Any danger is buying a really cheap PSU?

huh didn't know HBO was doing a special on it, I'll have to watch, thanks stallman; not the other guy btw

It's a risk. I got a 1KW PSU for $80 and found out later it was on a "do not buy" list because they had a chance of exploding. But I've had this one for like six years and no explosions, so I guess I got one of the good ones. Can't say I recommend it though.

A broze plus rated PSU is like $35, dude. The danger is it nukes your shit, provides unreliable power, doesn't last long, or burns your house down.

Have run a gaming PC (at the time) from 2008 to 2018 with a 900W rated 30€ power supply. Never had an issue and is still working.
It's a gamble

Never had an issue, but I wouldn't recommend if you have a GPU.

long time ago chieftec went to shit and i haven't noticed, so i bought a lower tier chieftec without thinking too much. it destroyed itself and took my 8800gt with it

Their rating is nonsense (500W can mean anything between 200 to 500W), but they are fine if your system don't use too much power.

Expensive PSUs are a meme. I'm running an i7, dual 1080ti system on a 400W noname PSU and it's absolu

If you aren't willing to fork out 50 bucks for a worthwhile PSU why do you even bother buying a PC? Why even take the risk when good PSUs are dirt fucking cheap.

You should never buy anything that connects to the mains from shady Ebay/Amazon sellers, because they're not always approved for use in western countries.

That means that they might not have gone through the safety checks that we all take for granted, and they might pose a serious fire or electrocution hazard.

That said, assuming you buy something that is actually legal, it's a reliability and durability trade-off. You get what you pay for, and a cheap power supply will not last as long as a more expensive one.

The failure mode of cheap PSUs is furthermore nasty; it's usually the 5V standby rail that goes kind of wonky, causing your computer to slowly become less and less reliable over time.

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Nah, just don't use it, you'll be fine.

Power supplies power every component in your computer and can fry them all

Most PSUs will trip protections, shut down to protect the system and the unit, and give no indication to the user that the PSU has shut down due to protections tripping. This can cause a lot of confusion to users as to why their system unexpectedly switched off and is no longer working.
However, a unique feature to this unit that we discovered during testing is an audible alarm (in the form of a loud popping noise) can be heard, as well as a very bright flash emitted from the rear of the unit. The combination of both this auditory alarm as well as visual alarm would be very welcomed amongst those in the community who suffer from vision or hearing limitations who might not be able to see or hear just one alarm on its own. For those who suffer from both hearing impairment and vision impairment, the manufacturer has even gone a step further and implemented an olfactory warning, with a distinct burning electric smell emitted from the unit.
I very much welcome the thought put in to designing this unit for the impaired in our community. I would most definitely use one of these units in my grandfathers next build. I hope other manufacturers are watching and decide to follow in their footsteps.

Jokes aside, a Corsair CX is dirt cheap and is miles better quality than that shit.

Anybody remember Ultra Products Inc PSUs? I had to clean up after two of those. In both cases they'd blown everything on one of the 12V rails, resulting in fried DVD and hard drives usually with one of their controller ICs having a smoking hole in it. One of them had a cap explode with such force it dented the case outward.

These are for cheap low end office PCs.

Is it fine if it isn't a "literately who" brand and at least 80+ white?

My uncle built his PC with a cheap PSU and it fried the first time we had a power shortage. Don't be a poorfag and get at least a 80+ White with Protections.

*Isn't rather. That's usually what I've gone with...I have an old Antec Earthwatts one and a recent EVGA one both are 80+ White.

YES. FROMALL I'VE LEARNED, WORST FUCKING THING YOU CCAN DO. IN MANY WAYS, YOUR PSU IS THE MOST IMPRTANT PURCHASE YOU WILL MAKE FOR YOUR COMP. IF YOU FUCK THIS UP, YOU RISK DESTROYING YOUR ENTIRE SETUP. WHATEVER YOU SKIMP ON IT SHOULD NOT BE THE FUCKING PSU, CANNOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH user...

500W??? And what fucking GPU do you plan on using? So about $30 for your fucking PSU? might as well not build it at all. Very, very fucking stupid...

OEMs tend to put in competent PSUs that do the job they are designed to do and pass safety regulations, they are in no way chink shit just because they don’t look good or don’t come from a name you recognize

My thoughts are that the PSU is probably the only component in a build that you should build all the other components around. A decent psu will prolong the life of all your other components. A shitty PSU will quickly degrade your other components. A good PSU is designed to regulate the flow of electricity within very defined parameters, but a shitty PSU is designed to simply deliver acceptable voltages. Once the components of the shitty PSU degrade they will degrade the components on your motherboard and that will happen a LOT more quickly than a good PSU

Anybody know were I can get dirt cheap flex atx power supplies?

