obobskivich wrote:

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

- I think the recent obsession with "Japanese capacitors" and similar has gotten out of hand - it isn't reasonable to assume that PSUs that aren't built from gold-pressed latinum will burst into flames and explode after 2 years 100% of the time. For example my Dell P3 is still using the Foxconn OEM that was new back in whatever 1999 or 2000, and it still works just fine. It's a 200W unit that doesn't have any magical specs, but it works.

That's because Dell PSUs were usually Delta models with all Japanese caps. I don't think Foxconn ever made PSUs. I've got a Dell NPS-250KB Delta model here, it's full of Rubycon YXG and Nichicon PW and the odd Taicon here an there (Later on Delta started mixing in Taicon, in order to effect planned obsolescence). This PSU is dated the 18th week of 2002.

There's no question at all that Japanese caps play a role in product longevity. This Delta PSU will probably work perfectly even after 12 years. OTOH, I've also got an Enermax from around 2004 with cheap Chinese or Taiwanese caps that needs a full re-cap.

Last year I spent several weeks reading reviews and test results to find the ideal Pentium 3 PSU, with the best ripple/noise levels. And I found the Seasonic S12-II 380W.

jwt27 wrote:

Last year I spent several weeks reading reviews and test results to find the ideal Pentium 3 PSU, with the best ripple/noise levels. And I found the Seasonic S12-II 380W.

Do you actually prefer it over the SeaSonic SSR-360GP that is 80 PLUS GOLD certified?

Yes. The S12 series may be less efficient, but offers much better noise/ripple levels.

jwt27 wrote:

Yes. The S12 series may be less efficient, but offers much better noise/ripple levels.

Good to know, I will add it on my list as well. What about caps?

All Chemi-Con. From Japan 😉

If you're going to go into S12-II territory, technically, the lowest watt S12-II was the 330. I've seen them in the little spec card that comes with the 380, but have never seen them for sale.

jwt27 wrote:

All Chemi-Con. From Japan 😉

Nice. How does it compare to Corsair HX series?

Artex wrote:

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Poor Artex with a bunch of Corsair CX430M units 😀

A bunch = 2, and I got them on sale for $29.99 each from NewEgg so I don't feel too bad, and you shouldn't either. 😵

That was just a joke. I am pretty sure that the Corsair CX430M is pretty good for the price when it's on sale 😀

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Artex wrote:

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Poor Artex with a bunch of Corsair CX430M units 😀

A bunch = 2, and I got them on sale for $29.99 each from NewEgg so I don't feel too bad, and you shouldn't either. 😵

That was just a joke. I am pretty sure that the Corsair CX430M is pretty good for the price when it's on sale 😀

LoL. No worries man.. I'm just crabby today. Back off my power supplies! 😠

mockingbird wrote:

If you're going to go into S12-II territory, technically, the lowest watt S12-II was the 330. I've seen them in the little spec card that comes with the 380, but have never seen them for sale.

Seems to be discontinued.

obobskivich wrote:

I've had great luck with my HX 520 since ~2005, and apparently Corsair's customer service is top notch (I've never had to test this). The 430W has also reviewed well, so I wouldn't say it's a bad buy, but it may not be the best price-performance ever (but that's probably true of anything "name brand").

Yeah, the brand is top notch, but what makes me sad a bit is that Corsair only offers a 3 year warranty on the CX line power supplies.

mockingbird wrote:

That's because Dell PSUs were usually Delta models with all Japanese caps. I don't think Foxconn ever made PSUs. I've got a Dell NPS-250KB Delta model here, it's full of Rubycon YXG and Nichicon PW and the odd Taicon here an there (Later on Delta started mixing in Taicon, in order to effect planned obsolescence). This PSU is dated the 18th week of 2002.

There's no question at all that Japanese caps play a role in product longevity. This Delta PSU will probably work perfectly even after 12 years. OTOH, I've also got an Enermax from around 2004 with cheap Chinese or Taiwanese caps that needs a full re-cap.

