are tagan PSUs good?

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 6:19 am

Well it might also be passive PFC, its just designed to work in 110V so it doesnt need to switch. no?

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 1:06 pm

Well...I contacted Newegg.com and it seems that it's out of their hands. I ask the customer service person to open up one of the new Tagan power supplies, but he said they couldn't do that. The only thing the customer service would offer me is to have it replaced or get a refund. I kept on persisting and ask him to look into it. Finally he said he would send the information to the manager and keep it on file. I doubt anything will ever happen. It's too bad....so for those that are interested in buying a Tagan, I can only say prepare to get zero support nor warranty replacement.

Mike C. can you answer my question about determining whether a P/S has active PFC or not? If the power supply automatically switch from 110 to 220V or 220V to 110V, it has active PFC?

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:03 pm

IMOM wrote:If the power supply automatically switch from 110 to 220V or 220V to 110V, it has active PFC?

This is from the PSU-article on the main site:

"Passive PFC...the AC input must be chosen..."

"Active PFC...automatically adjusts for AC input voltage."

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 5:17 pm

Tephras thanks for the reply. I read that too, but what threw me was DCG in another thread said he opened up high Tagan power supply and discovered no PFC. I wanted confirmation that the auto switching of the AC voltage input was the only criteria to determine whether it's ACTIVE PFC or not. If I can get a more efficient/quiet power supply I would get that first. If the Tagan didn't have active PFC, I would return mine and get a Seasonic.

Oh btw, I called EPOWER/Tagan and no one answered the phone...I tried numerous times...just out of curiousity.

ChristianN · Post by **ChristianN** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 3:51 am

If the PSU says on the back / label that it accepts ~100-240v and has
no voltage switch it should be active PFC. If on the other hand it says 100-120 v (or 220-240v) it can be passive PFC without a voltage switch - just hardwired for either input voltage.

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 3:36 pm

I was able to efficiently dampen any power supply ticking in the Tagan TG-380 by creating a power supply channel lined with acoustic foam wedge. This reduced the occasional ticking noise that the Tagan power supply produced. I would say with the acoustic foam wedge dampened about 80 to 90% of the power supply noise. I suppose this would be true for any other power supply, but just want to mentioned for anyone who has a Tagan can correct this problem fairly easily. I can't hear from about 1 foot away. For reference...a 120mm globe fan @1000 RPM with the case closed bothers me.

I'm content with my Tagan power supply, even though there isn't manufacturer support or warranty because it seems they cut the warranty void label before shipping it.

jameswh77 · Post by **jameswh77** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:13 am

3 days ago I received a 380w tagan. same story, plugged it in, noticed this annoying erratic ticking noises. its a bit like a hard drive clicking type sound. its really dissapointing that they go into such detail on their website about these units being quiet - its a joke because it doesnt matter how low the db is, if it makes erratic sounds like this which your brain cant filter out. a constant fan noise would be far less annoying than these random clicking sounds.

so this will be going back rma. and i have to waste more money on postage. dont buy a tagan if you want a quiet machine! i dont believe that some are good, some are bad, its much more likely that the poeple who havent noticed just dont have sufficiently quiet systems... i mean ive read posts on this forum by people with high end graphics cards with on-board fans and stuff...!

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:38 am

jameswh77, I already mentioned that the Tagan makes the ticking noise and how to solve the problem. I'm more bothered by Tagan's lack of support than the quality or the ticking. If you create a power supply air channel with acoustic foam wedged inside...it muffles the sound about 90 to 95%. Mike C and others have mentioned about the power supply air channel...I only added the acoustic wedge foam to my case and I'm happy with it. ACVGAS fan cooler I have was annoying and I removed the fan and now I have only two 120mm globe fans @5V + the power supply fan (CPU + exhaust fan) and I'm getting rid of my Raptor(already sold I think) because of the seek noise. I don't hear the power supply fans any more after the air channel and putting in a piece of acoustic foam wedge in the PS air channel.

So I suggest you keep your PS if the ticking is the only thing that is bothering you, but you will have to do some work and make a power supply air channel. Otherwise, RMA and get another power supply, but the air channel was good advice I got from SPCR.

Besides the ticking, are you happy with the quality...and I am curious if Tagan cut their warranty seal when you received it?

And yes, sound is subjective...but to put it into perspective, the air moving from the front intake of my BQE case bothers me (even with 120mm globe fan @5V). I am planning to block it with acoustic foam and then using the BQE 3.5 bay as the air intake. This way, I can create an air duct that goes down to the bottom of the case and then up to the video card and cpu and exhaust. The sound will than get absorbed.

The air duct worked quite well, I have trouble telling whether the computer is turned on or off on my other system...it's XP-M @1.9GHz, no AGP video card, SP1614N, and Tagan 380W PS with air channel. I have a zalman knock off for the cpu heatsink with modified enermax 80mm fan @5V. The exhaust fan in the system is 120mm globe @5V. The other system case I bought on sale at Fry's it's Antec 1650B...the SP1614N is suspended on ropes.

