Tagan BZ 1300W PSU @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
Staff member
Joined
May 18, 1997
Messages
55,601
Tagan BZ 1300W PSU - Tagan delivers some impressive features in this 1300 watt powerhouse of a PSU. It is advertised as future proof and guaranteed to last, but does it deliver the full 1300 watts of advertised power under our test conditions?

And people question me on why we keep fire extinguishers handy on our test benches….
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HardOCP_FAIL_250-Forum.jpg
 
Just wow on that soldering job. I'm not skilled at soldering, but I would never be satisfied with that sort of poor craftsmanship. Completely horrible!
 
Wow that's a bad soldering job. But other than that, at 120V being able to pump out 1300W with those kinds of efficiencies and noise is no small feat. In fact, at that load at 120V it actually beats the Koolance PSU-1300ATX-12N, and at ~$200 less. Too bad it didn't finish the 100V @ 1300W though...
 
Failing the 100V full load test indicates the PFC circuitry isn't able to handle 1300W load @ 100V. Since Tagan mainly focus on European market they might think it's still ok if it can survive the 110V full-load torture.

That workmanship and wires flying everywhere leads me to think it's just an engineering sample trying to handle 1300W based on an existing 1100W design, You know 3*GTX280s are calling for something more than 1100W now.

Paul could you please put the previously reviewed Tagan BZ800 and ITZ1300 under the Tagan brand, instead of the ABS brand?
 
that soldering job is just an abomination. hell i'm not too good at soldering and i can do a much better job than that...were they drunk when this was being done?
 
GreedIsGood said:
Failing the 100V full load test indicates the PFC circuitry isn't able to handle 1300W load @ 100V. Since Tagan mainly focus on European market they might think it's still ok if it can survive the 110V full-load torture.

That workmanship and wires flying everywhere leads me to think it's just an engineering sample trying to handle 1300W based on an existing 1100W design, You know 3*GTX280s are calling for something more than 1100W now.
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Well two things.

1) It is marketed as being capable of operating at 100v to 240 +/-10%. And typically when I lose a unit because of the PFC they don't make it any longer than turning on.

2) I have an 1100w Topower P10 retail and engineering sample. Neither look like that.

Paul could you please put the previously reviewed Tagan BZ800 and ITZ1300 under the Tagan brand, instead of the ABS brand?
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Well they were submitted via ABS and I don't actually have the power to change that in the system on my own.
 
Wow. I've been soldering for more than 20 years, and if I paid $400 for that kind of workmanship I'd never be able to look at myself in the mirror again. I've seen $10 generic units with better soldering than this.

I'm not at all surprised three of these failed at 100V.
 
When you said it had bad soldering I was l just like "Pics or shens..."
And then I saw your pictures. Jesus Christ. Looks like a cub scout did it with a 3 dollar soldering iron. Fucking horrible.
Thanks for the pics.
 
When I was 8 and my grandfather gave me my first lesson in soldering I think I did a better job than that!


slightly off topic, Where is a list of [H]'s pass-fail Power supplies? It would be great to see a list of the tested PWS's with Pass/Fail and the links to the articles
 
trick_m0nkey said:
Looks like a cub scout did it with a 3 dollar soldering iron.
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What makes it worse for me is knowing that a three dollar soldering iron couldn't make a dent in those massive traces... no, it took some real fancy soldering gear to come up with something this bad. Well, that or a high power soldering gun :(
 
Clearly this board was intended for a much lower rated PSU. The crude buss bars kinda sorta held in place by excess solder just don’t make it.


tag1.jpg


The cap on the right is only in a circuit because someone with a Ginsu knife cut through the solder.

The center cap…well, it is held in place for sure but I’m not sure the blind Ginsu knife tech got a clean cut..iffy at best.


tag2.jpg


Somebody please tell me how this got a UL rating. (Yes, I read that part).

I know I’m a cynical old dude, but these need to be pulled from the shelves, now. If not the package should include a fire extinguisher with mounting brackets.:rolleyes:
 
This whole thing reminds me of something from a magazine I read a few years back. In discussing the Chinese space program, they had mentioned that circuitry was "being soldered by hand, with irons that would be better used to repair the radiator of a truck".

I think we found the same folks.
 
Introducing the new Tagan BZ 1300W PSU FE edition. We include an internally mounted emergency cooling deployment device with refillable reservoir. With a case mountable emergency cooling switch.

Using the emergency cooling function does void warranty and we are not responsible for any damaged caused to a case with traditional ATX power supply mounting standards. If you have a properly aligned case with the BTX power supply placement we can assure you of many safe discharges of the emergency cooling system.

(we put a fire extinguisher in and charged more for it!)
 
Now you know what the CE rating stands for "China Excepted"
 
That is some funny stuff. I was thinking the same as above - that my 5 yo could do a better job soldering there...
 
"Somebody please tell me how this got a UL rating. (Yes, I read that part)."

It got it at a box printer in China.
 
wow, in my 20+ years of component level repair of various items, the only thing that even comes close to that 'quality' is some of the el-cheapo CRT monitors of years ago.
 
And this is why I respect [H] so much. Finally truth on the intarwebs!

Well done, nice testing methods.
 
i think it looks like there may be a piece of GUM in between one of the big solder bars and something next to it, and there is clearly a plastic shim of some kind underneath to prevent a short on that same large bar.
 
The wires manually soldered onto traces and points are nothing new; I have system boards here from 1978 that have the same type of manual repair/patch work. Looks horrifying, but it used to be a very common thing in the computer industry. However, those old MAI Basic Four and Data General boards' manual patching was done fairly elegantly, by one whom was clearly well-trained in the art of electronics manufacture. Whoever soldered this train-wreck had no such training or experience!

