lol can't believe u used i3 7350k as box opener but it kinda shows your perspective on the matter Edit: thanks for the likes everyone and the pin Greg!
I'm quite tempted to send you one of those 10$ Chinese random name PSUs used in 90%+ computers in my country. This Zalman can be considered premium compared to them.
Tempted, but can't. Shipping anything small from here is quite complicated and would cost more than a decent 750 watt power supply itself, which I cannot afford. :P Here's a story I can share. I had a Thermaltake TR2 430watt. Not 80+ rated like this Zalman one, and also similarly priced. I put it into a system that by my calculation should pull 450-470 watt under load. The PSU worked fine for 7 years and then blew up with a huge spark and smoke and everything.
Also just for the lols: Zalman powersupplies are made by FSP, the same manufacturer that makes a lot of the BeQuiet! and Coolermaster power supplies for example. As a matter of fact the DarkPower psu that is currently in your rig is most likely also made by FSP...
Meteor Media not every psu by zalman is manufactured by fsp, be careful. They also use Sirfa, Enhance and for the cheapest ones Hui Cheng, which I personally never heard of, and many others like CWT or HEC. So be sure to google your exact model to know what the specific OEM is
If you don't have the knowledge or equipment to test a psu then don't bother giving us your opinions and mis-information especially if those are only based upon " I don't know their name and they're not using my favourite marketing buzz words"
Hmm a couple thoughts. 1. Just because a PSU doesn't have an 80+ rating on it doesn't necessarily mean it's not efficient. All that really means is that they didn't pay to have it certified. Why didn't you test the wattage it was pulling yourself instead of just assuming. "After all this is science", right? Also the 80+ rating does not indicate the noise it will produce, the quality of the build or design, or the expected lifetime of the parts. I'm not defending this power supply. It's cheap and I wouldn't be surprised if wasn't 80% efficient or didn't last long under heavy loads or when fed with "dirty" power. But this video was heavy on assumptions and light on evidence. 2. Powering up your system with the voltage selection switch to 230V will do absolutely nothing. The PSU will be expecting 230V and the 120V you provide it won't be enough to power it on. In fact years ago I used this switch to keep people off my computer when I knew I was going to be away for a long time. On the other hand I wouldn't want to be in Europe and plugging this in with the switch set to 120V...
Had a HP system at work with a duff PSU once. HP came out, swapped the PSU, turned it on and BANG!. The guy realised that a memo had been sent around saying that the latest batch of PSU's had been set to 115V instead of 240V, so check it before you turn them on.
Hey, you seem like a computer expert, I have a prebuilt PC inspiron 660, the power supply is 300W, i was wondering if it is possible to add GTX 560 TI, and it doesn't have a PCIe cable, so is it safe to get a Sata to PCIe converter?
"Zalman isnt highly regarded at all in the states..." in my country a lot of PSU-s, cases and coolers are from ZALMAN and i never had any issues with them. Right now i am using my ZALMAN's Z5 plus case, which i love even after 6 years :D
Zalman recommends that you pull max 400w sustained on this unit. Thanks for doing zero research or actual testing for the video. Unlike you, I WOULD recommend this psu for its target market - ultra budget builders who need something cheap but much more dependable than no-name Chinese stuff.
Different brand put different wattage type on the label, the 600W on this one could means peak wattage, which means 600W for a very short amount of time. Even you pick PSU from big brand, you still need to have at least 100W head room, because PSU running on full load is not good
Any GOOD psu can sustain the full rated load indefinitely, and will in fact have a bit of headroom _over_ it's rating. It's really bad if a company is advertising the PEAK wattage in giant font!! Saying he should have done _research_ on how much the psu can manage is bullshit, that's not a step anyone would need to take when buying a quality psu.
Still, a cheap PSU can burn your PC. I've been using a Raidmax 730w for over 5 years now on my gaming PC, it hasn't failed on me but I do not recommend to people it even if its cheap. Also note tha even Cooler Master 500w 80+ bronze can kill your PC. TL;DR Buy recommended PSUs on the internet and known brands, do your research beforehand and get ready to spent over $50+ because the PSU is the most vital component in your PC, think of it as the heart and veins of your PC.
I agree with your TL;DR. Look at the specific model when buying something not just the brand. EVGA, Corsair and CoolerMaster etc. have all made good and bad products. Do your research. Johnny Guru's website is a great place to get educated on the quality of PSU's. His reviews were so good he actually works for Corsair now.
I've used a zalman power supply for over ten years. Same power supply the whole time. It has worked well for me. I might replace it in my next build, but I've never had one single hiccup with this thing. I don't know what Zalman has done in the past 10 years, but this PSU is rock solid.
Bro i bet u used zalman HP series,it is a really solid psu. ZALMAN LE ,LE II, Ecomax(Wattbit), TX series are made by a chinese company named "Hui Cheng", and Hui Cheng's psu build quality is horrible. Its just for low cost market. Zalman still makes Good PSUs though(like ZALMAN HP series)
LiveBig7 I originally got the psu for an e8400, then rebuilt with a 2600k. The psu died about 2 years ago though and i replaced it with a seasonic.Then i bought a new ryzen computer. i cant remember the exact name of the psu. I use the psu box to hold my spare cables but when i moved across the country i put that box in a storage unit and that is where it is now.
So you don't recommend it just because Zalman didn't pay the 80Plus Association (or whatever they're called) to put a sticker there? It worked well and delivered what it stated.
They don't need to pay anyone to put on their product that it is "0-100%" efficient. They could just say that it has an 80% efficiency of power draw to delivery of power. It doesn't need a sticker to say 80+ or any other certification to make that point. And they didn't. Because it probably isn't efficient. Greg is the correct one to assume that. Also, just because a power supply doesn't blow up the first day you use it doesn't mean it is a good buy... Why would he risk his reputation on recommending this just because it didn't blow up in one day? This comment comes off as a little butt hurt, and I am not sure why you would be.
Piotr Romasz might not really be lying in fact. ATX power supplies had the power split more evenly between the 5v and 12v rails. Before the Pentium 4, processors got most of their power from the 5v, as such those machines and power supplies for them are considered 5v heavy. With the Pentium 4 came the ATX 12v standard, in which it got its power from the 12. GPUs however still drew a lot from the 5v until right around the Radeon 9800 XT, and because of older 5v heavy systems still being common, many power supplies were still somewhat 5v heavy compared to today's units. what's odd is it takes a pretty high end power supply now to run those older 5v heavy systems since the 5v rail has become so anemic. I have a retro Athlon/Radeon 9800 Pro build that completely murdered the 5v in a cheap cooler master unit. It'll still run a modern system but more than 1 hard drive and they start cutting out. it's kinda funny
Oh. My 8800 GT ran fine on 300W, until it died due to the shitty single slot cooler. But running a almost 15 year old system with a 1200W PSU when even a 300W from back then could handle it. They should really build an adaptive, low power PSU. Something like 300W, 80+ Gold or higher and 30A on the 5V and 22A on the 12V, that can provide either of it, but not both at the same time. That way it woks fine on smaller modern systems and on older machines.
HappyBeezerStudios - by Lord_Mogul i had the same problem with my 7800 gt. it fries because of some shitty cooler. but psy feied too because of vaccuming all dust from my floor.
Филип Пешић you have delicery services? ._. when I wad in Moscow I had hard times finding postal services and my guest family even laughed when I told them about my idea sending a letter back home...
Actually here ZALMAN ZM600-TX is the cheapest / closest PSU from Zalman here and it costs about 60 bucks with 1 year warranty from another country, cause it's from the local ad shop, not even legal store.. FeelsBadMan
Any new 600W PSU can handle this system. The question is: how will it be after a year or longer? Usually, costs will be cut by using wet capacitators, leading to stability issues in a bit of time. Like the things used in branded consumer grade desktops. They are being used for the very reason of giving mysterious faults, preferably immediately after waranty is over. And then the lack of 80+-rating. Every bit of energy used by a PC ends up as heat. So 20% is not the end of the world. What is more: Most builds I see have vastly overdimensioned PSUs, ans spend most of their time using 10 - 20% of their capacity. Certification doesn't tell much, at those levels. Zalman is a pretty respected brand PSU here in Europe. I find decently rated reviews on various PSUs from 2005 onward. The brand is active in cases, fans, all kind of coolers (CPU, graphics card, active, passive, water). I would happily use Zalman for any build. Still, there were some issues regarding Zalman PSUs, a couple of years ago: Higher then average fail-rate, lousy support. No idea if they addressed that.
