A clear sign of their low quality can be seen by the fact that they have the red switch to change between different mains voltages, all PSUs that are actually worthwhile nowadays will do this switching automatically so having a switch is a sure sign that the PSU is low end.
Interesting... never knew this!
It makes sense to get a good PSU as it's the one part that should never really need upgraded, get a good one now and it should last you for many years (probably outlast the rest of your system).
I totally agree with this statement. I have seen power supplies damage components and whole systems before which should never happen with proper design and quality parts, and the damage was not due to lightning strike or a surge.... it was due to catastrophic failure of poorly designed or cheap low quality parts composing the PSU.
I was surprised that Thermaltake was not as good of a PSU unit though as for I have heard others praise the brand for low price and last forever with no problems. Raidmax I never deal with to know whether good or junk, however the feedback says it all in the percentages of 3 eggs or less etc that it can be hit or miss with one that is good or bad.
This is the minimum I would get when buying a PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013 (Really good unit, especially for the price)
Thanks for suggesting this power supply. I have had XFX video cards before without problems, so their power supply line should be good too. I didnt see this one when searching and its just $15 above the $50 I was planning on spending, but there is also a rebate so I might get $10 back if the rebate actually pays up as I have had like 50% track record of actually seeing prepaid cards or checks for the money on rebates. Rebates should all be instant vs a game in the mail and the company that honors them deciding not to pay up.
Going to buy this XFX PSU... Thanks for the suggestion!!!
BTW: I bought a cheap barebone from this JDR Computer company back in 2000 for like $129.99 a Celeron 700Mhz build and the no name PSU became a fog machine of white smoke on a reboot during Windows 98 SE install. Nothing like a hissing noise and POP and thick white smoke that smells like rotten fish bellowing out of the rear of the computer tower which made the computer room stink for a week ... LOL That was the last time I went with no name brand PSU units
http://www.jdr.com/ ... I also havent bought anything else from this company after the bad experience. I bought from them blindly on a Google hit for a cheap barebone build. After putting in a PSU unit from an old Pentium II system it powered up and the rest of the hardware behaved for the short while that I owned it until I realize that I really needed a Pentium III vs a Celeron.
... But even though I havent bought through JDR since, I also want to state that this company was great with my failed power supply claim. They shipped me another exact same brand/model PSU unit without having to return the one that was soaked in electrolyte oil. I chose to remain running on the older Pentium II PSU unit instead which I think was Delta brand and I think I ended up giving the new replacement no name PSU which might have been Golden Power brand to a friend who was building up a system and needed free and cheap parts. So not to bash JDR, since they were great with the replacement PSU, but you get what you pay for!!!
They did have better quality products available for more money and I guess I set myself up for problems by going cheap!!!
