"Michael Kennedy" wrote in message
...
I've had people hassel me about using somewhat cheap AMD certified
computer power supplies.. I was wondering what kind of experience other
people have had with mid range priced power supplies.

I know this is almost completely arbitrary, but I've found that if the psu
has a fan grill instead of just cutting the metal out that is usually of
better quality. I also try to buy psu's that weigh more so they have
bigger heat sinks.

I'm not trying to start a flaming war or anything, I just am wondering if
it is a fluke that my psu's are still working in all 5 of my pc's..

- Mike


Looks can be deceiving. QTec power supplies I've come across- they are
finished in an anodised gold finish, have a proper fan grill, a huge fan
for 'better' cooling and a 'proper' iron cored transformer for the standby
PSU. Unfortunately they're utter crap. I've had cheapo PSUs of ostensibly
poor external construction last years, and ones that look solid fail in no
time. I don't trust ones with cheap, pressed aluminium heatsinks, I much
prefer proper bulky heatsinks with proper cooling fins. That's my benchmark
and it seems to work pretty well. Some PSUs have really ropey quality
capacitors as well, and others seem to go for far too small uF ratings.

The most worrying thing IMO is PSUs which don't 'fail safe'. I can forgive a
short lifespan as long as it doesn't take out the rest of my PC. I even had
one PC which had one of the disc connectors with the 12v/5v pins reversed,
which destroyed a hard drive. I check them now!

Dave