Rosewill PSU good ? no PFC important?

[RamaX]

Hola all again,
In looking for alternatives, i stumbled upon this Rosewill It seems almost too good to be true, in the sense that its only 50 clams for 500w and it even has LED(which for this price seems even odder). True no PFC, but im wondering how important that really is. I had been leaning towards requiring PFC, since A) it saves power when it can B)if im told right, if the PSU does go bad and fry itself, it wont fry anything else with it--both real good reasons to go PFC..if what ive read is true.
Lemme know whatcha think, thanks

 

[hergieburbur]

That is a decent budget PSU. You usually only get PFC with higher-end models in US. (It is required in Europe I think). The benefits in my inderstanding are this:

Most non-active PFC PSUs have a Power Factor of about .6 to .7 - that means that you are getting about 65% power according to an Electical Engineering Rating that I don't want to explain right now. Most active PFCs have a Power Factor of .95+. This makes them more energy efficient. I did however see it said that this does not actually save money on the electric in the US because we bill for Kilowatt-hours (not sure how europe is different).

Active-PFC corrects for power fluctuations and conditions the power from your PSU, giving you cleaner more stable power.

To my knowledge, PFC does not provide protection for your components if it burns up, other than that most active PFC PSUs include Over Voltage Protection and various other correction and protection circuits to prevent outside damage.