# PSU Good/Bad List



## ceewi1

First off I'll say that I'm a little sceptical about the whole idea of a good/bad list, but I've been asked for something like this on many occasions.  This is not intended to be exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, I am not trying to assign each company to a category, nor to say that people should restrict their choices to a PSU in the Good list, nor to imply that all PSUs in the Good list are of equal quality.  

What I am saying is that if you purchase and use a PSU from the good list, you'll probably be getting a high quality, long lasting, realistically rated unit.  If you purchase and use a PSU from the Bad list you'll probably be headed for trouble.

As always, any additions are welcome.

So, by popular request:
Good:
Acbel Polytec
Akasa
Antec
Astec
Asus
Channelwell
Coolermaster (N.B. eXtremePower 600W & 650W are substantially overrated).
Corsair
Delta
Enermax
Enhance
Etasis
FSP
Gigabyte
Impervio
Lite-On
Masscool
OCZ
PC Power and Cooling
Seasonic
Seventeam
Silverstone
Sparkle
Thermaltake Toughpowers
Ultra
Wintact
Wintec
XClio
Zalman
Zippy

Bad:
Achieve
Allied
Apevia/Aspire
Austin
Can Power
Chiefmax
Codegen
Colors It
Deer
Diablotek
Dynapower
Hairong
Hyena
JPAC
L&C
Leadman
Linkworld
Logisys
MSI
PowerTek
PowerUp (Not to be confused with Power Up)
Powmax
Powork
Raidmax units included with cases
Real Power Enterprise
Rhycom
Sunbeam
Turbolink
YE
Youngyear

The *PSU rebranding guide* may also be a helpful resource here - if the company that sells the PSU isn't on this list, maybe the OEM is.


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## hpi

Finally someone made this list.

Thanks for this, should save alot of people trouble which is always a good thing


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## oscaryu1

Wheres Lead Power? 

Chiefmax - ?!?!?! I thought those were terrific! I had an 450W @ 28 amps! has worked perfectly for 2+ year!


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## ceewi1

oscaryu1 said:


> Wheres Lead Power?





> I am not trying to assign each company to a category


Some (but not all)Lead Power are (were?) Channelwell.



> Chiefmax - ?!?!?! I thought those were terrific! I had an 450W @ 28 amps! has worked perfectly for 2+ year!


Current Chiefmax=Powmax.


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## oscaryu1

How bout 1 year ago? Was Chiefmax a good PSU back then?


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## Geoff

Thats completely untrue, are you trying to tell me that the 350W Powmax PSU that came with my $15 case isnt top of the line????


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## butter

[-0MEGA-];703354 said:
			
		

> Thats completely untrue, are you trying to tell me that the 350W Powmax PSU that came with my $15 case isnt top of the line????


HAHA


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## spanky

I am partial to Thermaltakes for some reason. I cannot really explain myself.


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## spanky

Is Topower a good brand?


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## leSHok

I have an Orion PSU I bought off tigerdirect and I run my computer weeks at a time because I go back forth between houses. I think that deserves a spot on the good list  (for now at least)


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## XanderCage

it's not about weeks, it's about months, maybe even years, with ability for support and some sort of warranty, that's what i think sirs.


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## ETSA

Quite a few in the good lis,t I recommend...



people stay away from..



But it is not my list.


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## ceewi1

theresthatguy said:


> Is Topower a good brand?


A bit of a mixed bag.  Some good units, some poor ones.  None I'd strongly recommend TBH.



> Quite a few in the good lis,t I recommend...
> people stay away from..
> But it is not my list.


Any specifics?  I'm quite willing to make changes, and I think that the forum would benefit from discussion and scrutiny.



> I have an Orion PSU I bought off tigerdirect and I run my computer weeks at a time because I go back forth between houses. I think that deserves a spot on the good list  (for now at least)


The HEC Orion units are discussed a little here: http://www.computerforum.com/73603-very-best-power-supply-money.html.  Even if yours is just labelled Orion, it's still the same unit.  Unfortunately there aren't any professional reviews I've seen available on those units, and without thorough testing I'm not inclined to include them on a "Known Good" list.


