450w-500w PSU Battle Royal @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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450w-500w PSU Battle Royal - You guys asked, "What about regular mid-range PSUs?" So we bought five power supplies and then tested them to see if they would do what they were advertised to do. A melting fiery mess proves you get what you pay for. 5 PSU enter, 1 PSU leave.

PLEASE Digg to share.

So what did we learn from doing this review? We found that, to be blunt, there is still a lot of trash being pawned off on consumers under the guise of quality products. Among the units reviewed today there were exaggerations, fabrications, false advertising, outright lies about component abilities, and most shockingly statements flouting the ATX12v specifications! These kinds of behaviors among well known companies in other parts of the computer industry are generally a thing of the past, but the power supply market as demonstrated today is still plagued by these kinds of problems.
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Awesome. I finally have something to point to when I need to convince a customer that Apevia and Powertek are absolute crap.

The Xclio results were a little disheartening since I've seen them recommended quite a bit on the forums and even suggested them myself to some budget builders. I would like to see how some of their higher-end PSU's hold up, though. (The Good, Great, and Stable Power series to be exact.)

On the other hand the results for the FSP were a pleasant surprise. It will be nice to be able to point to a reputable brand at a lower price point.
 
That was a fun read, especially the melting Expire... I mean, Perspire... I mean Aspire, not to mention the Powertek.

From the looks of the high 5v and low 12v results, the Powertek was overloaded or crossloaded already by test 1. I'm starting to think Deer's actually gotten worse - my old Deer 250W had better input filtering than that thing did, though this one had fewer missing components.
 
I pretty much figured that FSP would get a passing grade, sounds a little cocky I know, but I have been using Sparkle PSUs' in customers' builds for years without issues.
 
Good read. Would love to see you throw in antec, emermax, etc into a future review like this.
 
Shouldn't that be "Battle Royale?" Like a Royale with Cheese? ;)

I particularly liked the Powertek.....

As it stands the Powertek somehow snatched the worst performing crown from the Apevia ATX-AS500W-BL which was no easy task.
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LOL!
 
Dugg! Excellent read.

The Apevia/Aspire PSUs have always been on my do not buy list. I am not surprised at all the unit you all tested died.

I tried one Powertek on a low end system and under 50% load the 12v rails dropped below 11.3v. Absolute crap. It found it's way into my "to be taken out to the range and shot" pile.
 
i've been waiting for some flames and miserable failures:) good stuff. great article besides the fun stuff too, its good to see what crap is still out there when you go to the corner compter store that thinks they know all and sells you crap.

i remember one said he couldn't get me a WD hard drive ebcause they only carry 'quality' parts....ehem....right....regardless of your take on WD, they're far from garbage.
 
Kyle ... What with that ... NO adult contribution?

Ok .. Here we go again ...

It really surprised me that the Lian-Li PSU failed. Plastering Lian-Li on the side should be motive enough for them to make sure that it is a quality product.

The Apevia one is mostly a affirmation of my view on that brand as a whole, OMG .. The plastic PSU melted ... NO WAY!

Overall, the review was very well put together, and will be a great guide for customers on the fence deciding whether or not to go cheap on the PSU.

There Kyle, can we be friends again? :) (Seagate FTW)
 
Thank you for this look at the midrange PSU market. Very handy information when building a pc for "mom", etc.

Those supposed UL listed psu's without a UL number, strike me as not really UL listed, and dangerous to use. Very good to see what brands to totally avoid.

Be great to see a few more brands represented in a second wave 500W review.

Good job [H]!
 
Nice to finally see some absolute failures in [H] reviews for once (edit: still would have been cool to see a failure that necessitated using an extinguisher, I understand why not though). A few of the usual suspects made it to class today. Although, some of them must've been huffing some glue in the bathroom or something.. One comment though regardless of what PSU maker/marketer we're talking about - NOT having a UL # listed along side the logo, or even in it's online spec sheet counterpart makes me VERY wary of any PSU - it makes me wonder if they did just BS the certification completely.

Newegg should be ashamed that they're pawning the absolute shit that they are with the Powertek (and likely 99.99% of all other Deer/Allied units) - they really should drop crap like these. They really are doing a dis-service to the community as a whole and particularly idiots who don't 'know the score' by selling such awful units.

