Apevia power supplies.

[HesCalledTheStig]

Looking for a cheap power supply (sub $30) to replace the dying unit in my daughters pc. I came across this Apevia PSU on Amazon:

 

Apevia ATX-RA500W Raptor 500W Power Supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TT84DK4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WcUSDb3ST9SG7

 

Has anyone had experience with Apevia’s power supplies?  It’s only going to be used in an older build with an AMD phenom CPU and a 750 ti GPU. Any thoughts or other recommendations would be appreciated. 

 

[Sakkura]

Apevia power supplies are infamous for extremely low quality. Generally power supplies costing less than $30 can be expected to be extremely low quality and put your hardware at risk of damage.

[Jurrunio]

Corsair VS grey label is as low as I'd go

[HesCalledTheStig]

6 minutes ago, Sakkura said:

Apevia power supplies are infamous for extremely low quality. Generally power supplies costing less than $30 can be expected to be extremely low quality and put your hardware at risk of damage.

Even on such low end hardware with low power draw?  The 750ti uses power from the pcie slot and she has no spinning drives, just an SSD. I used a power supply calculator and it only recommended a 200w unit for the setup. I figured since this was 500w it would be a safe alternative, even as cheap as it is.  

[FALC0N]

1 hour ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

The 750ti uses power from the pcie slot and she has no spinning drives, just an SSD. 

 

750ti has no spinning drives, just an SSD?  I don't remember that.  

[OrionFOTL]

40 minutes ago, FALC0N said:

750ti has no spinning drives, just an SSD?  I don't remember that.  

"The 750ti uses power from the pcie slot and she has no spinning drives, just an SSD."

 

The OP is clearly referring to his daughter, there's no room for interpretation here.

[Spotty]

2 hours ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

Looking for a cheap power supply (sub $30) to replace the dying unit in my daughters pc.

That Apevia PSU is junk. Unless you can find an okayish cheap unit on sale and with mail in rebates you're not going to get anything but junk for under $30.

What is wrong with the PC and why do you think the PSU is dying? Do you know the model of the PSU that is already in the system?

[Fasauceome]

Those things are a literal hazard. They will die and take your components with them. And it doesn't take much either, I had a 600 watt unit die powering an i5 PC

[Guest]

On 10/25/2019 at 5:14 AM, HesCalledTheStig said:

Even on such low end hardware with low power draw?  

If you want to risk having it blow up and destroy ALL of her hardware?   Sure.. it's fine.

 

[Tristerin]

I just grabbed this unit off Amazon for the same reason (cheap PSU for a rebuild for my daughter with old components) - works great so far and seemed much better than the specs I could find on the Apevia units.   Had all the right connections I needed for Xfire

 

https://www.amazon.com/Sparkle-Power-FSP650-80GLC-FSP650-80GLCR-9PA6500102/dp/B07CLLFFCL/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Sparkle+650w&qid=1572113637&sr=8-1

 

[HesCalledTheStig]

On 10/25/2019 at 10:39 AM, Spotty said:

That Apevia PSU is junk. Unless you can find an okayish cheap unit on sale and with mail in rebates you're not going to get anything but junk for under $30.

What is wrong with the PC and why do you think the PSU is dying? Do you know the model of the PSU that is already in the system?

Right now she has a Corsair VX450 I believe. It’s an old one with green labels. Don’t have time to open her pc to look right now. It makes a really high pitched whining noise anytime her pc is under load like playing a game.  I opted against the Apevia for a Raidmax that had really good reviews. Cost a bit more but after asking this question, I don’t want to risk burning her rig up. I originally had a Corsair VS in my cart but the reviews were horrible. And it was an amazon renewed item so I didn’t want someone else’s return. 

[HesCalledTheStig]

On 10/25/2019 at 9:51 AM, FALC0N said:

 

750ti has no spinning drives, just an SSD?  I don't remember that.  

Might wanna get your eyesight checked bud, haha. I check and recheck all my posts for spelling and grammar before I post.  Nice try though! 

[Spotty]

7 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

Right now she has a Corsair VX450 I believe. It’s an old one with green labels. Don’t have time to open her pc to look right now. It makes a really high pitched whining noise anytime her pc is under load like playing a game.  

