Logisys PS480D2-BK PowerSupply Review

[Atmos]

Another Wonderful Continuation of my:

"Cheap Crap That No-one Should Buy! Ever!"

 

Yea I know that's not the right psu, but its the best picture i could find. It's the same one basically, but that model has molex and no top mounted fan.

 

Alrighty fellas, Here's the scenario. Panic mode sets in when its time for a home server upgrade. I have a new motherboard, new hard drive, new cooler, and different display card for the server box. But, the new motherboard doesnt fit in the new case! So I do what ever rational human being does, and buy a new case! But alas, now the powersupply doesn't have long enough cables to reach the 6pin cpu connector, or the 24pin motherboard connector, Soooo I once again do what every rational human being does and instead of buying extenders, I grabbed my wallet and set out to the shops. I found the PSU in question, the Logisys PS480D2-BK at one of the local tech stores, where the sales assistant assured me it would be "enough" for my server. It was only $15 So why not I said? 

 

• Phenom II X6 1075t
• 32gb 1333mhz Kingston Value
• 3x 2tb Seagate Barracuda
• 2x 2.5tb Hitachi Deskstar
• MSI 970 GA-43 ATX mobo
• GTS 8800 display card
• Rosewill 450W

 

 

Here's where the review starts.

 

Unboxing: First thing I noticed was the weight, well, the lack there of. The box had some shreds of foam around the corners, which given the weight of the dam thing seemed like overkill. You could have probably wrapped it in tissue paper and been good.

 

No other goodies were included, just a powersupply, unmanaged cables, and yea, that's it.

 

Installing, And More Questions: The cable lengths were quite good, however, Here's were the first issue comes into play. There are no PCIE connectors, or Molex. So first off, let's ask the question. "Why do you need a 480W psu, when it can only run 6 hard drives off of sata power, and a single 4pin cpu power? What on earth uses anywhere near 480W on 6 hard drives and one freaking 4pin cpu? I frankly have no idea. Now, the motherboard I'm using requires a 6pin cpu connector, but the psu only has a 4pin, no worries though, my cpu doesn't pull enough power to warrant a 6pin, so I used a 6pin extender and taped the 4pin into the receiver, and it was able to boot, even though not display anything due to it not being able to power the display card thanks to that whole, no pcie power connectors thing.

 

Usage & Some Testing: I threw a pcie powered display card into the server just so i could get an image, and decided to see what kind of wattage I could actually get from the psu. Measuring pull, I was able to hit between 370W on the high-end and 350W on the low-end before the computer would blue-screen. Please note, The way I did this was not by conventional use, I couldn't get near these numbers with a pcie powered display card and the cpu alone. I had to pull some more wattage through the sata connectors and some tricky setups. During my tests the powersupply fan's were quiet, except for an odd scratching noise like plastic rubbing on plastic. Now, the fans may have been fine, but the coil whine, oh dear lord the coil whine. So much coil whine at pulling 300W+ from the wall.

 

Teardown: So after my testing, I decided to get to know this powersupply a bit better, and nabbed my handy-dandy screwdriver and get to work dissembling it to see the build quality, and find the source of the coil whine and where all that weight has gone. The top mounted, 90mm fan appears to be able to be replaced, as it's just a standard 90mm 2pin dual bearing fan. Also, turns out this fan was the cause of the plastic-on-plastic rubbing sound coming from the psu.

Spoiler

 

 

 

While the fan on the top can be swapped out, it doesn't appear the fan on the back can be. It not only is soldered into the pcb, but it's also glued down with a silicon based adhesive that you'll see in a sec.

You can tell very obviously that the manufacturer knew fully of the coil whine issue, as it appears they tried to silicon down the three larger coils. Doing a very poor job on two, and simply heatshrinking the other.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

Turns out, more than 1/2 the weight of the damn powersupply were the cables themselves, or what few cables the thing had to begin with.

 

 

Conclusion: This is a 15$ Powersupply online, and surprisingly almost $25 in some stores. This is one of the worst powersupplies I've ever had the displeasure to even attempt to use for a short amount of time. The thing barely supports 3/5ths of it's rated wattage, and does so while screaming with coil whine the whole time. Usually, I have some sort of positive thing to say at the end of these reviews, or something that I can say to at least give the product some sort of placement in a real life scenario. This is not the case. This is a terrible product that barely passes as an excuse for a pitiful powersupply. It was an honest waste of albeit only $15, But even if this was a $10 or $7 powersupply I would never recommend it. There are other's out there for $25 (which this costs in some stores) That are far superior. 

I cannot stress this enough. A crap powersupply puts all of your other computer's components at risk. Please for the love of god, do not buy $25 powersupplies or below.

 

Do not buy this product.

 

A community announcement by: Atmos

 

Edited April 7, 2016 by Atmos
Updated to fix broken spoilers after last forum update.

[Aniallation]

Why would you buy a Logisys PSU to begin with...

[Atmos]

Why would you buy a Logisys PSU to begin with...

 

Because it not only gave me a chance to review it, but because it was also only $15, and only $5 after my pal marked down a discount.

[Laederem]

Because it not only gave me a chance to review it, but because it was also only $15, and only $5 after my pal marked down a discount.

with PSU's like these the concern isn't if the PSU blows, it's if the PSU blows and takes everything that is connected to it. 

[Aniallation]

Because it not only gave me a chance to review it, but because it was also only $15, and only $5 after my pal marked down a discount.

 

with PSU's like these the concern isn't if the PSU blows, it's if the PSU blows and takes everything that is connected to it. 

 

^ This. A crappy PSU puts your other components at risk if it breaks. 

[Atmos]

with PSU's like these the concern isn't if the PSU blows, it's if the PSU blows and takes everything that is connected to it. 

 

Which is exactly why I didn't risk any of my hard drives on it. And why I thoroughly do not recommend this POS

[Polyvalent]

Logisys makes damn good case lights tho that are only 8 dollars less than that power supply

[Timopomer]

something makes me hate that brand.

i see it everywhere when i sort prices from low to high. atrocious products

[Atmos]

something makes me hate that brand.

i see it everywhere when i sort prices from low to high. atrocious products

 

They do have some decent good quality product's, though, most of it is the super-low budget aimed stuff. 

 

I might actually have another angry review coming up about one of their cases that my server is sitting in now. Let's just say, it keeps with the brands stigma of, disappointment at a low-price.