The desktop PSU issue was a short timeframe in the mid 00's and has been corrected since. The 5 year old Dell Optiplex I'm typing this on works like a champ with the factory power supply with a 1050ti running all on a 290w power supply. The fan never even gets loud while running modern AAA games. The myths swirling around all of this stuff needs to die. Unless you can show me a stockpile of dead desktop PC power supplies because the caps died aside from that stint in the early 00's, then don't keep perpetuating that it is the case.
Zalman sells many products here in Brazil and most of them are pretty decent. This specific model tho, I wouldn't risk even trying on a setup like yours... Your balls are Certified 80+ Titanum, my friend!
Zalman isn't bad at all. I've seen Top brands selling PSU's without a cert. I use products from Zalman and they never let me down. And who says a none Certified PSU have no protection for Overcurrent and undercurrent etc. Because something is cheap and have no efficiency certificate doesn't mean its not good. And ofcourse with such a build ur not gonna be greedy and get a cheap ass PSU. But for any daily use and none expensive PC's this PSU is great enough.
chuckie198811 600W don't make sense for a 'daily use' computer, though.. That's 300W territorium and there there are already good PSU's for around $30.
Ye like a regular build with a decent gpu and not a OEM PC that has literally no capabilities. But apparently u don't understand the example. My first build was a 520-/+ PSU from sharkoon and it held long enough to be worth the money. And i ran it with an i7 920 overclocked at 4.2Ghz with first GTX650 and later on the 960. That is what i meant with a regular build. its custom and in a way a starterpack for gamers who don't have the money to spend big bucks.
So you say that this PSU would be good for an entry-level gaming rig for around ~$500 - $600? Well, I know people that would tear you apart for suggesting a $20 PSU.. with 600W.. For a build for ~$500 I, and those people, would typically suggest a PSU in the price range of around $50 - $60, depending on the build. There you get good quality PSUs. I paid ~$100 for my be quiet! E10 500W PSU, for a ~$1100 build. Would you take a $40 PSU there, or what? O.o
You chose a Zalman. Should've gotten a HiPower or that "Intel/AMD" certified, tin cased PSUs. Zalman is still way up there compared to no name, shady-branded ones.
Plug a kilowatt tester into this vs a "high end 80+ certified" and see what it pulls from the wall. You are theorizing what this 80+ certification is with no proof. Do an actual test vs -- just will it blow up. OK, so it didn't blow and didn't sound that loud. What is the motherboard reporting on all the voltage rails, what is the 12V rail -- how close is it, 5v, etc. You are speculating with no real numbers on anything, you ran a benchmark -- sorry, but if you're going back to "Science" Studio moniker, then do some science. Get some metrics
that face you make when people are using i3 7350k's as box openers and have a core 2 quad for their gaming pc and you are stuck with a core 2 duo and you haven't even ever touched a graphics card with your hands
I've had a Zalman 850w PSU in my PC for the past 8 years, no bronze/silver/gold rating but it never failed me through overclocking and long/heavy use. I'd buy one again in a heartbeat
@@lun7n - Since Teddy hasn't replied to you! I too have a Thermaltake Smart 650W PSU, and it's been working well for around a year and a half. No problems at all. Powers a Ryzen 5 1600 and an overclocked 1070 Ti.
Zalman built those "fancy" coolers back in the 775 Socket days and earlier.. Not sure anymore what they where called but those LED Fans with this "Flower" Style Copper Coolers where Awesome back than here in Germany at least.. :D
Zalman is a good brand , i have a 600W PSU (ZM600-HP) in my pc powering a 290 and a i5 4460. I brought this one for like 20 euro's in for my first pc back in 2012. never had any problems with it, and my pc is like always on and even with the intens heat it never failed on me.
I bought an Alpine 700W for €17 a few years ago to temporarily power my FX8350 and GTX 670, until I could afford a proper psu. It ran fine for about a week... until I started overclocking the cpu. The result was a pop, a puff of smoke and a dead psu. I bought a proper psu the next week (XFX Pro 750W) and it's been running fine for the last 4 years.
maz199 not really... Most mobos these days have shock protection, even the cheap ones. So the fuse in a power supply blowing is rather unlikely going to take the rest of the system.
maz199 happend with me too. i had no oc goin on my pc and one day i just heard a pop from the psu and some smell. never turned the psu on again. ntg got damaged got a new one then
Yea, it had 3-4 different types of protection if I remember correctly, overcurrent, overvoltage etc. I'm assuming i just had cheap components. Good capacitors, as far as I know, can cost a few € each even in bulk, so you can't really get a good cheap power supply.
I had 5 PSU that died since 2003, only one time motherboard had to be repaired for 25$ and that PC is still used by my parents/sister, so not a single component had to be replaced because of dead PSU, even though one time i had sparks and PSU that was puting out power but was broken, didn't damage anything
You should have, at least, shown us the voltages (12v/5v/...) provided by the psu in idle/load, because otherwise this test doesnt seem to be serious at all, just plug it in and throw some benchmarks is not how you test a power supply
thats what i was thinking also....show us the voltage at idle/load and then talk the talk.... Zalman has been around for a long time and so what if they didnt get it Validated for 80+ certifications.... by the way, i would not use it on my system... =\
I have been using my desktop pc for 5 yrs now. I got it from best buy. It has a 350W psu from a brand I've never heard of - so it's probably a very cheap one. However, I've had no problems with it.
I searched for this video after a recent incident, I didn't have as much luck with the same sort of deal. I had an extremely stable system for two years with a 600w PSU and decided to trade up from a GTX 1060 to a RTX 2070s. I knew the 2070s is recommended with 650w but I thought it would be OK with 600w and I'm guessing this is where I went wrong. It worked fine for RUclips etc but I ran into some serious trouble when I tried a game. The loading screens were fine but when I clicked to enter the game menu, two loud cracks accompanied by bright flashes came from inside the input section of the video card where my monitor and VR headset are both plugged in. The entire system instantly powered off completely so I took it to a repair shop. I was told I had to buy a new SSD and PSU so I upgraded to a NVMe and a 750w gold series. My friend said the SSD should've been fine and I got ripped off by the repair guy. I'm also surprised the 2070s is still supposedly OK (according to the repair guy) as that's defiantly where the cracks and flashes came from and it also doesn't display dark tones properly anymore either. This may also be caused by my monitor with something shorting out in the USB input as I had a similar thing happen with a previous setup. Either-way I'm not happy with how things look as both the monitor and the 2070s are only a week old and I'm very tempted to try using their warranty. PS. I'm also still in the process of arranging new leads and a different monitor to test and eliminate possible factors.
The problem with cheap power supply are mainly crappy capacitors, the power supply will perform ok when brand new but they will quickly degrade, and the power supply will get out of spec in a few months if you push it moderately like on this setup. Then you will start to see problems, like horrendous coil whine (that are not a problem on itself) but it often comes up with high levels of ripple on the power rails, which can cause system crash/freezing and damage components, like regulators on the mb, fry ram sticks, and peripherals like sound card, usb related things, ssd and hdds. Another thing that they cut cost are on protection, because those components that are expensive and the power supply still works without it, like good isolated transformers, MOVs, discharge tubes, protection diodes, and active monitoring, etc. This can imply various levels of risk depending on the construction of the specific psu, like just lack of reliability up to fire hazards, to death traps. So TLDR, a cheap psu can be ok or dangerous, you will never know uless you take it apart, and reverse engineer it.
will not be any more different than using the included PSU of the $20 system as most PC's in that price are old dell desktops with included PSU and may use proprietary cables only because custom building PC market was a lot smaller than it currently is and as a result they would use custom mobo's (still do if you get a pre build desktop) and in those days the connectors were proprietary unless you include the HDD cables and so on
Ian Ffield that's a shitty psu tho...theyre just a bottom of the barrel Chinese board with an evga case on the Psu(EVGA told me this themselves that it's a rebranded China brand, as im a builder for friends) You can buy a 600w EVGA thats actually made by them for $50 and I've had one running with a x99 and a 980ti and runs amazing and the fan almost never comes on unless I force it to
I've a cheap one here I've never trusted,that came in the cheapest new ATX case I could find. I already had a known good PSU and when I tried this new one the fan didn't spin, ( which I thought was a fault & that it would overheat and burn right away), so I unplugged it and never used it. It also weighed next to nothing, which somehow didn't inspire confidence. I think on reflection i may have done it a disservice.Switching power supplies weigh next to nothing compared to older steel core copper wound transformer based ones. They can be more efficient, but they can also ( if cheaply designed) produce loads of audible high frequency whine and radio frequency interference. It may be that the fan didn't spin because it was a sophisticated design that only starts the fan when it gets a bit warm. It has no name on it, not even much to identify the circuit board inside it.
the 230V setup as default is a smart safety position for any case, since plugging this without checking in a 127V plug won't fry it, but putting a 127V setup power source in a 220V plug would instantly fry everything! Since the factory is supposed to export it to various countries is way smarted to do it that way you got it. One more thing: when testing a dangerous power suply like that try putting it as far away as possible from the other components with a metal sheet between it and the pc, so if it blows up its cheaper to deal with the damage. A 600W has to have a short circuit safety even the cheap ones, but I wouldn't put my hand on the fire for that, so always think of it blowing up and spreading fire all over the place when testing.
i still have a zalman zm1000-hp 1000 watt psu from i believe 2013, and even though i don't use it in my system because i don't need that kind of power it still works great after all those years.