What you've described is known as coil whine. 

Perfectly harmless and does not indicate a problem. Can be annoying to listen to however.

The VX450 is quite old, probably around 10 years old, so it's probably a good time to replace it anyway.

 

11 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

 I opted against the Apevia for a Raidmax that had really good reviews. Cost a bit more but after asking this question, I don’t want to risk burning her rig up

Which model raidmax?

[HesCalledTheStig]

3 hours ago, Spotty said:

What you've described is known as coil whine. 

Perfectly harmless and does not indicate a problem. Can be annoying to listen to however.

The VX450 is quite old, probably around 10 years old, so it's probably a good time to replace it anyway.

 

Which model raidmax?

I wasn’t sure if it was an issue or not but, decided to be proactive and just change it anyway. It worked for years with no whine and then all of a sudden it started. 
 

This is the Raidmax I ordered. I have another Raidmax that has been running in my wife’s PC for almost 5 years now so I figured I could trust this one. 
 

Raidmax 500W XT Series Power Supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J8W3XT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_hknTDbYSXARPC

 

[OrionFOTL]

52 minutes ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

This is the Raidmax I ordered. I have another Raidmax that has been running in my wife’s PC for almost 5 years now so I figured I could trust this one. 
 

Raidmax 500W XT Series Power Supply https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072J8W3XT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_hknTDbYSXARPC

 

This Raidmax is several times worse than the Corsair VS you were afraid of, as bad as the Apevia you avoided due to blowing up, and is a serious threat to your daughter's pc components. 

 

In fact, your current 10-year-old Corsair VX is a MUCH MUCH better power supply than the Raidmax bomb. You significantly downgraded your PC's power delivery and safety by replacing the VX with the Raidmax, you'd be better off just still using it. 

 

The line of reasoning in your first paragraph makes as much sense as thinking a GT1030 will be as fast as a GTX980, because you already have it and it's the same brand. 

[HesCalledTheStig]

17 minutes ago, OrionFOTL said:

This Raidmax is several times worse than the Corsair VS you were afraid of, as bad as the Apevia you avoided due to blowing up, and is a serious threat to your daughter's pc components. 

 

In fact, your current 10-year-old Corsair VX is a MUCH MUCH better power supply than the Raidmax bomb. You significantly downgraded your PC's power delivery and safety by replacing the VX with the Raidmax, you'd be better off just still using it. 

 

The line of reasoning in your first paragraph makes as much sense as thinking a GT1030 will be as fast as a GTX980, because you already have it and it's the same brand. 

Thank you so much for making me feel like an idiot. Not sure why you had to be so condescending with your answer. I made my decision based on the feedback for the Corsair PSU and from my own personal experience with Raidmax PSU’s. Let me ask you, how many of that PSU have you personally owned and how many have you personally seen fail?  As I stated, I have been using a lower wattage version of the one I ordered for several years and it has never once given me issues. Based on that alone I am willing to give another a try. As for it being a downgrade, I see no reason to think so if it powers the system without issue. If it would be powering a more power hungry GPU I may have chosen differently. Next time try a little tact when answering a simple question. 

[OrionFOTL]

Sorry for making you feel like an idiot and being condescending. 

 

Customer feedback on power supplies is useless, because customers have no way to test if a power supply is good or not. 

 

My personal experience is not useful, because the quality of something is impossible to determine from a sample size of one.

For every power supply in existence ever made, there is at least 1 person who had it blow up. That doesn't mean every power supply is bad. Likewise, for every power supply in existence (even bombs) there's at least 1 person who didn't have it blow up. That doesn't mean every PSU is okay either. 

 

You are not using "a lower wattage version" of the Raidmax XT you ordered in your wife's PC for 5 years, because Raidmax XT was released only 3 years ago. 

 

Even if you did, it not blowing up does not make these models in general safe to use, just like driving without a seat belt for 5 years and never having an accident does not prove driving without a seat belt is safe. All it means is you got lucky.

 

A power supply powering your system without immediately blowing up or causing problems is not indicative of it working properly, because bad power supplies more often than not will silently damage components over time, with high ripple and out of spec voltage, rather than just blowing up or causing visible damage. 

