Any of these £40 PSUs worth using?

[p5-]

Lots of people (although probably not from here) don't rate any Topower based power supplies whatsoever. Often they are associated with being cheap and the value end, that are sold at high prices due to fancy designs, colourful leds perhaps, and a nice box. Although I've never owned one myself partly due to those comments.

Many popular brands you see out there rebrand topower power supplies, such as Tagan, OCZ, Akasa. The innards may possibly be the same, but the brand will specify what features they want. I think they actually even had a webpage where anyone could do this and specify what they wanted, and how many psus they wanted.

Tagan actually had one of their models deemed unsafe by the finnish safety regulators or something. Oh I even found the thread here.

I seem to recall lots of people having to RMA tagan's on some other uk based forums too (dont think they're very liked here so i won't mention names).

This is not to say that all topower based power supplies are bad of course, even though my post may seem to suggest that. There's better out there for the money (regarding the insides of it anyway).

[k0nigen]

...There's better out there for the money...

Example?

[herulach]

Lots of people (although probably not from here) don't rate any Topower based power supplies whatsoever. Often they are associated with being cheap and the value end, that are sold at high prices due to fancy designs, colourful leds perhaps, and a nice box. Although I've never owned one myself partly due to those comments.

Many popular brands you see out there rebrand topower power supplies, such as Tagan, OCZ, Akasa. The innards may possibly be the same, but the brand will specify what features they want. I think they actually even had a webpage where anyone could do this and specify what they wanted, and how many psus they wanted.

Tagan actually had one of their models deemed unsafe by the finnish safety regulators or something. Oh I even found the thread here.

I seem to recall lots of people having to RMA tagan's on some other uk based forums too (dont think they're very liked here so i won't mention names).

This is not to say that all topower based power supplies are bad of course, even though my post may seem to suggest that. There's better out there for the money (regarding the insides of it anyway).

Tagan is a wholly owned subsidiary of EPower, who make their own supplies, admittedly Epower is crap, but that doesnt make tagan crap.

Id like to hear your suggestions as to a 'better' (as far as you can define something like that on paper) PSU than a tagan 480W for the same money.

[amjedm]

SilentPCReview recommended power supplies page here

The Seasonic S12 430 is one of the most rated for a similar price to the Tagan.

[p5-]

As amjedm mentioned, Seasonic is widely regarded by silent pc builders as the best power supply manufacturer in terms of efficiency (hence less heat produced per watt, and therefore less cooling needed, = lower fan noise) and quality of components used.

Fortron come sometimes a close second, they do have a new power supply out that offers 85% efficiency, I'm not too clued up on this though as I've not read about this sort of stuff in a while.

For the money though, definitely there are many 'better' options that choosing tagan power supplies, a fortron source psu can be had for good prices. Fsp tend not to concentrate on the silent side of things as much as seasonic do, though do tend to market it better (my opinion of course).

Guess you want some links too, komplett have a good selection of fortron's slightly outdated generation of psus (outdated in terms of the competition).
I believe seasonics in this country can be had from koolnquiet. And I think xcase used to stock the old super series.
Oh in fact they still do stock seasonic power supplies, the latest S12 line is/was pretty much regarded as the benchmark for everyone to follow (back at SPCR), and at £56 for the 430watt model, is much better for the money than a Tagan 480w (my opinion of course, read proven facts and figures and you might find out why).

Enermax also do some pretty good stuff these days, their noisetaker line is decent.

Thing is when talking in terms of how much a power supply costs, people think "I NEED MORE HEADROOM, i need a 480w power supply". And buy that for £60 odd. When really they don't need it at all and buying a decent 350watt is more than adaquate.

[amjedm]

Kustom PCs have started selling the Seasonics - Kustom PCs

Pixmania stock Fortons including the new Green Power.

I have just swapped from a 350W Fortron to a Seasonic 400W Tornado. Only reason I upgraded is because the Seasonic has Active PFC and higher efficiency.