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## Burgerbob

Coolmax isnt on either list, but is on the rebranding list. ? i have one, and it is nothing special, but gets the job done and hasnt done anything bad yet.


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## ThatGuy16

Logisys sucks, i got one for tempory use and it works fine but... it feels realy cheap, the power cord gets fairly hot, and a molex wire come about cut in two lol. So its just a backup one now since i got my OCZ


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## Jon Boy

Kimpro is not on the list.  I just bought a PSU from them but I have a feeling it wont be very good as it was fairly cheap.  Any additions to this?


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## ceewi1

I've never heard of Kimpro before, and their website isn't very informative.  Is there a UL number on the label?

As for Coolmax, I wouldn't really include them on either list.  Models vary a fair bit in quality, but overall are 'mediocre'.


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## Jon Boy

I have googled all numbers on the case and it returns nothing, the PSU is not on their site.  Its a cheap chinese make that I think I wasted my money on, and from what other people in anouther post have said is it is absalutely crap.  750Watt PSU only has 24A on 12v rail but then +5v has 60A lol.  I guess people should avoid this.


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## StrangleHold

I came across four Coolmax about a year ago, CP-500T 500 watts for 39 bucks a piece. Put them in medium builds, been out there a year a havent had any come back yet. So I guess there so so. Never heard of Kimpro either?


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## mep916

This thread, the "PSU Rebranding Guide," and the "Power Recommendations by Video Card" article have been extremely helpful. Thanks, ceewi1.


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## PC eye

The common reason why you won't find much information on some odd brand name like Kimpro is that they are often found to be low quality supplies pushed out by larger companies to fill orders by a new startup company. Or they msy from a new manufacturer or one selling under a new brand name. 

Sometimes a cheapie supply will actually last longer since no heavy loads are placed on them. And then on other occasions you may see one quit fast like within two weeks time from just basic use. The quality of materilals used as well as design are the things professional reviewers look at.


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## oscaryu1

Kyoto 

Hmm, where's HEC?


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## MixedLogik

Where is Rosewell on the bad list, so many defective PSU's


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## Iluvpenguins

Never had a good time with enermax in my experience. Coolermaster has done well for me though.


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## oscaryu1

ComputerGuru64x2 said:


> Where is Rosewell on the bad list, so many defective PSU's



 What? Their great! Maybe one or 2 bad items, but the rest of the items are great


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## PC eye

ComputerGuru64x2 said:


> Where is Rosewell on the bad list, so many defective PSU's


 
Rosewill http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+50002177&name=Rosewill is the way that one is spelled doesn't make the popular gaming list by a long shot. Those are low enders for the most part.



Iluvpenguins said:


> Never had a good time with enermax in my experience. Coolermaster has done well for me though.


 
 You can ask ceewi1 about the Liberty line by Enermax while that was one favored for gaming builds just a few years ago. But as always supplies with various brand names will see a new company making them like Channelwell was making Antec supplies until the latest TP3 line was introduced.


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## Ramodkk

So, how about a Rosewill 500W? because that's what I have for my ordered HD3870...


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## PC eye

The main problem with that brand is qualiry wise along with amps on the rails and regulation. For a stock system you may not see any problems while ocers would end up wanting something else. 

Here since running two optical drives along with plans to add one or two more HDs bringing that upto 4 or 5 drives there I went with a heavier supply namely the OCZ GameXStream 700w model. I know that will also handle anything else I throw on like adding a 3rd pci device like a captuure card or usb devices.


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## Ramodkk

So I shouldn't have any problems if I only have 1 HD, 1 optical drive right? Oh, and Im also not OC'ing. So pretty much a stock system as you mentioned.


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## PC eye

You can run it easily enough since 500w is generally more then enough for the basic desktop. The thing you would notice however quality wise would be if you were cranking things up like seen with ocing or pounding hardwares with large memory hungry resource grabbing programs where the demand for power starts pulling the supply down. The better supplies provide more amps on each 12v rail making life easier there.


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## ceewi1

oscaryu1 said:


> Hmm, where's HEC?


