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
Fan and Electronics
Xin Yu Electronics is a Chinese brand we never heard of before but "SL" tells you this fan has a sleeve bearing. Everything else with higher MTBF ratings would be too expensive. The 120mm fan needs less amps than most fans we know (0.13A) and it has seven sharp-edged fan blades. Will it be silent, and can it keep the PSU cool? We'll find out on the next page.
Basically this PSU is not far away from other solutions. We've seen many forward converters with an asynchronous half bridge but this time the components are quite cheap. The internals consist of two very small heatsinks, a small transformer, and no PFC-choke which is an important requirement for European countries. You need CE to sell power supplies in Europe and PFC is essential for any PSU with more than 75W. Instead of a bridge rectifier this PSU has four RL205 diodes which can rectify 2A RMS current. That's fine by me but bridge rectifiers in a case have the advantage that heatsinks can be used.
There are no Y- and X-caps in the EMI filtering stage, missing a MOV as well. A thermistor reduces input current--nothing special. Of course PSUs without active PFC have less EMI because of the missing MOSFET but this is kind of disappointing. Can you see the wire cross-section of the conductors? It doesn't look like anybody should try to pull more than 250W from this unit.
An IC called SD6109 delivers some safety functions such as overvoltage protection. Instead of optical coupler the manufacturer is using an isolating transformer for the feedback. On the secondary side we found one choke for all larger outputs. It gone into saturation during our test. +5 V got a large diode in a TO-247 case and is definitely the most powerful output.
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Belard - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
There is junk like this all over the world, *cough* raidmax. Or even worse no name brands. Its bad enough they low quality, but the fake labels don't do anyone favors. If they slap on a 200 Watt label, a customer will be less likely to blow something up. 200w is okay for a bottom end system.They also fake rating tests by running the psu in a frig room.
Geez... spend the extra $10 bucks. Cheapest good psu I buy sometimes is the 430w thermaltake. None have failed. Usually $35 before rebate.
Movieman420 - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
If your budget is that tight it's fine to go for a cheap psu, just try your best to research before you buy...find out who builds the low end units for brands like Corsair, Antec, Ocz etc and try to locate a no-name version. I agree with an earlier post...anything much under $50 is probably gonna be questionable.knedle - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
In Poland, people usually call it not Codegen, but Coedsh***.Right now it's pretty hard to find their PSUs in stores, but few years ago they were used in some low end builds in which customer wanted "something to browse internet and really cheap case + PSU". I have helped many customers that had real problems because of those cheap PSUs - not only computer not turning on, but also damaged motherboard or hard drive due to PSU supplying 7V on 5V lane, or even 14V on 12V lane.
Buying that it's total waste of your money.
ZippityZoopBop - Saturday, April 28, 2012 - link
Yeah, somehow I'm not surprised that Codegen is still pushing out shitty products. They were terrible a decade ago, and it's a real shame that we don't have some form of international governing body to stop these fire hazards from making it to market.WT - Wednesday, May 2, 2012 - link
At 30 EUR, it seems like you do get what you pay for, but a hot deal does help every now and then.Currently, Best Buy is selling an Antec 450w PSU for $30 + FS, making this a very attractive PSU for a mid range system build. Check out the thread in the Hot Deals forum for a link and more info.
dj christian - Monday, May 7, 2012 - link
Martin while you are at it are you going to review a Hantol PSU with fake 80-plus certification and with a fake pfc made of cement? Just for laugh i mean : )http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/blog/Hantol-PSU-Fak...
frontwing - Thursday, December 26, 2013 - link
Used this PSU in a Codegen case icw a budget gaming system for almost 3 yearswithout any problems.