It didn't really surprise me that the Aspire/Apevia did perform as it did..Bling before performance is not a good way to do business (IMO). If their units were priced quite a bit less than they are, they might be acceptable (save the whole melting thing which isn't acceptable under ANY circumstances of course) for use in low end systems. On a related note, I'm very happy to see one of the previous flash over substance partners in crime to Apevia (Thermaltake) begin to steer away, and go to understated and well performing units in their newest builds.

As far as the XClio goes, I'm a bit surprised in it's partial failure too...I've been an owner of a 480BL unit for ~18 months now, and it hasn't hiccuped on me once in the almost 100% 24/7 usage my box sees. My rails have always been pretty much dead on, not deviating much at all from the 3.3v/5v/12v #'s...The worst being maybe 11.90-92 on a 12v rail - all probing done on a cheapie RatShack DMM mind you, not high end SunMoon testers the likes that [H] and JG use. Mind you, I don't have even a basic watt meter to being to guess what my actual power draw on an o/c'd 165/7900gt/3xHDs/1 optical/Swiftec water rig would be...I wouldn't be surprised to learn that I not pulling anywhere near the rated load of the unit. Also, my case temps are nowhere near 45c (more like 30-32c tops, summer higher of course)... Neither in my current Armor case (1x120 intake on HD cage, 2x120 intake on the radiator below, "250"mm side panel fan); nor my old Chieftec Dragon (2-3 80mm intakes) that previously held my XClio.

Totally OT - it seems XClio is upping the ridiculous case & panel fan size wars :p. They now have a case with a "36cm" (yes you read that right) side panel fan!

 
Excellent article. I am surprised the Egg ratings on the $20.00 are as ggod as they are:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16817713001

If you write another article like this in the future may I recommend testing a Dynex power supply?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat107700050048&id=1108126220085

When I worked as a Geek Squad agent, if my store was out of Antec power supplies, I had to
recommend the Dynex models, even though I was never too sure how good they were.
 
mentok1982 said:
Excellent article. I am surprised the Egg ratings on the $20.00 are as ggod as they are:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16817713001

If you write another article like this in the future may I recommend testing a Dynex power supply?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat107700050048&id=1108126220085

When I worked as a Geek Squad agent, if my store was out of Antec power supplies, I had to
recommend the Dynex models, even though I was never too sure how good they were.
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You HAD too? I know the feeling.

Do what everone else told me.

"While our Dynex power supplies are fine judging by your system specs I believe you need something with a little more juice. How about we just order you a nice Antec power supply?" Then go on about the benefits.
 
Nice read, one piece of critique though:

You included PSU's priced up to almost $90 in your review of the five, seeing that you can get the Corsair 520 HX for $95 currently I fail to see why you should recommend the FSP unit. I know that it's currently $18 saved but would anyone seriously recommend anybody to save these $18?
 
Darth Bobo said:
Nice read, one piece of critique though:

You included PSU's priced up to almost $90 in your review of the five, seeing that you can get the Corsair 520 HX for $95 currently I fail to see why you should recommend the FSP unit. I know that it's currently $18 saved but would anyone seriously recommend anybody to save these $18?
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Your answer lies in the second paragraph written on page 1.

So today, we take a step away from the high end and enter the midrange power supply market and in the process go off the beaten path to look at some power supplies that don't get a lot of coverage in our program, or any place on the web, in order to see what the state of the mid range power supply is in today’s market.
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tazzmissionx said:
I pretty much figured that FSP would get a passing grade, sounds a little cocky I know, but I have been using Sparkle PSUs' in customers' builds for years without issues.
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FSP in general makes tried and true workhorse power supplies but you have to be kind of careful as they have a number of divisions making different products. Currently their newest addition 3Y has probably some of the best power supplies coming out of FSP and we have one of those units coming up soon. Albeit, a bit higher powered ;)
 
Darth Bobo said:
I don't feel that it does. While I can certainly follow your arguement from the perspective in which the article was written I don't feel that it justifies saving those 18 bucks, instead I feel that if you should have been intirely true to the idea, then you should have imposed a lower cap on prices.
If the limit had been say $50, then I could understand as the gap from $50 to $95 is quite large (relatively) and finding a recommendable PSU in the $50 range would certainly be great, but personally I could never justify to myself recommending a midrange part for the sake of $18... Ofcause the "myself"-part may be the issue... :D
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But since power supplies in the 450w-500w range have prices ranging from $19.99 to over $100 your arguement is moot.

