PSU true rated vs generic

By a "true Rated" I assume you mean a quality branded power supply with a bronze/silver/gold rating?

Typically a "rated" PSU uses better components and are more reliable.

Generic PSU's often use cheaper components, can be a little less than truthful of about their actually capability (pretend they are more powerful than they really are) and sometimes do not included some safety features like over voltage protection. They also generally lack build quality or Quality assurance.

Higher quality PSU's are generally more accurate about their capabilities (even underrate there capability), include over voltage protection. Over voltage protection is very important in case a PSU blows up. It does not allow excess currents to flow through to damage other components like motherboards, CPUS, GPU'S and Hard drives. With out over voltage protection the excess current runs right through your system.

It all depends on what you plan to use the PC for. If it's for a high load, gaming, overclocking machine etc - generic power supplies can be potentially ruin your entire system. They are a gamble.

If it's just for a low end desktop used for browsing, word processing etc then you can get a way with a generic PSU as long as you go nowhere near it's limits.

Some generic power supplies will "do the job" - others are a time bomb waiting to happen.

All sound generic tbh.

Go for new if you can.

If you know your specs, like CPU and GPU in particular - that will help. Knowing which graphics card is the most important thing.

Unfortunately 500W means little really. Especially when it comes to GPU's since they are the single most taxing/heavy draw component. A psu may deliver 500W in total across the 12v, 5V, and 3V spectrum. But it doesn't mean it can poer EVERYTHING.

As I mentioned above - as long as as you aren't going anywhere near the "maximum' potential, you can get away with a generic PSU.

But ageneric "500W" realistically may only be capable of 400W at full load total across all 12v, 5W, 3V rails. (A rail is basically the separation of voltage usage)

For Graphics cards it comes down to to how much Amperage the 12v rail (section) can deliver. For example if a video card needs 24Amps on the 12V rail (section) to run and the PSU can only only deliver 16Amps on the 12V rail -then that's trouble in the making. Avoid at all cost.

The card may not run, it will cause PC crashes, or at worse blow the entire PC apart if the PSU is pushed to far.

I can understand you're after the cheapest possible unit. We are simply trying to explain how potentially damaging using the wrong and graphics card can be.