What Gives With Tom's Using a Tier 4 PSU in a Top Gamer??

[mlhm5]

I read that in their mid-priced gaming machine, Toms used a Tier 4 PSU, an AeroCool Zerodba 620W.

Wouldn't a Corsair 620W have been a better choice?

Appears the 620W has the same rating on the 12v rail as the 500W. Why would anyone buy the 620W?

 

[bornking]

Good observation! mlhm5

 

[StevieD]

While some reviewers have evaluated power supplys based upon specific performance parameters and those evaluations are included in the Tier #'s, in reality the Tier #'s are basically an opinion as to the durability of a particular brand or model.

In a manner of speaking it is a bit like saying my copper wire is better than your copper wire and my copper wire will last longer than your wire.

Much of the durability ratings come from consumer compliants from vendor sites, such as NewEgg, as well as comments from various forums. While representative of consumer experiences, these comments are not accurate of the entire market (remember, happy customers tend to be quiet customers, while unhappy customers tend to scream and holler). More importantly, judging reliabiltiy based upon consumer experiences is very inaccurate as nobody knows the actual ratio of failure to success.

 

[StevieD]

A local builder uses Rosewell in his commercial computer assembly business. Rosewell is well dumped upon on every forum and vendor site as being very poor equipment.


Now I am not going to promote Rosewell over another. But it is interesting when the local builder says his failure rate on Rosewell PSU is 3 units per 1000 per year. Could be entirely smoke and mirrors, or could be the truth. And might be way closer to the truth than the opinions expressed on NewEgg or in the highly opinionated Tier Charts.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

People are more likely to complain without knowledge of why a product failed, if it failed at all, or possibly failure was caused by external sources the customer was unaware of.

Taking PSU's as an example:

Not many complaints (maybe 3/1000/yr ) would be able to list what failed, i.e. a voltage rail, such as the +/- 3.3v.

Maybe they were drawing to much power, or a small short was pulling more power then expected. Maybe brownouts were to blame.


It is hard to say that mass complaints of a product equate to a ratio of functioning to manufacture defected purchases.

10,000 units sold, 100 failure complaints
1,000 units sold 20 failure complaints. This product double the failure ratio.

Anyway, back to your thread.

 

[Sigadigah]

I would have to say from personal experience that unless you are getting a real "dog" of a PSU, that you will be fine. Something like a $50 coolermaster or thermaltake will for most people last a long time and provide adequate power. Thats not to say that a good, high quality, power supply is never worth it, but it seems people either get any $10 power supply, or only use ones that cost $100 and up.

 

[fletch420]

true true-= also as far as PSU's go----they are engineered to have a very specific MTBF-mean time between failure- that is how the business model used to put them into production justifies the cost and lobor ect to make them and borrow or justify spending the money to get in the business. Sad thing is some companies release this info and some don't and some that do do not make it necessarily easy to find. Name means little- big companies like to make money too- long time makers is one key (longevity), quality of components is of the utmost impotance and of course efficiency these days. Any 2yr electronics engy can design a decent PSU- the trick is to make it work well efficiently with cost effective parts.

cheers

 

[mlhm5]

Price??? Duh, maybe they didnt have enough in the budget for a top of the line power supply. Hell, Ive used a tier 4 power supply for the last year and it works great, even overclocking like mad.

The Corsair is $110 and the Aerocool is $124, so price was not the consideration for PSU choice. Wonder why?

 

[mlhm5]

While some reviewers have evaluated power supplys based upon specific performance parameters and those evaluations are included in the Tier #'s, in reality the Tier #'s are basically an opinion as to the durability of a particular brand or model.

In a manner of speaking it is a bit like saying my copper wire is better than your copper wire and my copper wire will last longer than your wire.

Much of the durability ratings come from consumer compliants from vendor sites, such as NewEgg, as well as comments from various forums. While representative of consumer experiences, these comments are not accurate of the entire market (remember, happy customers tend to be quiet customers, while unhappy customers tend to scream and holler). More importantly, judging reliabiltiy based upon consumer experiences is very inaccurate as nobody knows the actual ratio of failure to success.

Power, stability, efficiency, quality of materials/build, price, and availability are the characteristics that make up the tiers.

 

[zenmaster]

Do you have a link that show's the ZeroDBA as a Tier4 build?

Please don't show me on of those silly PSU Tier sites that lists manufacturer's. Please use a real list like the one on JonnyGuru which Tier's PSUs by model.

I have read many glorius reviews of this PSU..............
Perhaps you could find one showing it's weaknesses?

 

[mlhm5]

Do you have a link that show's the ZeroDBA as a Tier4 build?

Please don't show me on of those silly PSU Tier sites that lists manufacturer's. Please use a real list like the one on JonnyGuru which Tier's PSUs by model.

I have read many glorius reviews of this PSU..............
Perhaps you could find one showing it's weaknesses?

I did not see any Aerocool listed in any of the other tiers other than tier 4. wonder why? maybe this one will eventually be listed somewhere else. If you are a member there, just post your question. I am sure they will answer you.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

or you can go here and ask Jonny why Aerocool did not make the gaming list

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=103

or why no Aerocool is recommended by him

http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1460

Looks like a great unit for $100 to me, but I did not make the list.

 

[zenmaster]

Did you know that "Jonny" does not rate PSUs he has not tested or has extensive information on? That is why it's not on his list. Not due to quality. AeroCool is relatively new to the US Market.

Much of what is on the "Xtremesystems" is based from Jonny's list.
Most likely they just tossed in the names of other manufacturers.

Jonny is very careful about rating each PSU on it's own qualities and not blanketing any brand good or bad.

What we do know is that everyone who has reviewed it has given it good reviews. We know that THG has been using one for an extended period of time in its lab.

Sounds like a reasonable reason to recommend it over somebody who rates it w/o ever seeing one.

 

[paq7512]

That was a great observation.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Someone mentioned that the durability ratings are based on feedback from vendor sites such as Newegg. I seriously doubt that THG is using the Newegg site to form their ratings or tiers. Also, Aerocool has been in the US for several years. I have no idea who is building their PSUs for them though.

 

[mlhm5]

Same rating on the 12v rail as the 500W. Why would anyone buy the 620W?