In addition these were purchased over two months ago, and the FSP did perform very very very well, and passed. Which really is the end of the story. It met all of our metrics and is cheaper than the Corsair, so it deserved the ranking it got.
 
Finally! proof to what i have been yelling for years



When it comes to power supplies you always get what you pay for.
 
THRESHIN said:
i've been waiting for some flames and miserable failures:) good stuff. great article besides the fun stuff too, its good to see what crap is still out there when you go to the corner compter store that thinks they know all and sells you crap.
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When the first Powertek blew out there was a rather loud pop, flash, and smoke. So close...we had smoke but no fire.
 
Great article. Much more interesting than the typical high end reviews. I hope you burn up some more crappy power supplies in future articles. Burn baby burn.
 
I am an EMC Engineer, not a Product Safety Engineer, but it often falls under the same regulatory compliance umbrella so it crosses my path occasionally.

I'm not sure why you keep bringing up the UL marking. The UL Mark is a product safety certification, *not* product performance.

Looking briefly at the images of the Apevia sample, it appears that the bottom of the unit is solid peice of sheet metal, the air is pulled through completely laterally, so it's enclosure might be considered an acceptable flame enclosure. A little dripping, melted plastic that falls on the metal enclosure would not be considered a safety hazard IMO.

If the product stops working at 100% rating, and there is no harm caused to the user, then UL would probably record it in the engineering considerations of their report, and pass on by it.

IIRC Voltages that are 48V DC or less are considered low voltage, and inherently not hazardous. So little testing may be needed on the output of such power supplies.

Considering the power supply is intended to be installed into a metal computer chassis, which *may* again be considered as another flame enclosure. There manual may have a bunch of CAUTION or WARNING statements that may be interesting and shed further light.
 
Because faking/forging certifications is an old trick in this field. ;)

And the Powertek didn't just shutdown safely at 100%....if that unit was found to be safe by the UL I would be suprised that the requirements are that lax.
 
Very good article. I actually found it more interesting than some of the other high-end reviews. Like you stated, you looked at units that are usually overlooked by other reviewers. It was good to see mainstream PSUs reviewed to get a barometer on something other than the enthusiast end of things.


Is it me, or is that Apevia PSU fugly? :eek:
 
Very cool. It's nice to see some reasonable PSU reviews.

IMHO, there's still a need for more PSU reviews in the 500-700W range, though, since that's likely what we'll be buying for ourselves.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Because faking/forging certifications is an old trick in this field. ;)

And the Powertek didn't just shutdown safely at 100%....if that unit was found to be safe by the UL I would be suprised that the requirements are that lax.
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The Aspire probably is UL rated.

UL Online Certification Directory
http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/index.htm

Listed under Youngyear as you described in your introduction, here is their power supply listing as an ATX-AS500W model...
http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/...n=versionless&parent_id=1073787374&sequence=1

-----------------
As far as PowerTek goes.
The base model number isn't easily matched to any Deer model. I don't see a UL mark or recognized component mark on the power supply itself. The UL Recognized component mark is incorrectly used on the external packaging...

Again, I don't specialize in Product Safety, but I believe according to CFR Title 29, the OSHA section somewhere it is illegal to sell an electronic product without the mark of an NRTL, and there are a lot of these, not just UL. TUV, ETL, MET, etc etc.

CFR = Code of Federal Regulations
OSHA = Occupational Safety Hazard.. something another, part of the US Dept. of Labor
NRTL = Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory.

They could be looking at a lawsuit from UL, and/or a production halt and/or fine from OSHA if pointed out to the right people. I'm not exactly sure how these organizations deal with abuse of their trademark and violating US regulations... but I wouldn't want to be their shoes risking finding out!
 
Man I'm surprised that the 450BL did as bad as it did. I've recommended that power supply to many people here on this forum. Hopefully I didn't screw up anyone's system!