If you can see the weight listed, that's a good thing to go off. Heavier is better.

Richard Stallman has got 10 of them stuffed up his fat arse

housefire at worst (highly likely)

Me too.
I'm not going to waste money on some expe

I'd prefer if it was gently used

>i7
>1080Ti
>jews out on the PSU
listen, please do yourself a favor and buy a proper PSU. it won't be pretty when that thing explodes and fucks up your entire system.

PSUs have really long warranties like 7-10 years. It's one of the parts in your pc that you won't upgrade very often so if you cheap out now you would be spending more money in the future.

I mean, I've had some really annoying issues with my "zero" and "creetive" psus that my new slightly more expensive FSP Hexa doesn't have

It's okay to spend low but don't literally get some random PSU claiming to be 1700 watts.

Cheap psu is fine, chances of anything bad happening are very lo -
youtu.be/Ie9XSiFJ_e0

This and also get a UPS so make sure your power is smooth and proper all the time. No matter where you live there is always fluctuations in utility power you won't be able to detect, but you might wonder why your drives die every year or 2.

Depends. Many of them start tripping RCDs after some time. Some trip breaker. Some work for decades.
I would not recommend buying them from critical system and especially without electronics knowledge. Get OEM shit like FSP or Delta, Idk.

Yes, you colossal fucking retard. Kill yourself.

>You should never buy anything that connects to the mains from shady Ebay/Amazon sellers, because they're not always approved for use in western countries.
Don't be a pussy. Disassemble the thing, and check, if it is not FCC compliant (noise in radio) - it is safe to use. If it is not compliant safety wise (not Y1 capacitors between mains and secondary, or poor PCB insulation, or tiny trannies and transies) - you can always salvage parts.
Check for fuse.

Anyway, switch modes power supplies are easy to design, but hard to master. This is why all cheap SMPS will have 80% efficiency at best, meanwhile some Delta SMPS will have efficiency in 90% region.

Yes. It might fry your system and then start a fire. It probably won't, but it absolutely isn't worth the risk.

It will work absolutely fine until it goes pop and takes the rest of your PC parts with it.

why take the change on ruining your entire system on an extra 50 bucks

I'm using a chinkshit 200W generic PSU since 2010. Still werks.

I've never had a problem with a cheap one in the past.
High-end PSUs are some weird sort of gate-keeping gamers like to boast about online.

cheap PSUs cant do over 200W, this is a fact.

Why the fuck do people buy no-name potential firehazards like that instead of just getting the cheapest models from an ACTUAL POWER SUPPLY COMPANY like Corsair or EVGA or fucking Seasonic, they're literally less than $10 more

You can save $10 and deal with the extremely high likelihood of frying everything in your computer

Or you can spend $10 and have a near-zero chance of failure due to the power supply.

Why

Why do people do this

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You're wrong. OEMs, especially in the late 90s, used absolute garbage PSUs.

this, it's not a huge money saver.
my rule of thumb is never ever cheap out on PSU and monitors

Buy one and test it. You only need a multimeter and some kind of load. Preferably an adjustable electronic load but you could just power resistors simple current sinks with heatsinked power transistors. Measure your power supply output at no load and full load and it wouldn't hurt to do a more typical range load as well. At no load all the voltage rails are open and supplying no current, at full each rail is supplying the max power it can which means the unit is supplying its maximum power. Having an oscilloscope would be handy to see ripple and any transients but you can probably get away without it. Would also be good for looking at the feedback waveforms if you end up having issues. DMM is essential at bare minimum though.

A DAQ would be better though. That way you could stress test the PSU and see if it can maintain its output for long periods of time.

Don't know why people risk their systems rather than testing the power supplies they buy? You guys are all technical people and you'd have at least some of the tools I hope.

>Rosewill case with power supply dirt cheap
>EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeEeeeeeeeeEeeeeeeEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Find Seasonic ones, that's who makes most PSU for big brands

Seasonic, FSP and Superflower are all good OEMs with solid reputations.

You're a fucking idiot.

Depends on if it's a really cheap bottom of the barrel psu from some brand like EVGA or some grey box chink PSU that isn't an "OEM" for bigger brands.
Even a cheap PSU from Delta, FSP HEC or other OEMs for big brands won't do much as they all have all the QC and fail safes built in.

Heck some units from "Great Wall" can be ok these days, just not the chang chong shit.

my biggest complaint is some intense coil whine when it's off, but other than that, nah
the circuits and components arent super complex, so a swetashop in a third world shithole can put together a PSU that trades blows with brand names
you're risking some of the luxury features like fans that run slower when not under load to stay silent, or quality warranties, or extra pins you might want if you ever upgrade
budget PSUs are okay for $20, I have a couple on non critical systems, but a better quality, middle of the road $45 one for my daily that I would rather not famble with