Why are PSUs so expensive?! (add another 10 ?s and !s)

[Whammamoosha]

Come on!!!

LCD monitor and TV prices, in the last 5 years, are down by at least 80%.

What is it that keep good PSUs in the price range they are STILL in?

Good PSUs cost as mush as any good gamer's video card. IMHO that's plain, pure, painful, panicking, prompt exploitation.

Take the LCD/TV phenomena I've (YOU've) noticed in the last 5 years.

Are PSUs THOSE piece of "breaktru" HW? NYAH. They have much less circuitry, components and wiring than any major motherboard of those which are widely spread in the market.

They are supposed to be the CHEAPEST part of any desktop computer but end up taking around 25% of the total cost.

Memory prices, in terms of price/performance, are down by at least 90%.

Should I pay 50 bucks for a Big Mac today???

[ctal]

I think that part of the problem is that many people, encouraged by marketing mythology, tend to overestimate the wattage that their power supply should be capable of, which of course raises the cost.

Also, a fairly high powered, high quality supply such as the Corsair 520W modular supply, is not expensive at all. NewEgg is currently offering it for $90 after rebate: Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

I suspect that careful research would show it to be powerful enough for any system short of one, perhaps, that contains two high powered video cards, a quad-core cpu, and several hdd's and pci cards.

I'll add from long personal experience in the electronics industry (although not in the computer field) that industry-accepted cost estimating models show a considerable degree of correlation between product weight and product cost. Heavier products, on average, simply cost more to manufacture than lighter products. There are many reasons for this, which go way beyond the scope of this thread. But suffice it to say that although a power supply contains vastly fewer devices than many other computer components, they cost more to manufacture and procure, and lend themselves less well to automated robotic assembly.

Regarding your mention of LCD's and flat-panel TV's, those are technologies which are recent developments, which figure to come down in price dramatically as development costs are amortized, manufacturing becomes more mature, and public acceptance becomes very widespread. Not a fair comparison. Memories and other ic devices aren't a fair comparison either, as economies of scale, more honest competition, and more advanced technology and manufacturing processes (yielding more devices per wafer) have all contributed to lowered prices.

Frankly, it's been my feeling that $80 to $120 for a powerful, quality supply is an absolute bargain.

Regards,

-- Al

[Ozzie]

Nicely stated Al... poor quality power supplies have given people absolute fits...

[zsaz1029]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

poor quality power supplies have given people absolute fits...

So true. I've seen many PSU failures, many more than all other failures combined. YMMV

[wonderwrench]

Originally Posted by ctal

Frankly, it's been my feeling that $80 to $120 for a powerful, quality supply is an absolute bargain.

Regards,

-- Al

I agree, just have a look at the cost of power supplies other than PC supplies,
say a quality 13.8v 20 amp dc supply. you will spend about $200 for one.
Try building a quality 13.8v 20 amp dc supply your self. The parts will cost over $100 then add your time. You might as well get the $200 one.

[WhiteEclipse]

Let me agree with ctal. A good quality psu can be very affordable, such as the corsair he linked. Unless you are sli/x-fire, there really is no need for much more.

PSU's are like cpus. You can get really good core 2 or quads from $150-300. However, if you go the next level up, you are paying way more premium - even though the performance does not justify the price difference.

[XJ.]

Originally Posted by Ozzie

Nicely stated Al... poor quality power supplies have given people absolute fits...

Yeah, for a while Dell was putting really lame PSUs in their boxes (maybe they still are - dunno), but I was constantly RMAing their PSUs because they were freaking out and killing users systems. Serious waste of time, but in the workplace IT can usually build up a spare really fast - at home you are up the creek without a paddle if your PSU goes.