Anyway, great reviews. Like a few people here have already said, I would like to see more mid-range power supplies in your next few power supply reviews. Reviews about mid-range power supplies interest me more than those expensive but damn good power supplies. In fact, I think this is one of the few power supply reviews I've read three times in a row. That doesn't happen often!
 
Great atricle.
I have a couple of OEM FSPs they run like champs and at 40 bucks who can complain.

I was surprised to not see an Antec branded PSU in there. They are so well recognized, it would be good to see one tested. Although I have a couple of those too, and they are rock solid as well.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
But since power supplies in the 450w-500w range have prices ranging from $19.99 to over $100 your arguement is moot.

In addition these were purchased over two months ago, and the FSP did perform very very very well, and passed. Which really is the end of the story. It met all of our metrics and is cheaper than the Corsair, so it deserved the ranking it got.
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Look, I'm not trying to discredit your work, nor am I questioning the quality of the FSP PSU, I am merely questioning where $-wise midrange should stop and higher end should start.

I'll leave it at that...
 
I adore Antec power supplies. (The ones on the market now)

I would love to see some of those reviewed. They kick ass..
 
Excellent article (as were all the other PSU reviews), it's nice to see people testing PSes the way they should be tested. The results of this particular test didn't really surprise me much, though I was surprised to see the Apevia actually start to melt.

One question though, and one suggestion:
Question: Can we expect to see some Antec units reviewed? I've used them almost exclusively for years and I'm curious to see how they hold up

Suggestion: Either replace the torture test or supplement it with something even more challenging. I'd like to see 100% load (or as close as possible), for at least 48hrs, ideally 72... or until the PSU dies. Whichever comes first. Perhaps even run it at 50*C. Don't get me wrong... the existing torture test is a great idea. However, I'd be much happier seeing it run at 95-100% than at 80%. :)
 
That write-up was awesome - thank you very much, Paul, for putting this together. I'm sure it was a load of fun. I especially appreciate that you took the time to post Apevia's sales pitch - given the context that is hilarious.

Frankly, I think this article was a little overdue - I've read all of [H]'s PSU reviews to date, and although the test methodology is very torturous, the vast majority of the reviewed PSU's passed without issue - not that I mind [H] taking the time to review quality hardware. :)

The problem (judging from some of the posts here) was that even those who frequent [H] were buying/recommending the XClio, and as you stated in the review, the general public don't have enough good information resources to help them sift through all the lies used to market the other pieces of crap - case and point being the Apevia.

I think this review will really help to put your other reviews in their proper perspective, and I think it's great that you've given us cold hard proof (or at least smoking melted proof) with which to convince our non-geek associates that clean, safe power really is worth $90.

...And it's nice to see that you're willing to give some well-deserved verbal abuse to PSU's that don't measure up *coughkoolancecough*. :D

Thanks again, Paul!
 
It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when cheap power supplies let out the magic blue smoke.
 
Menelmarar said:
The Aspire probably is UL rated.

UL Online Certification Directory
http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/index.htm

Listed under Youngyear as you described in your introduction, here is their power supply listing as an ATX-AS500W model...
http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/...n=versionless&parent_id=1073787374&sequence=1
Click to expand...

I know that the Youngyear base model is UL listed. The UL listing though doesn't indicate whether or not it has the acrylic or not and so on, and if the unit does the UL certification isn't worth the paper its printed on if things like it get certified IMO because that particular unit is not, again IMO, safe.

They could be looking at a lawsuit from UL, and/or a production halt and/or fine from OSHA if pointed out to the right people. I'm not exactly sure how these organizations deal with abuse of their trademark and violating US regulations... but I wouldn't want to be their shoes risking finding out!
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Again reasons why these things were pointed out and the ponderings about UL certification were made.
 
Very good review and I enjoyed the read immensely. I'm really glad to see midrange wattage PSUs being reviewed. I don't see myself picking up 700+ watt PSUs in the near future and I would consider the range you just tested as the mainstream of the enthusiast market. That would include the builds many enthusiasts do for other people.

I don't necessarily want single reviews of 500 watt Antec PSUs, but roundups like this with several at once I find very interesting and informative.

