Hardocp $50 budget roundup interesting, but lacking

[tomoyo]

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

I'm looking at this and all I can think is...why didn't they actually include the GOOD budget psus? $50 is a pointless limit. Make it $60 and and you get FAR MORE good psus such as Seasonic S12-II 330, Earthwatts 380W, SPARKLE SPI350PFC
Also the Fortron FSP300-60GLN, which is a decent low budget 300W way below their $50 line.

It seems pretty unfair to the budget crowd to pick up basically all the poor psus and make the article conclusion that buying a low cost psu will get you in trouble most of the time. There is a lot of crap out there, but there should be some spotlights directly shown on the good quality budget psus. And of course the Corsair VX450 is a lovely choice for $70-80...

On the positive side, I'm always glad to see the terrible psu's being shown out the door. Any roundup where you can prove that these psus are prone to dying and possibly killing your components via explositions or terrible dc power is a good thing.

 

[eplebnista]

I like the fact that the review actually listed the brands of the caps used in each power supply.

 

[MrOblivious]

"I'm looking at this and all I can think is...why didn't they actually include the GOOD budget psus? $50 is a pointless limit."

It was decided to use $50 because it was anumber that is often thrown around in the forums as stated in the introduction.


"Make it $60 and and you get FAR MORE good psus such as Seasonic S12-II 330, Earthwatts 380W, SPARKLE SPI350PFC
Also the Fortron FSP300-60GLN, which is a decent low budget 300W way below their $50 line.

It seems pretty unfair to the budget crowd to pick up basically all the poor psus and make the article conclusion that buying a low cost psu will get you in trouble most of the time."

We didn't pick all the poor PSU's. The Antec, the SilverStone were passable. The Hiper was an Andyson (who makes good units just turns out it was horribly inflated so it seems in that regard it was a service to turn it out). The MSI was an unkown that at least was interesting to write about. Had I wanted to get all the power PSU's I would have gone and picked up a Powmax or two, maybe a Codegan, etc. Instead we picked brands that people would recognize and buy on face value.


"There is a lot of crap out there, but there should be some spotlights directly shown on the good quality budget psus. And of course the Corsair VX450 is a lovely choice for $70-80..."

Which is $20-30 out of the price range of the roundup and already reviewed by us.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: tomoyo
Also the Fortron FSP300-60GLN, which is a decent low budget 300W way below their $50 line.

It seems pretty unfair to the budget crowd to pick up basically all the poor psus and make the article conclusion that buying a low cost psu will get you in trouble most of the time.

I pointed that exact fact out to them in their discussion thread on that article. 😉

Guess the FSP300-60GLN was too inexpensive for them. 😛 I think the approach should be to explicitly find under $50 PSUs that are actually decent. Why not? Well, except for the fact that there's no money in it for the boutique builders, but I think most people without high end GPUs would be content with a decent and cheap PSU.

The Antec Basiq (Fortron) and Silverstone (Enhance) did everything asked of them except for putting out 100% power output at 100V. Why is that important anyways? I dunno, other than to torture the PSUs.

Anyways, I still did enjoy reading the article and it does provide decent information on the tested units.

 

[nyker96]

I think earthwatts are selling for as little as 50 for the 500W version after rebates. It's probablky the best choice for 50 or under except maybe VX450 if that can be had at 50 bucks, probably not.

 

[tomoyo]

The reasoning is fair enough for the roundup, it just wasn't nearly as satisfying as if you had included a few of the better budget psus. Yes there were a couple decent ones, but even those weren't something you could give an unqualified yes to. I'd like to see an addendum that adds a couple of the $60 psus as well.

Also I wasn't mentioning the corsair as a candidate as it's too pricey and been reviewed, it was just mentioned as a good choice for not much more money.

 

[MrOblivious]

Guess the FSP300-60GLN was too inexpensive for them. 😛

For a $50 roundup it is by about $15.

I think the approach should be to explicitly find under $50 PSUs that are actually decent. Why not?

