cheap PSUs decent or paper weights?

[public_eyesore]

has anybody ever seen or heard of these generic PSUs? My friend says anything this cheap is just a piece of crap on fire. What do you guys think?
http://www.outletpc.com/power-supplies.html

[Frakk]

I wouldnt put anything like these in any of my computers. PSUs are the most overlooked parts in a pc, but they are the most important. It's like a good bycicle helmet. you're most likely not going to need a good one because you dont fall often. but you only have to fall once and who knows what will happen. if you buy a cheap psu, it will work. but if your voltages are low, you'll get lockups, restarts and freezes (just like I did). and this is if your lucky and they dont fry the whole system or catch on fire.

[Chapel]

I personally only buy antec power supplies. Look around for some PSU tests, i know maximum pc did on for their march issue, its interesting to see how many are rated at 350 or whatever, but preform far lower than they are suppose to when a voltage meter is hooked up.

[Frakk]

I personally only buy antec power supplies. Look around for some PSU tests, i know maximum pc did on for their march issue, its interesting to see how many are rated at 350 or whatever, but preform far lower than they are suppose to when a voltage meter is hooked up.

Antecs are great, but they are not the ONLY. PC Power and Cooling is the best PSU on the market if you can pay for it. I have a 420W OCZ Powerstream and I love it.
Voltage meters dont measure power(watts) I think anything over 350-400W is more than enough for most desktop pc's. When it comes to performance, look at how stable the rails are (Voltages-thats when a voltmeter comes to play) and the overall quality of the unit

[ack ack]

get a tagan 480 from newegg. under 100usd, stable, and reliable from what I have read in other forums.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...101-509&depa=0

[ZeD]

Cheap PSU's arent a good idea, often the components, heatsinks, and caps are cheap and small (some dont even have heatsinks) a good way tio check a PSU without actually plugging it in is weight. Grab a psu from a manufacturer who rolls out hundreds of thousands of PCs (hp, dell, compaq) these companies dont put in $200 PSUs they use $20 generic ones but the ones they use pass vigorous testing, I dont think they would put faulty PSUs in 100,000 computers only to have to warranty them. What Im saying is if you want some cheap but reliable check ebay for compaq\dell\hp e.t.c. power supplies, they are very reliable and can be had VERY cheaply. btw Enlight makes a great and relable PSU

PS reliable means it will last forever under a normal load, not a crazy load test that max pc did, that was just ridiculous, thats like testing a car's brakes doing 150mph going downhill and measuring that for breaking distance. Or strapping a U-Haul dolly to a civic and having it scoot uphill to measure its quarter mile time. IE dont pay any attention to that PSU load test.

[specialsteve]

lol you could use those as key chains, but stick that in your machine and that psu isnt going to be the only thing on fire you machine will hate you, so spend like 70bux on a psu and give your rig some love...
just my $.02

[Rachel]

Hey... my PSU is on there. It's the Echo Star... You guys are going to make me cry...

[MrSlacker]

PSU is one of the main parts of computer. a lot of people just look at W and thats it. 500W is good, so they buy it. but they dont look at rails.

[Rachel]

So I should buy a new PSU? I'm on a big budget.