PSU Reviews Question

[Geekazoid]

Hi to all LTT forum members,

Just have a quick PSU qustion for you all.

When ever I see PSU reviews for most PSUs, some poeple will say they used it for a month and then it failed and then the next person will say that the PSU has been working really well for them with no issues. Now I'm not talking about any particular PSUs it's just a general thing.

I'm just curious about when ever any of you are looking to purchase a PSU, do you look at reviews? If so, what sites? It's kind of annoying getting mixed reviews and it'd be great to be able to get good, realisty and honest reviews about PSUs or anything for that matter.

It's just kinda frustrating not knowing what to get and when you think you've made up your mind you look at reviews only to find a bunch of reviews saying the units garbage and another dozen saying how awesome it is.

I'll appreciate any help you guys can give me. Thanks in advance.

[helping]

You should always take reviews with a grain of salt, especially DOA and ones with QC unless it's a consensus.

 

The representation is disproportional, on most reviews you will hear from 5/10 of the people it broke on and 1/10 of the people it works perfectly fine with.

 

When you keep that in mind and factor in popularity, it can misrepresent the quality of something.

[Godlygamer23]

The problem is mixed reviews are going to occur because manufacturing electronics(or anything really) is an imperfect process and no one can be certain that something is going to work for years and years or just a week. Sometimes turning things off causes them to break - so even if the company tested them beforehand, the fact that they turned it off could've destroyed the electronic(whatever it is).

[Drown]

To be honest a good bunch of the PSU you see are made by the same manufacturer, I don't listen to people saying 'wonderful PSU but failed after three months &*($&Q(/'

 

It will happen, some will have badluck and generally they are the one who will go write the bad reviews. DOA don't really represent the overall quality of the component .. so I look at how it actually is, quiet or not, look, how are the cables and everything, and is it efficient. As long as it's from a good brand and not some no-name joke, I'm perfectly fine with it and I don't base my opinion on the reviews.

[WoodenMarker]

JohnnyGuru is the go-to for psu reviews http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php

[Geekazoid]

To be honest a good bunch of the PSU you see are made by the same manufacturer, I don't listen to people saying 'wonderful PSU but failed after three months &*($&Q(/'

 

It will happen, some will have badluck and generally they are the one who will go write the bad reviews. DOA don't really represent the overall quality of the component .. so I look at how it actually is, quiet or not, look, how are the cables and everything, and is it efficient. As long as it's from a good brand and not some no-name joke, I'm perfectly fine with it and I don't base my opinion on the reviews.

So in general, if the PSU is a well known brand, like Silverston or Seasonic, I can pretty much trust that the unit should work pretty well for me and that I shouldn't base my decision to buy the unit on reviews.

[Drown]

Yeah, buying from a well known brand like Seasonic guarantees a certain standard and durability. You can still have a DOA unit and it can break, but it's solid build and unlike an HP no-name PSU, it's not made to break in 15 months.

[Geekazoid]

JohnnyGuru is the go-to for psu reviews http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php

Thanks mate!

[Geekazoid]

Yeah, buying from a well known brand like Seasonic guarantees a certain standard and durability. You can still have a DOA unit and it can break, but it's solid build and unlike an HP no-name PSU, it's not made to break in 15 months.

Ah! Alright, gotcha. Good to know.

[mgsstar]

So in general, if the PSU is a well known brand, like Silverston or Seasonic, I can pretty much trust that the unit should work pretty well for me and that I shouldn't base my decision to buy the unit on reviews.

Yea if it is a well known brand like Corsair, Seasonic, and XFX (made by Seasonic) etc. The amount of DOAs should be very small.

[Emperor_Piehead]

JohnnyGuru is the go-to for psu reviews http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php

Tech power up also has pretty good psu reviews

[nightlitezzz]

I just buy from a reputable brand, Silverstone, Corsair, Antec, XFX, Seasonic, etc.

[Geekazoid]

Are the Seasonic G series good?

[mgsstar]

Are the Seasonic G series good?

