A thread dedicated to PSU's

K.O.Kiki

That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.
After trying to sift through loads of seemingly random garble, I thought a nice, fresh thread on the most overlooked PC component would be good for all new builders (myself included).

So, simply put, which brands' PSU's are consistently reliable/absolute c@ck?
Please include any model you may have had (un)fortunate contact with.

Thanks,
Kiki

Khannie

Be Quiet PSU's are great. Does exactly what it's supposed to: Nice rails + near silence.

Sgtshaft

The Good:
Antec (my favourite)
Enermax
Vantec
Fortron

The Bad:
QTEC Any model they are just pure sh!t

Hobos-R-us

Sgtshaft has got it right.

If you are going to do any serious overclocking you are going to have to get a good PSU.With new graphics cards like nvidia 7 series requireing huge amounts of power you are really going to have to take a look at your PSU

Im using an Enermax Noisetaker 480w and its fantastic.

I also wouldnt go near Thermaltake

And also dont think the more wattage the better its the amps that make the difference.

chorus techy

Lite-On are alright for low spec machines. For reasons yet unknown to me, my HP (fairly high spec) PC has a 250w LiteOn PSU. Its pretty poor as whenever I am doing something which is power demanding (eg. playing games on the 256mb nVidia card) or using the processor at 100%, it gets very hot and starts to make strange noises. Its utter rubbish anyway in terms of power, but I haven't had a problem with reliability (yet, anyway).

Morkin

A list of PSUs that happily work with Venice core Athlon64s would be good as well.

Many that meet the required total wattage (and 12V rail requirements) need kludges to power on

M.

jozi

nForce 4 motherboards need a high ampage 12Volt rail or two 12Volt rails with high amps.
To add to the list, OCZ no problems with it stable rails nomather what i trow at it.
There where issues with some of the psu's making a ticking noise (i had 1 like that, still had stable rails)

Jozi

djmarkus

My bequiet is excellent, in built automatic fan controller is great.

Alkers

I got the Antec Neo 480GB there the other day and it's pretty good. Cables are swapable to suit your needs, there are dedicated cables for controlling fans and it isn't loud at all. Other reviews seem similar too!

po0k

Fortron FN550-PLN, 24-pin ATX12V v2.03(?)
Solid as a rock. cost €147, the 480W below it was ~€79.
It has a nice solid and reassuringly large ATX power switch on the rear external plate.
It makes a subtle thudding click when flipped.

There are a few variations in the ATX PSU specs, different revisions etc.
These little details have an importance far outweighing the space they take up on a spec-sheet. Things like minimum required loading, the distribution of current between the rails etc. mean that a 500W PSU from a system 2 or 3 years old could very well fail to boot a modern PC with modest power requirements.

QTec are the Bauld Fella's black worm-jellied seed of PSUs. Utter cack.

Also, power ratings should be the output capacity at 40*C operating temperature. Cheaper manufacturers quote the rating at far lower operating temps, which give greater ratings than the psu can actually supply at the average operating temperature of a modern PC (30-40*C).

Active Power-Factor Correction is another feature which should be considered.