It is not entirely true to say that it must not be inefficient. I know some small companies make power supply that not certified with 80plus but actually doing 80+ efficiency, just because getting 80plus do cost some money (USD2000 per 230V model) and they are small companies that couldn't guarantee to get extra USD2000 worth of revenue by getting 80plus certified.
I used a 400 watt, no brand power, uncertified power supply for a year and had no major issues until I added more fans, an AIO, and upgraded my gfx card. I didn't know as much about pc parts as I do now. I would have slapped my old self if I'd gotten the chance. I was also nearly thermal throttling my 970 and 6700k at the time without having a clue about it.
I have a rig with a GTX 750, an i5-650, and a Plexgear PS-500. Runs just fine. In fact, since it's my mum's PC, I'll swap it with the PSU that was there before, and use this for my E1200, 3GB RAM, HD 6950 combo. :P My main rig's PSU is a Fractal Design Integra M 750W, and that has a GTX 1080, 16 gigs of RAM, and an i5-4690K. The 1080 is overclocked by 100 MHz on both core clock and memory, as well.
i5 7640X and i7 7740X are up next is my guess. But it could be any Kaby Lake-X or Skylake-X CPU really. Looks like they will only make good box cutters right now. Or heaters...probably better heaters than box cutters.
Not overheat, because Intel has silly high temperature limits at which electron migration really hits the fan. But 100°C, 280W (whole system with multimedia grade sub 30W GPU in idle) is something, right? Game while heating your room.
Nice video. They are from South Korea and have been used for years in Asia. They do manufacturer their own units. They are pretty good. It would have been good to have a wattage meter on the wall to see what was being pulled. There's no danger of blowing up. My wife has had one in her Phenom for the last 10 years and still going strong.
Rawr xD codegen don't even exist anymore lol. You can't find their website! I found a codegen 470w PSU in a old PC from P4 days. When I opened it, oh god. The thing had the most useless capacitors and looked like a load above 250w would be enough to kill it.
Zalman PSUs are great for the money, they are not super high quality but they are infinitely better than most OEM power supplies we find in case/PSU bundles and even Dell/HP etc systems. The 700w unit I have in one of my many systems has been running 24/7 for 2 years and hasn't given me any issues at all. For the last year it has been running an i5 6600k, ASRock Z170 Pro4s and Radeon HD 5850 and it hasn't shut down randomly, gotten hot or otherwise missed a beat. That said, I would not recommend it over a decent 80+ cert unit, your power bill will take a hit. My 1000w 80+ gold OCZ unit draws 50w less under the same load on the same system from the wall. This is with Aida64 stress test and furmark loading things up. I see 400w total on the 80+ and 420 - 450w on the Zalman. This will be worse with lower rated units, as we get near the max load the PSU is rated for the heat will build up and efficiency will decrease. Not being 80+ doesn't mean it is a bad unit, the cooling is adequate and components are decent. For what you pay I would definitely recommend Zalman's PSUs for users on a tight budget. At least the units I have used (3 of them but only one currently) have been solid. If you need a 400w minimum PSU for your system then get a 700w Zalman and your efficiency should be about the same as an 80+ 400/450w unit. Efficiency scales with load, the sweet spot will be a mid toward high load, below and above that it will drop off.
Dear God, he thinks this is a cheap PSU! You haven't seen cheap until you've bought a $30 PC case with a bundled "600W" Sparkle brand supply in stylish galvanised steel.
Science Studio tbh in EU they are known product sellers especialy in southern EU aka Balkan region or Spain and Portugal , in the SSSR errr i mean Russia its to my knoelage from friends waaaay worse
ANY PSU WITH VOLTAGE SELECTOR SWITCH (110V-230V) IS GARBAGE! That indicate a PSU without active PFC! It's an outdated PSU project! It would also lack a bunch of safety circuits!
Zalman actually once was a pretty reputable brand. Back in the early 2000s they were kind of a big deal as of a manufacturer of cases, power supplies and cooling products. You can't be blamed for not knowing them though, since that all obviously was way before you got into computers.
I know you are not the guy for such a video. BUT: One should never rate such critical electrical components without opening them up and looking at the actual circuit and components inside of them.
A couple of months ago, I needed a PSU for my second PC, one that I used mostly for work. I found online a used EVGA 450W PSU 80+ White for around US$30, but I also saw a Zalman ZM660-XT 80+ Bronze being sold for a bit less. Without looking at the reviews, I bought the one from Zalman, because it's cheaper, and it offered more watts. I wish I did some more research back then, because the Zalman turned out to be this big, semi-modular PSU that forced me to switch to a case that can accommodate its depth. Its braided cables were long, thick, and rigid, making cable management extremely difficult. Though its build quality is definitely superior compared to this dirt cheap $15 PSU/tinderbox I could've gone for, and perhaps at par with some of the better ones out there, I wouldn't recommend it to builders, simply because it's hard to work with. That being said, the PSU I bought performs fine to this day. I've done some heavy gaming with it, and even managed a bit of overclocking on the Ryzen 5 1400 my work PC has. It's on about 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and the PSU is still all good. No funny noises, no funky smells, nothing out of the ordinary. It's an OK product as far as I'm concerned. Will I use one on a rig that's like yours? Yes, if it's the only thing within arm's reach, why not? Will I buy one for my dream rig? No, because I know there are better options out there. One last thing. Finding an 80+ sticker slapped on the PSU is no guarantee that it's good. Any Chinese sweatshop can print 80+ stickers, slap them onto as many PSU's as it can, and call it a day. You're right about one thing, and that's to always go for trusted brands, but the lack of 80+ stickers shouldn't be dealbreakers. I've learned my lesson, and that's to perform better due diligence. You probably should learn how to conduct better reviews.
Zalman is quality. It's cheap because it's not rated, not as you said, not rated because it's cheap. Getting it rated cost money and would make the price go up.
I believe i've paid about 40 USD for my SilentiumPC PSU, 600W 80+ Bronze. I was running an overclocked FX6100, an overclocked HD6990 from asus, about 12 fans and a water pump. After a little bit of calculations it turned out that i was pulling close to 700W from my 600W PSU under full load. Still runs like a champ, no problems so far :D
Greg, I love you, but I have to make a couple of comments here. If this is really "Science Studio", doesn't the science of this one very limited experiment only show that price doesn't matter? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't use this PSU inside my rig, but it isn't a decision made based on any empirical facts. Also, couldn't you do some "real" science and measure power pull from the wall with each PSU and compare them, and do your own 80+ certification? While you are at it, noise measurements might be nice also. Again, from a pit-of-my-stomach standpoint, I would make exactly the same decision you put forth here, but it isn't scientific. Thanks for risking your components for us.
I watched this in constant stress.. i meant, i was thinking "now it gonna explode... now it gonna explode.... now it DOES gonna explode"... i was expecting smoke, fire and your water cooling shattering and i was like aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!..... that time lapse with music killed me.
for like 7 bucks more I got an EVGA 600W PSU from my local best buy a couple weeks ago. Its 80+ rated too and so far runs like a champ. Super quiet when not under load.
I'm korean, and i know zalman. when it comes to psu, zalman delievers you the product that matches the price. their expensive psu line ups do fine. cheap ones? you got yourself a ticking bomb. ok not a ticking bomb, but you know what i mean.