 

Also, it is a significant downgrade because it's a non-PFC, low efficiency unit with the cheapest possible topology and components, while Corsair VX was built with very durable parts and outputs voltages that fit in spec and aren't dangerous to connected parts. 

 

It doesn't matter whether it powers a power-hungry graphics cards or an integrated GPU, because lowest-end PSUs can fail regardless of the load, for reasons other than the amount of power demanded. 

[HesCalledTheStig]

8 minutes ago, OrionFOTL said:

Sorry for making you feel like an idiot and being condescending. 

 

Customer feedback on power supplies is useless, because customers have no way to test if a power supply is good or not. 

 

My personal experience is not useful, because the quality of something is impossible to determine from a sample size of one.

For every power supply in existence ever made, there is at least 1 person who had it blow up. That doesn't mean every power supply is bad. Likewise, for every power supply in existence (even bombs) there's at least 1 person who didn't have it blow up. That doesn't mean every PSU is okay either. 

 

You are not using "a lower wattage version" of the Raidmax XT you ordered in your wife's PC for 5 years, because Raidmax XT was released only 3 years ago. 

 

Even if you did, it not blowing up does not make these models in general safe to use, just like driving without a seat belt for 5 years and never having an accident does not prove driving without a seat belt is safe. All it means is you got lucky.

 

A power supply powering your system without immediately blowing up or causing problems is not indicative of it working properly, because bad power supplies more often than not will silently damage components over time, with high ripple and out of spec voltage, rather than just blowing up or causing visible damage. 

 

Also, it is a significant downgrade because it's a non-PFC, low efficiency unit with the cheapest possible topology and components, while Corsair VX was built with very durable parts and outputs voltages that fit in spec and aren't dangerous to connected parts. 

 

It doesn't matter whether it powers a power-hungry graphics cards or an integrated GPU, because lowest-end PSUs can fail regardless of the load, for reasons other than the amount of power demanded. 

That answer I can accept. And it makes sense. And you are correct. The Raidmax I have now is an older model. I thought it was an XT until I pulled the side of the PC just now. I might grab the Corsair VS that I decided against originally. I still have the Raidmax coming as well. If it feels like a piece of garbage when it arrives, I will probably send it back. If it feels half way decently made, I will throw it on the shelf for a later build. My current Raidmax has been between a few different builds and still works great (except the blue led’s no longer work). 

[HumdrumPenguin]

15 hours ago, HesCalledTheStig said:

That answer I can accept. And it makes sense. And you are correct. The Raidmax I have now is an older model. I thought it was an XT until I pulled the side of the PC just now. I might grab the Corsair VS that I decided against originally. I still have the Raidmax coming as well. If it feels like a piece of garbage when it arrives, I will probably send it back. If it feels half way decently made, I will throw it on the shelf for a later build. My current Raidmax has been between a few different builds and still works great (except the blue led’s no longer work). 

Although you are looking for a simple PSU to handle a low performance computer, I'd consider spending more for a few reasons: being modular, more efficient, having better power distribution on rails, and warranty. Although I don't own EVGA PSUs, I think they offer one of the best bang for the buck out there. Would something like this be completely out of scope? https://www.amazon.ca/EVGA-SuperNOVA-Modular-Warranty-220-G3-0550-Y1/dp/B01LWTS2UL/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=evga%2Bsupernova%2Bg3&qid=1572192928&sr=8-3&th=1

[HesCalledTheStig]

24 minutes ago, HumdrumPenguin said:

Although you are looking for a simple PSU to handle a low performance computer, I'd consider spending more for a few reasons: being modular, more efficient, having better power distribution on rails, and warranty. Although I don't own EVGA PSUs, I think they offer one of the best bang for the buck out there. Would something like this be completely out of scope? https://www.amazon.ca/EVGA-SuperNOVA-Modular-Warranty-220-G3-0550-Y1/dp/B01LWTS2UL/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=evga%2Bsupernova%2Bg3&qid=1572192928&sr=8-3&th=1

That’s way too much for me to spend on her PC. I had this delivered today.