Which is what we did as you notice there was a Antec/FSP, SilverStone/Enhance, and a Hiper/Andyson. Until I got the units and did the review there was no way to KNOW that the Hiper was a 350w unit (and I don't gut them until after I test which is why there are blown caps in the MSI), the MSI was picked because of name recognition, and the Coolmax because it was a Sirtec and the last Sirtec (the LianLi) did ok but not great so we tossed it in for a second look.

The Antec Basiq (Fortron) and Silverstone (Enhance) did everything asked of them except for putting out 100% power output at 100V. Why is that important anyways? I dunno, other than to torture the PSUs.

Because those are the criteria we set since units are supposed to function on an input range.

 

[MrOblivious]

Originally posted by: tomoyo
The reasoning is fair enough for the roundup, it just wasn't nearly as satisfying as if you had included a few of the better budget psus. Yes there were a couple decent ones, but even those weren't something you could give an unqualified yes to. I'd like to see an addendum that adds a couple of the $60 psus as well.

Also I wasn't mentioning the corsair as a candidate as it's too pricey and been reviewed, it was just mentioned as a good choice for not much more money.

And that would have been the bottom line message. After we got done and while 5 is only a small number we did hit a wide swath of OEM/brands that gor from the very bottom (Deer/Solytech) to the mid range (FSP) to good (Enhance/Andyson) it became a little clearer that the old adage of you get what you pay for may still hold a bit of truth. Also you have to remember I bought these at RETAIL/E-Tail regular price not on sale or rebate so YMMV.

Sure there were no golden children in the lot but at $50 I would hazard to say there will be few full passes under the test standards we set. I have products that cost many hundreds of dollars that fail out all the time so it isn't a strictly a price issue but the increased pressure of price makes it harder to find good units. After all the OEM has to make money on the unit, the brand has to make money, the reseller has to make money on the unit and with all the added in costs beyond just building the unit; at $50 those power supplies aren't that expensive at a production level.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: MrOblivious
Because those are the criteria we set since units are supposed to function on an input range.

Fair 'nuff. :thumbsup:

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: nyker96
I think earthwatts are selling for as little as 50 for the 500W version after rebates. It's probablky the best choice for 50 or under except maybe VX450 if that can be had at 50 bucks, probably not.

I snagged an antec basiq 500w for ~$15 shipped after rebate from fry's/outpost back in July. 😀

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: eplebnista

Originally posted by: nyker96
I think earthwatts are selling for as little as 50 for the 500W version after rebates. It's probablky the best choice for 50 or under except maybe VX450 if that can be had at 50 bucks, probably not.

I snagged an antec basiq 500w for ~$15 shipped after rebate from fry's/outpost back in July. 😀

rememeber several things...
There are reasons why PSU`s are dirt cheap...
With that said-- Antec as of late has stepped IMO back up to the plate and has seriously addressd what I call a quality control issues from the past!!

You should be just fine with that PSU!
For a while anyways..lol

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Originally posted by: eplebnista

Originally posted by: nyker96
I think earthwatts are selling for as little as 50 for the 500W version after rebates. It's probablky the best choice for 50 or under except maybe VX450 if that can be had at 50 bucks, probably not.

I snagged an antec basiq 500w for ~$15 shipped after rebate from fry's/outpost back in July. 😀

Huge profit in PSU business. Wait for these puppies to go on sale with rebate. Frys.com is an excellent source. I paid $30 AR for Antec Earthwatts 500. My aging 1986 HP analog scope tells me that this is a keeper, even at $50. No need to waste more $ on a PSU unless you have two uber expensive GPUs gracing your MB.

 

[eplebnista]

Actually I got the basiq for a relative's pc. I have been running an Athena Power 500w topower based psu for the last 2.5 years and counting in my main pc. Not exactly the best, but I feel I have gotten my $50 out of it as it is still working fine so far.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: eplebnista
I snagged an antec basiq 500w for ~$15 shipped after rebate from fry's/outpost back in July.

Hot!

Originally posted by: SerpentRoyal
I paid $30 AR for Antec Earthwatts 500.

And Hot!

I have an Earthwatts 500, for $49.99 with no rebate hassles and free shipping from CompUSA a couple months ago.