I'm not surprised at all about the rebadged Deer. I had a friend that got one with a case. I was there when he got the parts and I told him not to use the Deer as it would blow in no time. He just shrugged me off and used it anyway. Two days later he was calling me up because his system wasn't working (he built it himself). I went over and took a look and pointed immediately at the Deer PSU and told him to take a whiff of it. He got lucky and it didn't take out any of his other hardware. I was nice and let him borrow one of my spares until his new PSU (which I made him buy or I wouldn't loan him one of my PSUs) came in.

Also, anyway you could start recording some of the testing? Or at least keep a video camera aimed and ready in case the PSU does something it's not supposed to? I'd love to see some of these PSUs go boom or in the case of the Apevia, melt. The videos would be hilarious.

 
Every time I see a "500w Range" PSU review, I pray that my beloved NeoHE will make an appearance. And every time I'm disappointed.
Given that it only costs $83 on a regular basis- often cheaper with sales and rebates- I think it deserves some attention.

Hell- if you guys want, I'll even lend you my own HE550 for review. It's a first revision, but I still have faith in it (just not with Asus boards).

The Blue Storm II was the predictable winner. I'm especially glad it's labeled accurately this time, versus the 460W maximum out of their 500W model last time.

I'm also disappointed, though not surprised, at the Lian Li. I've always thought their cases were overrated at best, pretentious at worst, and I see that the same holds true for their "functional" products.
 
mavalpha said:
I'm especially glad it's labeled accurately this time, versus the 460W maximum out of their 500W model last time.
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To be fair, I never saw FSP claim the AX500-A was a 500W model... mostly it was the retailers assuming it from the model number and then listing it as a 500W.
 
I'd like to see you guys do a search on the UL online database when you come across questionable UL labels in reviews, and put the results into the review :)
(also, thanks Menelmarar for doing a search for us in the forums)

http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/index.htm

BTW, great review, I love seeing PSU reviews, and it gives me a warm feeling inside to know that the money I spent on my upper end PSU didn't go to waste. A PSU is one of the most important parts of a computer (if you dont want to kill things in it) and yet one of the most often overlooked.
Its also fun to read reviews where some PSUs didn't measure up.
 
Excuse me as I take the long road for a second. My best computer still uses a 400 watt Allied. It's a crappy, ghetto PSU, but was damn cheap and does well enough to have replaced my dead Sparke 300 (FSP = Fortron Sparkle Power). Granted my system is aged (to put it nicely, specs below), but I can honestly see my next build including nothing better than a 500 watt power supply (I'll probably go Fortron again). Even your uber gaming rig can probably get by on far less than you bought, as long as you're not doing SLI or something else that's really high draw. And that's most of you. The pure fact of the matter is that even though HardOCP is an enthusiast haven, I doubt even a quarter of the community will ever buy an SLI setup. The point I'm getting at is that most enthusiast sites seem to have lost their way. We all started overclocking to get more out of cheap hardware. No one's overclocking their Intel Quad cores because they're having trouble running the newest games.

This ties into the topic at hand because I see both the editors and several posts on here saying "oh, no one here would buy any of this crap anyways!" But the fact is that a vast majority of enthusiasts are digging around for a 300-400 watter to power a low-drawn Athlon. These are the relevant reviews, not 1000 watt monstrosities that cost more than my whole computer. It's disappointing to see such through testing when it's pretty much a forgone conclusion that it's going to pass. I'm happy to finally see HardOCP doing a review that draws a line. I've considered that Xclio a number of times, mostly because of the recommendations and the fact they didn't seem as shady as some of the other off brands. I'm frankly disappointed with it's performance, and am glad that I didn't put down money on it. This is the entire purpose of websites like the HardOCP. I'd like to see a review of one of the Xclio with PFC, a Fortron without (they're a good bit cheaper), a couple of other budget PSUs that actually stand a snowball's chance in hell (I coulda told you some of those were damn fire hazards, no review required).

Don't get me wrong - even though I'll probably never be able to afford a 1000 watt PSU, it's still interesting to see the reviews. But don't kid yourselves - the number of people actually in the market for something like that is a tiny minority, even on HardOCP.
 
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