cheap PSU

GoldenLag · April 7, 2019

5 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

claim that a particular PSU will kill your parts.

Yep that is a hyperbole from me regarding the VS series, though it is made to the best intentions. I think im gonna change that a up a bit for future reference

7 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

They just regurgitate what was read from a tier list.

It's paradoxes like these in this forum that make me walk away from it with the impression that many here are just full of shit

PSUs are one of those things many including me dont put the effort to dive into technicallities. Meaning general recommendation and avoidance is what lays the groundwork for people's knowlage (and yes this includes Tierlists made by people know more)

Not great, but good enough for general build recommendation.

April 7, 2019

9 hours ago, Ritam said:

will cheap PSU do any harm to our system?

Different PSUs can kill your parts in different ways.

A really cheap PSU can have high enough ripple and poor enough voltage regulation to slowly kill your parts long term (like, over a year or two). Keep in mind: The PSU can continue to work for several years and live on to kill many more parts. So don't follow the rule of, "well.. The PSU turns on, so that's not the problem."

A cheap PSU that can stay within spec will likely last longer term, but if it doesn't have proper protections, it can kill other parts if and when it does fail.

A cheaper double forward (cheaper than other topologies like LLC resonant) will either make a lot of noise when hit with high slew loads (eg from high end graphics cards) or worst case shut down, but shouldn't kill parts.

A PSU without DC to DC on the 3.3V and 5V (eg a "group regulated" PSU) can cross load under unusual loads (like 3.3V or 5V too high or zero with all load on 12V) and cause the crossloaded voltages to go out of spec.

And, at the end of the day, any PSU can die for a multitude of reasons and potentially kill other parts. But your odds are about 1 in 1000 of all failures (which in average is 2 out of 100). Protections arent 100% failsafe. And the more complicated a PSU design, the more parts you have that can fail. The best you can do is have the newest topology (ie resonant mode with DC to DC), make sure the PSU has all the necessary protections, and hope for the best. Beyond that, is icing on the cake. Efficiency, modularity, monitoring, etc.