PSU vendors

[phillyman36]

Question about vendors who make psu. Is there a list of which ones usually make good psu(ie tiers)?
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page2293.htm
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page447.htm

Super Flower, CWT,FSP etc etc
Do some of you prefer some over others and are the some you wont go anywhere near?

 

[lehtv]

Vendors vary unit by unit, but some are more consistently good than others. I would probably rank Seasonic no.1 overall, they have very solid quality from low end to high end. Only a few unfortunate lemons here and there, and even those were generally better than other units at their price points... For instance, XFX 450W (v1) with its wacky +12V rail.

But in the high end alone, there are several vendors whose units are at least as good - including Super Flower Leadex and its EVGA-branded versions, Flextronics-made Corsair AXi units, CWT-made Corsair HX units, Delta-made Antec units.

On the low-mid range there are lots of vendors that can produce good units but (I think) aren't very consistent in their build quality and performance. FSP, Sirfa/Sirtec, GreatWall, Enermax, Super Flower, Enhance, CWT and HEC come to mind. But it's hard to rank these, instead you have to go on a unit by unit basis.

 

[C1]

In the case of my recent purchase of an ANTEC HCG model, the unit is built by Seasonic. In general, a good build quality mid-range PSU, but after using it now for a couple months, it shows its issues.

Without going into details, it has become apparent that with just a slightly different selection of materials and a slight redesign (both of which might have added at best a few dollars to cost), they could have had a top-of-the-line winner. Instead, a nuisance is created that hurts the manufacturer's reputation.

As such, it seems there's lots to be said for a slow evolutionary development process in which subsequent models are evolutionary improvement changes over previous releases based on user experiences, complaints and recommendations versus major redesigns.

I say the cause is that CEOs are not required to personally use the products produced by their own companies.

For example, the stupid ADDA fan in my HCG starts annoying clicking noises after 30 days and then I see so many complaints on the networks about this. Then on the networks we find:

"There is a cone shaped spring in your PSU fan that keeps tension on the blades.
The easiest thing to do is replace this spring with one from another fan. You could try and coil it tighter around the shaft, but it's fragile.

The gap on the small part of the spring is too big and drags around the bearing housing which is stationary. By Tightening up or using a smaller spring, the spring will ride on the smaller -inner part of the bearing that spins with the fan. (Like it is supposed to)

I bent my spring trying to adjust it, so found a perfect slightly smaller replacement out of old 90mm fan I had lying around."


So why is ANTEC still using the same ADDA fans and why doesnt ADDA work to improve their crap based on user experience (you dont have to look to far or hard)?

I see this all the time.

A company will build, say, a flashlight like a "brick shithouse" but use a one tenth cent internal nylon part that quickly fails ruining the whole otherwise well made falshlight.

It's no wonder rockets crash: http://www.space.com/29196-spacex-reusable-rocket-crash-throttle-valve.html