?

Maybe we can work out a certain threshold so some ppl who have lower spec hardware can still use cheap psu without harm whilst after a certain power requirement name brands is a must
Click to expand...

It was a 600w no-name brand (EZCool I think?). I had a 3.4gz P4, 1gb of RAM and a 6600GT - nothing too major but it still blew and caused major damage. In theory that PSU is way more than the system needed. Should have just forked out R1500 for the Thermaltake in the first place :(
 
Nameite said:
Ok but personal experiences with some hardware specs...

No one?
Click to expand...

I bought a cheapo psu once. It blew.... Didn't even last a day. 350W IIRC, but I only had a 3500+ (venice 65W or something) and a 8600GT, so not that much power required. The first time I ran a game, it just popped.
I think I was lucky that everything else didn't also just fail.

Replaced it with a 400W aopen psu which is still running fine and is also a lot less noise compared to the el-cheapo and the 250W fsp or something one which came with my case. Not too bad I guess.
 
hashbrown99 said:
It was a 600w no-name brand (EZCool I think?). I had a 3.4gz P4, 1gb of RAM and a 6600GT - nothing too major but it still blew and caused major damage. In theory that PSU is way more than the system needed. Should have just forked out R1500 for the Thermaltake in the first place :(
Click to expand...

CrzWaco said:
Amd 3800+
2x 2 Gig ram ddr800 dual
nvidia 8800gts 320meg
3 hhd
1 DVD rewriter
2x 120mm fan
1x 80mm fan
2x mod lights
Click to expand...

Thanks! :D

Anymore anyone?
 
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