How far can you trust a manufacturer (Topower) ?

I recently received an email from a manufacturer and when I read it I can only describe my reaction as "straight out of the 80's movies". You know the one, where to person is told I formation that they find so surprising that the sudden rush of air from between their lips causes them to spray soda all over the unsuspecting news bringer? Either that or the sheer audacity causes the same surprise with the same result....

Out earlier discussion about my psu and it's oddities caused me to write the company to ask them about the discrepancy. When I dug into it further, I noticed even more confidence killing oddities. If anyone remembers, the original trouble was that the item name did not match any on the manufacturer site. There were close matches, but they were off by 50w or more in either direction. I was sold a 600w psu, and there was a 650 750 or 500 to choose from on the manu. site. Then further inspection showed that my case design more closely matched a 400w version than anything else. I understand that pics on boxes and websites are liberal so I took this with a grain of salt and waited for my reply. Then I started studying the cabling diagram. I was hoping that I read it wrong ( I am a knoob after all) but there was definitely a difference in cables as well. Undeniable even to my untrained eye. There were 2 FDD and the box clearly only listed one. There was also an extra pci-e 6 pin. I was starting to feel more and more like I had made a huge mistake. This was indeed a piece of sheeet and I had bought it. And worse defended it. Then the final nail in the coffin. It had a 120mm fan. I was supposed to have a 140mm.
Now for what the title was about. My first email reply was (paraphrased)" it's a 650. "
But by then I had noticed all the aforementioned oddball problems. And this is where I had the" 80's movie reaction ". I still do not know whether to believe this or not but the response to all the discrepancies was.... ( paraphrased) " it's a special one with a smaller fan " ! *huh! * say that again? It's got the case if a 400w, the serial number of a 600w that doesn't exist, and a fan that doesn't belong with the description on the box, as well as extra cables not mentioned anywhere else? And it's a special one that you were putting extra awesome fans in? So my question is.... Do I believe this ****e? I mean they offered to exchange it, but I have already voided the warranty in the sleeving process..... I'm just either lucky or in the hands of someone else who considers me gullible


And to those who might post in this thread saying something like "yeah but Topower is still not the best psu" you can save it for now. We've already done that talk and this thread is about whether or not this guy is blowing sunshine in 'meh rear. (sorry if that seems testy but I'm having the "that's not a quality psu" debate on another forum as we speak... Again. If you could see my chagrined frustration....)

Heh, who knows what to believe with questionable PSUs. This is why we buy............ oh wait, you don't want to hear that.

Being serious, no idea if we should believe them. I would say no though.

I sent another asking them to provide documentation. Basically I said I'll keep it if you can prove it. And I will be perfectly happy to keep it as long as it's 600w or better and meets atx spec. It's what I bought the problem here is that it looks like I may not have gotten what I was sold. The vendor who sold it says "don't blame us.... We just sell them". Funny though. I'll let you guys know how it pans out

ATX spec is nothing. A shoebox can pass ATX spec, LOL.

EarthDog said:

ATX spec is nothing. A shoebox can pass ATX spec, LOL.

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Maybe so maybe no, but you guys got me hyperventilating about this little box (well they do with their "oddities") so I'll rest easier knowing it's at least a market ready box

They got slippery about it a bit. They said check your shipping label. Box says 650w nano, but the shipping label says.... Well it's in my signature pretty much, just add "600w" at the end of my sig
.... Well it's still questionable and the manufacturer kind of stood by their product and offered to give me a new one. They wouldn't give my anything that proves this "limit edition" thing they said though. So all in all, I'll get one off the list next time, but for now I'll keep one eye on it.

Edit : got one last email from them, they confirmed it is supposed to be a 650w. Whole point of the post is how much should a person believe any rhetoric from any company, and this is the experience with this particular company. Do your best to make informed decisions folks

The only way you are going to know for sure if that unit can push it's rated wattage, is to force it to do so (unless you feel like tearing it apart and looking at the design, which I would know nothing about). Without a device that can do that, it's going to be tough.

Dlaw said:

The only way you are going to know for sure if that unit can push it's rated wattage, is to force it to do so (unless you feel like tearing it apart and looking at the design, which I would know nothing about). Without a device that can do that, it's going to be tough.

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I have been thinking on this. It is a major stumbling block for me. I had considered setting goals up a series of light bulbs with a toggle switch, and adding another one in with each successful test ( 4 x 100x bulbs = 400w and so on and so forth) but that calculation is based on the 120v from the wall outlet. For me it is further complicated by the fact that I am unsure exactly how the different rails would affect the calculation. Meaning would I simply try to get as close to the max wattage for each rail with 3 separate circuits, or place a 650w load on any rail (probably not that one )

Such a test would only show whether it could handle watts it says it can though, and would say nothing of ripple. I don't know if I'm willing to go that far, but I might be more comfortable when it comes time to raise the multiplier.