Had to dig it up from parts storage:

Dell PS-5201-7D, with Foxconn QC passed on 2001 2 04, Made in China. UL registration # returns an overly broad certificate for Lite-ON IT Corp. FWIW the label also rates it to 50* C; unfortunately it's one of those proprietary pin-out models. This thread also lists other OEMs that Dell used, Delta being one of them, but not the only one: http://www.overclock.net/t/832090/dell-psus-any-good

I'm not opening mine to see what caps are inside it - it still works correctly and I'm inclined to leave it alone. 😊 "Japanese caps" has become yet another layer of buzzword compliance these days imho. 🤣

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Yeah, the brand is top notch, but what makes me sad a bit is that Corsair only offers a 3 year warranty on the CX line power supplies.

Why? Because you might actually want to file a warranty claim 10 years out if a $40 part breaks? (and will keep all of the paperwork for a decade in order to do so) 🤣

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Yeah, the brand is top notch, but what makes me sad a bit is that Corsair only offers a 3 year warranty on the CX line power supplies.

obobskivich wrote:

Why? Because you might actually want to file a warranty claim 10 years out if a $40 part breaks? (and will keep all of the paperwork for a decade in order to do so) 🤣

No, a better warranty tells you right away that the company is actually sure in the quality of its products. Dude, you're from Israel you might want to file a warranty claim even after 20 years if it breaks 🤣

obobskivich wrote:

Had to dig it up from parts storage:

Dell PS-5201-7D, with Foxconn QC passed on 2001 2 04, Made in China. UL registration # returns an overly broad certificate for Lite-ON IT Corp. FWIW the label also rates it to 50* C; unfortunately it's one of those proprietary pin-out models. This thread also lists other OEMs that Dell used, Delta being one of them, but not the only one: http://www.overclock.net/t/832090/dell-psus-any-good

I'm not opening mine to see what caps are inside it - it still works correctly and I'm inclined to leave it alone. 😊 "Japanese caps" has become yet another layer of buzzword compliance these days imho. 🤣

I'll save you the trouble 😉

I've got a PS-5201-1D in my lap, opened up right now. True, these are Lite-ON models, but Lite-ON wouldn't dare play their planned obsolescence games back in that time with Dell when a contract with them was like a sacred cow.

It's got all Nippon Chemi-Con LXF for the big secondary output caps, and a mix of Rubycon and NCC for the rest. I think there's a single Nichicon for a small cap 10mm cap in the primary section near the two large NCC primaries. My only critique is that they used an inferior glue which becomes conductive after long exposure to heat.

Yea, I've got the weird Dell custom ATX pinout too, and it also has the weird Dell "P7" connector which is shaped like one of the the power connectors of an AT PSU. Scavenged this thing from an old Dell P3 tower someone was tossing. I remember Dell built up their brand to have quite the reputation for quality back in those days, and it was deserved. Unfortunately, because of planned-obsolescence coupled with a certain mistake in the manufacture of a certain series by a Japanese manufacturer, they had terrible failure rates a few years afterwards.

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

No, a better warranty tells you right away that the company is actually sure in the quality of its products. Dude, you're from Israel you might want to file a warranty claim even after 20 years if it breaks 🤣

I don't agree with that - there's plenty of good performing units that didn't come with 300 year warranties, and anymore the "really long warranty" thing is as much a marketing tactic as it is genuine validation of the product. It's just a new era of pandering to customers. It isn't like years ago when PC Power stood apart by offering 7 year warranties on TurboCool when other higher-tier makers, like Antec, were still only doing 1-2 years. Now we've gotten to a point where people see a 3 year warranty on a sub-$50 product and go "what a piece of crap!!!" I think Corsair has broken the 10-year barrier recently, which is equally ridiculous (and I'd also love to see the specific terms on some of these very long warranties - I know on other products after a certain point they're just pro-rating you a check, and at multiple years it's a pittance).

mockingbird wrote:

I'll save you the trouble 😉

Neat. 😀

I've got a PS-5201-1D in my lap, opened up right now. True, these are Lite-ON models, but Lite-ON wouldn't dare play their planned obsolescence games back in that time with Dell when a contract with them was like a sacred cow.