No, I don't know what you mean. Have you seen mulitple cheap PSUs fail when they were run on a properly specc'd machine (in other words, not a 500w power supply on a machine that needs a 1000w)? I'm so tired of this hearsay that "oh yeah, the cheap ones will probably fail" with zero evidence or proof to back it up. I've tried so many times to find pictures or forum posts of people actually blowing up their computer with a cheap power supply and I just never find it. I'm sure someone has put a power supply that was too small for what they were doing and had some kind of problem, but I've never seen any evidence of this cheap power supply that blows up computers aside from many some garbage sold in the worst of black markets next to fake Gucci bags or something.
seems like some exceptionally long cables to have it behind your pc and connected. I'm skeptical of this PSU "test" without power draw numbers. And as others have mentioned, the 230v setting wont hurt a PC in a 115v environment, however, the opposite is true; a 115v setting in a 230v environment will very likely be disastrous.
At least get an oscilloscope and probe some of the voltages and see how hard it is rippling/sagging. There is nothing even remotely scientific about this "test".
Zalman is a good quality budget orientated company. I've used them for the past 5 or 6 years now. i have there fans and cpu cooler. A friend of mine has a case and similar power supply as shown here. 6 years later and all still running well. Pc's are serviced every year by myself.
That is not good review you can't blane on this PSU. For a channel that have science in name you need at lest a Watimeter our to compare if other 600 w (80 plus). Very poor job on this video.
I think I built this power supply in my buddies garage back in 2016. He works for the power supply company that supplies Zalman. Hope it worked out okay. We were a little tipsy when worked on it.
You have a few misconceptions: 1. Power supplies are most efficient somewhere around 70% to 80% of rated load. 2. The larger the power supply the less efficient it's baseline, all else being equal. Larger power supplies also tend to use better quality parts, so your experience might be counter-intuitive. When building a PC, get a power supply that's 25% to 35% more than the largest load you expect to draw. 3. The 80%+ rating (and similar ratings) indicates the lowest efficiency over a specific range of test loads, you seem to think it's the highest efficiency. Most of the time PCs are humming along at near zero load, so the low end ratings are more important to total power usage over time. 4. The 80%+ rating is granted to specific salable units (branding included). As you said, this is probably a rebrand of another power supply. That other power supply might be Platinum rated (unlikely) but with the "Zalman" name has to be re-certified (which they aren't going to do for a one-off, ultra-cheap production run).
@Salazar why didn't you check the voltage outputs (drops,spikes while consuming power) using HWinfo or another program?? and maybe compare the results with your other PSU...that's more scientific and realistic...show us what really happens. Good video though...
While I have no problem watching a video about a dirt cheap PSU and I like your channel, this is not science. A sample size of 1, and your test is 'does it blow up immediately?'. And at the end of the video you seem to draw conclusions (negative might I add) about the PSU based *solely* on personal feelings. Testing a PSU for 1 day and then when it doesn't fail drawing conclusions on whether it is worth buying based purely on personal opinion, not facts, is not science. It hardly qualifies as speculation, a channel with the name "Science Studio" has to do better than this...
I just wanted to point out that I think you might've started of with a bit of a bias, Salazar. I mean yes I know it was only 20 dollars, like some cheap Chinese knock off price. But Zalman used to be a good brand for coolers and power supplies back in the day. Thing is 'Moneual', their parent company went into bankruptcy due to a 3 billion dollar corporate fraud scandal. I guess this is them trying to come back into the market. I mean the review was completely fine but I hope you already knew about this and I just think you should've at least pointed that fact out. I don't want to defend Zalman, but I just hope you knew the story.
Voltages would have been nice or leave it running for about a year and report on when it does break. This video was empty of useful and/or exciting content.
I've used a Zalman LX 500 power supply to feed a hungry AMD FX8320, 16 GB RAM,a GTX 760, 2 HDD,1 SSD and 6 LED fans for around 5 years without an issue. I've sold that system and the PSU still works fine. So I guess they are not that bad. Of course I bought a Seasonic 620 W modular PSU for my new PC just to be on the safe side 😁
This actually looks like the sort of product that makes sense for a budget used build, plenty of people are trying to survive high GPU prices by picking up older, less efficient graphics cards, a cheap 600w psu like this might actually be viable in a less expensive system that still needs a solid amount of watts behind it.
lol can't believe u used i3 7350k as box opener but it kinda shows your perspective on the matter
Edit: thanks for the likes everyone and the pin Greg!
Christopher Kato because its a "stupid" CPU ;)
lol i use ram sticks to open my boxes. works like a charm and looks great doing it
It honestly won't hurt the interior components lol
SenorSwagBuns more like $95-100
Nice to see my processor doing work, and before you tell me how stupid I am for buying it it was a gift
I'm quite tempted to send you one of those 10$ Chinese random name PSUs used in 90%+ computers in my country. This Zalman can be considered premium compared to them.
DO IT
Tempted, but can't. Shipping anything small from here is quite complicated and would cost more than a decent 750 watt power supply itself, which I cannot afford. :P
Here's a story I can share. I had a Thermaltake TR2 430watt. Not 80+ rated like this Zalman one, and also similarly priced. I put it into a system that by my calculation should pull 450-470 watt under load. The PSU worked fine for 7 years and then blew up with a huge spark and smoke and everything.
Rawr xD I guess my 80+ bronze 750w chieftec (manufactured by delta) is just fine with my pc
im curious
those cheap ass power supplies are very common here in Brazil... Zalman is fancy stuff !!
Also just for the lols: Zalman powersupplies are made by FSP, the same manufacturer that makes a lot of the BeQuiet! and Coolermaster power supplies for example. As a matter of fact the DarkPower psu that is currently in your rig is most likely also made by FSP...
Meteor Media not every psu by zalman is manufactured by fsp, be careful. They also use Sirfa, Enhance and for the cheapest ones Hui Cheng, which I personally never heard of, and many others like CWT or HEC. So be sure to google your exact model to know what the specific OEM is
Wrong - this is certainly not an FSP.
Meteor Media i have a FSP 600 psu
FSP is respected, would never let them write peak.
And ? Even if they made it it dosent have a big impact on the current quality of the PSU.
If you don't have the knowledge or equipment to test a psu then don't bother giving us your opinions and mis-information especially if those are only based upon " I don't know their name and they're not using my favourite marketing buzz words"
Hmm a couple thoughts.
1. Just because a PSU doesn't have an 80+ rating on it doesn't necessarily mean it's not efficient. All that really means is that they didn't pay to have it certified. Why didn't you test the wattage it was pulling yourself instead of just assuming. "After all this is science", right? Also the 80+ rating does not indicate the noise it will produce, the quality of the build or design, or the expected lifetime of the parts.
I'm not defending this power supply. It's cheap and I wouldn't be surprised if wasn't 80% efficient or didn't last long under heavy loads or when fed with "dirty" power. But this video was heavy on assumptions and light on evidence.
2. Powering up your system with the voltage selection switch to 230V will do absolutely nothing. The PSU will be expecting 230V and the 120V you provide it won't be enough to power it on. In fact years ago I used this switch to keep people off my computer when I knew I was going to be away for a long time. On the other hand I wouldn't want to be in Europe and plugging this in with the switch set to 120V...
David MacLaren As someone who brands themselves as 'Science Studio', these are the kind of things I want to see.
Had a HP system at work with a duff PSU once. HP came out, swapped the PSU, turned it on and BANG!. The guy realised that a memo had been sent around saying that the latest batch of PSU's had been set to 115V instead of 240V, so check it before you turn them on.
Crimson What are you talking about? The computer ran fine for the whole 10 minutes he tested it for.
Crimson That could have been some other issue altogether. By your logic, 80+ certified psu=more fps?
Hey, you seem like a computer expert, I have a prebuilt PC inspiron 660, the power supply is 300W, i was wondering if it is possible to add GTX 560 TI, and it doesn't have a PCIe cable, so is it safe to get a Sata to PCIe converter?
"Zalman isnt highly regarded at all in the states..."
in my country a lot of PSU-s, cases and coolers are from ZALMAN and i never had any issues with them.
Right now i am using my ZALMAN's Z5 plus case, which i love even after 6 years :D
Right it's a very well know company
Right now I’m using a Z9 and have been for nearly 8 years and it still works perfectly and keeps everything cool. Good company
Damn my psu came with silver screws... thanks Greg
LOL my bad!
my evga psu came with silver screws
Tim Cox yeah mine was evga too. The 650 gq
Who else thinks silverstone is the greatest? :D
mine is an 850w how does that make sense
Zalman recommends that you pull max 400w sustained on this unit. Thanks for doing zero research or actual testing for the video. Unlike you, I WOULD recommend this psu for its target market - ultra budget builders who need something cheap but much more dependable than no-name Chinese stuff.
Then why does it says that it is 600w, then?