In the mostly-good-with-some-units-that-I-have-reservations-about list 



ComputerGuru64x2 said:


> Where is Rosewell on the bad list, so many defective PSU's





oscaryu1 said:


> What? Their great! Maybe one or 2 bad items, but the rest of the items are great





PC eye said:


> Rosewill http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010320058+50002177&name=Rosewill is the way that one is spelled doesn't make the popular gaming list by a long shot. Those are low enders for the most part.


A tough call.  Many (honestly, most) of their units are terrible, but there are a few units that perform well, and are very good value - primarily the ATNG built units.  Take a look at the rebranding guide as well.  Most of Rosewill's OEMs are listed in this good/bad list.



> You can ask ceewi1 about the Liberty line by Enermax while that was one favored for gaming builds just a few years ago. But as always supplies with various brand names will see a new company making them like Channelwell was making Antec supplies until the latest TP3 line was introduced.





Iluvpenguins said:


> Never had a good time with enermax in my experience.


Some of the later Liberty's had problems, failing after moderate use.  That aside, they're generally good units although expensive for the power they output.  Every company is going to have some bad units, though.



> Coolermaster has done well for me though.


Another one for the mostly-good-with-some-units-that-I-have-reservations-about list - the higher wattage eXtreme Powers are horrendously overrated (the 600 & 650W are based on a 500W Seventeam platform).  Those aside, they're good units.



ramodkk said:


> So, how about a Rosewill 500W? because that's what I have for my ordered HD3870...


Which one?  The RP500 is good value, I'm not keen on the RD, or RE though.


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## Ramodkk

/\ Oh man! I have the RD500


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## newguy5

what about thermaltakes like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153028


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## newguy5

i see on the rebranding this:

"All Other TR2s - Channelwell E161451/E193705
Toughpower series - Channelwell UL Not stated"

so i guess the toughpower is about the same as the one in the link i posted...


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## PC eye

If by Channelwell compare Tough Power on one brand name to True Power seen on Antec models being made by the same company. Seasonic and Enhance are now making the newer and larger TP3 models for Antec like the TP3 850w model.

When initially encouraging ceewi1 to actually make the sticky on supplies to replace the need to post a good/bad list on a number of threads I had to say that he did an excellent job being quite thorough there. I could have gone with an 850w model but that owuld be certainly been overkill since the 700w OCZ supply still leaves room.


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## 2048Megabytes

My power supply did not make the good or bad list.  The brand is OKIA.  The model number is OKIA-450ATX.  It is a 450 Watt power supply that has served me well so far for several months.


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## PC eye

Sometimes you can get into a supply simply being sold under a different retail brand name while being made by a known company. That's why ceewi1 saw the rebadgered section added in when making the sticky on supplies up. Channelwell for instance makes supplies for more then Antec while Antec will use more then Channelwell as the supplier. 

If you are not pushing things and running a stock setup you are not placing any big load on the supply in use there where you may just end up seeing problems for not being adequate. For ocing and running multiple HDs and other devices you could see that one suddenly not able to handle things well. It all depends on how it was made. Some low priced supplies surprisingly last since they see no abuse.


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## oscaryu1

> In the mostly-good-with-some-units-that-I-have-reservations-about list



How do you consider their Orion 585W one? Good? Above average? Poor and the amps are fakes?


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## tidyboy21

theresthatguy said:


> I am partial to Thermaltakes for some reason. I cannot really explain myself.



lol, same here. I have always used Thermaltake power supplies and have never had any problems with any of them. Got two that have been running fine for well over 3/4 years, and the W0132 I am using at the moment is rock solid.


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## PC eye

I have an Antec 350w supply that's about 6yrs. old now that can still fire up an old case. That doesn't mean you could simply it on various builds at the time it was new regardless of how long it lasts. 

For a basic system with minimum requirements for checking the mail, web browsing you wouldn't need much. But for anything made for high ending then you have to look at what any one make and model will support. 

I complimented ceewi1 for great work he did on the sticky there. He took the time to look into things and reseach facts about different makes and models.