I hope that helps

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:42 am

Anyone know if the TG480-U22 has the same ticking problem?(might not be available yet)

jameswh77 · Post by **jameswh77** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:33 am

imom - hmmm i might try that, but i dont have acoustic foam to hand, but more concerning is that 'wrapping' the psu will cause heat dissapation problems i would guess, which will cause the fan to spin faster causing more noise (plus shorten the life of the unit)?? i think id rather have something good out of the box (my old enhance 300w was brilliant) and my next try will be a nexus, the latest model has a db rating of 16-17db which is 'silent' in anyones book... unfortunately its £30 more than the tagan, but i guess you get what you pay for.

jameswh77 · Post by **jameswh77** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 7:35 am

btw no, my warranty seal was not broken. I suspect a previous owner looked inside yours to try and fix the ticking before sending it back on an RMA...

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 1:20 pm

No...it's not the owner that removed the seal...it's the factory. Tagan seems to have went belly up and EPOWER bought them...only a theory. And no I didn't wrap my power supply....I only covered one side and the bottom of the power supply. The top and the other side (on the motherboard side) I only "wrap" at the beginging of the power supply, not around the whole thing. So it's creating a tube box with 4 sides and you just connect it to your power supply to bring in cool air.

The other advantage is that you block out the hot air of the case and the heat from the power supply doesn't radiate into your system. You bring in ducted cool air and the power supply fan doesn't spin as much. The acoustic foam line air channel will also absorb the noise.

Well...it's just a suggestion if you wanted to save money on returning it. I think the power supply is made pretty well...besides the ticking...the other thing you can do is a fan swap. I read on the reviews that Nexus is very quiet....but Mike C have always recommended power supplys that have front back fans (I hope what I say is true), not ones with bottom fans, because it sucks the hot air from the system and put into the power supply. If you don't want the Tagan, I recommend getting another front back fan power supply like the Zalman Power supply...this way you can still do the ducted air channel.

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 8:29 am

I bought a Tagan 480W U00 some time ago from a very famous French shop.

- The package did not have cellophane around it, meaning someone
opened it before me.

- When I saw the power supply I noticed the tape "warranty void if removed" was cut. It means that I cannot use the warranty. But I didn't cut the tape. Pretty strange.

BTW, after some emails, the shop renewed my 3-years warranty.

- I am very concerned about silence so when I plugged the psu the first
thing I noticed was some little noises coming from inside, then I
stopped all my pc fans to hear it more clearly; I noticed two kind of
noises (surely not related to the two psu fans) :
a) a high frequency noise, maybe coming from the inductances or at
least the electronics
b) a low sound, hard to describe, that seems to be a mix between the
sound hard disks do when seeking (some kind of "grr grr") and oil
frying("fzz fzz"). Also this sound can be heard (but much more
suppressed) when the PC is off, if you put your ear next the psu. I
noticed also that this sound is always changing (so maybe it is
related by the alternative 230V input?) and sometimes it vanishes for
a second or two, but when the pc does something (open the browser,
launch an application) -so I think there is a need for more power-
the sound reappears.
I think it is coming from the in-line transformer.
That's all I know, I hope it will be useful, and sorry for my English,
I am from Italy.

My advice? Do not buy Tagan PSU's, I think they are OCZ's defective product that are renewed.. or.. who knows.. OCZ and Tagans are all from Topower.. just do not buy them.. I had to sold mine, and I lost about 20€ :\

madman2003 · Post by **madman2003** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 10:36 am

Anyone have any experience with the more recent units?(TG480-U00 the previous poster had isn't exactly the most recent unit) Anyone know any psu besides Tagan and OCZ who have front in back out fan design?

stighenning · Post by **stighenning** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 12:13 pm

I bought the Antec Sonata with Truepower 380W.
..
Then I bought a Tagan 330W.

WOW!

The power is much more quiet, and it never starts the second fan.
Atleast I never heard it.. even when my computer complained that the CPU got to warm

I would recommend Tagan.

MiKeLezZ · Post by **MiKeLezZ** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 4:11 pm

madman2003 wrote:Anyone have any experience with the more recent units?(TG480-U00 the previous poster had isn't exactly the most recent unit) Anyone know any psu besides Tagan and OCZ who have front in back out fan design?

No, it is not a version problem ^^, the most recent is the U01, that has similiar issues... my friend bought one, it had the warranty broken and the strange noise, just like the U00.
And another friend of mine bought the U00.. Same problems.

BTW, there aren't great changes about the two versions, they share the SAME electronics, the U01 has two shielded VGA/HDD cables and SATA plugs with 3,3 cord that U00 don't have. Nothing more.

The U22 that is going to show into the shops SEEMS to be slighty different, but buying it is like doing sex without condom.. We'll see..