Different brand put different wattage type on the label, the 600W on this one could means peak wattage, which means 600W for a very short amount of time. Even you pick PSU from big brand, you still need to have at least 100W head room, because PSU running on full load is not good
Any GOOD psu can sustain the full rated load indefinitely, and will in fact have a bit of headroom _over_ it's rating. It's really bad if a company is advertising the PEAK wattage in giant font!! Saying he should have done _research_ on how much the psu can manage is bullshit, that's not a step anyone would need to take when buying a quality psu.
Where did you find that information?
Speaking of not doing research, for literally 4 extra dollars you could buy a Corsair CX500 which can actually pull 500w and is 80+ bronze...
Be honest Salazar. You only bought this PSU cause the sticker matches your LEDs.
YOU GOT ME
Why am I not surprised lol
Still, a cheap PSU can burn your PC. I've been using a Raidmax 730w for over 5 years now on my gaming PC, it hasn't failed on me but I do not recommend to people it even if its cheap. Also note tha even Cooler Master 500w 80+ bronze can kill your PC.
TL;DR
Buy recommended PSUs on the internet and known brands, do your research beforehand and get ready to spent over $50+ because the PSU is the most vital component in your PC, think of it as the heart and veins of your PC.
I agree with your TL;DR. Look at the specific model when buying something not just the brand. EVGA, Corsair and CoolerMaster etc. have all made good and bad products. Do your research.
Johnny Guru's website is a great place to get educated on the quality of PSU's. His reviews were so good he actually works for Corsair now.
My dad bought a cheap $30 750 watt PSU and it killed his mobo.
I've used a zalman power supply for over ten years. Same power supply the whole time. It has worked well for me. I might replace it in my next build, but I've never had one single hiccup with this thing. I don't know what Zalman has done in the past 10 years, but this PSU is rock solid.
Melthornal whats your setup
Bro i bet u used zalman HP series,it is a really solid psu.
ZALMAN LE ,LE II, Ecomax(Wattbit), TX series are made by a chinese company named "Hui Cheng", and Hui Cheng's psu build quality is horrible. Its just for low cost market. Zalman still makes Good PSUs though(like ZALMAN HP series)
LiveBig7 I originally got the psu for an e8400, then rebuilt with a 2600k. The psu died about 2 years ago though and i replaced it with a seasonic.Then i bought a new ryzen computer. i cant remember the exact name of the psu. I use the psu box to hold my spare cables but when i moved across the country i put that box in a storage unit and that is where it is now.
I see your budget has gone up.
secrets "budget"
Zalman used to be the go-to for Cooling and sometimes PSUs back in the mid to late 2000's. That's why it performed satisfyingly.
It was probably just old stock that they wanted to move out quickly.
After seeing you use an i3 7350k as a box opener, I now use a core2 duo e6550 as a box opener, because I cannot afford a $170 box opener
whiteboi I'm not fortunate enough to even have a core 2 duo. I use a single core celeron 775 CPU for opening my boxes.
Don't worry, with Intel's new chips coming out you should have an excellent box cutter upgrade path.
Sean Roods
You think that's cheap? I use my fingers.
obvious_humor i use my nails, i always let one grow.
whiteboi I use a intel celeron G460
So you don't recommend it just because Zalman didn't pay the 80Plus Association (or whatever they're called) to put a sticker there? It worked well and delivered what it stated.
They don't need to pay anyone to put on their product that it is "0-100%" efficient. They could just say that it has an 80% efficiency of power draw to delivery of power. It doesn't need a sticker to say 80+ or any other certification to make that point. And they didn't. Because it probably isn't efficient. Greg is the correct one to assume that.
Also, just because a power supply doesn't blow up the first day you use it doesn't mean it is a good buy... Why would he risk his reputation on recommending this just because it didn't blow up in one day? This comment comes off as a little butt hurt, and I am not sure why you would be.
Found the poor.
I still remeber when psu that was rated 400W, the real power was 238W and then caught on fire.
Piotr Romasz might not really be lying in fact. ATX power supplies had the power split more evenly between the 5v and 12v rails. Before the Pentium 4, processors got most of their power from the 5v, as such those machines and power supplies for them are considered 5v heavy. With the Pentium 4 came the ATX 12v standard, in which it got its power from the 12. GPUs however still drew a lot from the 5v until right around the Radeon 9800 XT, and because of older 5v heavy systems still being common, many power supplies were still somewhat 5v heavy compared to today's units.
what's odd is it takes a pretty high end power supply now to run those older 5v heavy systems since the 5v rail has become so anemic. I have a retro Athlon/Radeon 9800 Pro build that completely murdered the 5v in a cheap cooler master unit. It'll still run a modern system but more than 1 hard drive and they start cutting out. it's kinda funny
Piotr Romasz Google 500w Hercules review. It's hilarious. advertised as 500w but basically explodes at 200w.
Oh. My 8800 GT ran fine on 300W, until it died due to the shitty single slot cooler.
But running a almost 15 year old system with a 1200W PSU when even a 300W from back then could handle it.
They should really build an adaptive, low power PSU.
Something like 300W, 80+ Gold or higher and 30A on the 5V and 22A on the 12V, that can provide either of it, but not both at the same time. That way it woks fine on smaller modern systems and on older machines.
HappyBeezerStudios - by Lord_Mogul i had the same problem with my 7800 gt.
it fries because of some shitty cooler. but psy feied too because of vaccuming all dust from my floor.
Silver screws mean not premium lol. What do you mean.
Has no idea on hardware. Lol
Just spray some rgb paint on the screws and be done
Gamers seem so stuck up and snobbish lol oh no, a silver screw, someone is going tho think my system is too cheap lol
Corsair's 80plus white 550W PSU comes with silver screws. The color just means they aren't coated/painted with other than silver color.
Actually 90% of PSUs in my country are like
Филип Пешић you have delicery services? ._.
when I wad in Moscow I had hard times finding postal services and my guest family even laughed when I told them about my idea sending a letter back home...
Hah I am not from Russia my friend. :) Tho it's understandable to have trouble finding anything in Cyrillic and it's f*****g everywhere :P
Actually here ZALMAN ZM600-TX is the cheapest / closest PSU from Zalman here and it costs about 60 bucks with 1 year warranty from another country, cause it's from the local ad shop, not even legal store.. FeelsBadMan
ЋирилицаИзНотДед
IKR, mine are the same. They come with matte-silver and cooling fan only runs at full speed.
Any new 600W PSU can handle this system. The question is: how will it be after a year or longer? Usually, costs will be cut by using wet capacitators, leading to stability issues in a bit of time. Like the things used in branded consumer grade desktops. They are being used for the very reason of giving mysterious faults, preferably immediately after waranty is over.
And then the lack of 80+-rating. Every bit of energy used by a PC ends up as heat. So 20% is not the end of the world. What is more: Most builds I see have vastly overdimensioned PSUs, ans spend most of their time using 10 - 20% of their capacity. Certification doesn't tell much, at those levels.
Zalman is a pretty respected brand PSU here in Europe. I find decently rated reviews on various PSUs from 2005 onward. The brand is active in cases, fans, all kind of coolers (CPU, graphics card, active, passive, water). I would happily use Zalman for any build. Still, there were some issues regarding Zalman PSUs, a couple of years ago: Higher then average fail-rate, lousy support. No idea if they addressed that.
The desktop PSU issue was a short timeframe in the mid 00's and has been corrected since. The 5 year old Dell Optiplex I'm typing this on works like a champ with the factory power supply with a 1050ti running all on a 290w power supply. The fan never even gets loud while running modern AAA games. The myths swirling around all of this stuff needs to die. Unless you can show me a stockpile of dead desktop PC power supplies because the caps died aside from that stint in the early 00's, then don't keep perpetuating that it is the case.
Zalman sells many products here in Brazil and most of them are pretty decent.
This specific model tho, I wouldn't risk even trying on a setup like yours...
Your balls are Certified 80+ Titanum, my friend!
R T You are absolutely right!
Zalman isn't bad at all. I've seen Top brands selling PSU's without a cert. I use products from Zalman and they never let me down. And who says a none Certified PSU have no protection for Overcurrent and undercurrent etc. Because something is cheap and have no efficiency certificate doesn't mean its not good. And ofcourse with such a build ur not gonna be greedy and get a cheap ass PSU. But for any daily use and none expensive PC's this PSU is great enough.
chuckie198811 600W don't make sense for a 'daily use' computer, though.. That's 300W territorium and there there are already good PSU's for around $30.