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## Bronson7

newguy5 said:


> what about thermaltakes like this:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153028


I don't know about that particular model, but I've built three rigs with the 430 watters, and they've been excellent. One of those going on four years. I wouldn't hesitate to buy ThermalTake.
Bronson7


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## ceewi1

newguy5 said:


> what about thermaltakes like this:
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153028





newguy5 said:


> i see on the rebranding this:
> 
> "All Other TR2s - Channelwell E161451/E193705
> Toughpower series - Channelwell UL Not stated"
> 
> so i guess the toughpower is about the same as the one in the link i posted...


That's a reasonably well built unit (although a little overrated by Thermaltake).  IMO, the price is just too high for what you're getting.  $80 for a total [email protected] doesn't represent good value to me.  Do also keep in mind that there are quality variations even within the same OEM.  The Toughpowers are better quality units, the 1000/1200 even more so.



PC eye said:


> If by Channelwell compare Tough Power on one brand name to True Power seen on Antec models being made by the same company.


Do keep in mind that The Channelwell built Antecs use poor quality Fuhjyyu capacitors, which is not a fault shared by the Toughpowers.



oscaryu1 said:


> How do you consider their Orion 585W one? Good? Above average? Poor and the amps are fakes?


Take a look at http://www.computerforum.com/73603-very-best-power-supply-money.html, we discussed it in a bit of depth.  I was quite harsh on the Orion in that thread, but mainly because of the manner in which it was introduced.  You get what you pay for, and at $20 you're not getting much.


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## PC eye

Bad caps! ceewi1  

I've seen plenty of those at times in a number of products even electronic devices worked on. I can point you at one place to find a good number of articles and comments on how bad caps effect boards as well as supplies. http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=2


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## oscaryu1

> Take a look at The Very Best Power Supply For The Money, we discussed it in a bit of depth. I was quite harsh on the Orion in that thread, but mainly because of the manner in which it was introduced. You get what you pay for, and at $20 you're not getting much.



Amazingly, it was powering my sig rig till I RMAed the memory... After all, doesn't the HD3850 suck alot more power? If so, this $20 PSU is holding up very nicely... great power supply for the $ if ya ask me.

(PS - It's actually made by X-Power...)


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## techpro5238

I love Antec's, but I do not like Rosewills a lot. I also like OCZ, they are good manufacturers


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## PC eye

I've never used Rosewill products here in any form while Antecs have been in use here and with several people I know for a good number of years now. But often especially with a high end gamer or heavy duty work horse build you want something larger then Channelwell had been making for them.

 OCZ on the other hand is one of the premium brands like Corsair for example for hefty cases. Here I can adding more drives and devices where the 700w model will then see more of the power used over simply be an overpowered waste. On the other hand having a little more then needed provides a more stable setup.


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## techpro5238

When I say I don't like Rosewills a lot I mean that I HATE Rosewill's. They are horrible PSU manufacturers. Antec is very nice for anything, from a small work machine to their 1000 Watt series. OCZ is a like for me, but I like Antec more personally.


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## PC eye

techpro5238 said:


> When I say I don't like Rosewills a lot I mean that I HATE Rosewill's. They are horrible PSU manufacturers. Antec is very nice for anything, from a small work machine to their 1000 Watt series. OCZ is a like for me, but I like Antec more personally.


 
You mean I finally found someone that "prefers" Antecs over other brands! yee haa...!  

I ran Antec supplies as well as others I know seeing them used for several years until looking into meeting larger power requirements. The main complaint usually heard was price. For a low end to average build they were reliable Channelwell supplies while ocers and high end gaming builds often saw the heftier supplies made by Enermax, OCZ, Fortron, and others.

ceewi1 mentioned the TP3s as usually Seasonic for those for the sual rails on the TP3 550 and 650 models. They've gone with even another company for the new TPQ line of higher powered models now seen. The OCZ GameXStream 700w supply came in seeing a lower price when looking at the Corsair HX620 for the latest build here however.


