EVGA Caught Sending Golden Samples of the SuperNova B3 to JonnyGuru

[jonnyGURU]

This is why I only buy Seasonic and Superflower. I know they make their own psu's at least.

Are you daft?

This PSU was supposed to have been made by Super Flower.

Thing is about Super Flower is that they have a very small factory. Outsourcing is VERY common. You do NOT know if a Super Flower PSU is actually built by Super Flower.

I was wondering why the same PSU's blew up when reviewed by Tom's Hardware and they passed with flying colors with Jonnyguru.

Because Aris tests OPP by intentionally overloading the PSU. Jeremy only tests to 100% PSU's advertised capability.

 

[EarthDog]

As suspected, much ado about nothing. A case of use it as spec'd and all will be fine. Intentionally run it out of spec, and poof.

 

[StrayKAT]

Are you daft?

This PSU was supposed to have been made by Super Flower.

Thing is about Super Flower is that they have a very small factory. Outsourcing is VERY common. You do NOT know if a Super Flower PSU is actually built by Super Flower.

Is there a list somewhere of OEMs? I mean, for computers in general. Not just this.

I have a soft spot for some brands, but it's sad that few make their own shit.

 

[Diverge]

Are you daft?

This PSU was supposed to have been made by Super Flower.

Thing is about Super Flower is that they have a very small factory. Outsourcing is VERY common. You do NOT know if a Super Flower PSU is actually built by Super Flower.

You seem like the daft one. He said will only buy from brands that make their own high quality PSUs. Seasonic makes their own, as well as Super Flower... and they both sell them branded as their own products - which are the ones he buys (myself included).

Let me simplify it for you. Don't buy rebranded PSU's from companies who just throw their labels on products - buy from those who make their own.

 

[StrayKAT]

You seem like the daft one. He said will only buy from brands that make their own high quality PSUs. Seasonic makes their own, as well as Super Flower... and they both sell them branded as their own products - which are the ones he buys (myself included).

Let me simplify it for you. Don't buy rebranded PSU's from companies who just throw their labels on products - buy from those who make their own.

Like my question above indicates, it's not always easy to find out.

Besides that, some of the brands that don't make their own stuff still might design them and provide a lot of input. So the lines are blurred a bit.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Is there a list somewhere of OEMs?

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html

 

[RealNeil]

For some of us, this will no doubt bring their entire production into question.

My EVGA GTX980Ti cards are both top of the line performers. No problems for years.
I also have a Z170 Stinger M-ITX mainboard that is top notch too.

I have to admit that if I had a PSU do "Fireworks" at my house I would hesitate to buy that brand again.

 

[jabbadap]

My EVGA GTX980Ti cards are both top of the line performers. No problems for years.
I also have a Z170 Stinger M-ITX mainboard that is top notch too.

I have to admit that if I had a PSU do "Fireworks" at my house I would hesitate to buy that brand again.

What did you expect? Don't forget it's called SuperNova and now you know why. At least it ain't called Fatality...

Thumb of rule buy at least 80plus gold or if bronze then seasonic or some brand which is known using seasonic as oem.

 

[Prince Valiant]

As suspected, much ado about nothing. A case of use it as spec'd and all will be fine. Intentionally run it out of spec, and poof.

I wouldn't call it nothing, it shows that the protection mechanisms are flawed if a unit catches on fire.

 

[jonnyGURU]

You seem like the daft one. He said will only buy from brands that make their own high quality PSUs. Seasonic makes their own, as well as Super Flower... and they both sell them branded as their own products - which are the ones he buys (myself included).

Let me simplify it for you. Don't buy rebranded PSU's from companies who just throw their labels on products - buy from those who make their own.

Not... True.....

Blind ignorance is truly bliss.

You must have missed who was responding to this thread. Otherwise, you would not have assumed I don't know what I'm talking about. I know that has an air of arrogance to it, but for Christ's sake there's just as many assumptions made by people in this discussion thread than are made in the article itself.

Super Flower does the same thing for their own branded products than they do for everyone else. Their factory has one line which limits their output capability. They will OFTEN outsource. Not only for their clients, but for their own branded product.

And Seasonic isn't too different. They have outsourced on many occasion (more often for their own products than for whomever they're building products for) and, like Super Flower, don't do their own PCBA. PCBA can come from one of a dozen other factories.

I would actually RATHER buy a product from a factory that doesn't nearly everything in house from PCBA to magnetics to final assembly. Better quality control is achieved overall when you're not chasing down issues happening at a dozen different sub assembly factories.

Buying from a company that slaps their own label on a product versus someone else's means NOTHING. NOTHING. It has ZERO IMPACT on HOW the product is made. ZERO.

You guys talk you know how this stuff works... but clearly none of you actually do.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/PSUReviewDatabase.html

^^^ By far best list out there.

But remember: Simply knowing the OEM doesn't tell you much. The product could be a particular factory's design, but you don't know who did the PCBA or the assembly. And even if it is a bigger factory that does everything in house, those bigger factories have multiple lines with equipment of varying age and capability. The same factory that can put out top notch stuff can put out absolute crap simply because an older line was the only one available for a last minute rush order or because another line was down for maintenance or training.

Any way... Going back to the article.

Here are the facts:

We don't know who built Jeremy's (jonnyguru.com) sample. We don't know who made Aris's. Assumptions were made because Super Flower frequently outsources due to limited output capability. This is not an uncommon practice for smaller factories that only have one or two lines. This isn't news.

We don't know if Aris's PSU's blew up due to quality issues or poor design. Frankly, Jeremy's sample could have blown up just the same IF he had tested the same way. He did not. For all we know, Aris could have had a beautifully soldered sample direct from the Super Flower engineering lab, did his OPP test and it would have blown up just the same.

