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Identifying the Manufacturer

Who's Who In Power Supplies, 2014: Brands Vs. Manufacturers
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UL Numbers From Underwriters Laboratories

"Underwriters Laboratories, an independent firm working with product safety certification, has been active in the field of product testing and preparation of safety standards for more than a century. UL evaluates more than 19 000 types of products, components, materials and systems annually. Every year more than 20 billion UL marks are placed on products from 66 000 different manufacturers. The UL Group and its network of service providers include 68 testing and certification labs worldwide, serving customers in 102 countries."--From the About UL page at ul.com

Essentially, this means that all PSUs sold on the North American market must be marked with a UL number. This number should identify the actual manufacturer of a product. However, not every PSU has such a number. UL number omission on a North American product might indicate poor quality.

Step 1: Reading the UL Number

To find the UL number, there's no need to open your PSU or de-solder anything. Simply open your PC and look at the power supply's label. The UL number usually begins with an "E" followed by a string of numbers. See the three examples below.

If your PSU has such a number, you can move onto the next step, finding out what it means.

Online UL Number Query

Now let's find out more about your PSU. Go to the UL Online Certifications Directory and enter the UL number in the UL File Number field. If the number exists in the database, you should immediately see the result. If not, the number is invalid, fake, or the manufacturer no longer exists.

Link: Online Certifications Directory

We want to stress two things in particular:

A PSU is not necessarily bad because it is cheap. But the lower the price, the more you'll likely have to skimp on safety and performance features. A high-quality PSU contains more expensive components. If you buy cheap, you might have to buy twice--or more.

A PSU is not automatically inferior because it was made by a contractor with which you aren't familiar. These companies make all kinds of products, from luxury brands to pure garbage. Again, it's a question of hitting different production targets. Is the product built for quality or aggressive cost reduction? The responsibility always lies with the buyer to recognize and reject products that are obviously unsuitable.

Some quality issues, such as those seen with Be Quiet's P6 series, present an additional aspect to consider, while we can also see that companies like Super Flower are often underestimated because they are not as seen and accepted as the large manufacturer, which in fact they are.

We thank our readers again for their help.  We will continue to collect new results and regularly update the lists. They are, after all, a rough guide to what goes on behind the scenes in the power supply industry.

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  • 1 Hide
    iam2thecrowe , July 23, 2014 12:10 AM
    The thing i find most interesting in these who's who articles is Thermaltake. Such a range of manufacturers, that generally corresponds to quality of product in reviews. Shame that such a well known company can have such a varying range of quality. But as always, good article, nice to know who is doing what.
  • 1 Hide
    arunphilip , July 23, 2014 2:02 AM
    Wow, this was very informative and educative - kudos on such a comprehensive article. I'm now itching to go home and check the various PSUs I have in my Dells at home (IIRC, they're Lite-On) and look at the UL data.
  • 1 Hide
    Memnarchon , July 23, 2014 3:42 AM
    Thank you very much. I was waiting for this since a lot new PSU's have been released since the last article.
  • 1 Hide
    ubercake , July 23, 2014 4:23 AM
    A great compilation of info for 2014. It's always good to be an informed shopper.

    Thanks again!
  • 6 Hide
    rustyg43 , July 23, 2014 5:02 AM
    Awesome article as always Tom's. Can you please do one on GPU manufacturers as well?
  • 2 Hide
    avarice , July 23, 2014 5:18 AM
    Good article with an amazing presentation of information in the charts. Well done.

    With the caveots given about brands and quality - would it be unreasonable to suggest staying with a brand that manufactures it's own PSUs? I am refering to the FSPs, SeaSonics and Zippys on the list. I have had FSP and have heard very glowing praise about the other two brands.

    Also does the quality of their products meet or exceed the brands that are subcontracted to them - OR do some of the designs from other brands that use these three companies exceed even those of the three mentioned brands? For example - is there a case where say 'Named Brand Company' design as manufactured by FSP exceeds the quality of any FSP branded PSU?
  • 1 Hide
    randomstar , July 23, 2014 5:20 AM
    I still see incorrect information with respect to logisys- they are sold in the houston area by several vendors, and distributed in cases, and as over the counter parts at a local distro house.. they have in every model I tested proven to be the worst of the worst. when you see a 450 watt for under 20 bucks, and a unit labeled as 600 for under 30, you know something is up.
  • 0 Hide
    avarice , July 23, 2014 5:20 AM
    Good article with an amazing presentation of information in the charts. Well done.

    With the caveots given about brands and quality - would it be unreasonable to suggest staying with a brand that manufactures it's own PSUs? I am refering to the FSPs, SeaSonics and Zippys on the list. I have had FSP and have heard very glowing praise about the other two brands.