Yea they are pretty good power supplies. Modular/Semi-Modular and 80+ gold

[Geekazoid]

Yea they are pretty good power supplies. Modular/Semi-Modular and 80+ gold

How would you rate them out of 10?

[mgsstar]

How would you rate them out of 10?

9.5/10. Seasonic is the best manufacturer out there but there are some psu that have quieter fans like the Seasonic X series but the G series should still be very quiet. Can't go wrong with a 5 year warranty on the G series.

[quan289]

Generally, PSUs reviews from sites like Newegg, Amazon, etc. aren't all that useful. Normally, they plug it in, and if it works, they either give it a positive review and sometime even over-glorified it or not post a review at all. And then people that do complain are usually a small number of people in comparison to the number of people who bought it.

 

DOAs can be explain by the handling of the shipping company from the time it left the manufacturing warehouse in China all the way until it finally reach your system. During the quality control everything ran fine, but due to possibly that the boxes that holds these units may have been drop numerous of times at Newegg's storage warehouse, shipping trucks, etc. something may got loose or even damage.

 

Then issues like PSUs failing in a few months time can be explain by certain quality control issues that have been overlooked (remember, they have to look at thousands of units. They are bound to overlook something eventually). For example, the robots didn't put enough solder on one of the joints. Even though, it did not have an immediate affect, over time, during heat/cool cycles, it may crack and fail. Or a batch of components are partially bad that didn't show any immediate signs of failure and is able to pass and slipped by QC test. It may take a few months or years for issues to manifest itself.

 

Of course, these issues can happen to any mass-produce electronics. Not just PSUs. If you want to get a good idea of how good a particular PSU is, it is best that you go review a competent, more professional review site. TBH, the understanding of the inner workings of a PSU of those reviewers (Newegg and such) are usually very little. Reviews sites such as HardwareSecrets, Jonnyguru, TechPowerUp, HardOCP, etc. are good.

 

Are the Seasonic G series good?

 

Yes, they are very good. They are quite affordable for such a high-end unit in the US. However, it may be pretty pricey in Australia (from what I can tell brands like Seasonic and Corsair are rather high there in comparison to other units).

[Geekazoid]

Generally, PSUs reviews from sites like Newegg, Amazon, etc. aren't all that useful. Normally, they plug it in, and if it works, they either give it a positive review and sometime even over-glorified it or not post a review at all. And then people that do complain are usually a small number of people in comparison to the number of people who bought it.

DOAs can be explain by the handling of the shipping company from the time it left the manufacturing warehouse in China all the way until it finally reach your system. During the quality control everything ran fine, but due to possibly that the boxes that holds these units may have been drop numerous of times at Newegg's storage warehouse, shipping trucks, etc. something may got loose or even damage.

Then issues like PSUs failing in a few months time can be explain by certain quality control issues that have been overlooked (remember, they have to look at thousands of units. They are bound to overlook something eventually). For example, the robots didn't put enough solder on one of the joints. Even though, it did not have an immediate affect, over time, during heat/cool cycles, it may crack and fail. Or a batch of components are partially bad that didn't show any immediate signs of failure and is able to pass and slipped by QC test. It may take a few months or years for issues to manifest itself.

Of course, these issues can happen to any mass-produce electronics. Not just PSUs. If you want to get a good idea of how good a particular PSU is, it is best that you go review a competent, more professional review site. TBH, the understanding of the inner workings of a PSU of those reviewers (Newegg and such) are usually very little. Reviews sites such as HardwareSecrets, Jonnyguru, TechPowerUp, HardOCP, etc. are good.

Yes, they are very good. They are quite affordable for such a high-end unit in the US. However, it may be pretty pricey in Australia (from what I can tell brands like Seasonic and Corsair are rather high there in comparison to other units).

Thanks for your rather lengthy bit of information, that is ridiculously helpful.

[TeeBlack]

The new Cooler Master V series PSU's are great and are made by Seasonic. i recommend those to anyone. Newegg even has the V1000 on sale for $154.99 with coupon. A great deal!