For the love of god noooooo!!!

[iMc]

hehe.

i need a new psu, replace my antec, ill go for this.

[SilentDeath]

qtec rule.

[Lexeus]

I still have no problems with my Q-tec 550W PFC I bought from a guy for £15. Been running fine for almost a year now. Of course they aren't as good as more expensive PSU's, it does show in the voltage rails, and therefore are not the PSU's to use for Overclocking; but I have been running my XP2500+ at stock with no problems, and if you look at my sig you will see my system does not have low power demands at all with 3 HDD's and 2 optical drives.

EDIT: Besides, if it blows and takes my system with it, what better time to upgrade ? Insurance money will go a long way when I bought it all at PC world prices

[blueprint]

When you buy these more expensive rip off PSUs at like 80 qid for 350w youre' just paying for the name, as with most things. Why pay LOADS for a 350w if you can get a 550w PSU for 20 quid, like my QTec. Its myth that they blow up! That would be illigal if they actually caused fires etc, QTec are a respectable company arn't they? Making all kinds of computer parts!

[skattrd]

I had a q-tec 550w running my system for about 8 months and only upgraded it when it was running out of juice (too many hard drives). However I did upgrade the fans in the psu - the ones in it a crap, that might be why it lasted longer, but when you've got a pc that costs £xxxx why try and save £30 on a psu when it can ruin £xxx amount of gear.

I had no problems with mine - but saying that I wouldn't have another one.

[Zak33]

I had a q-tec 550w running my system for about 8 months and only upgraded it when it was running out of juice (too many hard drives). .... but when you've got a pc that costs £xxxx why try and save £30 on a psu when it can ruin £xxx amount of gear.

I had no problems with mine - but saying that I wouldn't have another one.

That is one of the finest examples of Hexus helping people....nicely worded man Yours was OK, but you kinda feel you got lucky, and have learned a lesson the comfy way.

Fair play...

Out of interest, how many devices DID it have running on it.....cos I have a 430W Truepower with 3scsi hdd, 1 scsi cd burner, 1 eide dvd, a rad 9800Pro and 6 case fans and she doesnt bat an eye lid at the load.....

[skattrd]

Out of interest, how many devices DID it have running on it.....cos I have a 430W Truepower with 3scsi hdd, 1 scsi cd burner, 1 eide dvd, a rad 9800Pro and 6 case fans and she doesnt bat an eye lid at the load.....

Hmmm - my q-tec 550w was in a heavily clocked and over volted nforce2 rig with 6x80mm fans 2x optical drives 2x ide hdd 2x scsi hdd, 9800 AiW, 6x usb devices - all the rails were a tad low (12v 11.6, 5v 4.8, 3.3v 3.2v) but it was stable. When I added another hdd on top of that lot it started to cut out quite frequently.

[r1zeek]

When you buy these more expensive rip off PSUs at like 80 qid for 350w youre' just paying for the name, as with most things. Why pay LOADS for a 350w if you can get a 550w PSU for 20 quid, like my QTec. Its myth that they blow up! That would be illigal if they actually caused fires etc, QTec are a respectable company arn't they? Making all kinds of computer parts!

Ask mgh0 if it is a myth that they blow up!
Its not that you are paying for the brandage, your mostly paying for stability. With the cheaper PSU's they often don't provide the correct voltages etc which is pretty bad as i causes crashes or, as with Q-Tecs, fry ups with your computer components.

Anyway most of the cheap 550w PSU's can't actually hold that output, real output would be like 350-400w. With the more expensive PSu's (like my Tagan for example) they provide a steady voltage output and it can stretch to something like 500w (iirc) at peak output.
Nuff said

[megah0]

mine was running 2 hard drives, an overclocked XP1800, 2 optical drives and a Geforce 4 Ti4200.

When it went it killed just about everything except the RAM.

And yes it went bang and threw out lots of black smoke, the molex connector to one of my hard drives was partially melted and there were flames for a few seconds from burning wire insulation.

Now I have an FSP/Fortron PSU and I wouldn't go back.

[Firelord]

When you buy these more expensive rip off PSUs at like 80 qid for 350w youre' just paying for the name, as with most things. Why pay LOADS for a 350w if you can get a 550w PSU for 20 quid, like my QTec. Its myth that they blow up! That would be illigal if they actually caused fires etc, QTec are a respectable company arn't they? Making all kinds of computer parts!

Thats not the case at all. Just becuase it says 550w does not mean it can sustain that. Its a case of peak output (and heat in QTecs case ) ie it can sustain 550w for several seconds but thats it.

Put it into perspective: -

Fortron 350w Aurora PSU from MicroDirect will have more stable lines than your 550w QTec becuase its about the quality of the mosfets ad heatsinks used. Pick up your QTec and it weighs nothing this is a sign of the lack of the quality. Pick up a decent well specced PSU such as the Fortron or similar and they weigh a ton!

The problem I had with a QTec 450w PSU I had was voltage spikes which will eventually damage hardware, that cost me £30 at the time. Switched to a 420w Hiper PSU and all my apparent instabilty issues on my old rig disappeared and voltages where rock (initially) but I burnt out 3 voltage regulators on these Hipers, switched to a Tagan and no problems at all. Extremely extremely quiet and very effiecent.

The Tagan set me back £70 but I trust it and know its gonna be reliable which is a damn site more than In had with cheaper PSUs! That Tagan powers everything in my sig ince my water pump (DD 12v), 6 120mm fans, 3 80mms, highly OCed CPU and everything else above 12v, 5v and 3.3v!

At the end of the day you get what you pay for do you see Daewoos lasting the same length of time as an audi or volkswagen?

[Agent]

When you buy these more expensive rip off PSUs at like 80 qid for 350w youre' just paying for the name, as with most things. Why pay LOADS for a 350w if you can get a 550w PSU for 20 quid, like my QTec. Its myth that they blow up! That would be illigal if they actually caused fires etc, QTec are a respectable company arn't they? Making all kinds of computer parts!

No offence, but this is a dedicated computer hardware forum.
Its best not to try and fan the flames to old myths here

[blueprint]

what does that binary mean under your name, mgh0?

[blueprint]

so, if i was to buy a better, safer and better quality PSU when i upgrade my system sometime soon, what should i get? Bearing in mind i have two optical drives, about 7 fans, 4 hard drives and lights. I want a 550w surely to be able to comfortably power it, but i dont wanna pay more than 50-60 quid. How do u know that the name is correct, unlike Q-Tecs as it seems. If it says 450W then how do i know its actually 450W?

[Mblaster]

*loads up goolge and searches for binary translator*

It means "handbags are for n00bs"

[Steve]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=59492

These guys make Antec's PSUs.

[Tom]

i was just about to link to exactly the same PSU as kez