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$50 Power Supply Roundup

We went to Newegg and purchased five US$50 computer power supplies that we thought should be solid buys. But what happens when you ask these PSUs to put up its advertised power numbers in heavy usage conditions? You might be surprised what 50 bucks gets you now days.

Introduction

While the high end of any computer component market drives much of the press, the majority of users look at $300-500 power supplies like most people look at a Ferrari. They are pretty to look at, have amazing performance, get great press, but ultimately are not as practical or even accessible as a good Ford Focus or Honda Civic. Indeed it was time to shine the light on some of the products that really form the backbone of most DIYers budget and build range to see if companies more familiar to users for some of their high-end power supplies and other components are trading on name alone or are putting out products that really excel at a price point comfortable to most users. Some may question the choice to target strict low budget units like this but users come to this range of product for many reasons as they find themselves looking for components on a tight budget. Be this because they are building a budget system, or they need a drop in replacement for mom and pop’s system, or they have come up to the end of their build only to discover they have only $50 left and no power supply. Whatever the situation, we think that you should get a product that does exactly what it is advertised to do, and that is exactly what we want to find out.

So today we present our second “roundup,” but this time instead of targeting the mid-range of products offered with no budget in mind we went to perennial e-tailer of choice NewEgg to see what exactly we could get for ~$50. We purchased these units in exactly the same manner you would. Neither the manufacturer or retailer was aware of our actions. Our first 450w – 500w PSU Battle Royal is here and was published in May. The power supplies selected come from a range of brands that are familiar to users either for their power supplies or for other products they brand and as such would be something familiar and trusted. At $50 though, all of the products are going to be squeezed into meeting a price point more than providing amazing capacity and feature sets, and as such some of these supplies will have an interesting mix of feature sets, performance, documentation, and value.

The Contenders

One of the most prevalent names in the consumer power supply realm (and general enthusiast PC realm for that matter) for a number of years now is Antec. Antec is a company that has been kicking around the PC DIY market since 1986 and in that time frame has become one of the most widely known brand names. In addition to power supplies Antec has product lines that include cases for both work and play, cooling solutions, lighting, and other accessories but our interest today are their power supplies. Over the years Antec has used a number of OEM providers for their power supplies including HEC, CWT, FSP, Enhance, and Seasonic. Recently, we reviewed the Antec TruePower Quattro 850 (TPQ-850) which was built by long time Taiwan power supply manufacturer, Enhance and targets the high end. Today we are looking at the Antec Basiq 500w (BP500U)which as it names implies targets the entry level crowd and is manufactured by FSP. FSP is one of the few actual power supply manufacturers and can be found providing OEM services for a number of other brands FSP at various times including OCZ (GameXStream and ProXStream), Zalman, Aopen, Antec (Basiq) and many more. This wide distribution of power supplies by FSP is not surprising given that they have been in business since 1993 and are one of the top 10 producers of power supplies coupled with being widely regarded as a manufacturer of basic workhorse type power supplies that just get the job done though some of their more recently platforms have been plagued by power quality issues.

Coolmax is a company that has been around since 1992. Initially it was in the cooling supplies market but in recent years it has branched out. Today users can find Coolmax branding and producing a wide range of PC components including fans, cases, storage solutions, and power supplies. While not necessarily as well known as some other brands, Coolmax has been branding a range of power supplies and their current lineup runs from the low of 200watts to a high of 900w. Coolmax includes a number of interesting PSU products including fanless, and 1u units. Today we will be looking at a mid to low capacity unit from Coolmax, the CR-450B. The CR-450 is UL listed to Coolmax but is the product of their partnership with Sirtec. Sirtec has one of the longer company histories of power supply manufacturers having been founded in 1968 (obviously not manufacturing power supplies for PCs at that time). In the interim ~40 years Sirtec has diversified and is involved in not only power supply manufacturing but also other electronics, molding, and plastic development. Over the years Sirtec has been best known to computer enthusiasts when their power supplies were the power behind the original Thermaltake power supplies and Highpower power supplies. Sirtec power supplies over the years have garnered mixed reviews so it will be of great interest to see how their partnership with Coolmax has worked.

High Performance Group (Hiper) is better known to our friends across the pond than to those of us in the States. However, Hiper produces a range of products like many of the companies featured today. Hiper branded power supplies run the gamut from 350w to 880w across a number of model lines denoted by their “Type-“ prefix including today’s model the Type-R 480w, part number (HPU-4M480-PS).

Of note the Hiper website lists this unit as a “Type-M” but the unit itself and all of its accompanying documentation denotes the unit as a “Type-R” so for consistency’s sake we will be referring to as the Type-R. Users interested in this product would be advised to search for it based on its actual model number (HPU-4M480-PS) in order to find the correct product.

To produce the Type-R 480w, Hiper has turned to Andyson for the OEM duty on this unit. Andyson International is a company that end users may or may not be familiar with as they have provided the basis for a number of Ultra power supplies, Sunbeamtech power supplies, and of course Hiper. Ultra has used Andyson for some of their other power supplies including members of their X-Pro line of branded power supplies (X-Pro 600w EE) and the X3 series (X3 1000w and X3 1600w), so we have become somewhat familiar with their products. So far Andyson products have done rather well in our testing so today we will see if a Hiper branded Andyson can show the same pedigree as it Ultra branded relatives.

MicroStar International Co Ltd (MSI) is a company best known and covered for their motherboards and videocards. Since their founding though they have become a huge manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of products including notebooks, videocards, moteherboards, various consumer electronics, and barebones systems. However, in the wings the company has also been branding a few power supplies that are available in retail and e-tail. Since MSI is such a well known brand and well respected one we decided to take a look at their TurboStream 460w (MS-4460-010) power supply. To produce the TurboStream 460w MSI has paired themselves with Deer Computer’s Solytech brand. Deer is a partner of Foxconn and is a rather infamous manufacturer of power supplies best known for Deer, Allied, and some Foxconn power supplies. These power supplies tend to be found bundled with economical cases or as very economical stand alone units. The TurboStream is on the lower end of the overall price scale but it certainly is more expensive than the last Deer branded power supply we saw in the PowerTekPro 500w. Given our previous experiences with Deer power supplies the performance of this power supply may be of the greatest interest of the lot.

SilverStoneTek is a company best known for their high quality cases but their product lines extend into other components such as cooling, power, fans, storage and so on. As a company Silverstone has built up this impressive product repertoire in a very short time having been founded in 2003. Today, however we are interested in their power supplies which are comprised of the Strider, Decathalon, Element, Nightjar, Zeus, Gemini, and Olympia model lines that range from 350w to 1200w DC output. Specifically we will be looking at one of their lower end models, the 400w SilverStone Strider (ST405) that is produced in conjunction with Enhance. Enhance has been in business almost exactly as long as their new partner Antec having been founded in 1986 as well. Enhance is not nearly as well known to most users as Antec as their core business focus has been outside of the desktop market in areas such as servers, embedded, and telecom markets. However, their products have started to surface in the consumer realm in the last year or so under the likes of Silverstone, Silverpower, CoolerMaster, and now Antec as well as the occasional Enhance branded model.

Now that we have briefly covered the units we will be reviewing today let’s move right along to the first power supply, the Antec Basiq 500w.