Ripple, transient response, voltage droop on the rails...the quality of the internals...etc.

Yeah, you aren't going to be putting 650W on the other rails (see the label of the PSU for what each rail is rated for).

At least now the diablotek has a purpose in life!

Hopefully it is to take up space in your trash.

It will be once I see how many bulbs it can light. It'll still take some time to figure out how to get the most accurate result from a diy load tester like this, but I'll make a post about it once it gets done (in about a million years) I can tell you that thing won't make it into another pc.... Unless (like someone else said) it's in an ex wife's machine

Topower is giving you the 5 knuckle shuffle.

Mr.Scott said:

Topower is giving you the 5 knuckle shuffle.

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Yes and the 5KS is not fun to experience. Topower probably made up a run of P/Ss for some company and had some left over and rather than lose them they sold them. Not unheard of in manufacturing for others.

The problem for me is still using a supply that is so dang iffy. I had a rather name brand power supply fail on me two nights ago. It was a supply that was likely 5 years old at least but I had taken it out of the plastic wrap only 3 mos ago (NOS). Yep on the shelf that long.

I began to experience some oddities in my system that did not fit with any error that I had had before that I could remember. Searched and said possibly the bios...flashed bios and if anything it appeared to get worse. So now out of the blue after shutting completely down and trying to REstart the computer, the board would just grunt one time and LEDs dim and no go.

Crap I said to self. Went and unboxed a power supply (new from the same era) and hooked it up to the mobo and it booted, but I could not get into bios it went right on bye. Heck now what is this? After screwing around another 15 mins I just guessed the keyboard had gone off the deep end as well. Maybe the power supply had dorked my Usb voltage. So I swapped to another Keyboard and yep you guessed it all worked again.

So I spent probably 5 or maybe 6 hours dealing with a pretty good power supply that when it went bad without a single bad power supply symptom, it may have taken my $94.00 Cherry keyboard with it. Not a good feeling. At least this CHV board has hefty circuitry and SSD's get +21V to erase cells or the power supply might have taken more over the cliff's edge with it.

I am in the process of looking for another power supply due what I said above...replaced bad with another new one from the same era. Just don't have that warm fuzzy feeling I need and inspired confidence. Additionally the last power supply failure before this last one took out 5 hard drives when the +12V went to 21.4 Volts. That one was very name brand. I would likely quake in my boots just thinking I had a uber questionable power supply doing the power thing for my parts. I have had what felt was okay but just the fact anything electrical 'can' fail and with power supplies that might mean damage to far more than just the power supply. Now that makes my stomach queezy.

Luck to you knoober.

RGone...

We tried to lead the horse to water in his other thread, LOL... he is going to stick with this thing against better judgement. I will pray for him!

EarthDog said:

We tried to lead the horse to water in his other thread, LOL... he is going to stick with this thing against better judgement. I will pray for him!

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Well I did not see his other thread but if YOU say you guys led to the good water but the horse would not drink...I believe you completely.

RGone...

RGone said:

Yes and the 5KS is not fun to experience. Topower probably made up a run of P/Ss for some company and had some left over and rather than lose them they sold them. Not unheard of in manufacturing for others.

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Topower's factory is closed. They don't make anything now... hard telling what's actually in that little metal box.

i literally cant even right now....... *logs off*

RGone said:

Well I did not see his other thread but if YOU say you guys led to the good water but the horse would not drink...I believe you completely.

RGone...

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They said "get a good one, it's important" and I argued that I had. It's not a real interesting thread I'm still skeptical that quality must be determined by the dent in my wallet, but I agree that what I got is questionable (more than questionable actually).

I'm saving for a good one as of now ( yes EarthDog I'll pick one off the list... Probably ) but for now this one is gonna sit in my box making me queasy....

I am of course interest to hear if the name brand powerbox that fried your stuff was on the list and if shelf life is the culprit here. I mean this is why I didn't just grab one off the list. I'll admit I got a probably poor PSU, but I didn't pay a premium price for it. That said, I know that what you said is true and that anything electrical can have any problem at any time. I'll have to read for myself of course but do PSU warranties typically cover components they fry? It is my understanding that most warranties are voided by any sort of OC activities, no matter what the part?

There's no 'easy' way to OC a power supply. The only real way to void it's warranty is to open the case of it.

That said, I have yet to see a PSU warranty that covers the cost of items that have died if it died, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.