how good is a $20 PSU

[Oxblood]

Hi,

Last week I bought a 20 dollar generic 420 watt PSU. The guy at the store said it was regularily 30 dollars.

It is working fine, I'm just wondering how long this thing is likely to last.

I've seen 300 watt power supplies for 70 - 120 with brand names.

What are your guys opinions of these el cheapo units?

PS: I'm talking Canadian dollars.

[Shinma]

I avoid them due to possible future headaches...

[Todd a]

If you are talking for the system in your signature, then you should be fine. 5 hard drives does draw a bit extra, but you should be fine. I would trust it on a newer system though, so if you upgrade, I'd get a new PSU.

[krupted]

ive used those $20 (US) too ligtht for a paperweight power supplies. I actually got a lot of good use on them. Keep in mind that when it says 420w on a cheap power supply, its more likely around 300 from a brand name like enermax

[krupted]

and i still dont use those high price bands..... i went to amd's website to check out the brands i was eyeballing, making sure they were at least amd aproved, i ending up buying three Allied brand power supplys, i think they were like $45 a piece, so midrange from what stated atop i guess. Excellent brand, 2 fans and not audible...

[flat-v8]

A couple years ago I built some PC's using the PS that came in the cheap cases, wasn't long till BOOM! SIZZLE and POOF! they were gone in puff of white smoke. Everything except processor and video card were lost, they were very poorly built. But today even in a fairly cheap case the power supplies are much better. For $30 at Newegg, the Allied 400w dual fan unit (actually true DC output about 320w) is a nice one, have used many with no problems.

[DuronClocker]

Believe it or not, I'm using a cheap $18 generic 350w PSU to power the system in my sig. This thing has run rock solid at 3.53GHz when I had my watercooling setup in it. I really think the only thing holding me back from going higher was the RAM and possibly the PSU, but I mean, for $18, I can't expect much. With that said, I think most of hte problem was/is the RAM I'm using. This power supply has had a lot thrown at it in the last 2 years or so including some Athlons at 1.8GHz or so with up to 2.35v (back when I was peltier cooling my AGKGA core) as well as my P4 @ 3.53GHz. The most beefy video card I've had in it was a GeForce4 Ti4200, so it hasn't had to go through any stress of high-end graphics cards, but still I think its held up rather well.

I'd give ya the specs on it and what brand, but its 3AM and kinda dark to see so I guess I'll have to do that tomorrow afternoon whenever I wake up.

[SaulTurnedPaul]

Yeah, I've been using a generic 300W in my system for more than a year and have had absolutely no problems. I don't draw much power from it though, so if it's gonna bust it's not going to be because I'm sucking too much juice from it. Then again, it was an Allied brand PS that came with my $40 case at the time...

[Ruffian]

I guess I've gotten lucky that this 4 year old Enlight 300-watt PSU has held up so well with all this crap I'm running on it.

[Martin_89]

im using a super flower 300Watt PSU that was £35 i think from ebuyer, dual fan, speed settings and its very heavy.

[K62]

I have used many cheap powersupplys before. This Antec is my first good PSU.

I have had a cheap 350w crap out on me before, luckly it didnt take out the rest of my main rig (celeron 566@850 at the time)

I have been running some no name 300w psu in my server for probably 2 years now and it runs just fine.

[DuronClocker]

Brand: L&C
Model: LC-A350ATX
Rated: 350w, 190w for combined 5v & 3.3v
3.3v: 24A
5v: 35A
12v: 12A

The 12v rail is weak compared to high-end PSUs, but the rest is pretty decent. I don't remember how much it weighs.

I use an Enlight 7250 case that came with a 250w Enlight PSU at one time. It died in my dad's old P3-933 system for some reason, but until it died it was very stable. I think I somehow must have shorted it out or something...who knows.

I think I will be upgrading to that Antec TruBlue480 listed on newegg for like $90 shipped. When? I'm not sure...I have some other things more important to upgrade such as a heatsink and memory

[Martin_89]

these things are all money money money lol when does upgrading end lol!!

[krupted]

but hey thats 3 votes now for allied brand as a cheap solution. Quiet, stable, and CHEAP!

[jamarno]

Allied and its sibling Deer brands should be avoided because of their poor quality, including tendency to burn out, damage computer hardware, and exaggerated ratings.

Look for an FSP-made products - Fortron, Sparkle, Hi-Q, Aopen, which are excellent and inexpensive, and 300W FSP supplies can probably deliver more actual power than a 420W Allied.