Ye like a regular build with a decent gpu and not a OEM PC that has literally no capabilities. But apparently u don't understand the example. My first build was a 520-/+ PSU from sharkoon and it held long enough to be worth the money. And i ran it with an i7 920 overclocked at 4.2Ghz with first GTX650 and later on the 960. That is what i meant with a regular build. its custom and in a way a starterpack for gamers who don't have the money to spend big bucks.
So you say that this PSU would be good for an entry-level gaming rig for around ~$500 - $600? Well, I know people that would tear you apart for suggesting a $20 PSU.. with 600W.. For a build for ~$500 I, and those people, would typically suggest a PSU in the price range of around $50 - $60, depending on the build. There you get good quality PSUs.
I paid ~$100 for my be quiet! E10 500W PSU, for a ~$1100 build. Would you take a $40 PSU there, or what? O.o
he doesnt know what is a real cheap PSU, Zalman looks pretty good compared to the generic PSU's I've seen
Caio Ramos true, I used to have a 450watt advance and it costed 9$
Like the extremely loud rosewood 250w psu in my pc
It's garbage. It's the rebranding of 1st player brand psu.
@@ranjanbiswas3233 so its a good psu... Some guy on the ltt said its build by fsp/enhance
@@lordmeme9965 eh, the fsp oem is not the oem of this psu, it's huicheng
You chose a Zalman. Should've gotten a HiPower or that "Intel/AMD" certified, tin cased PSUs.
Zalman is still way up there compared to no name, shady-branded ones.
julian23561 or try a msi psu
Plug a kilowatt tester into this vs a "high end 80+ certified" and see what it pulls from the wall. You are theorizing what this 80+ certification is with no proof. Do an actual test vs -- just will it blow up. OK, so it didn't blow and didn't sound that loud. What is the motherboard reporting on all the voltage rails, what is the 12V rail -- how close is it, 5v, etc. You are speculating with no real numbers on anything, you ran a benchmark -- sorry, but if you're going back to "Science" Studio moniker, then do some science. Get some metrics
That face you make when you use an i3 7350k as a box opener.
That face you make when you find out science studio likes your comment
that face you make when people are using i3 7350k's as box openers and have a core 2 quad for their gaming pc and you are stuck with a core 2 duo and you haven't even ever touched a graphics card with your hands
I hear ya!
what? I got the 3770 non k, even oc 4.1 all cores, best cpu I've ever had, this can push 99% of aaa games over 60 fps
it's that weird guy zach 3rd gen i7 are still good,much better thank i3 7350k, right?
I've had a Zalman 850w PSU in my PC for the past 8 years, no bronze/silver/gold rating but it never failed me through overclocking and long/heavy use. I'd buy one again in a heartbeat
You got me when you were using the i3 7350K as opener XD
That looks like it's pretty good for the price. I have a thermaltake smart 650 watt supply.
Teddy's Lift World how is it going so far?
@@lun7n - Since Teddy hasn't replied to you! I too have a Thermaltake Smart 650W PSU, and it's been working well for around a year and a half. No problems at all. Powers a Ryzen 5 1600 and an overclocked 1070 Ti.
You are a braver man than I with the power supply, but good unto you for trying new stuff out!
Zalman built those "fancy" coolers back in the 775 Socket days and earlier.. Not sure anymore what they where called but those LED Fans with this "Flower" Style Copper Coolers where Awesome back than here in Germany at least.. :D
Come on Greg. Let's try and send a 1080 to South Africa in a new series. "Will it arrive?"
YESS Games yes it will
Zalman is a good brand , i have a 600W PSU (ZM600-HP) in my pc powering a 290 and a i5 4460.
I brought this one for like 20 euro's in for my first pc back in 2012.
never had any problems with it, and my pc is like always on and even with the intens heat it never failed on me.
its probably just slowly killing your components as they have failed REAL test after test and dont stay in ATX spec, but thats fine, right
I bought an Alpine 700W for €17 a few years ago to temporarily power my FX8350 and GTX 670, until I could afford a proper psu. It ran fine for about a week... until I started overclocking the cpu. The result was a pop, a puff of smoke and a dead psu. I bought a proper psu the next week (XFX Pro 750W) and it's been running fine for the last 4 years.
wait the psu died and your system survived? You dodged a bullet there.
maz199 not really... Most mobos these days have shock protection, even the cheap ones. So the fuse in a power supply blowing is rather unlikely going to take the rest of the system.
maz199 happend with me too. i had no oc goin on my pc and one day i just heard a pop from the psu and some smell. never turned the psu on again. ntg got damaged got a new one then
Yea, it had 3-4 different types of protection if I remember correctly, overcurrent, overvoltage etc. I'm assuming i just had cheap components. Good capacitors, as far as I know, can cost a few € each even in bulk, so you can't really get a good cheap power supply.
I had 5 PSU that died since 2003, only one time motherboard had to be repaired for 25$ and that PC is still used by my parents/sister, so not a single component had to be replaced because of dead PSU, even though one time i had sparks and PSU that was puting out power but was broken, didn't damage anything
“Thats alot of money on the line” uses a good i3 processor as a knife to open boxes
You can tell he’s trying to brag about his money smh😂
You should have, at least, shown us the voltages (12v/5v/...) provided by the psu in idle/load, because otherwise this test doesnt seem to be serious at all, just plug it in and throw some benchmarks is not how you test a power supply
thats what i was thinking also....show us the voltage at idle/load and then talk the talk.... Zalman has been around for a long time and so what if they didnt get it Validated for 80+ certifications....
by the way, i would not use it on my system... =\
I have been using my desktop pc for 5 yrs now. I got it from best buy. It has a 350W psu from a brand I've never heard of - so it's probably a very cheap one. However, I've had no problems with it.
Nice to see that the i3 is good for SOMETHING
i still use an i3.
I wish i have i3 ;(
I searched for this video after a recent incident, I didn't have as much luck with the same sort of deal. I had an extremely stable system for two years with a 600w PSU and decided to trade up from a GTX 1060 to a RTX 2070s. I knew the 2070s is recommended with 650w but I thought it would be OK with 600w and I'm guessing this is where I went wrong. It worked fine for RUclips etc but I ran into some serious trouble when I tried a game. The loading screens were fine but when I clicked to enter the game menu, two loud cracks accompanied by bright flashes came from inside the input section of the video card where my monitor and VR headset are both plugged in. The entire system instantly powered off completely so I took it to a repair shop. I was told I had to buy a new SSD and PSU so I upgraded to a NVMe and a 750w gold series. My friend said the SSD should've been fine and I got ripped off by the repair guy. I'm also surprised the 2070s is still supposedly OK (according to the repair guy) as that's defiantly where the cracks and flashes came from and it also doesn't display dark tones properly anymore either. This may also be caused by my monitor with something shorting out in the USB input as I had a similar thing happen with a previous setup. Either-way I'm not happy with how things look as both the monitor and the 2070s are only a week old and I'm very tempted to try using their warranty.
PS. I'm also still in the process of arranging new leads and a different monitor to test and eliminate possible factors.
Now that's a power supply worthy of the 7350K. Oh and can you review Intel's new box opener, the i5 7640X?
the new box opener from Intel is the i9
That's the water boiler.
mmvsn old Pentium 4
Damian Anlauf it's K not X
The problem with cheap power supply are mainly crappy capacitors, the power supply will perform ok when brand new but they will quickly degrade, and the power supply will get out of spec in a few months if you push it moderately like on this setup. Then you will start to see problems, like horrendous coil whine (that are not a problem on itself) but it often comes up with high levels of ripple on the power rails, which can cause system crash/freezing and damage components, like regulators on the mb, fry ram sticks, and peripherals like sound card, usb related things, ssd and hdds. Another thing that they cut cost are on protection, because those components that are expensive and the power supply still works without it, like good isolated transformers, MOVs, discharge tubes, protection diodes, and active monitoring, etc. This can imply various levels of risk depending on the construction of the specific psu, like just lack of reliability up to fire hazards, to death traps. So TLDR, a cheap psu can be ok or dangerous, you will never know uless you take it apart, and reverse engineer it.