It's got all Nippon Chemi-Con LXF for the big secondary output caps, and a mix of Rubycon and NCC for the rest. I think there's a single Nichicon for a small cap 10mm cap in the primary section near the two large NCC primaries. My only critique is that they used an inferior glue which becomes conductive after long exposure to heat.

Yea, I've got the weird Dell custom ATX pinout too, and it also has the weird Dell "P7" connector which is shaped like one of the the power connectors of an AT PSU. Scavenged this thing from an old Dell P3 tower someone was tossing. I remember Dell built up their brand to have quite the reputation for quality back in those days, and it was deserved. Unfortunately, because of planned-obsolescence coupled with a certain mistake in the manufacture of a certain series by a Japanese manufacturer, they had terrible failure rates a few years afterwards.

Yeah, Dell PSUs aren't awful was my point; there's like a "minimum average" quality that they hold to, and I'd take that over bottom-of-the-barrel open market stuff like Deer... 😵 My bad on saying it was a Foxconn (I'd guess Foxconn built the actual machine and just labled the PSU after they tested it). 😊

And yep mine has the ATX Aux/AT style connector too - I've also got the i815 motherboard that goes with it. Adapters do exist, but I've not bothered buying one because the PSU and the board still work, and the PSU provides more than adequate power for that system as long as you don't want to stick some goofy AGP card in like a 6800 Ultra. 🤣

obobskivich wrote:

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

No, a better warranty tells you right away that the company is actually sure in the quality of its products. Dude, you're from Israel you might want to file a warranty claim even after 20 years if it breaks 🤣

I don't agree with that - there's plenty of good performing units that didn't come with 300 year warranties, and anymore the "really long warranty" thing is as much a marketing tactic as it is genuine validation of the product. It's just a new era of pandering to customers. It isn't like years ago when PC Power stood apart by offering 7 year warranties on TurboCool when other higher-tier makers, like Antec, were still only doing 1-2 years. Now we've gotten to a point where people see a 3 year warranty on a sub-$50 product and go "what a piece of crap!!!" I think Corsair has broken the 10-year barrier recently, which is equally ridiculous (and I'd also love to see the specific terms on some of these very long warranties - I know on other products after a certain point they're just pro-rating you a check, and at multiple years it's a pittance).

We can argue about it all day long, but the fact is that with Seasonic you are covered for 5 years while with Corsair you're only covered for 2 years. Oh, and that Japanese capacitors are better than Chinese or Taiwanese is also a fact.

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

We can argue about it all day long, but the fact is that with Seasonic you are covered for 5 years while with Corsair you're only covered for 2 years. Oh, and that Japanese capacitors are better than Chinese or Taiwanese is also a fact.

It ceases to be a discussion, argument, or anything else when you declare your value-weighted position a static fact based on big-T truths. 😵

I'd guess a longer (and functional, not just inflated numbers) would mean the company expect their product to run well for at least that period for the majority of users, but having shorter warranties does not necessarily mean they don't trust it.

obobskivich wrote:

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

We can argue about it all day long, but the fact is that with Seasonic you are covered for 5 years while with Corsair you're only covered for 2 years. Oh, and that Japanese capacitors are better than Chinese or Taiwanese is also a fact.

It ceases to be a discussion, argument, or anything else when you declare your value-weighted position a static fact based on big-T truths. 😵

Well, the numbers speak for themselves. 5 > 3. It's not an argument to you? In case those numbers mean nothing to you then why the heck can't Corsair offer a 5 years warranty on its CX series as well? What stops them from doing so? Do you actually aware that they offer a 5 year warranty and even a 7 year warranty on their higher tier power supplies? There's gotta be a reason why do that. Does it make sense to you?