Corsair Blowing Up Cheap PSUs... For Science!

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General | Posted by Max at Jul. 17, 2008 - 9:52 pm

Ever wonder why some PSUs claiming huge wattages are so cheap? Why should you buy a branded one - or are you just paying for the name and some fancy cables?

Well, no, you're paying for the fact that it won't blow up - that's why we test PSUs to their limits and we never, ever recommend anything other than branded products. Some people don't listen though and Corsair recently took it upon itself to test some of shoddiest looking power supplies we've seen.

I gotta admit, I had never heard of "smoke burning stoves" before searching for images of computer fires. Computer fires not laptops. But those things look cool! I'm going to have to find/ make one and take it camping. Maybe not a full-ATX variety... Any excuse to Dremel, really.

A link to a dude's mahg-type smoke-burning stove project.

Oh yeah, don't buy cheap power supplies. That's dumb.

[Read Full Story at Bit-Tech]

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2 User Comments

1 - Posted by PsychoSnowMan on July 26, 2008 - 4:18 pm

It looks like they're drawing power only through the 24pin connector. Instead of splitting it up through different lines like in a real computer. Won't that cause an unrealistic load on certain components?

2 - Posted by Max Slowik on July 28, 2008 - 1:19 am

Actually, it depends on the PSU. Most run all the "separate" rails--they're not that separate--through a single fat solder point that breaks out into the cables.

On most high-end PSUs, there's only one huge 12V PSU that feeds some DC-to-DC hardware that in turn provides the 3.3, -3.3, and 5V PSUs with power.

The only reason that some manufacturers "split"--again, they're not really separate--the rails is to comply with the ATX 2.x specs, which limit the amperage a single rail should provide at maximum.

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