However, to see it in a modern power supply unit that's supposedly a production model is disheartening. On a $400 unit, no less. I would tend to think that this was a test-bench model built off of another power supply's componentry, but with the retail box and hardware and all, it's hard to say that. I actually have to think that it'd be difficult for this to be a production model, though. You'd have to put a lot of man-hours into soldering that much shit onto a PCB. Clearly, the soldering was not done by an automated system!
 
In addition to the abysmal build quality, I find their "modular" connectors hilarious.
They look like the type of connectors used in the '60's and '70's for electronic gear, especially in the military and medical fields.
So retro!!
 
Just to be clear, we purchased one of the three units we based our review on. It was no different than the samples we acquired. For the record, it is not unusual for us to purchase review hardware to make sure we are seeing what our readers will see.
 
Repeater said:
The wires manually soldered onto traces and points are nothing new; I have system boards here from 1978 that have the same type of manual repair/patch work. Looks horrifying, but it used to be a very common thing in the computer industry. However, those old MAI Basic Four and Data General boards' manual patching was done fairly elegantly, by one whom was clearly well-trained in the art of electronics manufacture. Whoever soldered this train-wreck had no such training or experience!

However, to see it in a modern power supply unit that's supposedly a production model is disheartening. On a $400 unit, no less. I would tend to think that this was a test-bench model built off of another power supply's componentry, but with the retail box and hardware and all, it's hard to say that. I actually have to think that it'd be difficult for this to be a production model, though. You'd have to put a lot of man-hours into soldering that much shit onto a PCB. Clearly, the soldering was not done by an automated system!
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Interestingly enough we were told the reason for the long wait on our original sample and why we weren't getting a second unit promptly is the units already allocated to ABS were being returned to Tagan for repackaging under the Tagan brand.


______________________________________________________________________

This section is not associated with Topower or Tagan

There are plenty of units that are still hand soldered in volume in places like this (these pics are about two years old but this still occurs):

DCP_0026.jpg


DCP_0042.jpg


DCP_0039.jpg


Not everyone has robotic manufacturing in their plants.
 
gathagan said:
In addition to the abysmal build quality, I find their "modular" connectors hilarious.
They look like the type of connectors used in the '60's and '70's for electronic gear, especially in the military and medical fields.
So retro!!
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To be honest I actually really like these connectors. They fit very well and are more secure than the plastic tabs on most, which I have broken on occasion.
 
Good God almighty... just by those few pictures, I can already see so, so many things ready to go wrong. Definitely an eye-opening article. Good work on this one. It's not often one sees sites get really far into the guts of this stuff. Especially with power supplies. I wish I had a dime for every time I'd read a review where the PSU in question was just hooked up to a Prescott rig and Prime 95'ed, and that was that, suddenly the power supply was mankind's greatest achievement.

The "Fail" logo is brilliant.

I hadn't posted at [H] for about 2 1/2 years, and this article pried me out of inactivity a bit. Great work!
 
Repeater said:
Good God almighty... just by those few pictures, I can already see so, so many things ready to go wrong.
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Just to be clear those plant pictures are NOT from Topower or Tagan, they are just an example of what some of the manufacturers plants look like.
 
lol, great entertainment.
Once again [H] PSU reviews are justified.
 
Paul_Johnson said:
Just to be clear those pictures are NOT from Topower or Tagan, they are just an example of what some of the manufacturers plants look like.
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Good to know. I hadn't made the assumption that it was Topower or Tagan, thankfully, as I'm familiar with the business model used by many Mainland Chinese/Taiwanese companies. These days it's tough to count on a product of any type being sourced from one "company" for the most part. The work is often sub-contracted out to whichever factories have the capacity and need work at the time.

It's rarely a case of a product being built by "X Company" in "X Company factories". More often than not, it's "X Company's product" being built in "Electronics Foundry 3341". When 3341 is finished, the same product will be built in Foundry 125 instead.

The same practice is used in the manufacture of other mechanical items as well. Guns, cars, motorcycles, whatever.
 
What, no Boom? From that quality, I was expecting a big boom.

I have to second that call for a list of things that have passed/failed on HardOCP. Would make shopping easier.
 
Well then................

I am going to own up and admit that I own the 1100watt version of the BZ line. this makes me pretty ill to see that kind of craftsmanship....

Paul/Kyle want to do a review on the 1100 watt version?? I have a couple spare supplies that I can use if you want to test mine.

If not i am taking mine apart and snapping some pics of the PCB for everyone here too see as well. Lets hope its not as bad as this.

Kinda scares me that my machine is folding 95% of the day and all that money around a crappy PSU.
 
nightwalker said:
i like the fact you do that, manufacturers sending in perfect overlooked review gear FTL.
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Yea thats what made the full computer reviews so good.

I will say the powersupply seemed to do a good job at 120v which is impressive considering how bad it was put together.
 
Okay, juust to clarify, those pictures were BEFORE the unit was killed? I mean, YIKES, I don't how to soder anything but I can spot something that just ain't right..
 
Jeebus! :eek:

That's about the worst soldering job I have ever seen, except for what I found on a 400watt Deer PSU. No freaking way I'm recommending this PSU to anyone.

Thanks for the review [H]. :)
 
I guess I won't be using my Tagan BZ700 when I build a core i7 next month. any recommendations? pm, me. Jeez just the working condition doesn't look comfortable. They are like making PSUs on a kindergartens desk.
 
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