Forget the bat knife, i3 is the best knife
Never bring a knife to an i3 fight
wait Zalman is a pretty well known company what do you mean
So what about my $20 PC and $300 PSU? 🤔
will not be any more different than using the included PSU of the $20 system as most PC's in that price are old dell desktops with included PSU and may use proprietary cables only because custom building PC market was a lot smaller than it currently is and as a result they would use custom mobo's (still do if you get a pre build desktop) and in those days the connectors were proprietary unless you include the HDD cables and so on
Zahid Shabir It's sarcasm lmao
sarcasm =/= joke
Ian Ffield that's a shitty psu tho...theyre just a bottom of the barrel Chinese board with an evga case on the Psu(EVGA told me this themselves that it's a rebranded China brand, as im a builder for friends)
You can buy a 600w EVGA thats actually made by them for $50 and I've had one running with a x99 and a 980ti and runs amazing and the fan almost never comes on unless I force it to
thats just stupid
"Science studio: uses an i3 7350k to open a box"
"me: uses an i3 2120 in my pc"
"Science Studio": You Cannot run my PC, cheap PSU.
"Zalman cheap PSU": Hold my beer.
I've a cheap one here I've never trusted,that came in the cheapest new ATX case I could find. I already had a known good PSU and when I tried this new one the fan didn't spin, ( which I thought was a fault & that it would overheat and burn right away), so I unplugged it and never used it. It also weighed next to nothing, which somehow didn't inspire confidence. I think on reflection i may have done it a disservice.Switching power supplies weigh next to nothing compared to older steel core copper wound transformer based ones. They can be more efficient, but they can also ( if cheaply designed) produce loads of audible high frequency whine and radio frequency interference. It may be that the fan didn't spin because it was a sophisticated design that only starts the fan when it gets a bit warm. It has no name on it, not even much to identify the circuit board inside it.
the 230V setup as default is a smart safety position for any case, since plugging this without checking in a 127V plug won't fry it, but putting a 127V setup power source in a 220V plug would instantly fry everything! Since the factory is supposed to export it to various countries is way smarted to do it that way you got it.
One more thing: when testing a dangerous power suply like that try putting it as far away as possible from the other components with a metal sheet between it and the pc, so if it blows up its cheaper to deal with the damage. A 600W has to have a short circuit safety even the cheap ones, but I wouldn't put my hand on the fire for that, so always think of it blowing up and spreading fire all over the place when testing.
Do you recommend the i3 7350K to be used as a ninja shuriken
No
It might have been a decent review if you had actually measured the Watt draw at the wall and compared it to your chosen PSU.
I thought ZALMAN is a good brand? Was I completely wrong?
Just not as reputable in my eyes when it comes to PSUs.
Sean McNamara they also make budget cases
they make decent cases I think
i still have a zalman zm1000-hp 1000 watt psu from i believe 2013, and even though i don't use it in my system because i don't need that kind of power it still works great after all those years.
they used to have very popular coolers though. I was a big fan of the CNPS-9500/9700/9900 series coolers before rifle coolers were standardized.
It is not entirely true to say that it must not be inefficient. I know some small companies make power supply that not certified with 80plus but actually doing 80+ efficiency, just because getting 80plus do cost some money (USD2000 per 230V model) and they are small companies that couldn't guarantee to get extra USD2000 worth of revenue by getting 80plus certified.
Well that was pretty interesting nerve racking but interesting glad it didn't explode though.
That box opener... Such madlad
Kids in Africa could have eaten that 7350k
d1asian they still can
I don't think they would like the toothpaste.
toothpaste hahaha!@
A poor kid have used that processor.
Butt
I used a 400 watt, no brand power, uncertified power supply for a year and had no major issues until I added more fans, an AIO, and upgraded my gfx card. I didn't know as much about pc parts as I do now. I would have slapped my old self if I'd gotten the chance. I was also nearly thermal throttling my 970 and 6700k at the time without having a clue about it.
just wanna say i have a zalman case and its very good for 60 bucks i got 5 included fans! Its deffenetly not a bad or unknown company.
Thumbs up because I NEVER would have caught that little red switch in the wrong position. Thank you I just learned something.
PC components : why are we still here just to suffer...
I have a rig with a GTX 750, an i5-650, and a Plexgear PS-500. Runs just fine. In fact, since it's my mum's PC, I'll swap it with the PSU that was there before, and use this for my E1200, 3GB RAM, HD 6950 combo. :P My main rig's PSU is a Fractal Design Integra M 750W, and that has a GTX 1080, 16 gigs of RAM, and an i5-4690K. The 1080 is overclocked by 100 MHz on both core clock and memory, as well.
Greg Man, U want to switch box cutters
i5 7640X and i7 7740X are up next is my guess. But it could be any Kaby Lake-X or Skylake-X CPU really. Looks like they will only make good box cutters right now. Or heaters...probably better heaters than box cutters.
Do they overheat? because it is very cold here and i need a new air conditioner to warm my room better.
Not overheat, because Intel has silly high temperature limits at which electron migration really hits the fan. But 100°C, 280W (whole system with multimedia grade sub 30W GPU in idle) is something, right? Game while heating your room.
Nice video.
They are from South Korea and have been used for years in Asia. They do manufacturer their own units. They are pretty good. It would have been good to have a wattage meter on the wall to see what was being pulled.
There's no danger of blowing up. My wife has had one in her Phenom for the last 10 years and still going strong.
Well it's not a Diablotek, so how bad can it be. ;) (Although I would not recommend hooking that up to anything)
Rawr xD codegen don't even exist anymore lol. You can't find their website!
I found a codegen 470w PSU in a old PC from P4 days. When I opened it, oh god. The thing had the most useless capacitors and looked like a load above 250w would be enough to kill it.
Diablotek's used to be good. I have a 300W one that came out of my parent's old PC. The fan bearing failed though and it was really loud.
Does anyone remember Bestec?
Yeahhh... I don't think I've seen one survive more than 3 years max
My friend is using a bestec 250e 250 watt psu. That psu has been in use for at least 8 years now. It works fine.
Jay Pattyson fire hazards and they use horrible quality components.
Zalman PSUs are great for the money, they are not super high quality but they are infinitely better than most OEM power supplies we find in case/PSU bundles and even Dell/HP etc systems. The 700w unit I have in one of my many systems has been running 24/7 for 2 years and hasn't given me any issues at all. For the last year it has been running an i5 6600k, ASRock Z170 Pro4s and Radeon HD 5850 and it hasn't shut down randomly, gotten hot or otherwise missed a beat. That said, I would not recommend it over a decent 80+ cert unit, your power bill will take a hit. My 1000w 80+ gold OCZ unit draws 50w less under the same load on the same system from the wall. This is with Aida64 stress test and furmark loading things up. I see 400w total on the 80+ and 420 - 450w on the Zalman. This will be worse with lower rated units, as we get near the max load the PSU is rated for the heat will build up and efficiency will decrease.
Not being 80+ doesn't mean it is a bad unit, the cooling is adequate and components are decent. For what you pay I would definitely recommend Zalman's PSUs for users on a tight budget. At least the units I have used (3 of them but only one currently) have been solid. If you need a 400w minimum PSU for your system then get a 700w Zalman and your efficiency should be about the same as an 80+ 400/450w unit. Efficiency scales with load, the sweet spot will be a mid toward high load, below and above that it will drop off.
Wait, so he never figured out why his sli 1080's were giving him low framrates on GTA?
Dear God, he thinks this is a cheap PSU! You haven't seen cheap until you've bought a $30 PC case with a bundled "600W" Sparkle brand supply in stylish galvanised steel.
Zalman are acctually very reputable so !! :P
96donov Never said they weren't in general. But PSUs from Zalman here in the U.S. are not as common.
Science Studio tbh in EU they are known product sellers especialy in southern EU aka Balkan region or Spain and Portugal , in the SSSR errr i mean Russia its to my knoelage from friends waaaay worse
ANY PSU WITH VOLTAGE SELECTOR SWITCH (110V-230V) IS GARBAGE! That indicate a PSU without active PFC! It's an outdated PSU project! It would also lack a bunch of safety circuits!
Zalman actually once was a pretty reputable brand. Back in the early 2000s they were kind of a big deal as of a manufacturer of cases, power supplies and cooling products. You can't be blamed for not knowing them though, since that all obviously was way before you got into computers.
2:04 vga cable lol
I like that you kept the PSU outside of your case..that way, it wouldn't touch your case and short out.
I know you are not the guy for such a video.
BUT:
One should never rate such critical electrical components without opening them up and looking at the actual circuit and components inside of them.
A couple of months ago, I needed a PSU for my second PC, one that I used mostly for work. I found online a used EVGA 450W PSU 80+ White for around US$30, but I also saw a Zalman ZM660-XT 80+ Bronze being sold for a bit less. Without looking at the reviews, I bought the one from Zalman, because it's cheaper, and it offered more watts.
