Saturday, September 26, 2020

Closer Look: Rakk Power Supply 400 Watts

There's already a lot of unboxing and testing videos available at youtube about this power supply but here's a closer look of it and what to expect when ordering it. Also for clarity, this is not a review.

First off, where can you get this Rakk power supply? Lazada or Shopee lol. Obvious is it not? Lazada is the better choice so I bought mine from there. I believe this is exclusively sold by EasyPC. 


Look at that 559 ratings (mine not included yet) 

It took 4 days for it to be delivered from vendor to my door.

At first glance you'd want to buy this power supply but for the seasoned PC builder, this should be your last choice for the following reasons:

1.) This is too cheap. In fact, too cheap to power anything that costs 10k php or 200 usd. I mean, never skimp on your power supply, if your other parts cost at least those amounts combined, please invest in a better power supply. It's better safe than sorry. A 2000php or 40usd true-rated 80+ certified power supply unit should be your first choice. 
2.) This only has a 4-pin EPS (CPU) connector and no 6+2-pin PCIe connector. Rightfully so, I mean you shouldn't use this with anything more powerful than a 1050ti. No upgrade paths here. You will be forced to buy a new and better PSU if you upgrade your CPU or GPU. 
3.) This only has has 2 SATA connectors. Enough for 1 hard drive and 1 SSD I suppose.

The same is true for the other PSUs in this price range, some of them even labelled as 700 watts. At least Rakk is honest about this PSU.


Ever since the last time I brought PC parts from EasyPC. I stopped expecting them to put anything in another box. But this, bruh this has no box in the first place and they just wrapped it in bubble wrap.


At least they didn't skimp on the wrap.


Ah yes, look at that, Rakk has positioned the sticker expecting the PSU to be on the floor of the PC case.

The included power cable borders on flimsy and okay quality. But definitely better than the power cables I bought from CDR-King some three years ago.

Better start praying your molex fans will fit such bad quality connectors.

The SATA connectors don't look as good either.

No IO switch for this 10usd Rakk Power Supply.

A closer look at the internals. Note that this PSU weighs lighter than the CVS 500watt PSU I have. Dunno if that's a bad thing but PSU weight has become a yardstick for guessing the quality of the PSU.



So who should use the Rakk Power Supply?
Since most of the motherboards using these chipsets are using 4-pin EPS connectors, people who can use this power supply will probably fall into the following category:
1.) People with older system units using Intel H55/H61/H81 or AMD A58/A68/A78 chipsets.
2.) People with more recent system units using Intel H110/H210/H310 or AMD A320 chipsets.
3.) People in groups 1 and 2 and using a graphics card that needs no additional power from a 6+2pin PCIe cable. Examples include non-OC models for 750ti or the ever popular 1050ti.

If your planning on including this Rakk Power Supply on a build with an RX470/570 or anything higher than a GTX 750ti/950/1030/1050ti/1650, get the fuck out of here and get a better power supply unit. This is a threat, not a warning.