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## INTELCRAZY

PC eye said:


> You mean I finally found someone that "prefers" Antecs over other brands! yee haa...!
> 
> I ran Antec supplies as well as others I know seeing them used for several years until looking into meeting larger power requirements. The main complaint usually heard was price. For a low end to average build they were reliable Channelwell supplies while ocers and high end gaming builds often saw the heftier supplies made by Enermax, OCZ, Fortron, and others.
> 
> ceewi1 mentioned the TP3s as usually Seasonic for those for the sual rails on the TP3 550 and 650 models. They've gone with even another company for the new TPQ line of higher powered models now seen. The OCZ GameXStream 700w supply came in seeing a lower price when looking at the Corsair HX620 for the latest build here however.



These Corsairs are awesome...... I like Antec but not as much as Seasonic PSU's...

And, lol... I have a friend running an 8800GTX on a 500w Rosewill... I hope he gets another unit soon.


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## PC eye

For the longest Antec lacked on seeing the power house supplies that people were looking for when planning an ocing or high end gamer. Since the basic power requirement gradually increases with the faster turnover of new hardwares they finally decided to expand a little rather then staying just an item on a retail store's shelf as often seen. Yet they were always reliable for the basic and average user.

Even Rosewill's other stuff I've heard labeled cheap like their mice and keyboards etc. there. But I've used any of their stuff here to point at anything specifically. You often have to simpy go by first hand user accounts while others look at specifications and the various reviews seen.

 The most important thing regardless of make and model is finding the one that will out the best for the type of build you are going to run. That can avoid snags later when you find out that the supply you went with is putting a big damper on things. 

While wattage isn't always the thing to look at power connections are when adding in additional drives and devices. The better made heavier supplies may not need to see the higher amps or watts in general while they do offer and expect more drives and'or devices will be used.


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## ztrain727

I didn't see COMPUCASE or hec, whatever the brand name is. I bring it up because oscaryu1 said he had THIS PSU and he said it has served him well. 

I am very weary of brands I don't know + low priced products. Have you ever heard of this brand? Do you know if they are any good? It sounds like the parts are kind of cheap and flimsy. I'm looking for a budget PSU, but not if it will break and/or ruin other components in my PC...


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## ceewi1

Take a look at the bottom of http://www.computerforum.com/848480-post42.html and the associated link to another thread, this unit was discussed in some detail.


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## techpro5238

Sorry, would have replyed faster but this isn't my main forum. ALSO, yes you have found someone else who likes Antec's .

Yes, I fully agree with you PC Eye, including the Rosewill. They are not much of a like for me and I have to say if I asked the rest of my team they would say the same. Antec's are created by some other great manufacturer and they have been made perfect. Well, off to work on some forum business so see you guys later.


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## PC eye

Antec models like the old TP II 430w models and older 300w and 350s always did the work for most of the average builds around here for quite some time. For heavier work loads however I've been leaning more on OCZ and Corsair lately however. That's due to running multiple optical drives as well as both ide and sata model hard drives. 

The last case here saw two of each(2 optical, 2 ide HDs, and 2 sata HDs). The current build sees one less ide HD while I intend to go for a larger capacity sata model and likely remove the remaining ide HD unless used for Linus, Solaris, or another OS there. The heftier 700w supply makes the work load light however.


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## TheBOSS

You omitted Cooler Master, tho I know it's a good brand.


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## PC eye

TheBOSS said:


> You omitted Cooler Master, tho I know it's a good brand.


 
 You're a little late. But Cooler Master was never totally excluded while that and other brands simply were not originally catagorized there. But don't forget to look over the recommendations list too.  http://www.computerforum.com/90117-ceewi1-s-psu-recommendations.html


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## ceewi1

Even though I haven't updated this list in quite some time, I'm always happy to do so, and most of the good/bad brands haven't changed that much anyway.  With regards to the Coolermaster, I did list them at one time but took them off because the higher wattage eXtreme Powers are significantly overrated.

That aside, though, the other units are good quality.  I will add them again with a note about the eXtreme Powers.