I wish I did some more research back then, because the Zalman turned out to be this big, semi-modular PSU that forced me to switch to a case that can accommodate its depth. Its braided cables were long, thick, and rigid, making cable management extremely difficult. Though its build quality is definitely superior compared to this dirt cheap $15 PSU/tinderbox I could've gone for, and perhaps at par with some of the better ones out there, I wouldn't recommend it to builders, simply because it's hard to work with.
That being said, the PSU I bought performs fine to this day. I've done some heavy gaming with it, and even managed a bit of overclocking on the Ryzen 5 1400 my work PC has. It's on about 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week, and the PSU is still all good. No funny noises, no funky smells, nothing out of the ordinary. It's an OK product as far as I'm concerned. Will I use one on a rig that's like yours? Yes, if it's the only thing within arm's reach, why not? Will I buy one for my dream rig? No, because I know there are better options out there.
One last thing. Finding an 80+ sticker slapped on the PSU is no guarantee that it's good. Any Chinese sweatshop can print 80+ stickers, slap them onto as many PSU's as it can, and call it a day. You're right about one thing, and that's to always go for trusted brands, but the lack of 80+ stickers shouldn't be dealbreakers. I've learned my lesson, and that's to perform better due diligence. You probably should learn how to conduct better reviews.
"Potato PSU".
Tom PPSU Perfect
Zalman is quality.
It's cheap because it's not rated, not as you said, not rated because it's cheap.
Getting it rated cost money and would make the price go up.
No risk, no fun, eh?
Building a gaming machine with a cheap psu is like giving an all star athlete the heart of a 600 pound smoking 90 year old.
Fry the fokin' i3 Greg! We wanna watch it!!
I believe i've paid about 40 USD for my SilentiumPC PSU, 600W 80+ Bronze. I was running an overclocked FX6100, an overclocked HD6990 from asus, about 12 fans and a water pump. After a little bit of calculations it turned out that i was pulling close to 700W from my 600W PSU under full load. Still runs like a champ, no problems so far :D
Greg, I love you, but I have to make a couple of comments here. If this is really "Science Studio", doesn't the science of this one very limited experiment only show that price doesn't matter? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't use this PSU inside my rig, but it isn't a decision made based on any empirical facts. Also, couldn't you do some "real" science and measure power pull from the wall with each PSU and compare them, and do your own 80+ certification? While you are at it, noise measurements might be nice also. Again, from a pit-of-my-stomach standpoint, I would make exactly the same decision you put forth here, but it isn't scientific. Thanks for risking your components for us.
I watched this in constant stress.. i meant, i was thinking "now it gonna explode... now it gonna explode.... now it DOES gonna explode"... i was expecting smoke, fire and your water cooling shattering and i was like aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!..... that time lapse with music killed me.
Please... use a proper test for the PSU, for example a free one is OCCT
for like 7 bucks more I got an EVGA 600W PSU from my local best buy a couple weeks ago. Its 80+ rated too and so far runs like a champ. Super quiet when not under load.
I'm korean, and i know zalman. when it comes to psu, zalman delievers you the product that matches the price. their expensive psu line ups do fine. cheap ones? you got yourself a ticking bomb.
ok not a ticking bomb, but you know what i mean.
No, I don't know what you mean. Have you seen mulitple cheap PSUs fail when they were run on a properly specc'd machine (in other words, not a 500w power supply on a machine that needs a 1000w)?
I'm so tired of this hearsay that "oh yeah, the cheap ones will probably fail" with zero evidence or proof to back it up. I've tried so many times to find pictures or forum posts of people actually blowing up their computer with a cheap power supply and I just never find it. I'm sure someone has put a power supply that was too small for what they were doing and had some kind of problem, but I've never seen any evidence of this cheap power supply that blows up computers aside from many some garbage sold in the worst of black markets next to fake Gucci bags or something.
seems like some exceptionally long cables to have it behind your pc and connected. I'm skeptical of this PSU "test" without power draw numbers. And as others have mentioned, the 230v setting wont hurt a PC in a 115v environment, however, the opposite is true; a 115v setting in a 230v environment will very likely be disastrous.
At least get an oscilloscope and probe some of the voltages and see how hard it is rippling/sagging. There is nothing even remotely scientific about this "test".
Zalman is a good quality budget orientated company. I've used them for the past 5 or 6 years now. i have there fans and cpu cooler. A friend of mine has a case and similar power supply as shown here. 6 years later and all still running well. Pc's are serviced every year by myself.
That is not good review you can't blane on this PSU.
For a channel that have science in name you need at lest a Watimeter our to compare if other 600 w (80 plus).
Very poor job on this video.
Very poor job on your so-called words
@@emanuelcorlat7261 they speak at least 2 languages, so at least there's that you douchebag.
i have a 650w zalman psu for almost 9 years now, i bought it with a q6600.
now i have a rx 480 coubled with it. works perfectly!
Why you didn't give us a results from testing, how much lower fps, difference in wattage, etc...
dea gt FPS difference...? Wow.
Wattage difference, I thought you got less FPS in a moment, my bad... ;-)
I think I built this power supply in my buddies garage back in 2016. He works for the power supply company that supplies Zalman. Hope it worked out okay. We were a little tipsy when worked on it.
Nooo!!! Dont do it!!!
PrincepsComitatus I'm a virgin
@@TheEPICskwock Touched for the very first time, I assume?
@@thearousedeunuch I was referencing a meme. Type in "don't do it, im a virgin" into RUclips
@@TheEPICskwock Oh, I see. I didn't know that meme. Thanks. :)
You have a few misconceptions:
1. Power supplies are most efficient somewhere around 70% to 80% of rated load.
2. The larger the power supply the less efficient it's baseline, all else being equal. Larger power supplies also tend to use better quality parts, so your experience might be counter-intuitive. When building a PC, get a power supply that's 25% to 35% more than the largest load you expect to draw.
3. The 80%+ rating (and similar ratings) indicates the lowest efficiency over a specific range of test loads, you seem to think it's the highest efficiency. Most of the time PCs are humming along at near zero load, so the low end ratings are more important to total power usage over time.
4. The 80%+ rating is granted to specific salable units (branding included). As you said, this is probably a rebrand of another power supply. That other power supply might be Platinum rated (unlikely) but with the "Zalman" name has to be re-certified (which they aren't going to do for a one-off, ultra-cheap production run).
@Salazar why didn't you check the voltage outputs (drops,spikes while consuming power) using HWinfo or another program?? and maybe compare the results with your other PSU...that's more scientific and realistic...show us what really happens. Good video though...
Your box opener is more powerful than what I have in my system by far.
While I have no problem watching a video about a dirt cheap PSU and I like your channel, this is not science. A sample size of 1, and your test is 'does it blow up immediately?'. And at the end of the video you seem to draw conclusions (negative might I add) about the PSU based *solely* on personal feelings. Testing a PSU for 1 day and then when it doesn't fail drawing conclusions on whether it is worth buying based purely on personal opinion, not facts, is not science. It hardly qualifies as speculation, a channel with the name "Science Studio" has to do better than this...
Such a sick video! Great job like always man :)
I just wanted to point out that I think you might've started of with a bit of a bias, Salazar. I mean yes I know it was only 20 dollars, like some cheap Chinese knock off price. But Zalman used to be a good brand for coolers and power supplies back in the day. Thing is 'Moneual', their parent company went into bankruptcy due to a 3 billion dollar corporate fraud scandal. I guess this is them trying to come back into the market. I mean the review was completely fine but I hope you already knew about this and I just think you should've at least pointed that fact out. I don't want to defend Zalman, but I just hope you knew the story.
This is why I love Science studio because I can actually get more knowledge on stuff that normal people wouldn't test and know
Voltages would have been nice or leave it running for about a year and report on when it does break. This video was empty of useful and/or exciting content.
I've used a Zalman LX 500 power supply to feed a hungry AMD FX8320, 16 GB RAM,a GTX 760, 2 HDD,1 SSD and 6 LED fans for around 5 years without an issue. I've sold that system and the PSU still works fine. So I guess they are not that bad. Of course I bought a Seasonic 620 W modular PSU for my new PC just to be on the safe side 😁
not very scientific
I used to use a Zalman CPU cooler on an old FX-6300 in a budget build a few years ago. Damn thing was the best cooler for the money I've seen.
i3 opener xd
This actually looks like the sort of product that makes sense for a budget used build, plenty of people are trying to survive high GPU prices by picking up older, less efficient graphics cards, a cheap 600w psu like this might actually be viable in a less expensive system that still needs a solid amount of watts behind it.