Minor models like 330W and 380W don't seem to have these problem and are very quiet.. but in that range I prefer my Zalman 400W.

jameswh77 · Post by **jameswh77** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:45 am

I have to add here that having complained to tagan directly about the ticking noise, about 10 days later I have now received a brand-new unit, with an apologetic letter, and a complimentary T-shirt and badge. What really impressed me is that I didn't have to send off the faulty PSU, instead an Amtrak man arrived with a replacement and I had to hand over the faulty one. So they didn't even test it, they just have my word for it. Of course this suggests that Im not the first person to have had this problem - indeed they acknowledged this in the letter, which stated that the ticking noise emanates from the voltage detector, which can be dislodged when the power supply is mishandled during transit. But anyway I'm very pleased with the customer service, they acknowledge the problem exists in a small number of cases, and say they will be doing everything they can to improve it in future products. I suspect they will fix it, if they haven't already, because this is the only negative point you can hold against the company-the basic product is considered very good by all I believe. This is probably the best customer service had experienced for many a year!

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:05 am

EDIT: Nevermind. I just read that you are happy with it.

IMOM,

Why don't you just send it back and get something else. Newegg can't really do anything because they're just a warehouse/shipping company and I quess the mfg. isn't any help either. Send it back. I know it costs to have it delivered and restocked, but maybe you can get a good deal on a seasonic. Make sure they know what the problem is and that you expected a factory warranty because it has a noise problem. - FG

msjjack · Post by **msjjack** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:50 am

Wow, I'm glad that I came across this post. I got a Tagan TG480-U01 for Christmas and have yet to use it because I don't have all of the parts for my new computer yet.

jameswh77: What was your means of contacting Tagan directly? e-mail or phone or what?

I hope I don't end up having this problem, but if I do I'll need to contact them.

-Thanks

IMOM · Post by **IMOM** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 3:03 pm

Frank, the ticking is not constant, it comes and goes; but I already solved my problem. Yes it would cost more money to send it back and Newegg is pretty good about not charging re-stocking fee if you are nice to them. As I mentioned before, if you create a power supply air channel lined with acoustic foam it pretty much completely dampens the power supply noise. I have to put my ear at the openning of the 5 1/4 drive bay to hear it. I'm really happy with the noise reduction on my mobile athlon system...though not as powerful as my P4 system. I have trouble telling whether the system is on or off...always have to check the LEDs to make sure.

Regarding getting a new unit...I"m really suprised...it must be that EPOWER took over, because my first TAGAN unit, they wouldn't even reply to my emails...so I gave up and found my own solution.

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:10 pm

IMON,

I glad things worked out. I looked at the last page of the thread and thought you were having some problems, but I read some more and saw that you had taken care of things and decided to keep it so I had to go back and edit my post. Rgds, FG

jameswh77 · Post by **jameswh77** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 4:10 am

i emailed tagan directly from the email address on the website. they put me in touch with nanopoint who sorted me out.

however, i spoke too soon: the new unit makes exactly the same ticking noise as the old one.

im no longer angry or dissapointed, i just think this is the way that they are built, and at the price, its not particuarly unreasonable i suppose. ive bought a nexus 4090, which cost an extra £20. its rated at 16db, although i think thats a very generous rating, but still its pretty quiet, just not quite as silent as my old 300w enhance i think. but it will do. the tagan will be going on ebay.

the tagans are no doubt very, very well built, and good vfm. but if you are seriously into making a pc quiet, dont buy one.

jzy · Post by **jzy** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:10 pm

i got the Tagan TG480-W01, which is the new model i believe. there is absolutely no ticking noise at all.

williemues · Post by **williemues** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:00 pm

madman2003 wrote:Anyone have any experience with the more recent units?(TG480-U00 the previous poster had isn't exactly the most recent unit) Anyone know any psu besides Tagan and OCZ who have front in back out fan design?

http://aspireusa.net/product.php?pid=17 ... 5b17467a25

http://www.thermaltake.com/news/newsdat ... /0205a.htm

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Wed Apr 13, 2005 5:06 pm

Most of the coolergiant models have had a bottom blower however this one does not. - FG

http://www.enermax.com.tw/products_page ... 18&Gid2=45

williemues · Post by **williemues** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:26 am

madman2003 wrote: Anyone know any psu besides Tagan and OCZ who have front in back out fan design?

And: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=21251

frankgehry · Post by **frankgehry** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 12:01 pm

There is a fortron model that has inline fans and as well as a sparkle and the HEC Compuserve. I think the inline layout is really good. Two in the front would be even better.

williemues · Post by **williemues** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:17 pm

madman2003 wrote: Anyone know any psu besides Tagan and OCZ who have front in back out fan design?

Keep finding them: http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050 ... ly-33.html

this one seems to have decent heatsinks, compared to the Aspire.

williemues · Post by **williemues** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:27 pm

williemues wrote: http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050 ... ly-33.html

this one seems to have decent heatsinks, compared to the Aspire.

Doh, must be sleeping (Epower/Tagan - thought I recognized those heatsinks.. http://www.cluboverclocker.com/reviews/ ... 450/p3.htm