Cheap power supply causes fire

[Dreams65]

I can't remember if I posted this already...anyways.

A few years ago the power supply in my son's PC broke, so I went to a local retail store and bought a replacement. At the time I didn't have the cash for an expensive PSU and ended up buying a cheap alternative. Below are the results of that blunder.











The small explosion and subsequent fire resulted in a destroyed PC and a singed desk. Thank God that was all. Lesson to be learned here....NEVER buy a cheap power supply! Because of the importance a PSU is to your system, the best choice is well known/quality brands.

Could save your life.

 

[Wookiee]

There's practically no price difference between a knock-off and a branded one like Cooler Master, so I don't know why any shops even bother stocking them. At work we had a heap of custom built i7's ordered before I started, and the company they ordered through used "Thermal Master" or some knock-off amalgamation. It saved maybe $500AUD in total. First thing I did was replace them with branded power supplies (I think Cougar in this instance).

No fires (and I wonder if the above pictures are a result of it somehow switching from 120V to 240V because that would certainly do it), but we did have a number of motherboards develop issues from them.

 

[Neostarwcc]

I've been building and working on computers since I was a child, none of my Father's "cheap power supply" units caught fire however, several of them did fail within not even months of each other. It got so bad that I saved up $150 in the early 2000s and bought a Corsair PSU that lasted me about a year after I met my wife (2015 or so). I was stupid to keep it that long because it exploded. Didn't cause a fire but it exploded with all the pressure I put my power supply boxes under. I was extremely lucky I didn't lose any expensive components along with the PSU.

I would never in my lifetime have recommended a cheap power supply box. If you're going to buy a computer from Walmart or some store, change the PSU because Cheap PSU's cause more headaches than they save.

Same with motherboards, I've learned over the years not to cheap out on motherboards because they cause more headaches and ultimately cost more money than they're worth. Such it is with building computers and having that hobby. It is an moderately expensive hobby that not only do you have to know how to build computers (Which is the easy part, anyone can honestly.) but you also have to know a lot about the hardware inside.

Anyway, TLR; I'm sorry your power supply caught fire, its not good to buy cheap power supply boxes. Understand all too well the "I cannot afford a better one" but, it saves you more money in the long run to go with better parts. This is almost universally true with computer hardware. The power supply can also cause other components to fail which happened to you which is quite costly. So its always good to buy an at least a great gold certified PSU for your build. Its saves you money in your powerbill, lasts for an absurd length of time (Especially Corsair PSU's I would highly recommend them they come with 10 year warranty's as well), and keeps your components safe in case your PSU ever does fail.

 

[Neostarwcc]

There's practically no price difference between a knock-off and a branded one like Cooler Master, so I don't know why any shops even bother stocking them. At work we had a heap of custom built i7's ordered before I started, and the company they ordered through used "Thermal Master" or some knock-off amalgamation. It saved maybe $500AUD in total. First thing I did was replace them with branded power supplies (I think Cougar in this instance).

No fires (and I wonder if the above pictures are a result of it somehow switching from 120V to 240V because that would certainly do it), but we did have a number of motherboards develop issues from them.

They bother stocking them because they can make them super cheaply and make a big profit. The same applies to CPU's it only costs Intel and AMD less than 10 cents to make a processor however it costs them tens of thousands to hire people to design them hence the "high" prices. But don't get me started on that.

But the reason stores like Walmart or Dell or any computer manufacturer sells computers for super cheap now is because they're super cheap to make and they use the lowest quality hardware possible and that is a very, very sad truth. I would not personally recommend buying a computer from a second hand store and would recommend shelling out the extra money to build one yourself. You would get a much better functioning computer and save money off of the multi thousand dollar computers that they sell and have something constructed much, much better than at Walmart lets say for example's more expensive computers. Walmart is the biggest offender of selling cheap computers with the cheapest parts possible.

Like I said in the post before, its not the building of computers that's difficult, If you're worried about screwing up there's a billion video's on youtube that teach you how to do it, anyone can do it. What's difficult is understanding the hardware. But, you can ask any PC enthusiast and they can give you recommendations on what parts to use as well.

 

[Dreams65]

After the mistake of the exploding PSU I only purchase quality power supplies. When I'm building for someone else I usually buy from bequiet!, Corsair or Enermax. All are excellent brands. Personally I prefer bequiet! (a German company). I've been using their cases, case fans, CPU coolers and PSUs for a while now. They are more expensive than most other brands, but are very reliable and quiet.

For my PC I use a bequiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (750 watt platinum).

 

[Neostarwcc]

After the mistake of the exploding PSU I only purchase quality power supplies. When I'm building for someone else I usually buy from bequiet!, Corsair or Enermax. All are excellent brands. Personally I prefer bequiet! (a German company). I've been using their cases, case fans, CPU coolers and PSUs for a while now. They are more expensive than most other brands, but are very reliable and quiet.

For my PC I use a bequiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (750 watt platinum).

Well, even high quality PSU's can explode its just the risk is lower than with cheaper PSU's. Like I said, I had a Corsair PSU last me 15 years before it finally exploded. But,
I've had other Corsair PSU's blow up on me before within months or a few years that I bought after that one. But luckily they all come with a 10 year warranty and I didn't lose other components with the PSU which is pretty likely to happen. I got/get lucky I guess.

With Cheap PSU's on the other hand if you put them under heavy load they're nearly guaranteed to fail because they're not designed for heavy loads. That's basically what happened with the OP. The PSU failed and caused a fire because of the heavy load it was under. No different than trying to plug a stove outlet into a regular outlet (I know a little bit about electricity my dad was a carpenter and taught me some stuff).

When buying a PSU you have to also know what wattage to get because if you use to low of a wattage that will cause failure as well. But anyway, any PSU calculator online will tell you what wattage to get. You just put in your components and it estimates how much power the components should take under the most stressful of situations to be 100% safe I usually go 50-100 watts above that.

 

[Sophrosyne]

Several issues with cheap power supplies is overrating them and a problem with a lot of electronics is cheap components especially capacitors. The main reason I won't skimp on cheap power supplies is that better ones will actually help pay for themselves in efficiency in conversion. They will also work better when power fluctuates or brownouts/spikes happen, have better fans in them that will be quieter and often last longer and have better and larger wires and connectors. It is best to get 20% higher in the size of power supply than you need if not more in case you want to upgrade in the future a newer processor or video card or larger drive/SSD will take more power likely. One thing people also fail to realize is that many cheaper built computers depend almost entirely on the power supply fan to cool things (or used to), that is pull hot air out of the case when it is better to add additional fans such that the power supply isn't getting all the heat from the computer through it.
I don't know about warranties but used to be the better ones gave you a year or 3 or 5 years, sometimes even lifetime perhaps. A warranty often means that they make sure the parts will last at least 2 years for a 1 year warranty on average perhaps.

The more headroom a power supply has the less likely it will overheat under the load it has.