Allied 350W

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,566
10,181
126
Built a system for a friend, using a BestBuy Dynex mid-tower ATX case w/350W PSU.
BIOSTAR P4M900 S478 mobo, P4 2.8C, onboard video, one HD, one DVD burner. I overclocked the CPU to 3.2Ghz.

PSU has 10A and 13A on the two 12V rails. I don't know what the TDP/wattage is for those older P4 CPUs. Hopefully there is enough extra juice in the PSU to add a Geforce 6600 512MB DDR2 PCI-E graphics card in the future.

Seems to be running ok thus far, although once the HD spun-down unexpectedly during Windows XP installation. I wonder if that could signal power issues that were on the edge. Although the CPU was at 2.8Ghz when I did the installation.
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
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You must really hate this friend :p. I don't know of too many reviews of Best Buy PSUs, but HardOCP did review the 400W Dynex...which turned out to be a 200W.

Some highlights:
During the first half of the Dynex 400w?s advertised DC output capacity the unit was marginal in regards to its load testing results. The unit?s efficiency was certainly not great peaking at just ~79% in Test #2 at 120v but it could have been worse. However, whenever the unit was pushed beyond 200w DC the unit was a complete and utter failure, which is in stark contrast to what the 400w label on the unit promised. Indeed, the first unit blew out on the primary side and in doing so it damaged our Variac requiring replacement. To date primary side failures have typically taken out the power meter being used not the Variac. So in the end, the Dynex unit did manage to excel in one category, sadly that category was the test equipment destroying category where it somehow one upped the PowertekPro 500w which is certainly not a good thing to excel at in our estimation.
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There are many things that the Dynex DX-400WPS is, of the things a 400w power supply it is not by any stretch of the imagination and this was certainly clear from the beginning given the build quality of this unit. As soon as this unit was opened it was clear that this unit was not nearly as well constructed as other 400w products we have seen.
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This 200w-300w marking turned out to be prophetic as the unit was capable of doing 200w's but was capable of destroying test equipment when 300watts were attempted.

I remember it being a pretty entertaining review, so it's definitely worth checking out, just for laughs.
 

HOOfan 1

Platinum Member
Sep 2, 2007
2,337
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Originally posted by: AmberClad
Either way - not recommended. Tier 5, bottom of the barrel.

Dynex is just Best Buy's house brand...someone has to be the actual manufacturer.

I believe Allied is built by L&C...AKA Deer...so it is worse than a Dynex.
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
4,914
0
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Ouch, if that's the case :eek:!

OP, no one's saying you have to get your friend a $100 PSU for a budget rig. But there ought to be something out there relatively cheap and reliable. There's this. Or this if you/the friend hates rebates.