Codegen P-Case 460W - Low Price, Poor Quality
by Martin Kaffei on April 27, 2012 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- Codegen
- P-Case 460W
- Q3335-A2
Conclusion
It's clear that some PSUs should never see retail shelves in Europe. The Codegen P-Case 460W belongs in this classification if you want a 460W PSU. In fact, the Codegen is a ~230 watts power supply without power factor correction--not to mention the fact that the efficiency is always below 74%. If you just need a cheap power supply that will function at loads under 250W, perhaps budget products will fit the bill, but we'd suggest looking elsewhere as long-term power costs (and the risk of damaged components) makes this a gamble at best. In our case, the PSU died at 50% load.
Codegen offers nothing more than a few short cables and no PCIe connector. Moreover a cable sleeving would be a nice extra, but we'd like to see better electronics first. Overall the PSU provides two SATA and two HDD connectors on two 20 AWG cables. Additionally, you get a 4-pin CPU connector and a 30cm long 24-pin cable. With 45-60cm the peripheral cables are short too.
Internally, the PSU has a single-layer main PCB. Codegen only uses cheap capacitors and the main caps are common types with only average endurance at 105°C. Most components are undersized. Transient filtering is inadequate and there's no MOV (as an AC overvoltage protection). The SD6109 IC has some important safety functions including OVP and SCP but this is not enough since OCP is missing. +5V and +12V are connected to the same controlling and share one output choke which gone into saturation during our test. Overall, the component selection and build quality make this a low-end offering.
+12V is always higher than 12.31V (12.60V is the ATX limit) while the other rails are lower. The voltage regulation is bad--even for such an affordable product. While efficiency is only 73% at high load, the ripple results could have been worse. The power factor is very low on 230VAC since there is neither a PFC choke nor an active PFC circuit. Another disadvantage is the high fan RPMs at 50% load. The PSU is relatively silent from 5 to 10% load and still quiet at 20%. However, it does get too loud at higher loads--nothing unusual for a PSU like this, but you'll want to ensure your PC doesn't reach high loads if white noise bothers you (and that your PC won't die).
In summary, the Codegen P-Case 460 from Q3335-A2 bundle is one of the worst PSUs we have seen so far. It doesn't have any special features beyond an acceptable noise level (at low load). We can hardly recommend a 460W PSU with 230W real power and no power factor correction. In addition the PSU died during our test. The whole bundle costs about 30 EUR in Europe.
You get what you pay for!
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kmmatney - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
I still have it - and it really just a second spare now, as I have since picked up an Antec 400W Neo ECO for cheap to have as a backup. What I can say about the Inland is that it feels decently heavy, and has a 3 year warranty. I wouldn't mind sending it in...Siana - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
I think it's an accident that it works. It's a Leadman PSU in all likelihood, which is very similar to Codegen. Within value differences of parts, you could have happened to have a stronger unit, however it probably doesn't have sufficient protection and isn't safe.Almost none of the older PSU architectures have over 350W of power, except for some server units e.g. by Delta which weigh around 10 pounds and are way longer than ATX allows, no kidding. And none of the newer, powerful ones have a need for a voltage switch at the back, like yours does.
Also what if someone buys this PSU based on your suggestion, and it burns the rest of his hardware by accident - would you like to carry the responsibility for that? Good review sites only recommend PSUs where they have made absolutely sure that the unit is reasonably safe, based on analysis of engineering and not on a single case of PSU not burning up their computer, because it is a huge responsibility.
gustavg - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
I dont find it suprising that it misses such basics as a CE mark and that it died@80% load.Codegen actually had a psu banned from sale
by the swedish "elsäkerhetsverket"(government agency)
here in sweden back in 2002 due to safety problems :)
i did not find the orginal article since it was 10yrs ago but here is a link to the webarchives version :)
http://web.archive.org/web/20040109161725/http://w...
zlandar - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
Always good for a laugh.I've seen so many PSU sales on slickdeals there is little reason to go cheap. You can score a nice bronze-rated PSU for as low as $25 depending on brand/wattage.
JarredWalton - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
I'm totally with you; I only wish Martin would get a nice video showing him stress-testing the PSU and let us see what happens at 100% of the rated output. For all the people that think PSUs don't matter much, I can pretty much guarantee that every "500W" or higher PSU costing less than $50 (not on sale - MSRP) is going to be questionable at best.Sabresiberian - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
Indeed; just seeing pictures of the thing brings back memories of replacing the first PSU I ever did in the only computer I bought pre-built, and PSUs in cheap computers my family bought over the years.If you can't be bothered to do a little research and find a PSU with a decent review behind it, at least buy a well-respected brand on sale.
;)
plopke - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
Each time when somebody ask me to put some parts together they always curious why I would go for in their eyes a ridiculs more expensive powersupply/case and ignore me until summer hits and their powersupply dies or overheats.People seams not understand that a 600watt powersupply can be rubbish and a 380watt one would have been enough for their needs. Anyway I am actuallly looking around again for a nice stable powersupply as cheap as possible for 2 builds. One that wants to play diablo3(UK build) and a other person(belgian-build) and i quote "it has to be able to play solitaire " :).Anyway looking atm at some cheaper antec case models with 380 watts or corsair 430 V2. Have also some nice be quie!t(not avaible in america , i think) options to buy. If you know some other cheap but high quality build powersupplies , feel free to leave them behind :)
PS : I kinda love this from anandtech , article that warns you what defently not to buy. But then again most of your readers would already be very scepticle about these kind of cases.
Siana - Saturday, June 16, 2012 - link
I think it makes sense to buy the case and power supply separately, because you really don't need an expensive metal box for a low power system, but you do need a good power supply. Though you do need to wear gloves with some of those metal boxes -.-XFX brought out an inexpensive, gamer oriented series based on well respected Seasonic S12-II Bronze, with moderate and powerful units. Rasurbo has its "Real&Power" series made by HEC, though other series by Rasurbo are probably garbage. Cougar (a brand of HEC-Compucase) offers an inexpensive "300W" unit which is specced to 220W on 12V - you could say it's effectively a 250W unit by today's measure, though it does deliver what it says on the tin, safely.
If computer is to be used infrequently, refurbished PSUs from brand name computers can be an option. A 10 year old 350W OEM by FSP of course has heavy 5V rail and is a bit light on 12V, but it still can power a computer with 65W CPU and 50W GPU. And yet, Bronze efficiency of newer PSUs is likely to make sense, since once people get Internet, they tend to use their computer quite a bit, also they do contain components which deteriorate with time, so i wouldn't say it's a GOOD option, but at least they contain some safety which Codegen and Leadman don't.
Ethaniel - Friday, April 27, 2012 - link
And more of these "technological horror stories". I have had my share of cheap PSUs and bulged caps, but there´s always room for more. :)juampavalverde - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
I have to deal with this kind of PSU daily because average Joe in South America doesnt need much more than this. Since eons this kind of PSUs anounced wattages are a joke, no Codegen PSU can pull more than 250W at usable values, but at that price (here 15 USD, in USA probably no more than 10 USD) those 250W are just fine. I can say also that Codegen is among the "best" (haha) PSUs from this price point, everything else is worse! Fans failing, voltages failing, ridiculously low eficiency, burned mobos and ram...