Avoid these PSUs at all Costs (according to Tom's Hardware)

[trs96]

These Tier 5 models may come with some new low cost PC cases. You might think it's ok to use one to save a little extra cash on your new build. It could end up costing you a lot more. If you are using one of these take Tom's advice and replace it with something at least in Tier 2 or 3. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Tier Five
Avoid IMMEDIATELY. These units are highly unsafe to use. No such protections added, very thin gauge wiring used, false advertising and too much to list. Reference to a higher tiered unit for a better, money saving and a much safer unit. For your safety's sake, please don't order or pick one up for use in your system. These units are a potential fire hazard and could even kill you, let alone your system.

A-TOP technology
Apevia
Apex (SUPERCASE/ALLIED)
Artic / Ace (They're the same company)
Aspire (Turbocase)
ATADC
ATRIX
Broadway Com Corp
CIT
Coolmax
Deer
Diablotek
Dynapower
Dynex
Eagletech
Enlight
Evo labs
EZ-cool
Foxconn
G7
HEC / Compucase Orion
HEDY (should be WAAAYYY lower down than these units. They're that bad)
Just PC
Linkworld electronics
Logisys computer
Macron
MSi (just stick to their GPUs and motherboards)
NMEDIAPC
Norwood Micro/ CompUSA
Okia
Powercool
Powmax
Pulsepower
Q-tec
Rocketfish
SFC
Sharkoon
Shuttle
Skyhawk
Startech
Storm
Sumvision
Tesla
Ultra

The take home point of this is: If you have one of these pull the plug immediately. Do not go cheap on your PSU. A very bad idea !

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Very interesting reading. Thank you

Looks like mine is Tier 3 so ok for my use, though I would like to go up a tier or two at some point.

A pity more of even the good companies didn't explain or make clearer the differences between their ranges.

 

[trs96]

Glad you liked it. In my opinion it should be required reading for everyone before they build. I generally go for the tier 2 models as I want the PSU to be energy efficient and last a longer time. In the end you spend less for a better PSU.

If you've got a tier 3 PSU here's the main point to remember:

Not really ideal in serious overclocking or super-high load situations, such as a Bitcoin mining rig or a high end gaming system.

So if you don't engage in this kind of usage you're fine.