Shall I Risk It ?

[eldren]

My example is indeed power related, and has everything to do with quality. This "300W" PSU should easily be able to handle my system, yet it doesn't (System is currently at stock speeds, too).

Granted, it may seem that there is no difference between a high-end brand and a low-end brand, but I assure you, the difference is huge. Have you ever seen burst caps on a cheap motherboard? Is it so unreasonable to expect that the same couldn't happen to a cheap power supply? Just because you've been lucky, doesn't mean your luck will continue.

A low-end PSU can also be the source of mysterious reboots, in that their power regulation is not constant. For example, just Thursday, I watched another cheap 300W PSU dip in and out of the ATX standard for the 12v, including the 5% tolerance allowed (It was falling to 11.36v and then back up again). And that was sitting completely idle. Not only is it bad for stability, that kind of poor regulation can damage your components.

Note, too, that I say high-end brand, and no expensive. There's also a difference there, though, in general, the more you pay for a PSU, the better off you and your components will be. I also don't see how you can believe that it's coincidence that such a large number of Hexus users have had disastrous experiences with Q-Tecs.

A high-end PSU will definately protect you from brownouts and spikes. By using quality caps, they ensure even current, even through spikes and dips, and Active PFC dampens these effects even further. I speak from experience, having a dip where even the monitor and lights turn off briefly, but the UPS-less machine kept on going, the caps on its high-end supply keeping it going long enough for the power to return.

Lastly, a little analogy. Using a cheap PSU to power you very expensive PC equipment is like buying a sports car chassis, fitting it with nice wheels, windows, lights, luxury seats, and then putting a lawn-mower engine under the hood.

[yamangman]

I won't disagree with as your saying that is your experience, but mine is entirely different. I wouldn't expect any 300W PSU to run a system with two high capacity high speed PATA drives and a 9800 Pro at a reasonable load. However, i've never, ever had a problem with 'cheap' or 'low-end' PSU's, and none of my many hundreds of end-users havn't ever either.

[nichomach]

Sorry, I have to agree with Eldren; I've seen a user's machine recently that was a prebuilt with a generic 350W that struggled to support a single hard drive, two opticals and graphics (shouldn't have taxed it at all); in fact it fritzed out completely. Luckily, the motherboard was made of sterner stuff. Replaced with a Thermaltake PSU and the machine is stable (random reboots prior to this), solid and much quieter than it was. Quality tells with PSUs, and consequently I make sure that any PSUs that I buy are of a good brand. I've found Thermaltake, Antec and Enermax to be extremely solid, and where I'm chucking together a grand's worth of components it just doesn't make sense to place them all at the mercy of a cheap power supply.

[Butuz]

Have had 3 el cheapo 300watt psu's take out entire systems (including floppy, cd, HDD). Not my systems mind, but systems i had to replace.

Buy at your own risk, is saving £20-£30 on PSU worth losing the £hundreds your PC cost and all your data?

And you'd need to take the PSU manufacturer to court to get anything back, and that would cost more than £30 too.

Butuz

[Allen]

Shall I Risk It ?

In a word, no.

So many people fall foul to the 'el cheapo' PSU's, with the high rate of fails and all, it's surprising companies like Ebuyer still sell 'em. Well, anything for a few quid, eh? Even other peoples loss of data and components.

[Lexeus]

There is nothing wrong with ebuyer PSU's. They fill a gap, the gap which the majority of PC's fall into. They are just not designed for Overclockers and tweekers. IF you just want something to power your system then they are fine. But, just like with Q-tec PSU's, there isn't enough juice, and the power it self isn't clean enough to overclock everything down the graphics card.
I have a Q-tec and it runs my system fine, but the price I pay is I can't get a stable OC on my system, but that's ok with me, and I am fine just running at stock. If I really 'needed' to OC then I would have to get a more expensive PSU.