PCA Forums

here is a very good article (from a year ago) that details the complex PSU market, manufacturers vs OEM and resellers, and what to look for/avoid. the charts are especially interesting. many of the big names design and brand the units, but contract out the actual manufacturing (Antec, Corsair, etc).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pow ... ,2913.html

Excellent article. It reflects what I've observed of the industry.

yeah...frustrating because i wanted to get the new rig built up over the weekend. at least the return is easy. i submitted the RMA for a refund and ordered this one instead:

CORSAIR Professional Series HX750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139010

i'm paranoid now that something caused it to pop (and also hoping nothing else died with it)...but it's behind a nice APC UPS as well as two other computers having no problems for a long time. i didn't have the other systems on when this happened though.

Unless it's a cheapie PSU, I've had good luck with the rest of the system surviving. I'm actually hoping to assemble my new rig some time soon here, but I'll be keeping the same PSU I've been using for about 4 years though (PC Power & Cooling 750w unit).

my other psu is an OCZ ModXtreme 700W (semi)modular. it's worked perfectly for about three years and powers a lot more than what i just tried to with the new one. i've never actually had a psu from any brand fail (and i used to buy CHEAP ones before knowin better). i guess it was just my time to get a dud. i'm sure seasonic is a great brand.

one interesting thing is the Corsair models (some made by seasonic...many by Channel Well) have a 7 year warranty, while seasonic is 5 years. it would be funny returning a psu that is 7 years old. hehehe

I bought a PSU from Bgears & kept it new in the box in a closet for eventual use. Well about 9 months after purchase, I finally had a use for it. However, I found that it was completely dead. I contacted Bgears about it & they asked where I bought it. They responded that I bought it at the wrong place & that they wouldn't cover it (I bought it at an actual retail location). So, it could be worse.

the Corsair HX750 arrived yesterday and is working nicely so far...no explosions or capacitor attacks.

now to just get time to finish building up the new rig...

I should do the same, I've had an i5 & 16GB of ram with motherboard just sitting here for 3 months.

I ended up buying a OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w for 44.00 After Rebate to throw in my main rig. Thanks for linking the article from Tom's, it was very informative.