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Power Supply: What would you do?

I

Insomniak

Banned
So here's the story.

Was looking to bump up to something a little higher than my Enermax Whisper II. I wanted something that would have a 24 pin adapter and slightly higher wattage. The Enermax only had a 20 Pin adapter, but had served me well enough with nary a single hitch.

Well, I decided to move "up" to the Tagan TG-480-U22 for the slightly higher wattage rating, flexibility to switch between single/dual 12v rails, PCIe connectors, etc. All the reviews around the web gave it good marks, and the internals were very neat and orderly along with some big, chunky heatsinks. Most of the personal anecdotes I read across the web were positive, and the brand is very popular in Europe for their solid build quality.

Well, I put it in there, got everything cabled nice and neat, and noticed how quiet it was. Fired up various software probes, and noticed that most of them (ASUS Probe, Everest, Speedfan) are reporting 11.84 - 11.9v on the 12v rail. A bit low, but well within the 5% spec. Still, my old Enermax never dropped below 12.02v, even under the highest load. More disturbingly, Motherboard Monitor 5 reported the 12v rail at 11.35v (!!!), but since it was the exception to the rule, I decided not to pay it much heed until I needed to.


So I decide to pile some load on this thing by getting my overclock up to speed, and multi-tasking prime 95 behind some other apps like firefox, AIM, etc.


Well, I get everything going, and damned if the monitors don't report the 12v rail dropping to 11.77v, then 11.71v, then rebounding, then dropping again. Bear in mind, I don't have a huge 12v rail load. 2HDDs, 2 Fans, 1 Optical drive. My GPU is a 6600GT, PCIe, which doesn't even need an external power connector.


Also, my USB transfer slows down greatly, and I have had a few system stability issues.


I don't think I need to go into drastic details here. The Tagan is leaving and the Enermax is going back in my rig. This Tagan arrived yesterday and is clearly not up to spec. I don't plan to keep it and am not really interested in an exchange at this point. What would you suggest? Trying to get a refund through Tagan? Newegg will only allow RMA, of course, as the product isn't *technically* (+/-5%) defective (although I bet it would be if I put any real strain on it).


I am open to suggestions. Any advice would be appreciated. That is, real advice, not suggestions such as "Get a Seasonic". I'm mainly concerned with returning this thing and getting my Visa re-credited as it is definitely not satisfactory.
 
Enermax has a significantly better reputation than Tagan/E-Power. I've read a lot of negative grumblings about T/E lately.

.bh.
 
Originally posted by: Zepper
Enermax has a significantly better reputation than Tagan/E-Power. I've read a lot of negative grumblings about T/E lately.

.bh.
Click to expand...


Which is weird, because if you took off the labels you'd almost certainly pick the Tagan as the better supply. It's heavier, has bigger heatsinks, includes more cable length and connectors (ATX 2.0 Spec), and auto-selects input voltage.

But hey, it happens. Now to see if I can finagle a refund on this thing...
 
I posted a thread about the Tagan PSU and some guy said that the Tagan went up in fire lol From ANANDTECH REVIEWS On some kind review. So my friend found about this accident cause he was going to buy it but he said the ANANDTECH always uses that PSU for reviews .Which I dont know if it is a fact
 
Interesting. This is the first I've heard of such problems - I always thought they had very good reliability and quality - what all the reviews I've ever read have said.

Can anyone provide any further information on this because I've just recommend the 530W U22 to a friend of mine who is about to buy it..
 
I check toms hardware roundup and he stated that none of the PSUs caught fire. Maybe you're refering to another test somewhere else where it did? (General note, I am dubious about toms general hardware figures eg efficiency etc)

Could it be a bad production batch of PSUs?

Viperlair and pcreview.co.uk have both posted good reviews about it. Very steady rails and quiet...
 
To the orignal poster:
I've had the Tagan 480 running for three days in my main machine now, it's steady as a rock and I'm getting good temps. It replaced an Antec 430W unit.

I checked voltages with the hardware monitor supplied with my DFI motherboard and observed most rails were shown as being a little under par:

<graphs>

However, using my Fluke Digital multimeter, every single voltage rail showed as being a little over par. Never could rely on software monitoring much.

Using a voltmeter is a much more accurate way to monitor voltages. I took readings from the main Motherboard connector and a couple of molex 4 pin plugs. All readings were taken with CPU at full load.

Typical + voltages were 12.1; 5.1 and 3.4V. These wavered only slightly when I burnt a CD and played CoD online, but only a little, perhaps changing by 0.1V in each instance.
Click to expand...

That was at pcreview.co.uk where readings were upto 1V off! So 12V was reading 11V etc

Can I ask - did you actually measure with a multimeter or actually experience any instability?
 
I did not measure with a multimeter. I had plenty of instability though. Swapping out to the Enermax fixed my stability issues and my USB transfer times are back to normal.

That's enough for me. I read that exact review you quoted before I bought. It was one of the many positive ones I mentioned. Unfortunately, Tagan didn't impress me.
 
Personally I have bought a 20>24 adapter for my 550W Enermax. As for the PCIe connectors my video card arrived with a molex>pci-e adapter. Never had a single issue.
 
Adapters are never a good idea, especially ones that go from fewer pins > more pins. Increases draw and thermal load on the PSU by a huge margin, lowers their efficiency, and increases wear and tear on 'em.
 
Originally posted by: forumposter32
what's the point of switching between single and dual 12V?
Click to expand...


I was an intel recommendation, I believe. Soemthing about safeyy. Too much amperage on one rail. People could hurt dey widdle selves.
 
Theoretically an extremely high amperage on a single rail could blow. Frankly, a properly built PSU wouldn't worry....but being that so many PSUs are built shoddy....
 
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