HEC Orion power supplies

[anonymous508]

Does anyone have any experience with the HEC Orion series?

link -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339001

They are cheap and in general I know to avoid cheap PSUs. But does anyone have any experience/thoughts about these?

 

[masterjaw]

Why bother if you already knew it's a cheap PSU? Low budget on production = low quality parts + unreliable claims

 

[anonymous508]

Why bother if you already knew it's a cheap PSU? Low budget on production = low quality parts + unreliable claims

I meant it is cheap as in price-wise...25 bucks. I have no idea if it is low quality or not as I have never owned one.

Normally I would pass a PSU like this by without a second thought, but I have read numerous reports on Newegg and on overclockers.net of people using these with fairly high end systems and having success.

Just wanted to see if anyone here has had similar experience with it.

 

[masterjaw]

That's the thing with PSUs. You wouldn't notice the difference until something goes wrong.

 

[anonymous508]

That's the thing with PSUs. You wouldn't notice the difference until something goes wrong.

Ain't that the truth...

To tell a quick little story, a couple years ago I had a little Athena 400W (got it for cheap from a buddy). It was sitting snug in an m-atx case powering a low-end system that I had intended to give to my sister for college the next time I saw her.

That system worked like a charm for about 2 weeks and then one day when I was sitting there browsing the internet on it there was a blue arc flash and a tremendous BANG from the case. I jumped about 18 feet in the air.

The PSU was, of course, fried to all hell. I am only lucky it didn't take any of the other components with it.

So now I am careful about PSUs...but I am still on a budget and am always looking for a bargain that will get the job done.

Hence why I question these HEC products.

 

[masterjaw]

Instead of HEC, try to consider OCZ. They also have low-cost PSUs but more reliable than those.

 

[Onus]

Antec Earthwatts are usually fairly inexpensive. They've become my standard for budget builds, and I haven't had one fail yet.

As to the HEC, see that little red voltage switch? That means an old, inefficient design. At best, it works, but runs hotter and wastes energy. At worst, it is overrated, and will blow up if loaded, possibly taking other parts with it.

Bottom line, not worth it.

 

[pearlheartgtr]

I bought one and it lasted just over a month (it was 3 days out of newegg's return period).

 

[jsc]

Sometimes you get what you pay for.