The only "conspiracy" here is that a lot of companies will "cherry pick" review samples and will withhold from sending review samples to certain reviewers if they know that particular reviewer's methodology may expose a products weaknesses. But this is not new and is hardly news. HardOCP jumped on reporting this originally because they like to make it a frequent practice (and a good one at that) to buy review samples from retail and championed around Seasonic's decision to ship reviewers samples directly from retail by "breaking" that "exclusive" news as well. That's what this is. Nothing more.

 

[RealNeil]

You guys talk you know how this stuff works... but clearly none of you actually do.

I don't know much about how PSUs are made and how to test them out. But I do know that I've had a lot of luck with some brands, and so I cleave to them when I'm in the market for a PSU.
I don't stress-test my home PSUs. I buy a little more than I think I'll need for my build and just use them.
Brands like Corsair and Seasonic, and even a few Rosewill (go ahead and cringe) PSUs are seeing service at my house.

 

[StrayKAT]

^^^ By far best list out there.

But remember: Simply knowing the OEM doesn't tell you much. The product could be a particular factory's design, but you don't know who did the PCBA or the assembly. And even if it is a bigger factory that does everything in house, those bigger factories have multiple lines with equipment of varying age and capability. The same factory that can put out top notch stuff can put out absolute crap simply because an older line was the only one available for a last minute rush order or because another line was down for maintenance or training.

That's what I actually wanted to know when I asked about OEMs. But you made it even more complicated by mentioning multiple lines I'll just try to go by word of mouth from now on (like at sites like this).

I have a Corsair HX PSU for the most shallow reason: It matches my case.

 

[GreiverBlade]

[warning this is a semi joke]
doesn't reviewer always get "golden sample" or "special selection", under the common "name" of "we test the last product of XXX brand that will hit the market in a few weeks/days"?

for sure ... i've never seen any product acting like they did in reviews (temps/clocking/perfs/durability) maybe i am not lucky at all for lottery ....

i.e.: how a 1070 is a 1440p 144hz or even 60hz card when they barely reach 60fps in 1080p (well .... they do reach and passe above it in reviews .... ) tested games in mind, i'd say TW3 and ROTTR (they do feel smooth but monitoring the fps give an other impression than reviews )

i.e.: hellblade? 81fps in very high? more like 50 with constants -30 dips (live test even with Vsync active .... the fps never reached Vsync threshold ) and it's not the difference in min/avg fps induced by a 4C/4T over a 4C/8T that would explain that

or, how come that a Razer product never break in reviews where the reviewer got his hand on it for more than 1 week .... that's wizardry ....



conclusion: "you don't read review to have an idea of how a product would work for you, you read review to see which golden sample from which brand is superior to the others, since they are all golden samples"

do not take that too seriously

 

[audioslaaf]

Quoting EVGA from their What You See Is What You Get page:
"EVGA does not “fake” reviews or send out products with “tweaked” clockspeeds to reviewers."

Source: https://www.evga.com/articles/01022/evga-wysiwyg/

I guess EVGA never thought this would backfire at any point... LOL

 

[hapkiman]

I'm starting to lose faith in EVGA who used to be best of the best. First they have their GTX 1080 FTW fiasco which they sort of acknowledged but not really, but then release a FTW2 w/icx saying the first card was fine but this one's better....even though they sent out 1000's of thermal pad and TIM kits for the FTW1 cards because the cards were overheating or catching fire.... then they realized they also needed pads for the VRAMs too which were still overheating -so they sent out more pads - it was a total mess. All the while EVGA kind of maintained the attitude that "the FTW cards are operating within normal parameters, these pads are just for extra protection"

And now this PSU issue? They've really gone downhill IHMO. Powergate.

 

[EarthDog]

Dat mountain... dis mole hill.

 

[R-T-B]

Thing is about Super Flower is that they have a very small factory. Outsourcing is VERY common. You do NOT know if a Super Flower PSU is actually built by Super Flower.

I stated this way earlier in the first thread on this.

Apparently, no one listened. Thank you for the backup from a respected name.

 

[altermere]

I'm starting to lose faith in EVGA who used to be best of the best. First they have their GTX 1080 FTW fiasco which they sort of acknowledged but not really, but then release a FTW2 w/icx saying the first card was fine but this one's better....even though they sent out 1000's of thermal pad and TIM kits for the FTW1 cards because the cards were overheating or catching fire.... then they realized they also needed pads for the VRAMs too which were still overheating -so they sent out more pads - it was a total mess. All the while EVGA kind of maintained the attitude that "the FTW cards are operating within normal parameters, these pads are just for extra protection"

And now this PSU issue? They've really gone downhill IHMO. Powergate.

EVGA's decline started a long time ago, their X79 motherboards were a huge disaster, then there was the GTX 970 heatpipe issue when they reused the cooler from the 700 series.

 

[metalfiber]

Because Aris tests OPP by intentionally overloading the PSU. Jeremy only tests to 100% PSU's advertised capability.

Thanks for the explanation JonnyGURU. On your recommendation I did buy a Seasonic FOCUS Plus 750 gold...so hopefully Seasonic built mine.

 

[remixedcat]

EVGA got caught with their pants down of course. They've been given the opportunity to tell their side of the story but they wont own up to it.

I wonder if the same thing happens with the GPUs as well. For some of us, this will no doubt bring their entire production into question.

I was about to get this same psu for the hubby's ryzen system... soooo glaaad I saw this post! sucks bc that price is nice

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I was about to get this same psu for the hubby's ryzen system... soooo glaaad I saw this post! sucks bc that price is nice

Their G2 and G3 PSUs are still pretty solid. Though, after this. you wonder if they can be trusted at all