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## TheBOSS

ceewi1 said:


> Even though I haven't updated this list in quite some time, I'm always happy to do so, and most of the good/bad brands haven't changed that much anyway.  With regards to the Coolermaster, I did list them at one time but took them off because the higher wattage eXtreme Powers are significantly overrated.
> 
> That aside, though, the other units are good quality.  I will add them again with a note about the eXtreme Powers.



I was asking you about the iSonic 600W PSU, I've had a look at the CoolerMaster Extreme Power 650W PSU, it actually looks pretty good. You say something not right with it?


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## ceewi1

Coolermaster have taken a Seventeam 500W unit, and are selling it as a 650W.  It's not a bad 500W unit (despite having only [email protected] and reasonably low efficiency), but that's not what it's being marketed as.


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## PC eye

Either that or someone is mislabeling them on the outside like a 3rd party distributer in order to charge more for seeing a higher wattage marked on it. Someone made a big one however. 

Regardless you still did an excellent jon on the entire sticky in the first place knowing that most brands will soon see a newer line or lines of models outdating the current or needing to be added to. Where's the Antec TP2's? Gone with Channelwell there!


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## jimkonow

ive had the same antec 350 watt PSU for many years, running it 24/7.
its gotta die _sometime_ soon


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## PC eye

Eventually all of them have to take a permanent vacation at some point!  

It doesn't really matter what make or model while some are going to hang on far longer just by how well they were made along with how they are used.


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## Computer_Freak

Hunkey any good?


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## DirtyD86

just got an antec earthwatts 500 the other day... runs the system in my sig without any problems. reliable, quiet, etc... definitely a quality PSU


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## PC eye

DirtyD86 said:


> just got an antec earthwatts 500 the other day... runs the system in my sig without any problems. reliable, quiet, etc... definitely a quality PSU


 
I ran Antecs for a number of years without seeing any problems. Presently they are no longer being made by Channelwell however. Now you see larger 850w TP3 models out while the old TP2s saw 550w as the largest.


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## Shane

nice to see Gigabyte is in the good list 

they are good quiet psus


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## PC eye

The OCZ model used here is quiet. So were the Antec models used on other cases. It mainly depends on the quality of the fan(s) used in the supply itself. You can see the best transformer and caps but end up with a noisey fan or have a super quiet fan on a crap supply. Generally you hope for the best of both!


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## ceewi1

Computer_Freak said:


> Hunkey any good?


Depends a bit on the model, not something I'd be inclined to put in either list.


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## PC eye

Not being familiar with that brand name it sounds like an off brand if not generic brand. I can see why ceewi1 would be a little hesitant to add that name in there.


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## Ramodkk

Well, my Rosewill RD500 550W has served me well for a bunch of time now, running system in my sig. Just thought I'll let you guys know that Rosewill's are getting better.


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## PC eye

One good supply does not make any brand better. You can also find some llloooowww ender cheapies that may last for a long time too. That doesn''t make them a brand to recommend however for that alone.


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## Remeniz

Any ratings for the Be Quiet! PSU's?


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## Aastii

Remeniz said:


> Any ratings for the Be Quiet! PSU's?



The Dark Power Pro units are exceptionally good, the Straightpower aren't as good as the Darkpower, but still very good units, you will just be seeing slightly higher voltage fluctuations and less efficiency with them


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## JareeB

rosewill? why is that not in the bad


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## Drenlin

JareeB said:


> rosewill? why is that not in the bad



Because not all of their PSU's are bad. The Xtreme series and Green series ones in particular are actually pretty decent.


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## JLuchinski

How about PC Power And Cooling turbo cool series? I'm looking at a used 1000 watt for $75.


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## Drenlin

AFAIK The Turbo Cool line is built by Wintact, and is high quality. I you're cool with having a used one, that's a pretty good deal. Those were really expensive when new.


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## gamerwithoutrig

Well, NZXT HALE 90 got 80+ Gold, I dunno if that's good?


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## WeatherMan

I'm surprised Tagan hasn't been mentioned yet?


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## Troncoso

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371026

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256034

????????????


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## gamerwithoutrig

Troncoso said:


> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371026
> 
> or
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256034
> 
> ????????????



Antec Earthwatts


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