    Also does the quality of their products meet or exceed the brands that are subcontracted to them - OR do some of the designs from other brands that use these three companies exceed even those of the three mentioned brands? For example - is there a case where say 'Named Brand Company' design as manufactured by FSP exceeds the quality of any FSP branded PSU?
  • -3 Hide
    Teeroy32 , July 23, 2014 7:02 AM
    I didn't find my psu in that list the brand is a Brianology and the name is a Big Ant ATX-S750, I paid $89 dollars Aus for it, it would be nice too know what the quality is. The home page for it is http://www.brianology.com.au/english/content.asp?ModuleType=3&ChannelID=3&id=400this
  • 0 Hide
    smog0 , July 23, 2014 7:09 AM
    i didn't find the omega brand which make cheap (and normally bad) psus for example a "1200 W" for $50
  • 0 Hide
    dstarr3 , July 23, 2014 8:02 AM
    This is, hands down, the most helpful and informative article on Tom's.
  • 1 Hide
    lp231 , July 23, 2014 9:00 AM
    Informative article, but when it comes to buying a PSU most of us look at the branding first and then find out who makes it. XION is made by Super Flower and Super Flower makes good PSUs, but many of us would probably not pick XION as our very first choice. We usually go with more popular brands like Corsair, Antec, Seasonic, etc.
  • -4 Hide
    canadianvice , July 23, 2014 9:23 AM
    My rules are simple, simply avoid buying Chinese wherever possible.
    I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.

    The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.

    I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.

    Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.
  • -1 Hide
    Avus , July 23, 2014 9:37 AM
    I always found using "weight" is ONE of the easy way to find out the quality of a power supply... Try pick up a $30 550W power supply on one hand and a 80+ 550W on the other hand...
  • 2 Hide
    Damn_Rookie , July 23, 2014 11:28 AM
    Quote:
    My rules are simple, simply avoid buying Chinese wherever possible.
    I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.

    The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.

    I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.

    Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.

    What about the norm of a Western company selling Chinese made goods though? Surely, if the 'Western companies understand Western standards of quality', as you say, they wouldn't dream of selling something that doesn't live up to their Western standards, right?

    While your rule may sound like a sensible one in theory, you really need to keep in mind that manufacturing in China these days (like most other places) is based around building to a cost. If that cost, specified by the buyer (the company who will sell the product to the consumer), is realistically too low for what they want, they're going to get a low quality product. On the other hand, if the buyer specifies certain quality factors they want, and costs the product realistically, the product manufactured for them can be of very high quality.

    So while it's easy to write off everything manufactured in China as being junk, that's really not fair. Items manufactured there do vary massively in quality, and that quality is signed off on by the company (western or not) that then sells the product, so they're just as culpable for any quality issues as the manufacturer.

    At its simplest, I guess you could say it all comes down to that oft said cliche: you get what you pay for.
  • 0 Hide
    larkspur , July 23, 2014 11:28 AM
    Helpful article thanks for updating! There is also the PSU Review Database at realhardtechx. It also contains links to reviews when available. I usually head there first. http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page673.htm
  • 1 Hide
    damric , July 23, 2014 2:16 PM
    Good info.

    Missing Superflower as the EVGA SUPERNOVA G2 OEM.
  • 2 Hide
    caqde , July 23, 2014 5:57 PM
    PC Power and Cooling is no longer owned by OCZ they are now owned by Firepower Technology as of Feb 2014.
  • -1 Hide
    canadianvice , July 23, 2014 6:53 PM
    Quote:
    Quote:
    My rules are simple, simply avoid buying Chinese wherever possible.
    I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.

    The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.

    I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.

    Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.

    What about the norm of a Western company selling Chinese made goods though? Surely, if the 'Western companies understand Western standards of quality', as you say, they wouldn't dream of selling something that doesn't live up to their Western standards, right?

    While your rule may sound like a sensible one in theory, you really need to keep in mind that manufacturing in China these days (like most other places) is based around building to a cost. If that cost, specified by the buyer (the company who will sell the product to the consumer), is realistically too low for what they want, they're going to get a low quality product. On the other hand, if the buyer specifies certain quality factors they want, and costs the product realistically, the product manufactured for them can be of very high quality.

    So while it's easy to write off everything manufactured in China as being junk, that's really not fair. Items manufactured there do vary massively in quality, and that quality is signed off on by the company (western or not) that then sells the product, so they're just as culpable for any quality issues as the manufacturer.

    At its simplest, I guess you could say it all comes down to that oft said cliche: you get what you pay for.


    The difference is that Western companies understand the end goal is something that's in good enough condition to run and not to ship broken crap that is cheap beyond a reasonable standard and make it hard to return. You won't catch them selling crap simply to make a quick buck like the Chinese do.

    Western companies have a sense of honesty and duty to the customer; the Chinese companies not only understand, but they also happily exploit caveat emptor.

    Western companies also have far better R&D and specs, so it makes sense the end product would be better than a Chinese-created and manufactured one. There's a very simple reason that Chinese made items are of such poor quality. It's a business strategy there.

    Do you think a Western company could survive by being cheats?
  • 0 Hide
    junkeymonkey , July 24, 2014 6:52 AM
    this list from a to z that starts on page 4 is it a up dated list or the same one from a few years back just copied in to this article ??
    the one I got saved is from 2010

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-manufacturer-oem,2729-5.html
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