Is this psu good?

[cableuser]

I just got a 400 watt Elements Zpower corporate series power supply. What do you guys think. Is it any good? My local computer shop sold it to me for $40. He uses them in all his gaming rigs that he sells and he says they are very good.

[njolakoski]

Never heard of Zpower, but it might be good, hope u have good luck with it

[cableuser]

The Company is elements and the product name is Zpower. Website is www.elements-pc.com/

[MadMan2k]

Well - most power supplys for that price will work if you don't have a very power-hungry system, but they might not last very long, or might cause stability issues before flat-out dieing.

My boss uses very cheap cases with according power supplys, and the only problem I've heard of users having is simply not having enough power supply to handle all the acessories they wanted installed in the case.

You can use several software utilities to monitor the voltage on the power supply from within windows, however not all motherboards will let you do this.
Usually if you can view the voltages in the system BIOS setup, that will do, and you don't have to bother with the utilities.

Basically, it will show you the different voltages the system uses, and what voltage is being output by the power supply. If the PS'es voltage matches or nearly matches the label for each voltage, it should be alright as far as having enough power for your system goes.

[cableuser]

cpu core /1.46v
cpu aux /1.66v
+3.3v /3.30v
+5v /4.92v
+12v /11.67v
-12v /-11.67
-5v /-4.92
seems pretty stable to me?

[MadMan2k]

Hmm..
With my Thermaltake power supply, the 5V was about 5.15, and the 12v was 11.77, which I was told was not the greatest.

I suppose if it doesn't crash your system, it's fine.

[truckpuller]

The most important part of a psu is the amps of the 3.3v 5.0vand the 12v rails
More the amps the better

[cableuser]

is this good?

+3.3v 30a
+5v 40a
+12 18v

[Sweeper]

+12v rail should have atleast 25A minimum to be on the safe side IMO. My Enermax 460w:

+3.3v 3.36v
+5v 5.11v
+12v 12.16-12.22v

Also running 35A on each rail.

[JPMiller]

For most systems... 18+Amps on the +12V is adequate...
the voltage values shown in the bios are not accurate for real usage... you need to view them from within a windows environment to see what they are during normal usage...
the voltages you listed are not dangerously low for a computer under load... but would be if that is from the bios...
most $40 locally bought PSU's are generics...
I would be surprised if the unit you got had any real quality... I therefore would answer your question as to whether it is good or not, as "no"
If you want more in depth info on the subject of PSU quality and what to look for... read up here....
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t124252.html